Costa Rica - Part One
Our first official Workaway experience was complete and, after saying our goodbyes to our hosts in Panama, we boarded a series of buses which took us to the Panama/Costa Rica border. After crossing into Costa Rica we boarded yet another bus and headed to our first stop, Puerto Viejo. Puerto Viejo is a small tourist town on the Caribbean coast about an hour north of the border. The water was warm, the skies were sunny, and we took full advantage of our proximity to the ocean. We reserved a room in the most affordable hostel we could find, one described as a "tree house" which was, if anything, a generous description. Run by a Dutch woman and her considerably younger Costa Rican husband, the hostel had enough quarks to fill five days worth of anecdotes. On the plus side, we saw sloths and toucans right off the balcony and were just a five-minute walk from the beach. Each morning we would wake up well before sunrise and wander the empty town looking for an open cafe. Our afternoons were usually spent at the beach followed up with reading and enjoying the beautiful weather and ocean breeze. It didn't take long to adjust to a relaxed lifestyle after a few weeks of hard work on the farm.
A view of the Old Barge on a hot sunny day.
Messing around with selective focus on the camera.
Walking down the street in Puerto Viejo
A walk along the ocean. The road comes right up against the beach along the whole town.
A sleepy cat on the hostel porch.
The staircase up to the hostel where we stayed.
On our third day, we woke up early and walked to Cocles, a nearby town about 5 kilometers south along the coast. Just off the highway was the Jaguar Rescue Center, a small nonprofit that's dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and reintroducing wild animals in Costa Rica. Our tour of the center was informative and unique and we were lucky enough to see sloths, several species of monkeys, a few varieties of big cats, and lots of other animals. If you ever plan on making a visit to the area, try to grab a package or two of powdered goat's milk to bring along as a donation at the Rescue Center. Goat's milk is hard to come by in Costa Rica but is more nutritious for the baby sloths than cow's milk.
After a few days in Puerto Viejo we were ready to make our way to our next Workaway. Another series of three buses would take us to the Pacuare River where we would be spending the rest of our month working at a riverside lodge.
Walking along the road to Cocles.
Baby sloths at the Jaguar Rescue Center