Our past couple of weeks here have been nothing short of fantastic! The perfect mix of fun and adventure, mixed with a chill and relaxed vibe that characterizes this part of the country. As we came out of our self-imposed quarantine and started to meet and chat with people more, the place quickly started to feel like home.
Cahuita is a very quiet town, especially compared to its neighbour 15 minutes up the highway, Puerto Viejo. But it didn’t take us long to make connections, both with other travellers and with some of the locals and quite suddenly, the social calendar was filling up with different activities and experiences which kept us busy and have given us lots of great memories already. More on those, shortly.
We’ve been here long enough to settle in to some routines and daily life has taken on a really nice pace and vibe. This is the first time we’ve all travelled as a family for longer than a week or ten days and so the usual mindset of wanting to fill every day with activity in order to squeeze as much value out of our holiday time as possible, has slowly been replaced with a more languid feel that comes with ‘living’ in a place as opposed to ‘visiting’ it.
The days have taken on certain routines:
Bo is often up the earliest and enjoys having the front porch to herself for some yoga; a morning coffee and chance to hear the birdcalls and get a start on any work from back home that needs doing. That said, it can be difficult to concentrate on work with the myriad of things that compete for attention in our backyard. In addition to the variety of birds and other animals that have introduced themselves to us over the past few weeks, we’ve recently had the pleasure of watching a mommy bird take care of her nest of newly hatched babies just under the front corner of our roof and the daily feedings and bird talk are always putting smiles on our faces.
Sophie usually starts her days with lazy time in front of a screen interspersed with trips to the pool for a quick ‘wake-up’ dip. Then it’s a combination of reading; school-work; drawing; writing; playing guitar or listening to music or chatting with friends and family on FaceTime. Lately, however, the conversation has quickly been turning to when we’ll be heading to the beach that day, to catch some waves for her to hone her new boogie-boarding skills…
Depending upon the day, Kevin is up (relatively) early (for him) and after a delicious smoothie of mixed fruit, is out for a run and some exercise on the beach or depending upon the tide and conditions, heading to the ocean and learning to surf!
Everyday, some or all of us will head out to replenish our fruit supplies from local vendors or grab a few things from a local store. We’ve learned where there is a French bakery that makes great bread; where to buy fish straight off the boat; where to get certain fruits and vegetables and after meeting some of the locals: where to buy some delicious Jamaican style meat patties that have quickly become a staple at our house.
In the past week, this delicate balance of various activities was gently upended with the start of on-line morning Spanish lessons for Sophie and Kevin. While Sophie seems to be digesting the lessons without much difficulty, Kevin’s head can only handle so much at a time, and he definitely has a renewed appreciation for the EAL learners that arrive at Dakota with no English… In the coming weeks, we’ll hopefully be able to do some in-person lessons with the teacher, who lives in the town that will be our next home… Kevin hopes that will be easier / more fun. This on-line stuff is not his cup of tea.
As much as the developing routines have been welcomed by us all, there have been no shortage of experiences and events that we’ve begun to take part in more and more as the fear of us carrying Covid from Canada, has waned. Initially, our days were spent doing things that allowed us to enjoy the outdoors as a family without mixing with anyone else as much as possible. This included things like walks along the various beaches in the area and hikes in the nearby Cahuita National Park. These have provided equal parts relaxation and excitement depending upon the wildlife that we’ve encountered and were a lovely way to get us into that vibe that was mentioned earlier. In the past week or so, though, things have taken on a really special quality as we began to meet people and strike up conversations that have led to some amazing experiences and what we hope will be some lifelong friendships.
Kevin’s morning runs have often been the catalyst of these meetings as they have often provided the conduit for him to strike up conversations with the friendly people of the area. Our first ‘travel buddies’ were Nigel and Carole, whom Kevin met on the beach one morning as they were looking up at a couple of sloths, asleep in a palm tree. Coincidentally, they were also on a sort of a one-year sabbatical and have been travelling parts of the world for the past 6 months already. An evening of drinks became another evening of dinner and live music and their stories and advice about travelling during Covid were both informative and entertaining and, as they had already been travelling Costa Rica for a bit, they provided a lovely way to learn a bit more about this place that we were just starting to call home. Like us, they had an interest in live music, which is unfortunately hard to find in Cahuita, but after putting our heads together, we were able to piece together different places where one could go to hear great music and that was really when this place began to feel more like home to Kevin especially.
An even deeper friendship that we’ve struck here in Cahuita has been with Billy and Rebecca. Billy arrived here when he was two years old and has lived here for 26 years now and his Canadian girlfriend Rebecca and him have become very close to us. Their dog Sissy and baby kitten named Greg were immediately a magnet for Sophia, who couldn’t get enough time with them…
Billy knows everybody in town and everything about living here and has been wonderfully giving of his time and advice and stories for us. Rebecca is a former competitive hoop dancer who hasn’t lost her skills with a hoola hoop and has provided us with a particularly Canadian viewpoint on life in Costa Rica, having only recently moved here herself.
Initially, they hooked us up with a boat captain who took us snorkelling off of the shores of the National Park on a glorious sunny morning which included some lovely swimmimg in calm, pristine waters, with huge schools of fish. Afterwards, instead of boating us back the launch, the captain simply beached the boat and let us off at the outer point of the local National Park at a place that would have otherwise been difficult to get to. Our walk back to town along the beach and through jungle paths was among our first real adventures here and that was only the beginning….
Billy has been Kevin’s surf instructor and has gotten Kevin to the point where he can now head out on his own and surf the baby waves. Tons of fun! And only a tad bittersweet for Kevin knowing that this is yet another watersport ‘’itch’’ (along with scuba diving) that will be hard to scratch, living in Winnipeg…. the video below is from an early lesson and shows how things started out...
It’s not only the ‘big adventures’ that have made the first part of this trip so memorable, but also the little ones that just seem to happen as part of our everyday experience… here’s an excerpt from a text / journal entry Kevin recorded after one night out:
“We spent the evening at one of our favourite bars by the beach… the calypso one (although Bo says the Reggae one is better). Live music tonight by the local band “Caribbean Sound” … I went a bit closer to the stage while Bo and Sophie played cards on a hand-carved driftwood table, closer to the ocean. Later on, me and Sophie played some ping pong while listening to the music. Met a guy from Philadelphia who wants to play tomorrow. There was a granny on the dance floor with some great moves. I asked her to teach me to dance like her and now we have a date for next Wednesday, when the band plays there again.
We just got back home. It’s 10:00 and people are winding down for the evening already… our body clocks are changing to be more aligned with the sun: up early in the morning and going to bed early too… this is new to me . Just now there was a gecko making kissy noises from somewhere in our cabin but it is suddenly being drowned out by the sound of a rain storm that came out of nowhere. We needed it. It was a hot one today.
Tomorrow we plan to visit a Jaguar Rescue center that is located nearby… Sophie is very excited.”
The Jaguar rescue center was incredibly interesting. And it gave us a chance to see and learn about an amazing variety of animals that are cared for at the facility. It also allowed us a window into the hustle and bustle of neighbouring Puerto Viejo and left us grateful for the calm quiet of our adopted home town just down the highway…
Pictured below are orphaned baby sloths in 'Kindergarten' class; a spider monkey who we were told to be careful of; and a gorgeous scarlet macaw who went nose to nose with Kevin... all of these animals were rescued from various misfortunes and were part of the motley crew of animals that the Jaguar Center is rehabilitating currently...
The next day, Billy and Rebecca asked us what our plans were and offered to take us on a local jungle tour to see and explore some waterfalls… here’s the journal entry Kevin made later that day:
“We had a ridiculously fun and exciting day today. It started rather innocently this morning. After hanging out with them on the beach and doing some boogie boarding and hula hooping, our new friends Billy and Rebecca offered to take us on a jungle trek and waterfall tour today. It was a perfect mix of fun and interesting. These were places that we’d have never found on our own and through Billy’s well-practiced guidance, we were able to follow a stream for a ways into the jungle, following some fun, tricky forest paths that eventually led us to some natural pools and the bottom of a beautiful 100 foot waterfall. This alone would have capped off a nice hike and lovely experience but then Billy casually mentioned that he knew of a path that led up to the top of the waterfall and beyond, and suggested we go check out the natural pools that lay further up the river. The path to the top of the waterfall was hair-raising at times and was made just a little more challenging after Billy cautioned us to try to limit the amount we were reaching out our hands to tree limbs and hanging vines in an attempt to steady ourselves (snakes, if we’re really unlucky, but more likely – bullet ants, can be a painful reminder that we’re in a jungle)… We’ll see if the pictures we’ve taken of this jungle trek will do this description justice.
The view from the top of the waterfall was awe inspiring and gulp-inducing and the pools of water we were able to swim in were cool and refreshing in the steamy jungle… The day was interesting in a number of ways as Billy introduced us to some local and Indigenous people, culture and foods (and an Emerald Basilisk, or ‘Jesus lizard’) as we went of the proverbial beaten track…sharing a refreshing coconut at the end of the tour was just one of many highlights that day, and the center of the coconut can be recycled into a receptacle for future rum and cokes… interesting.”
Above, the narrow ledge we had to inch across, trying not to look down.
Kevin, looked down...
And that day wasn’t even over. We had to hightail it back home just as the sun was going down so we could get ready for a special dinner and concert that was being put on at a restaurant just down the road from us. The kind lady who is renting us her place while we’re in Cahuita, after realizing that we were music lovers, offered to reserve us a table at what became the hottest ticket in town that night as the restaurant hosted Cuban musicians who were travelling through town and doing a ‘one night only’ concert. The musicians were superb and it was surreal to see such high quality music being played live to a few dozen people (many of whom packing the dance floor) after having come from a year of Covid restrictions and no live concerts. It was a lovely way to end what had been a perfect day and we were glad to be able to have Billy and Rebecca join us for dinner and such great music to cap off our day together.
Days like the one described above have been interspersed with other more lazy days of simply lounging by the pool combined with shorter walks along Playa Negra or nearby Playa Grande. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we grab our chance to explore the jungle right behind our place which always seems full of life and often, full of monkeys which have been a never-ending source of delight for us as we watch them in their own daily routines. Chances to chat with other travellers, like fellow surfer and genuinely nice guy, Andrea, from Italy have provided some interesting perspectives on how different parts of the world have fared in these past 12 months of Covid.
The bonds between Billy, Rebecca and us have continued to strengthen and have resulted in invitations from Billy to join him as he took another couple on a jungle kayaking tour (Kevin took him up on it and had a blast). The picture below was typical of the mangrove swamp / narrow jungle streams that were explored that day...
Rebecca is a champion hoop dancing artist and although she says her competition days are behind her, she still performs on various occasions and has put on more than one eye-popping demonstration, along with her LED hoop that she uses to great effect at night. The most recent opportunity to see her skills in action happened just a couple of nights ago at a drum circle / beach party that they invited Bo and I to come to. It took place at the more hipster / party town, Puerto Viejo just up the highway and was a joyous mix of music / fire juggling / acrobatics and other communal fun (like a mix of the circus and Lord of the Flies that had Kevin swooning and Bo looking on bemused and trying not to roll her eyes)…
Both Billy and Rebecca have been so kind and have shared so much advice and information and interesting stories about life in Cahuita and Costa Rica and what sorts of things we can look forward to in our next few weeks and months here. We are so fortunate to have met them.
The ocean has turned angrier in the past couple of days, preventing Kevin from surfing anymore but it hasn’t stopped Sophie from continuing to search for the ‘perfect’ boogie-board wave. Our time here is quickly coming to an end, at least for now. In a couple days, we’ll be leaving Cahuita and making our way from the Atlantic / Caribbean side of the country over to the Pacific side. Our time here in Cahuita has been as close to perfect as we could have hoped for and while our time in Costa Rica is really only just beginning, we feel like we already have developed friends and memories that will have us counting the days until we can return to this lovely place, later in our travels, hopefully in late May or June…
For now, we’ll sign off on this post by thanking all those who have made our first few weeks here so enjoyable, both our new local friends and those friends and family back home who’ve been reaching out and staying in touch and generally keeping us from feeling alone these first few weeks away. The next part of our journey awaits… it’s going to be hard to top what we’ve seen and done here already but it’ll be fun to see what new adventures await…
