Category: Uncategorized

Nov 7-  Hot Springs in Hot Weather? Ew

6:00am, GOD DAMN BIRDS

Don’t get me wrong, I love nature and we are used to getting up early already. It’s definately more quiet here than at our jungle house, and I do miss that.  These are new sounds now….the HELL is that noise…a bad radio station?  Turns out, it’s a Oropendola bird….

Check out this video and listen! It’s cray cray (click on photo)

I have a similar video where it makes it’s beautiful call and then the crackling noises…hard to believe that is coming out of a bird. Now throw 6-7 of those in the tree outside your room at 6am……EFFFFFffffff

So I’m up and showered by 6:45, then I wait on Jay until 8:15 or so and we head up to breakfast. It’s the first buffet breakfast we have had, we only just had coffee at our jungle house. They have pancakes, beans and rice, scrambled eggs, sausages, fried plaintain, fresh fruits, breads, cereal, waffles, omelettes…..and lots of café con leché. We decided to enjoy our morning, do some work on the laptops after breakfast by the pool area, go for a dip, then head into town sometime after lunch to book a tour and have dinner somewhere. The hotel puts fresh banana out around the property to attract the birds, lots of pretty ones:)

We work for an hour and a bit, then decide to hit the pool. Feels so refreshing as it is still pretty humid here. We could see a lot more of the volcano today! Unreal to be so close….

We went in the pool for a little bit, then since we were cooled off, we tried the hot springs

They were pretty warm, around 100 degrees. It was ok for a bit, but since it was around 2pm it got a little too much with the outside air being so warm/humid as well. They had a swim-up bar that wasn’t open, but they had a soccer game on so we sat for another 20 minutes watching that. We were the only ones in the hot springs, as most people are gone during the day doing all the tours.

We headed back to the room and had a cool shower, then grabbed a cab into town ($10). We had a nice cabbie named Johnny, so he gave us his card to call him when we needed picked up. He also recommended some places for dinner, and drinks to check out. We went to the Jungle Tours Kiosk/store to try to book a tour for the next day. Most of the tours are some sort of 2 hours hike around the volcano (no), whitewater rafting (nope), atv tours (ehhhh), walk 500 steps down to a waterfall (lol…ummm thats 1000…..double nope)…as much as we were planning on ziplining in Monteverde (next stop), it was the only thing that appealed to us. It only included a bit of hiking and then 7 ziplines, for only $45…..DONE! We also needed to book transport to the next spot, which is a van-boat-van deal to Monteverde. Instead of driving all squirrely around the lake, you can take a van to the dam, get on a 40 minute ferry, then another 1:15hr bumpy drive to Monteverde ($25). We booked those 2 things then went to wander around the souvineir shops; I grabbed some flippy flops since I didn’t realize how shitty the ones I brought are, and Jay grabbed a bracelet or something.

They had a cool looking restaurant called Nanku, that had a tiki hut vibe and roadside tables to people watch. It was also one of the restaurants that Johnny suggested;)

We had some…..WAIT FOR IT………cervezas! I ordered some chicken quesadillas and Jay ordered a Casado dish with pork, both were tasty. By the time it gets dark at 5:30, I want my bed, especially with a few cervezas and a full tummy. We called up our buddy Johnny and headed back to the hotel. Jay made fun of me because it was barely 6pm and I was ready to pass out, then we both ended up passing out before 8! Get up early and go to bed early…..We were getting picked up at 7:30am tomorrow anyways for our zipline so I guess it’s acceptable?

Nov 6- Next stop, Arenal/La Fortuna

6:00am-ish, I’m awake roosters….SETTLE DOWN. I set my alarm just in case one of the 3746 animals failed to wake me at a decent hour: THEY DIDN’T

We have to pack and say goodbye to our first and favourite stop so far…How will we top this little jungle abode?

Jayr was nice enough to drop us back off downtown, at least we could say “Hasta Luego” for now…

We are headed to the Volcano Lodge and Springs in La Fortuna

I booked us a Caribe Shuttle for 10:30am to Arenal/La Fortuna, it was $62/pp from Puerto Viejo. You can take a bus, but it would have to go to San Jose first, then you switch buses and head up to La Fortuna (way longer.) There is the shared shuttle option (that we did), or you can rent a car or private transfer. We ended up being the only 2 that were headed up there, so we had the whole shuttle to ourself, (complete with onboard wifi). They said private transfer would have been $300, so we got a deal technically.

Our driver was a local from Puerto Viejo, he was born there but his family is from Jamaica, think his name was Melvin. He isn’t a regular driver with Caribe; only helping them out for a few weeks while other employees are on vacation. He drove us for a few hours, then we stopped at a soda for a bathroom break/coffee. After another 20 minutes we met up with our second driver, who took us the rest of the way so Melvin could head back home. The next driver was Donnie, but his nickname is Baldy (shaved head). He took us another 2 hours until we reached our hotel. We passed pineapple plantations, and papaya trees. He told us all about La Fortuna (he grew up there), and gave us recommendations of places to check out. We were dropped off around 4:00 to our hotel, just in time for happy hour at one of the bars!

The Volcano Lodge is a smaller family owned/operated hotel, with 65 rooms. It has views of the volcano and man-made hot springs. We were in a quiet room furthest from the lobby, no volcano view but we had gardens. The volcano was half-covered in clouds when we arrived

I booked us a mix of AirBnb’s, hotels, hostels and local stays on this trip. Every destination we wanted to go, I scoured the internet for some good finds/hidden gems. This hotel in particular, came up for $60/night on Expedia, complete with buffet breakfast……OK! We threw our stuff in our room, freshened up and hit the bar for some drinks (happy hour, remember?) We decided to stay there for dinner since it was already getting dark, and that we would head into town the next day to book a tour of some sort/eat dinner there.

Jay ordered a Peruvian chicken dish and I ordered chicken parmesan/sghetti dish. Both were alright, about $14/each. I think I went back to the room to continue trying to blog and Jay went back to the bar for more cervezas….pretty sure I passed out around 9:30 and he wandered back around 10:30 since the bar closes at 10……SUCKER.  Told him if he doesn’t behave Im’a push him in the volcano….but that requires a hike to the top……so…….you know how I feel about hiking…..

Until tomorrow. Enjoy your snow FAM 😆

 

Nov 5th- One more beach!

I feel like we haven’t left the house much, and we are OK with that! We did the horseback ride I wanted to do, explored the beach areas, and Jaguar Rescue Centre. The other place around here that was suggested to visit would be Cahuita National Park. It is one of the smallest national parks in Costa Rica, and the only one that you can enter by donation if you choose to. Although small it is bursting with wildlife and not only is the forest protected, but so is the marine life in the area. It is one of the top spots for snorkelling and exploring the reef, but the visability would not be the best at the moment, (Feb-May is best).

Cahuita is only about 10-12km from our house, so we called our pal Geovanny (taxi service) to pick us up, ($12) He knows where we live so it’s easier to call him:) We weren’t going until noon or so, so we weren’t planning on hiking too much (Effin hot)

There is a 6km hiking trail through the jungle, it is best to go early in the morning, not just to beat the heat, but to see the animals when they are most active. We were going to walk and explore a bit and just relax somewhere on the beach.

We got dropped off in town at Ricky’s and decided to have some fresh juice and share some chicken nachos for lunch before we wandered into the park. I got another mango/water slush and Jay grabbed a watermelon one. The nachos were perfect for sharing too.

Not my photo, but here is what Ricky’s looks like:

It was only a 5-6 minute walk up to the entrance of the park (Kelly creek side, there are 2 entrances) We donated $10 to walk around and enjoy the beach. It is really cool how you feel like you are in the middle of a jungle, but you have the ocean right next to you at the same time.

We found a break in the trees and cut through to the beach less than 1km in, (its hot, I’m not doing no 6km at 1:00pm….or any other time, lets be real)

We parked it for an hour and a bit, went in the water and got smashed in some waves, then just sat and observed. We watched a yellow crab dig his hole, just crawled out with a claw full of sand, stared you in the eye and chucked it, then ran back in…reminds me of those cat videos when they stare at you and knock shit off the table

…So that was our entertainment. On our walk out of the park is when we saw a bunch of Capuchin monkeys! (The small, white faced ones), they were just jumping from tree to tree, then playing for a bit. Luckily, they did’t come down and mug us, these ones can be real ballsy and steal from tourists. The locals say that one will sit there on the sidewalk and distract people while the other ones are in your backpacks and stealing phones/food lol. There is never just one, so if you only see one in front of you, you better turn around quick!

Nice and clear shots of a butt and everything but the face. NAILED IT

See Instagram for video (@_onesaltybeach_)

We also saw those leaf cutter ants?

It was probably around 3:30 ish when we left the park, so we obviously needed cerveza. We just went back to Ricky’s to hang out, we ended up eating an earlier dinner there before cabbing back home around 5 or so. It was our last night in the treehouse (sob), and we had to pack our gear and get ready to move on to the next destination. It got dark shortly after we got home, I jumped in my hammock to write my thoughts down and listen to the frogs. This is where the real fun began….

I had to pee, so I struggled as usual to get out of my hammock,(my legs are a little short and I have zero ab strength/too much extra tum tum) and then I headed to the room. We have been keeping our bathroom door closed as the windows are open….(they are shutter style windows)

So I open the door (it swings open to the right), and I head in left to the toilet, closing the door behind me. I turn around to sit down and just before I get my shorts down this BAT comes flapping across the floor at me. I screamed as it got closer and I backed into the corner so then it tucked and hid under the sink. THANK GOD I didn’t have my shorts around my ankles and fall off the toilet……FUCKKKKKkkkkk. I was ok after I saw he was just a little guy and I probably scared the shit out of him. Jay came running in at this point wondering what was going on…..We decided to just scoop him up in a towel and get him out of our room. There are lots of them flying around at night, they live on top of the ceiling somewhere. He must have flown through the open window after a bug and was stuck inside. I didn’t realize there was no screen on the outside either. I actually think bats are cute, just not flapping towards me in the bathroom. I thought maybe Jay would just set the towel down and let him fly out when he composed himself, but he just chucked him over the railing like a bug. I’m pretty sure he was not impressed since I heard him squeeking out there for awhile after. Maybe he was like this:

GOOD TIMES here in the jungle I tell yah. Still love it and don’t want to leave:)

I decided to go to bed and watch a bit of a movie since my brain wasn’t in the mood to keep writing after that. I downloaded the Secret Life of Pets at home on my iPad…I watched maybe half hour then passed out. I’ll pack in the morning.

I heard the bats chittering as I fell asleep….I slowly pulled the sheet over my head…..

Click below to watch the bat scene in The Great Outdoors;)

Nov 4- Time to put butts on horses

No howler monkeys this morning, so slept until 7 or so.

Yesterday while we were at the Blue Banana Hotel, we booked a 2.5hr horseback ride, where they take you along the beach and in the jungle a bit. The tours are not cheap here, we are in a tourist town so it’s the same as everywhere else we have been. It was $75us a person, but I was really wanting to do it a few times while we are here. Jay is a good enough sport to do it with me, we have done it a few times on vacations. We booked with Caribe Horse, which had good reviews on trip advisor and it was just us with our guide for the afternoon ride.
We decided to have a quiet morning in our treehouse and make some pasta for lunch, then head into town to catch our ride to the stables. Since I have only a few pics from today, here are more of the house;

 

See the toucan up there?!

We called a taxi around 1:15 for a pickup, and headed to the hotel. We were getting picked up around 2pm for the stables. It was a 10 minute ride to Caribe Horse, and our guide Jimmy had our horses tacked and ready to go. I only took one pic of Jay on his horse when we stopped, I didn’t want to drop my phone on the trail. I was trying to figure out the GoPro knockoff camera in the morning and get it on the selfie stick thingy, but I didn’t have a screwdriver to change the mount. SO UNPREPARED

As it turns out, you don’t need a screwdriver to change mounts for the cameras, it just looked that way to me. Totally could have used the camera on the ride and I would have had more than one photo. Sorry guys, I effed that up

It was a bumpy road out of the stables, all rocks and potholes. Just as rough on a horse as it was in a car. These are trail horses, they know the route for the most part, you just have to help them a little bit and watch your head for trees. We did about an hour ride, the jungle/beach are parallel to each other, so we went back and forth between them. It was a busy beach day as it was Sunday, so we didn’t take them as far as he usually does as it was too crowded. We left the horses in the bush to snack and wandered to a nearby hotel/bar for a few cervezas. After about a half hour break, we headed back as it was getting dark and looking like rain was rolling in. My horse led the way back as he is slow and if he is the last one in the line then he will lag. He definately had more pep in the front!

Instead of getting dropped back off at the hotel, we just went into town as it was almost 5:00 and we were hungry. We decided to check out Mopri for some seafood and more cerveza;). Jay ordered the seafood for 1, a mix of clams/mussels/octopus/shrimp/fish/yuck and some rice with caribbean sauce. I wanted more shrimp, I had mine in garlic butter with rice on the side ($18 or so each?) You definately pay more when you are right in the tourist spots; head outside of town a bit to find the cheaper sodas.

We were at the restaurant for a half hour when it started pouring, so after dinner we flagged down a tuk-tuk to take us back to our little oasis in the jungle. It’s a riot trying to tell different cabbies where to take us everytime we want to go home. A house with no address or street name, we try to describe signs in the area and we always get a look of confusion from them. Jayr and his girlfriend showed up maybe 15 minutes after we got back, to bring me the screwdriver that I later discovered I didn’t need lol. I was already chilling in the hammock with my laptop when they arrived to see what we were up to and how we were enjoying it. We love the serenity of his place but how you are close enough to the action of Puerto Viejo if you wanted. He said we could buy this place for $160,000……SOLD!!! Can you imagine….I could do this everyday……
They stayed for a beer and then and we continued to work a bit longer, I jumped back in the hammock to listen to the jungle while I tapped away. It’s amazing how the jungle shifts from day to night…..all the birds/monkeys slowly fade away and the crickets/frogs/bats/geckos start up….I need this soundtrack at home….OR we just move here.

SORRY EVERYONE, SEE YOU NEVER!

 

Nov 3rd- 5:30am……COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOOOOoooooooooN’T!

Eff me, another reason to go to bed early is because you will be awake early.  But the dogs barking and the bats chittering at night make it hard to pass out. Still have yet to bust out the earplugs, we will see in a few days. LOL as I am writing this there are now a bazillion dogs howling….one goes and they all go off, sounds like we are next to a pound or something.

Coffee making was successful this morning,  saw a few geckos running around the kitchen; one baking in the glow of the kitchen light.  Didn’t take a pic but saw the perfect shadow outline of his body and little gecko toes.

Jay got up just after 6, we decided to go into town today and get a few things.  He needed to buy contact solution, I needed to get more data for my cell phone, wanted to hit up a bank for more colones, book a shuttle out of here on Tuesday Nov 6, and eat some breakfast!!

I tried my debit card and a credit card in the atm and it hated both of them. We got the pharmacy to break our $100us bill at least. Exchange rate is approx $1us-550 colones.  We went to Soda Requisimo for some brekkie, we both had gallo pinto(rice and beans), I had ouevos rancheros and jay had some caribbean chicken.  I also was craving some fresh juice, I got some ice cold mango slushy.

After breakfast, we wandered up the street and checked out some shops, Jay wanted to get  a lighter color tank top, we ended up grabbing a few souveniers as well.

There wasn’t much else we planned to do with our day, maybe just relax on a beach somewhere because we haven’t done that yet. To be honest, while the town is cool and I’m usually coconuts for a caribbean beach…we love the jungle house we are staying in and are content just relaxing and observing the nature surrounding us. We have had a busy few years regarding our work and have had some losses in our lives, that we really wanted to just have a week where we literally do nothing. After seeing the place we were renting, I liked the idea of lying in a hammock, watching the jungle while the rains came down. That is exactly what is happening as I write this, it is dark but I can still hear the birds, frogs and god damn dogs. OoOOoo loud rain now on the tin roof…….AWESOME!!!! Jay and I are 10 ft away from each other and have to yell lol…..pausing this to enjoy…brb

PURA VIDA! We decided to walk down to the Banana Azul beach which is on Playa Negra (black sand beach), it was about a 25 minute walk from downtown Puerto Viejo. We could rent bikes, it would be ok to ride them back to our place but it gets dark by 5:30 and you don’t want to be on them then.

This is a smaller boutique hotel about half way between our treehouse and town. Jayr used to work here and said we can come hang out and use the pool/beach…they have happy hour all day on beach (2 for 1!)

I think it was around 1:00 when we got there….so we ordered a couple cervezas, then a bucket, then another bucket…..stayed on those loungers until 5:30pm HA!!

There are stray dogs everywhere, this guy was friendly and hung around all day, his name is NUTS

YER WELCOME

Also, A tiny leetle berbee gercko was in the sand and we got to hold it. It ran up my arm and started eyeballin’ my bouffy hair…almost would have got lost in my hair and I would have hatched baby geckos in a few days

It was cool to see some local kids playing football on the beach and a guy on a paddle board fishing

At the end of the day our server came around with fresh coconut water….mmm

Dinner started at 6pm in the hotel, so since Jay was super smashed..(or was it me?) we decided to eat there. Jay ordered a tuna steak with a caribbean sauce, came with veggies and rice, I ordered sea bass with a honey/teryaki glaze, veggies and mash. It was more expensive being in a hotel, but still around $40 for 2 seafood dinners. I’m not one to take pictures of my food all the time like all the other Millenials….sorry. I will take the odd one but I feel I can describe it, and if you don’t know what a filet of fish and veggies look like, then……we can’t be friends

This hotel has beautiful gardens and a pond that runs all along the side of the restaurant, there are a bunch of turtles that sun bake on the rocks, I thought they were statues. I thought I got a few good pics, but I was partially blind after the buckets of beer so……insert turtle pic here

We called a cab and headed home, I don’t think I stayed up late. Can’t remember lol.

This Salty Beach is signing off…..

Nov 2- HOLY HOWLERS BATMAN

4:45AM- Sounds like a god damn gorilla orgy out here. If you were to hear these in the trees by your house, you would be terrified. Here is what I imagine they look like judging by the sound:

Here is what they really look like:

Riiiiiiiiiight. I have a video but our wifi can’t handle the upload. Will add it later.

The monkeys only really sound off right at the crack of dawn, we only heard them for about 15 minutes or so….then the roosters and the birds started. Time to make coffee! I don’t think I have ever gotten up so early, but I was interested if we would see anything;  we didn’t.  We decided to observe the jungle for a bit, then sit in the “office” and continue working. I can get used to this.  At least we can get any work out of the way by 8am and then go about our day.

We have until Tuesday morning when we have to leave early and head up to La Fortuna; we wanted to maybe visit the Jaguar Rescue Centre and Cahuita National Park while we are here. We decided since we were up so early, we should try to go to the 9:30am tour at the rescue centre before it gets too hot. They run small 1.5hr tours most mornings, one at 9:30am and one at 11:30am.

The skies are overcast this morning, maybe we will see some rain for the first time later since we arrived here. I’m ok with that!

We grabbed a “cab” to get downtown, and because I wasn’t sure where to rent bicycles or how far it was, we just got in a tuk-tuk! Another $5 to get to the centre

We arrived at 8:40am, almost an hour before the first tour. There were a few people there at that time other than us. We met a lady travelling on her own from Baltimore, her plan was to head to Bocas del Toro in a few days after PV.  Panama is just a few hours from here, they even operate 1-2 day tours from this point in Costa Rica because of how close it is.

We chatted for a bit and more people started to arrive…..a lot more. The office opened at 9am, so we were the first ones to purchase our tickets.  It is $20/pp to visit the sanctuary, with all proceeds going directly to helping the injured/abandoned animals. They don’t recieve any funding from the government, so they rely on tourists to help them out:)

The sanctuary was started by a lady named Encar who is a primatologist, and her husband Sandro who is a herpetologist.  People started bringing them wounded/sick/orphaned animals to treat, and so they ended up building this sanctuary as they got busier.

They have a nice outdoor cafe where you can buy a drink/snack while waiting for the tour to start.

They split the crowd into groups of 10 ppl according to language spoken, a volunteer gives you a guided tour and explains the reason why certain animals are there. It is not a zoo, and they limit the handling of the animals to the volunteers. The goal is to release the majority of them back into the jungle, so they can’t get too used to humans.

They also had an alligator, a cayman, an ocelot cat, and a margay cat. The cats were sleeping and hard to get photos of, they basically look the same but differ in size.

Just as the tour was ending, around 11am, it started to rain. We needed to catch a cab or something back into town but weren’t sure where to grab it. We started walking back to main road where there was a pizzeria next to a hotel, but it wasn’t open yet. The rain started to come down heavier, the lady opened the gate and told us to go by the hotel pool and there is a restaurant on the other side. So we scooted over there and the skies opened up. At least the bar was open, we have been up for awhile so it was 11:30 and beer’o’clock!

We weren’t sure how long this rain would last, we didn’t have any other plans for the rest of the day. We decided to have a few beers, then ended up staying for lunch. I had a char grilled burger that had a fried egg on it and side of grilled pineapple, and Jay tried a seafood coconut soup/rice. They were a little more expensive as we were at a hotel, but it was very good food.

We got the front desk to call us a cab back to our place, we got home around 3 and it was still raining but a lot lighter. We decided to relax for the rest of the day, maybe do a bit of work, and just hit up the soda at the end of the street later for more shrimp/rice dinner. I actually busted out my gameboy to play some Mrs.Pacman while I rocked in the hammock, listening to the rain.

PURA VIDA!

 

Nov 1- Need coffffeeeeee

Woke up around 7:15am, heard some noises but nothing that got me out of bed sooner. The noise from our fan muffles the sound slightly;) Had an ok sleep, pillows are too hard for me but I can deal. The A/C is a nice treat as it is muggy out here in the jungle.  I saw a few hummingbirds, saw a monkey moving aroud, and saw a green parrot waaaaaaay up in the tops of the trees. I would guess some of these trees are around 150ft tall; good thing I brought some binoculars.   I would put a pot of coffee on but we don’t have any groceries…. so…….time to wake Jay up!

We had issues with the water pressure in the shower yesterday, but Jayr came to check it out last night while we were out and fixed it right up. I went down to use the shower this morning and it was a bit tricky to figure out. Standing there all nekkid twisting the 3 taps and only getting water out the bottom spout that is “cool”, there are options on the shower head that is almost out of reach for me, so I’m trying not to slip adjusting those….ohhhh the swears. So i stomped upstairs to ask Jay if he knows wtf to do. Apparently the left nozzle doesn’t work, the middle one controls where the water comes out and right one is just pressure. On the shower head itself is a dial that changes the temperature. Weee-oooo shower time. So I grabbed my soap on a rope….jks MOVING ON

By the time we got out of here it was closer to 10? Really hot already and a fantastic time to hoof it 1km up the road to get groceries. We were sweatin’ after walking 3 minutes to the end of the driveway. Not just the heat, keep in mind we work desk jobs at home with zero exercise in our lives. If I were to wear one of those stupid watches that counts your faps sorry steps….it would probably be about……50 a day. 60 is pushin it. NOT JOKING. I had to go to the basement 3 times one day and my calves were sore the next. So lets go backpacking for a month…the fuck were we thinking.

So 45 minutes later we arrive at the grocery store……ok we did it in less than that. Felt far. Only bought some coffee/milk, sugar, 2 banannananas, chips, pasta/sauce, and gatorade…that 1km crushed us. Oh and a GIANT AVOCADO……..LOOK

So regarding taxis in PV, they aren’t marked. Jayr said it’s basically all the shitty, older cars you see driving up and down the highway, especially the ones that are always full of people. They will stop if you are waiting at the bus stop, or ask if you want a ride. If you are the only ones that take the car down the road, it is $6, but if there are a few other people in the car, you all split it. RIDE SHARE. Sounds legit.

So we just left the grocery store, wishing we had a car, and a guy rolls up and sees us with groceries and offers us a ride. HELL YES. I don’t care if you look murdery, just take us 1km down the road PLEASE. Super awesome. He actually was really nice.

So we made it back and it was almost too hot for coffee, but we still wanted some. I was dying for some at 7am and its nearly 11, just pour it in my mouth. We found the coffee maker and set it all up….press play and she’s working. (Also, there are lots of geckos around, they sound like loud birds for such tiny creatures). I give the coffee maker 10 minutes to brew some delicious java juice, while we set up our outdoor office space upstairs. Little did I know that as soon as I left the kitchen, it decided to malfunction and spew the 12 cups of water and grinds ALL OVER THE GODDAMN PLACE. I went downstairs all excited for my first cup of coffee and see brown shit water all over the kitchen. Good thing I spotted that towel mop earlier….effin FORESHADOWING my day you sonuvabitch. Jay came downstairs wondering where his coffee was, to find me mopping it up. YAYyyyyyy vacation. We figured out it was a Tico (local person) coffee maker….the maker and the pot were two different brands and the pot was too short to push the nub in the filter to make the water come out, so if you put it on like, an angle halfway under the thing, it will use it’s nub to rub the other nub and make magic happen. Are we still talking about coffee?

We finally got it to work, so life was back on track. We set up our office space:

We sat here most of the afternoon, Jay catching up on work and me writing this. The soundtrack to the jungle is all we need;) We can still hear the busy road which is a bit distracting. There are tons of dogs all over and everyone seems to own a few. There are only 3 other neighbours off this side road, but the neighbour next door has 4-5 that bark constantly. We feel safe here, as much as it is not gated like everywhere else. He has security cameras and the neighbors dogs bark and let you know when anyone is around, but it is only locals who come up this driveway as it is an unmarked road with no address. It’s a nightmare trying to tell the cabbie where to take you to.

We worked for a few hours, then decided to go to the soda (local cantina) for some lunch. It is located just up the street, a 5 minute walk from the house. They serve fresh ceviche, you get a large styrofoam cup for about $4.50us. I don’t eat that squidgey stuff but Jay will eat seafood all day long. We ordered some rice/shrimp dishes, with small side salad and few french fries on the the side for about $6 each. Way cheaper than anywhere downtown PV.

Don’t forget to put on the #1 condiment, Lizano

It was delicious! We continued working and enjoying the quiet time for a few more hours. We thought we should pack it up soon and hitchhike our way into town for some dinner. All we had to do was go across the street to where the bus would stop and wait for the next sketchy looking car. It was around 5pm sun was just starting to set. We waited about 7 minutes or so and one pulled up, there were also 2 ladies and a little girl waiting, so we all piled in and headed downtown. The cars just drop you all off somewhere downtown.

We wandered a bit and decided to have a drink and some dinner at Koki Beach. It’s a really cool restaurant directly across from the beach, they use all reclaimed materials for their decor and art from local artisans

We sat out front and had a cerveza, watching the people go by. All the local Rasta’s set up an outdoor market across the street in the evenings. There seems to be no set speed limit on the roads; there are cars/motorcyles/scooters/atvs/tuktuks/bicycles all over the place! As much as it looks like you would get creamed riding a bike, the drivers are mindful and aware of the bikes and people and the stray dogs running around.

We moved to a table inside for some dinner, Jay ordered Chaufa Peruano, which is a seafood and rice mix, and i ordered a mexican sea bass dish with red jalepeno sauce. It was delicious as well! The prices are more expensive in town, but for 2 seafood dishes and 5 cerveza it was $42.

After dinner we decided to grab a 12 pack of beer for the house, and grabbed a cab back home. We did some more work/blogging for a few hours then hit the sack. We discovered that we have bats in the ceiling, as soon as the birds shut up for the night then the bats start chittering up there….

THE JUNGLE NEVER SLEEPS AND NEITHER WILL WE