Puerto Jimenez

We were  up so early we got to welcome the sun! Probably the earliest we've ever woken up on a Thanksgiving!

This morning we didn't get to see the sun rise into the sky, but I'm very happy to report that it's up there and shining brightly, much different than the past couple days of downpour. We're in Puerto Viejo now with Doug and Amy and looking forward to a beautiful beach day. And maybe another mermaid photo shoot? The waves are huge now, much different than the smooth-as-glass day when Shuli was here, so we'll see what we can do. 

Getting down here took much longer than usual - 8 hours for Kirby and Amy and 6 hours for Doug and I.  The route they usually take has been closed because the road was either flooded or covered in mud by the rains this past week.  The route we took was still pretty bad, but we made it!  A lot of the homes and buildings along the coastal road have been flooded and it was really sad to see.  Also a little nerve racking to drive over the flooded road.  Kirby and Amy waited for hours before their bus driver decided to forge the floodwaters, but apparently the bus drivers spread the work that it was a safe crossing, so ours rolled right across without hesitation.

Anyways, let me get back to the point of this post - our Thanksgiving day on the Osa Peninsula! The last post was HUGE and if you made it to the end, I'm impressed!  This time I'm hoping to narrate with pictures instead of words. We'll see how it goes...

Our water taxi ride from Golfito to Puerto Jimenez.  A funny guy got on the boat before we took off and made some great music with an empty gas can, the side of the boat, and his voice.

We missed the 8am bus from Golfito to Las Palmas, so we decided to walk instead of take the $50 taxi ride.   After about 15 minutes in the hot sun we re-thought our plan and decided to give up on visiting Corcovado this time and just check out the beaches and town of Puerto Jimenez.  Since we had to be back at the water taxi by 4:20, it was a better use of our time and gave us a chance to get to know the town that was almost our home. Before we moved to Costa Rica, we'd imagined our new address being somewhere in Puerto Jimenez. So we felt very fulfilled to have at least made it there!

One of the best things about our change in plans - getting to visit this Panaderia again!!

We consulted Kai's map to see what other sights there were to see in the area and decided on visiting "Refugio Preciosa".  Unfortunately this refuge is not open to the public, but we were so set on hiking through the jungle that we went in anyways!!!! Breakin' the law on Thanksgiving!!!

Kirby LOVED these little guys! Fungus is so fun.

Us in a tree

These little monkeys were the cutest ones yet!

Our snack break bench

Some of the biggest howler monkeys we've seen yet!

After exploring the refuge we went to the beach and discovered these amazing sand designs made by tiny crabs.  Looked like an inert and very monotone fireworks show.

We decided to cross a river to check out a different part of the beach, but the sand and mud created a sludge that stuck to our feet and squished up between our toes.  Kirby had a very hard time dealing with the sludge and made lots of whimpers and squeaks on the way across.

Right now Kirby's saying "eeeeewwwwww!!! OOOOooooohhhhh!!!  EEEeeeeeeewww!!!"

The tide started coming in and raising the river, so we turned right around and crossed back through the sludge ("eeewwwwww!!!") and went to a different beach

Our first scorpion sighting!

Hard to see, but there's a rainbow in there

We kept one Thanksgiving tradition alive - drinking in the daytime

This tica was very curious about her gringa boatmates, and excited to have her picture taken too

Back at our room to relax and watch the sunset before going out for Thanksgiving dinner

The traditional casados was what I chose for my Thanksgiving dinner, Kirby went with nachos

The next morning we took a bus back to San Jose.  This was the view from our bus stop. Couldn't resist sharing a little more of the Costa Rican Christmas with you all!