Ketchup Post

Hello again!

Unless this is your first time reading. In that case, ignore the “again”.

Well it’s been a solid week or so since I was in Puerto Viejo, but I think I can remember the most of it. T’was a great time, you see. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I talk about that, I should mention something that happened in the middle of the week. I think this is the first time I’ve done this.

So January 30^th happens to be Rosalba’s birthday. Being the great gringo-sons that we are, Aaron and I went out and bought her a little somethin-somethin. We were advised that at that age, people like to receive practical gifts. So we bought her a makeup mirror and some placemats. Don’t laugh. There will be a day in your life when you get excited about placemats, trust me.

So anyhow, she had a big ol party planned for that Wednesday night, with some of the local ladies and friends of hers to show up. I kinda figured in advance that I would be the only one there not fluent in Spanish, and again my powers of deduction were infallible. Whoopee.

It ended up being a really good time tho! It was pretty late getting started; everyone was just sorta milling around, having some wine, and chatting. I was walking around with Aaron so that if anyone asked me questions that I didn’t understand, he was there to translate. But then he went off with one of the family members to make a liquor run. So I grabbed a seat with some people we had been chatting with, and proceeded to work my way through a conversation. The one dude knew some English, so he helped whenever there was a snag. But surprisingly, I talked with them for like half an hour, doing most of the talking, and they understood what I was sayin! It was awesome!

The dinner was a buffet style that didn’t really get served till like 10, so we were starving. But the food was great, they had some delicious cake afterward, and then everyone gathered in the living room. One of the guys brought out a guitar, and he and his brother started playing and singing some amazing Spanish-style music. It was a really cool experience, I was glad to be down here for it.

Enough about the week. The weekend is where it’s at, no?

I had kinda planned on taking a weekend off, and staying in San Jose. We’d all been going nonstop every weekend since we got here, and a couple days to relax and do whatever seemed like a great idea.

But on Thursday afternoon, I was walking back home from the school and I walked by the park. I was flagged down by my buddy Scizames (Scott-James, cuz they messed up his name on his student ID here). He told me they were hittin the Caribbean side that weekend, and that they were about to go buy their bus tickets. He told me that the bus costs 8 bucks, and the hostel they were going to stay in cost 10 bucks a night for a bed, or 5 bucks a night for a hammock. Said I should come. So I gave them 8 bucks for my ticket and that was that!

We left at 3 on Friday, and got down to Puerto Viejo at 8:30 or so. We didn’t know how many spots would be open at Rockin J’s (the hostel), and there were a ton of us.

*Just to explain something here. There are 3 separate groups of gringos that attend Veritas. ISA (which I am a part of, 52 of us), CEA, and Independent (or Indy’s, as I call them).*

This trip just happened to encompass some from all 3 groups. Which was cool, since so far that hadn’t really happened. All told, there was something like 30 of us wandering down the street trying to find Rockin J’s. It was a rush to get there, but when we arrived we saw that the rush wasn’t necessary. This place was huge.

Rockin J’s is easily and by far the coolest hostel I have ever seen. There were 2 huge rooms full of hammocks, I’m guessing something like 100 or so. Maybe more. Then there was a giant elevated platform with 50 tents on it, some doubles, some singles. Every surface of every wall and floor was covered, in either paint, or with that broken-tile mosaic thing. It was awesome! I rented a tent for 6 bucks a night, which came with a comfy mattress and a locker for my stuff.

That night there was live music at the restaurant/bar in the front of the hostel, and a bonfire on the beach on the other side. I just kinda spent my time drifting between the two, chattin with whoever came across my path, drinkin, watching the stars and the ocean, etc. You get the picture, it was really chill.

The next day I made a point of sleeping in, and for the first time in Costa Rica, I succeeded in sleeping past 9. So I got up at 9:30 and wandered downstairs. The place was empty, all the ambitious souls who got up at 7ish had left to go snorkeling or left for the beach or gone to do whatever it is ambitious souls do. Me, I wandered into town in search of some breakfast. Stumbled across a place called The Beach Hut. Tiny little place, probably couldn’t fit more than 12 people in there. But they served me up the best eggs benny I have ever eaten (sorry Dad. But these were unreal). I think a plug is obligatory here, so if you or anyone you know happens to go to Puerto Viejo, make sure to pay a visit to The Beach Hut. Except on Sundays, cuz they are closed.

I spent the rest of the day reading, listening to music, and getting some sun. Then some people showed up and we played Frisbee on the beach and swam a bit and such. Saturday night was similar to Friday, another bonfire on the beach and chattin between the three groups.

Sunday was an earlier morning, we grabbed some breakfast and hit the beach a little ways up the coast. Good waves, played on the beach, that sorta thing. A lot of people decided to go home that night on the 4 o’clock bus, but a bunch of the Indy’s were staying so I decided to stay with them and go back on Monday. That left us free to wander to Sunset Sports Bar to catch the superbowl! Great game, as any of you who watched it can likely attest to. Funny thing tho, we started chatting with some gringos at the bar sitting near us, turns out they were 4 guys from Calgary! They were a couple years older, so we didn’t end up finding any people that we knew in common, but they were from Mckenzie Town and Douglasdale, which is kinda nutty. Small world, eh?

Well Monday morning rolled around, spent some more time reading and takin ‘er easy, which was great since that was what I was originally planning for that weekend. Made it home no problem, but with the intention of going back, because at that point I had decided that Puerto Viejo was easily my favorite place in Costa Rica thus far.

The Caribbean side was incredible. The foliage was more along the lines of what I expected to see when I first came to Costa Rica. One morning in front of the hostel, I spent a few minutes watching a howler monkey swinging around in the trees overhead. We saw a sloth chillin in one of the trees, setting the pace for everyone else in that town. Pretty much a tropical paradise, simply put.

Well I won’t really formally close this, since I’m double-posting in order to catch up from being a week behind in my ROEs. But just in case you don’t have time to read the next one…

Thanks for reading!