Trip to Cahuita

Since the last blog post, much has happened. It has become even more apparent, not that it wasn't blatantly obvious when I got here, that Costa Rica is a pretty nice place. Yesterday, the thought occurred to me that in the (distant) future I would have leave here. I quickly relegated that thought to the back of my mind and continued to enjoy myself.

The past school week was fun. Highlights included meeting with my adviser over lunch to further discuss my project. As I said, I'll be in Sarapiqui. It's a vast and speciose jungle and I understand that researchers who spend their fair share of time there are wise to wear rubber boots as the Fer de Lance (terciopelo), Costa Rica's most dangerous snake, are quite common.

Another high point from last week had to be watching the Costa Rica vs. Honduras game at a bar with 8 other ACM kids. We were the only gringos there but it was all the better as the atmosphere at the bar was electric (in a good way, I can see how things could have turned sour had Costa Rica not won 2-0).

Two more days passed and then it was time for Cahuita. It's a small town less than an hour south of Limon (and the drive from Limon is made all the more bearable by the fact that it's entirely parallel to/over the Carribean). I won't go into enormous detail about the bus ride down other than the fact that it was especially cramped because there was really no space to place any bags larger than a purse. I rode with my backpack on my lap and we got to know each other splendidly.

When we got to Cahuita, I could tell right away that it was the most relaxed place I've ever been. For the most part, it's populated by people who immigrated from Jamaica a few generations back (mainly because of opportunities to work on farms in Costa Rica). Almost everyone speaks English (normally that would be good, but I really want to be practicing my Spanish).


We walked through the entire town, taking the most wrong turns possible to ensure that we saw it all before finding our hotel, Cabinas Smith. I threw my backpack on my bed, put on a bathing suit and met up with the other boys. We decided to walk directly towards the water, which was a bad idea as there was no beach where we ended up. Instead we had to traverse our way through fairly rocky terrain to reach the real beach. When we got there, we jumped in the water for a quick swim and then we relaxed for a while. After that we walked around town for a while and then found an Italian restaurant.

The next morning, we woke up fairly early and tried to find a place to snorkel. We ended up deciding that it had been raining too much lately and that the water would be too murky. I'll have to return to Cahuita just to snorkel because I hear it's the best place to do so in Costa Rica. Instead we gave our donations to the people at the park entrace (they do donations at this park instead of require the $10 park entrance fee so that they can keep everything they collect instead of have to send it all to the government only to receive a small/insufficient piece in return - the people there seem very proud of this).

The first 400 m of the beach in this national park is not safe to swim in because of strong riptides. You have to walk until you see green flags to know that you are in a zone that is safe for swimming.

On our hike towards these green flags, we passed a sloth making his way up a tree, tons of leaf cutter ant superhighways, and a brilliantly colored yellow viper (which we didn't notice until our walk back).

We found a nice picnic table under a thatched roof but this discrete shelter was really the only evidence of human occupancy in Cahuita I could see. Otherwise, this beach was a veritable prototype of the kind on which we'd imagine Christopher Colombus landing.

We all mistakingly decided to leave our stuff on the picnic table and go swimming on the beach. Cahuita and many other beaches have a large problem with theft of unattended bags and it's almost inevitable that unwatched bags will be searched. You are probably thinking that our cameras and other valuables are all gone but these theives were not your ordinary person. They were smaller, hungrier primates known as white-faced monkeys (cariblancos). They are intrepid little buggers and are cute until they begin to fight you for your trail mix. Everything had been going fine until lunch, when we ate, played some cards, digested our food, and then went back in the water. When a few of us returned there sat a proud looking specimen with chip crumbs all over his mouth. He retreated to about eye level in a nearby tree but waited curiously to see/get pleasure from our reaction to his mischeif. We ended up cracking open a coconut that was lying on the beach and offering him the meat inside as a healthier alternative to tostitos. He accepted. Many of the students have pictures. I forgot my camera.

After that, we finished up our long day at the beach and returned to Cabinas Smith for a shower. We went out to another restaurant for dinner and watched the first bit of the Count of Monte Cristo. I think we were all pretty beat after that so it ended up being kind of an early night.

The next morning we woke up, packed our bags and then went for another walk on the beach before our bus left at 11:30. It was a short bus ride back (seemingly so, as I slept the whole way) and I returned with enough energy to go play some more mini golf with my host brothers.

I have to go sure up my research project proposal, which is due tomorrow. My future travel plans include a field trip to Sarapiqui (my rural site) with my advisor this weekend. That will be only a day trip. The weekend after that I will most likely go to somewhere on the Pacific coast (i.e. Jaco, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, etc.) with a smaller group from the ACM (the trip to Cahuita was all 14 of us). Pura vida.