Fiona in Costa Rica: Days 14, 15, 16: Weekend in the Carribean

I totally did not expect to see a true Carribean town when I arrived at Puerto Viejo, but I was pleasantly surprised! It kind of reminded me of Key West, Florida, because it's a relaxed town where nothing is too rushed, there's a lot of weed and a lot of people who are not actually from Costa Rica. Most people rode bikes to get around, and the town is situated right next to the beach. There were a lot of Jamaicans, Australians and even some Americans there.

We went into the national park and were able to see two types of monkeys, a poisonous snake, leaf cutter ants, termite nests, a crocodile, geckos, iguanas and a lot of birds.
At the end of the hike inside the park was an incredible beach and a really cool hot spring that was originally an experimental oil well, first dug up in the 1990's.
For the rest of the time, we went around town ourselves. We found a really amazing cafe owned by the granddaughter of an Italian immigrant, we found an interesting bar/hostel by the beach called the Lazi Mon and ate at two amazing restaurants: one traditional seafood restaurant and one Italian restaurant.
Mostly, we drank pina coladas and practiced our tropical dancing that we learned in the class at the Univeristy. (: Oh, and swam in the beach!

People have no need to lock bikes in Puerto Viejo.

The little friend we made who hung out under our table at breakfast (:

A termite nest (I stayed really, really far away from this).

A little gecko!

Leaf cutter ants bring pieces of leaves in these ridiculously long to their nests as food for when it rains outside.

This is an eyelash pit viper. Even though it is tiny, it consumes small rodents, frogs, lizards and small birds! Usually, this snake lays and waits for an unsuspected victim to come by, which is why the guide insisted that we gringos didn't get to close so that we didn't get bitten (:

Hot Spring in the National Park, the result of a failed experimental oil well from the 1990's.

White-faced monkey, or white-headed capuchin monkey. They are very vocal and very social. These monkeys will get extremely close to your things and try to snatch them from you, particularly food!

This is a Mantled Howler Monkey (the baby fell out of the tree so we got to see him really up close). They have enlarged hyoid bones which make their sounds incredibly amplified, rightfully earning their name of Howlers.