Reversing our adventurous trip to the Selva Reserve, we forded the Bananito River again several times this morning. The most challenging thing was getting the rusty padlock on the reserve gate open!
The drive out to the Caribbean Coast was fairly quick and uneventful. We stopped for lunch at another soda where we chose various dishes from cafeteria-style options. They had very little English, and despite our efforts, our Spanish is limited , but we ended up with a full plate of food!
In the afternoon, we arrived in the town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, only about 30km from the border with Panama.
Puerto Viejo is one huge melting pot of cultures. In addition to the visitors, which are mostly South American, Canadian and European, there are 3 distinct local cultures living here. The BriBri natives have lived here for centuries, the Jamaicans initially came over as workers to build the railroad for the banana trade, and the Costa Ricans are of Spanish descent. In 2002 there was a census done for the area and they found people from 49 different countries in a population of just over 2,000.
There is a very backpacker/surfer vibe in town.
Our lovely B&B hotel is a few blocks from the beach.
We will likely be spending some of our time hanging around the back yard pool!
Not surprisingly, there are many varied restaurants in town offering Tico food, Italian, Mexican and even Indian. We have four nights to find our favourite.
Our plans for the next few days are fluid and depend mostly on the weather. There have been rain squalls in the past weeks so we’ll see what Mother Nature throws our way.
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