Link to the previous page Costa Rica – The Caribbean
10 March 2026
At our next place, in Puerto Viejo, we were a bit taken aback at first; we thought something had gone wrong. Once we’d taken a few deep breaths, had a proper chat with the manager, and realised we didn’t feel like looking for anything else – plus they’d brought in a few things to make it more acceptable to us – we let go of our false expectations and slowly started to settle into what was on offer, and it all worked out. We’re now lying in our simple room with our beds wrapped in mosquito nets, letting a ‘Out of Africa’ feeling take hold (more like ‘Out of Nowhere’) which led to a good night’s sleep.
Puerto Viejo
After spending a good while exploring Puerto Viejo in glorious weather and picking up a few bits and bobs that we can get here (we only have a communal fridge here, so space is naturally quite limited).
The town is a very compact and simple seaside resort, which impresses above all with its countless restaurants, but also with relatively good shopping facilities. The bus stop is very important, offering direct connections to the border with Panama and to San José. ...-G.)
And in between, there was also the odd typical Caribbean downpour.
We also visited a stretch of the miles-long beach that forms a strip of land dotted with patches of jungle, stretching from Manzanillo National Park to Cahuita National Park. It’s, of course, a wonderful walking trail that offers plenty of opportunities to take a dip along the way.
Unfortunately, some things were simply left lying on the beach...
We took the bus for 30 minutes to Cahuita National Park. In this park, there is a trail about 10 km long that winds through a breathtaking jungle, and you can’t help but marvel at the incredible variety of leaf shapes, some as large as a metre, and you wonder where on earth nature gets such boundless imagination from. We stand before trees so incredible that they take your breath away.
The paths vary greatly and can be quite adventurous at times, particularly in sections where the sea has encroached up to 50 metres inland in recent years and the path has partially collapsed. This makes the 10 km quite strenuous at times. But then you come across the most beautiful beaches again, with lovely calm waters and hardly any strong waves. Brilliant.
A cheeky capuchin monkey spotted our rucksack and tried to snatch it out of Petra’s hands, but luckily he didn’t manage to.
Why do we need long telescopes to catch a glimpse of the shadows of some animals in the treetops, when there is so much more on offer right here on the ground? Of course, we’re delighted when a little monkey crosses our path, or when we get a chance to have a closer look at a raccoon, or when one of those beautifully bright blue butterflies, about 10 cm in size, flutters around our heads.
(Our butterfly here flew in from the internet; unfortunately, it doesn’t usually sit still, and when I tried to take a photo with my mobile phone, all I ever saw in the picture were green leaves. ...-G.)
When we finally reached the exit, hungry once again, and rushed into the first restaurant with a sea view – and were lucky enough to be served a wonderful casado, one with fish and one with chicken, which still makes my mouth water just thinking about it – and were also able to sip a fantastic mojito (which, despite it being happy hour, wasn’t watered down), our happiness was complete. Two other couples also joined us at our table, both of whom, as it happened, were from Germany, and we ended up staying there much longer than we’d originally intended, enjoying some lovely conversation.
Then the bus was 50 minutes late as well; it comes from Limon, and in bigger cities the evening rush-hour traffic comes to a complete standstill – that’s just how it is here.
In the mornings in San Jose, for example, one side of the main road heading out of the city is converted into a one-way street in that direction, so that people can get into the city on time for work. !!!!!! !!
Then, in the evening, came the absolute highlight: a sloth that lives here in the garden had us bursting into silent cheers when it suddenly shimmied along the power line for several metres, right over our heads, with a baby on its belly.
That wasn’t all. The next day at breakfast, an elderly sloth – long hair, thick fur – shimmied along the same route, only to a different tree. Wow, let someone say it again: sloth. We have the proof to the contrary!
And that wasn’t all. Today, a cute teenage sloth shimmied through our little garden jungle. He was still finding his feet, so a few very large plant stems snapped under his weight, but he patiently tried one after the other until he managed to grab hold of a trunk and make his way back up towards the treetops.
Later that evening, the mother sloth – presumably – returned through the garden to her usual spot, carrying her baby on her belly. Sloths have a gestation period of 10 to 11 months and carry their young for about a year.
Now we know that when branches fall from the tall trees, it’s a sign to watch out for sloths on the move!
And yet people spend a fortune on guided tours, only to be shown a curled-up lump high up in a tree as a sloth.
SOMETHING FOR CAT LOVERS
And, whilst we’re on the subject of animals, let’s not forget the cats around the world.
On our travels we’ve come across so many cats – beautiful, clean animals with a wide variety of markings. Most lived peacefully in the medina of Fez, lounging on all sorts of shelves, between sacks or curled up in some corner, rarely alone. In Costa Rica, there are also some fascinating specimens, almost always still bearing the tail markings of wildcats. There’s a snow-white one here with a grey-and-black-patterned tail. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look very pretty. A completely ‘normal’ cat has eaten a mouse right in front of us (is that how you say it?). We can do whatever we like, she won’t leave our side. We can’t eat our evening meal without her clinging to the tabletop next to us with her front paws. At least she doesn’t climb onto the whole table anymore. Even the fact that I gave her a bit of my food to taste every time – salad, tomato, cucumber, courgette, garlic, hot sauce, etc. – didn’t stop her from hoping for more. She did actually eat a piece of goat’s cheese. But the highlight came when a slice of sausage fell off Gerhard’s plate, and the amazing thing was that she stopped pestering us; she seemed very content, so it wasn’t hunger after all – though that did almost melt my heart at times. Now she simply won’t leave our side. If we forget to bring a towel in, she spends the night snuggled up in the chair; if there isn’t one, she lies asleep on the table in the morning. As that wasn’t ideal either, since the tablecloth then got sandy too, we put our own on the table and the one that was already a bit sandy on the chair. We couldn’t believe our eyes when, the next morning, she was still fast asleep, curled up on our tablecloth. Now we even had to admit that it looked so cute that we couldn’t bring ourselves to wake her, but instead had breakfast in the shared ‘kitchen’ and continued to do so until the cat had had her fill of sleep. She simply prefers cotton to plastic or synthetic materials whenever possible. She showed Gerhard the greatest proof of her affection by placing a dead mouse at his feet; he, however, failed to appreciate the gesture and scared her away, but she didn’t hold it against him.
After some back and forth, we’ve now decided to head for Nicaragua on 27 March by bus, stopping off in Liberia for three days and then continuing on to Rivas for another three, in the hope of perhaps being able to leave our luggage there and spend seven days on Ometepe Island – if everything goes to plan, as it’s quite complicated. You think German bureaucracy is bad, but there are countries where it’s much worse – not to say completely daft and utterly incomprehensible. I was actually about to give up, but then Gerhard’s “but I want to” came through again.
……and now for the most important thing:
This is the man who has agreed to be the patron
for our entire journey!