14 | February | 2013 | WanderThirstJoan

Now to a new venue. Puerto Viejo, Limon, is on the Caribbean coast, near Panama. A laid-back Rasta expat sort of town with Playa Negra, a black sand beach, cool little restaurants and bars and friendly Ticos.

Sunday on the town beach

Imaginative Recycling

Bill Sedivy, Dave White & I rented a house for a week at Finca Loco Natural, an old banana farm, a 5 minute walk from the beach. Pamela & Carter, our hosts, built 3 rental houses and all were unique open-air structures with creative woodworking and decorating styles.

Breakfast on the deck at Casa Mambo

View from the 2nd floor deck of the 2 year old fica tree

Steve and Martha King rented Casa Chilimate where we had coffee on the veranda in the mornings.

Casa Chilimate

A lot of hard relaxing was accomplished, balanced by walking, eating, swimming, cervesaing and hiking.

We enjoyed three nights of music and entertainment.

Fire dancing at post-super bowl jam session

Carter the Builder’s band playing at Lazy Mon

The village of Manzanillo offered Maxi’s for lunch, good snorkelling and jungle-beach hiking.

Maxi’s – a landmark restaurant/sports bar

Football!

Cahuita National Park – a sweaty five mile jungle-beach hike. Well worth it for the wildlife viewing, some of it up close & personal – whitefaced monkeys, howler monkeys, kotamundi and a golden eyelashed pit viper!

Costa Rica was a hard place to leave ….17 days went by too fast…hate saying goodbye.

Jungle Camp on the Pacuare River

I’m back home for two days from 17 days of sensory overload in Costa Rica. Still sorting it all out & will not do justice to a wonderful experience. I miss the bright colors, dramatic terrain, rich smells, great fruit and friendly Ticos.

OUR ITINERARY: January 24 – travel with Dave W. to San Jose, Costa Rica. Two days at Hotel Don Carlos & we meet up with our friends Bill, Maryl & Karan for Idaho Rivers United’s Week of Rivers with Costa Rica Rios outfitters. Seven days & three whitewater rivers for our group of 14. Follow up the week of paddling with a week at house near the beach in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast.

Dome in Morrazan Park – a landmark

OUR EXPERIENCE: Costa Rica Rios is based in Turrialba, about 65 km from San Jose. It’s a community of 60,000, accessible to mountains, rivers & it’s own volcano. From there we traveled by tour bus to paddle the Pejibaye, Serapiqui & Pacuare Rivers.

Pejibaye River

Our group came from far and wide: Quebec, Alberta, CA, ID, OH, NJ, VT. It was fun to hear Spanish, French and English interspersed in conversations. The Costa Rica Rios Team took great care of us & provided an experience that exceeded expectations. Our guides were fantastic. ‘This rapid’s no big deal. Middle, middle, middle right.’ Bonus: they were good cooks and dance instructors.

In addition to the beautiful rivers with challenging whitewater and good people, exotic flowers, plants and birds kept us in a permanent state of wonder.

Red Ginger

Bird at Serapiqui Lodge

Dressing for happy hour at Jungle Camp – a two night stay on the Pacuare

Jungle Camp

For me, the scary highlight of the week was the Canopy Tour in the jungle near our camp. Given that heights are not comfortable for me, it took a lot of positive self-talk. Ziplining at 100 feet plus and rappelling??? I was always afraid to do the high ropes course at our camp, but this experience was to much of an opportunity to pass up. It worked & I actually enjoyed it. Would I do it again? Maybe.