Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica...where double dipping thrives

Our time in Puerto Viejo, a small town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, was quite pleasant. Our days were filled with bike rides to pristine beaches, short hikes through tropical paradises, juicy mangos, and some much deserved rest and relaxation. We spent the nights around a camp fire singing Spanish revolutionary songs and fell asleep on hammocks, listening to the waves roll onto the beach.

We walked through Cahuita National Park and got to view, up close and personal, two different tribes of monkeys. Two of the monkeys decided to take a bathroom break while they were above us. That spray, however, was of no concern- we quickly went to swim in the ocean.

On our way back from the park, we accidentally hopped on the wrong bus. Once we discovered our mistake, we jumped off and decided that we might as well try and hitch hike back. Within five minutes, a little fisherman and his crew picked us up and put us in the back of his truck.

Our last night in Puerto Viejo we met this crazy man. He is a famous gambler who just moved down the day before to retire. We decided to celebrate: mango margaritas, dancing on the street in the company of a fire dancer, and singing songs beside the bonfire....this man never failed to keep us entertained.

Our point of departure...

On Friday, we decided to leave Puerto Viejo. We went to purchase our bus tickets and discovered that there were no more seats on the bus. No worries, we immediately headed to the nearby, homemade dessert parlor that served Amish-prepared natural ice cream and organic coffee and cappucino drinks. (Every time we visited this place we tried to sample as many flavors as possible- and we were quite successful in this endeavor. Our ice cream parlor server would allow us to sample all the flavors we desired, but made sure that we used the same spoon throughout all of the sampling. We attribute this practice to Costa Rica´s strong commitment to conservation work).

We regrouped there for a while and eventually decided that we should attempt to hitch the 5 1/2 hour ride to San Jose, Costa Rica (this was against the advice of our ice cream server who guaranteed that we would never be able to get a ride out of her town).

It was at this point that we walked to the street and held up our sign: ¨Limon or San Jose.¨ We are pretty sure that the first car that drove by desparately wanted to take us to our destination but that they were just not able to...for that reason they honked, to show their full support of our venture. And for that, we were grateful and even more optimistic.

Within the next fifteen seconds a man in a little red car drives up and offers to take us in the direction we need to go.

This man, Mr. Ronig, has a wonderful story. He was in Puerto Viejo to finish writing his second children`s book. His first is called Hannah KaReese and the Island of Moorea (check it out and let us know how it is!). He started writing books for young people because he noticed that all the books his 9 year old daughter read starred boys. He wanted his daughter, and all other girls, to be able to read books with strong female characters.

We had wonderful conversations in the car and he shared stories about his work in the army (most recently in Iraq) and in medical missions. He tries to travel 3 times a year and never goes to the same place twice.

Originally, Mr. Ronig said he would take us part way to Limon but he ended up driving us all the way to San Jose! He wasn`t planning on going anywhere that day but he told us that he didn`t feel like writing. Later he told us that he drove us so that he would know that for at least one day that we were safe. We told him that our parents were grateful.

When we arrived in San Jose and were searching for a place to stop, we accidently turned down a one-way road. We tried to turn around in a driveway and got both front wheels stuck in a drainage trench dug between the sidewalk and the street. Thankfully, and luckily, six very helpful passerby stopped, and with a lot of effort and teamwork we managed to lift the car out of the trench.

Mr. Ronig dropped us off at a gas station and we walked into the city. We had no idea where we were but we found an internet cafe, googled hostels, and asked the man working there if he knew where the one at the top of the list was. As if things hadn`t worked out well enough already, the hostel we picked was less than a block away! We could already tell that we loved San Jose!