Day 7 - To Cahuita!

Castor Hunter hooks us up with a boat ride from Tortuguero to Moin (near Limon). It costs $25 each for the boat ride, but it is almost a tour in itself. There were only 8 of us on the boat including the driver. It really is relaxing. We see all sorts of wildlife during the four hour ride, including a two-toed sloth in a tree where we stopped to rest along the way. There are herons of all sorts, caiman, and more spider monkeys. 

We make it to Moin at about 1:30 and thanks to the help from some cool Spaniards we met on the boat, we get in a van which takes us to Cahuita. We arrive about an hour later and are debating whether we should forget about our plans to stay at Piscina Natural since the driver is having trouble finding it. Finally, after asking some friends of his, he finds our place. And we are so glad he did.

We have truly found our paradise. There are only 5 rooms on the beautiful sprawling grounds that include a natural swimming pool fed by the ocean and hammocks that hang from walnut trees that supposedly have sloths in them. We decide that this is where we want to stay for the rest of our trip. It is about 2km from the town of Cahuita itself, but it is not a long walk and we do not mind the excercise. 

The hotel is great. Patty is an expat from Colorado and she shares the business with her partner Walter who was born and raised here. It only costs $35 a night and has a shared kitchen and community honor bar. You just take a beer which only costs $2 (or soda for $1) and mark it down in the book and pay for the room and the drinks when you check out - whenever you choose to do so. 

The town is really nice and very small. There are plenty of bars and restaurants and things to do nearby but it does not feel too touristy. There is plenty of local flavor and a laid back caribbean atmosphere. It is very Rasta here. 

The problem though when we got here is that the telephone lines were down due to some explosion in Limon. This also means that the ATM machines are not working. And the hotel only takes cash. We only have a total of $34 in colones to our name so we have to make sure we are very careful in case phone service doesnt return any time soon. We grab some cheap burgers and fries in town but it costs us almost $16. So we decide to spend $5 at the supermarket and buy some spaghetti and tomato sauce in case we run out of cash. Luckily we have a kitchen we can use at our hotel. 

We spend the rest of the night lounging in the hammocks and playing rummy until it gets dark and then turn in early. Steve has tallied only 2 beers in the log book and still has 30 more to go to beat Bryan who racked up 32 during his stay at Piscina Natural.We are asleep by 9:30. 

When we wake up on Day 8, we find out the phones are back in service and luckily we can get cash again. We are saved! We plan on spending the day relaxing since we have done very little of that since we got here.