La Fortuna to Puerto Viejo

We left La Fortuna in the morning and began our 5 hour trek to Puerto Viejo. Shortly after leaving the city we visited Pollo de Cervecero (474-0101) and got the best tipico (typical Costa Rican food) thus far on the trip. Jim had Cascado con Pollo, which is rice and beans with grilled chicken, and had cheese, shell noodles, fried plantain, and an egg on the side. Mark tried the Chicken Cordon Bleu, which turned out to be pretty good, although it did have some sort of Velveta type cheese in the middle of it, and I (Karl) had Cascado con Pollo en Salsa, which was the same meal as Jim’s, but with shredded chicken in sauce. Muy bueno! Then we drove and drove, and drove some more until we arrived in Limon, where I was informed everybody carried around guns. The only people that I was able to see with guns were the officers, but it didn’t look like a city that I would want to stay in.

We arrived in Puerto Viejo and checked into the El Pizote at about 4:30, and we tried to go explore the trails behind the place, my father and brother had said they were very cool as they had stayed there 2 years before. There were massive bamboo shoots all around, and bats flying about, but it didn’t take too long until we reached the end, apparently they had been closed and we could no longer go to the location that they had previously visited. It turns out that the trails were flooded, and what used to be walkable, turned into a river. Mark’s legs got lacerated on the walk back. I was informed that the city comes to life at night, and so we went out at about 6:30 after it had started to get pretty dark. A lot of the knick knack shops with bracelets and necklaces were still being set up, but there was still a good amount to check out. We saw a place in the center of the city, and a Rasta man in the middle of the street was announcing to us and everyone else that there would be live music upstairs at 7:30, so we decided we’d finish wandering the town, and come back then. I forget the name of the place, but translated it meant “the cute little monkey”. We went into a bunch of souvenir shops, most of which contained the same items, and when it was close to the time, we headed back and went into the restaurant. We sat down, and Mark ordered Basil Pesto Chicken, and my father and I ordered a whole red snapper; Mark made the better decision. The Calypso music started shortly after we arrived; there were three members, a guitar player, a bongo drummer, and a guy playing an instrument that looked like a bow, a curved wooden piece with a single string. The songs had all the same structure, the same 3 chords on the guitar, and the same drum beat, but they would all sing, and the singing was what made each song different. It was a good atmosphere but the food wasn’t terrific and the music was just decent. We left still hungry so we went to this restaurant that my father and brother ate at a lot when they were down there 2 years ago. The woman who owned the place was named Sonya, who was a very nice hospitable individual. She had some of the best music in town being played over the speakers there, started off with some jazz, and later went into some good ambient reggae. We ordered a margarita pizza, Mark got two Mojitos, and my father and I had some tequila. We headed home after that and readily achieved the sleep we needed..

kjs