Travel article: Cahuita & Puerto Viejo

After discovering the driest lands in Costa Rica in Montezuma, time to cross the country to go to the Caribbeans!

It took us 13 Hours to do 300 kilometres ! Lucky we left at 7am...

Unpaved roads, ferry, work on the roads, accidents, breakdowns, traffic , we had it all!

We chose Cahuita to base ourselves for 5 nights. Our Airbnb was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a big tropical garden offering many bananas, mangos and tropical fruits ! Also home of many bats coming during the night into the ceiling leading to many sleepless nights...

The Caribbeans Coast is wet really wet. Actually we have been lucky as we only had one big shower in the afternoon and all the rain during the night. But in the past 3 months, a weird meteorological event coming from Canada reached the Caribbeans Coast from Belize to Panama and carried big amount of rain. A wet event during the dry season !

Who says rain says tropical jungle, lush vegetation, tropical fruits and many animals!

We loved the landscapes:

- the beaches with crystal-clear water in Cahuita and the national park where we went twice ! We saw many sloths (with 2 or 3 fingers!) , many monkeys (howler and spider-monkeys), raccoons, fluo green lezards, flowers, palms. 8 kms of pure beauty! Cedric taught us how to duck dive in the waves to avoid being smashed and it was mum’s first swim into the Caribbeans !

- Manzanillo : we started the hike but quickly got covered of mud so we turned back to the village but not without seeing the coastal walk and the beautiful beaches .

- Puerto Viejo is a nice little village with a super relaxed atmosphere, rastamen, fishermen, surfers. Good base to discover the surroundings, enjoying the Caribbeans beaches, have a nice fish cooked in coconut milk.

This part of Costa Rica didn’t disappoint!

We have been really lucky with the weather and on the animals spotting front . We loved the atmosphere and we quickly embraced the relaxed lifestyle.

Some recommendations:

# don’t go during the wet season. The dry season is already wet so I can’t imagine what’s like during the wet season...

# do not miss the Cahuita National Park. It’s “pay what you want “. Keep walking until the end of the park, it’s roughly 8 kms and so worth it.

# Manzanillo National Park is not as nice but the coastal walk at the start is cool.

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