Puerto Viejo to Cachi

La Costa de Pepito where we stayed in Puerto Viejo the last two night was wonderful. I especially liked how our bungalow was open air and very much one with the tropical environment. The whole time we were there we would occasionally hear a strange very load noise that I can only describe as the sound of an unhappy donkey braying. This morning before we left I asked what that noise was. They said it was howler monkeys!!

Today we retraced our steps back towards San Jose where we will turn our car in on Sunday morning.

We are staying at a beautiful spot in the mountains near Cachi, Hotel Quelitales. It feels very remote although it is less than thirty miles from San Jose. After we got here we checked out the waterfall and the hiking trail.

Our bungalow is very comfortable and modern.

Our dinner tonight st the hotel was one of the best we have had on the entire trip.

Cahuita to Puerto Viejo

This morning before we left Cahuita we went for a walk in the National Park. We walked down the beach.

Then we walked back through the forest on a path that parallels the beach.

Tonight we are in Puerta Viejo just a few miles south of where we were last night. The place we are staying is called La Costa de Pepito. We have our own bungalow surrounded by trees. It feels very private. There is no air conditioning but there are lots of fans and for the first time on this trip we have mosquito nets. It was lovely to sit on the porch and relax and read this afternoon.

For dinner we had great seafood. Duke had a whole red snapper.

Manuel Antonio to Danaca Cloud Forest Lodge to Turrialba

Saturday we went from sea level at Quepos to almost 11,000 feet. We had one long dirt road detour because of storm damage but on the whole most of the storm damage had been cleared. Danaca Cloud Forest Lodge where we stayed is in Quetzales National Park. It is a beautiful spot. Unfortunately their internet was down because of storm damage so I haven’t been able to publish the blog for the last couple of days.

We had a sofa in front of a giant picture window to relax and enjoy the view.

On Sunday morning we hiked through the cloud forest down to the river below the lodge.

This morning a giant moth had died outside our picture window. He was six inches across.

Today we headed towards the Caribbean coast. There are still many roads out so to go east we had to first go north through San Jose. Tonight we are at Hotel Villa Florencio in the country just outside of the town of Turrialba.