Don't stop the Rock

Rocking J's, the hostel we stayed at in Puerto Viejo, is something like a Hawaiian Hofbrauhaus set on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. In the morning, Jack Johnson songs meander their way up to our private room (while advertised as "Costa Rica's one and only hammock hostel" we decided to fork out the few extra dollars for a bit of privacy). The walls and floors are covered in either colorful tiles or murals, both seemingly the creation of backpackers come before. Indeed, on Saturday, J himself invited us to create our own tile art on the other side of the hammock room, but we elected to bike down to Punta Uva instead (a fateful decision).

Biking is the best way to get around Puerto Viejo. There's not a whole lot in the "town" per se, with many bars, restaurants, hotels and shops straddling the beach and the road south toward Manzanillo. Thankfully, there's not a lot of development, and where there is, it doesn't block the view of the beach from the road in most cases. That just doesn't seem to be the Caribbean style.


I wrote this initially under a thatched roof with hammocks, rocking chairs, and a large hollowed out log (where I chose to sit). My bag sits on a bench plastered with old music CDs--an interesting mosaic of styles and colors. By day, J's is mostly quiet, but at night it livens up quite a bit, somewhat too much. As Avalon said, "We're on a hostel budget but over the hostel scene." Some hostel scenes aren't so bad, quite fun, in fact. But J's Saturday night was a bit much, with a group of kids ("retards," Avalon says) who one would think had never touched alcohol before or spent much time with members of the opposite sex. But back to the story... I'm working on an article for The Tico Times about the economic slowdown and its effects on tourism in Costa Rica. While many hotels in the country are struggling, J's seemed to be immune. Or so I thought.

I talked to J himself today, and it sounds like things are pretty rough there too. This weekend was packed but it's been slow otherwise, he said. Actually, what he said was "October through December f***ing killed us, man." That part probably won't make it in The Tico Times. When the article comes out, I'll post more here.

Stay tuned tomorrow, as there apparently may be a taxi strike that shuts down roads throughout San Jose. As if commuting wasn't fun enough!

Sloth Sighting!

It was a slightly overcast Saturday on the road from Puerto Viejo to Punta Uva. The road, filled with potholes, meandered south between the beach and the jungle. Unlike Costa Rica's Pacific coast, the Caribbean side is far less developed, meaning instead of high rise hotels and massive marinas, each turn brought a small lodge or perhaps simply a local soda. Most turns brought more jungle.

There were nearly a dozen of us biking, and Avalon and I were at the end of the pack. We turned one corner and saw a group of bikers congregated a couple hundred meters ahead on the right side of the road. "Oh man," I thought, "I wonder whose bike went out?" (Several had already experienced issues with their tires and chains).

As we got closer I realized that there must have been an animal by the road, as several people had their cameras out and were carefully making their way off the shoulder. I assumed it was a monkey, but was pedaled faster to see because we had seen a lot more flora than fauna so far on the trip. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find it wasn't a monkey, but a large sloth sitting in a tree by the road!


Avalon thought it was disgusting (apparently sloths house some sort of fungus on their fur) but I was excited, hoping to see a sloth for some time now. OK, excited may be an understatement. The lighting was pretty dark but I took some photos (since brightened by my completely uneducated hand in iPhoto--any photoshoppers out there want to take a stab at them, let me know) as well as a video, which I'll post at the end of this entry.

The skies opened up and we receieved an unwanted shower when we reached Punta Uva. It was fun for a while swimming in the Carribean in the rain, but soon we got pretty wet and miserable. Luckily, the rain stopped during the ride back, and we went from being cold and soaked to refreshed and damp. And, in the end, it was completely worth it to see the sloth. Now, if only we can see some monkeys...

More on Puerto Viejo to come soon