51 Days

View from the second floor of The Blue Conga(that's our car)

And so we continue...

Monday:  After a loud and pretty vulgar night (like I said, we could hear the people at the bar), we woke up and packed up our things.  Kristi, Matt and I walked to Economy Rent-a-Car at 7 am, to pick up the car we had previously reserved.  It was under my name and credit card so I had to go, Kristi is the only one who speaks fluent Spanish and Matt was going to be the main driver.  It ended up taking a little longer than planned to pick up the car, but we ended up getting back to Galileo's to pick up Dan and Jess around 8:30am.  They had everything packed and ready, so we hopped in our Hyundai Elantra and navigated our way out of the city.

Once we found our way out of San Jose, we basically had to stay on one road the whole way.  It was such a great drive: the scenery was beautiful, mostly Rain forest on either side, the air was cool and the sun was shining.  It was very relaxing.  Not to mention, the roads were nicely paved and marked and generally pot hole free, which was quite the change of pace from Tegucigalpa.  We arrived in Puerto Viejo around 1pm, after stopping once to go to the bathroom, and once to buy a watermelon on the side of the road.

When we were about 15-20 minutes outside of Puerto Viejo, the road ran parallel to the ocean and we just cruised along.  It was absolutely beautiful. Driving into the little town of Puerto Viejo was so exciting.  It was a little hippy town, where people just relax, go to the beach, surf, ride bikes, (probably quite a bit of drugs) and just enjoy the warm sun.  There were people everywhere, and little shops and restaurants lined the street.  Our hotel was just a little ways out of the center of town.  We could walk there in about 6 or 7 minutes.  We were glad to be out of the hustle and bustle, because I'm sure it got pretty loud and crazy at night.

Inside our room, yes there were mosquito nets on a couple of the beds!

Our balcony, hammock and all!

View from our Room

Eating the watermelon Matt bought on the side of the road

Jess, me and Krist getting ready to head to the beach!

Once we found our hotel, The Blue Conga, we couldn't have been happier.  It was a well kept place, with clean beds, water you could drink, and the lady who ran the place was charming.  We settled in and quickly decided that we wanted to go out to the beach as soon as possible (at least I did).  We changed, lotioned up, and walked into town.  We found a little restaurant where we grabbed lunch, because we figured we'd get hungry as soon as we went out on the beach.  Grabbing lunch, turned into an hour and a half ordeal, but the food was delicious and we were all happy to just relax and enjoy the Bohemian atmosphere.  I'm sorry to say the meal ended abruptly when Matt noticed he had ants crawling all over him.  Apparently he had put his bag on an ant hill and they had completely covered his backpack and him.  After a lot of swatting and careful ant removal, we paid and started our journey to the beach.

At this point, it was about 4:30 so our time was short.  We went to a beautiful beach called Punta Uva.  It was about a 10 minute drive in the other direction from our hotel.  We got there just as the sun was setting and the view was amazing.  Punta means "point", and there was a large point covered in trees and wildlife that the sun set behind.  Gorgeous.

Sunset at Punta Uva

Jess and I at Punta Uva

Even though it wasn't hot, we all got in the warm Caribbean water.  We threw around a Frisbee for a while, which I am not very good at, and then just hung out in the water.  The ocean was crystal and you could see the sandy floor clearly.  Once the sun was almost completely gone, we grabbed our towels and headed back to the car.

Five sandy, wet people and only one bathroom.  We definitely did some waiting, but again, we were on vacation and it just didn't seem to matter.  Our room was small, especially because it was supposed to be a two person room originally and we managed to fit five people, all with our own single bed.  Not much walking around room, but we got pretty close:)

After showers, we headed back into town, to a restaurant that was supposed to have "The Best Pizza in Town.  Jess, Kristi and I split a Hawaiian Pizza, which I thought was pretty good.  No one seemed to think it was "the Best" though.  We played cards for a little while, but quickly realized that we were all exhausted and headed back to the hotel.  Around 9:30pm we all went to bed.  Yes, 9:30pm. (We are all teachers, remember?)

Day 3 was great and now my appetite was wet for more sand and sun.  (Keep reading, because my favorite day is coming up soon!)