Cahuita & Puerto Viejo, Part 2: Chocolate, storms and some surf

After Cahuita we stayed 3 nights in Puerto Viejo. We found a very nice hostel – Kinkaju just walking by it. It was a few blocks from the main street, so just perfect – quiet but close to everything. It was clean, had a good kitchen, great Wi-Fi (not common in CR ho(s)tels!) and most importantly – amazing staff! Jenny and Arno, who were working in the hostel were extremely friendly, helped with suggesting different activities or places to see, were interested in what we do back in Finland, how the life is there, etc. They even organized a get-together with us in the hostel on one day. Everyone brought some snacks and something to drink and we just hang for a few hours talking. Really nice stay and we highly highly recommend this hostel!

A really great boutique hostel with lovely people 

Our double room on the first floor was clean and fresh. 

We usually made our meals ourselves because the hostel was a bit over our budget ($38/night), but every now and then we ate outside. There was a nice café, specialized in vegetarian and vegan food. Some tasty chick-pea green wrap they had! Even if it was concentrating on vegetarian food, they had also e.g. organic tunaburger! :) The place is called Como en mi Casa, quite close to the beach.

 A really delicious chick-pea wrap!

 Markus' tunaburger

Our smoothies

Then it was finally time for the cacao and chocolate tour! We had booked it for the day before, and also the German couple from Cahuita B&B had planned to come there but it was CANCELLED! Luckily we were allowed to take the tour the next day, because the following had been the next week. We got also chocolate drinks on the house :D Basically it was a good thing that it was cancelled, because when we had our chocolate drinks it started to pour and a storm came that broke trees in half and a half tree almost fell on the Germans’ car. The cafe keeper told us that we have to go out from the café into the rain for our safety so that if trees would fall on the café, we wouldn’t be there. It was interesting to drive back to Cahuita. We couldn’t see out from the car from all the rain and branches and leaves were falling on the road all the time. When we arrived Cahuita, it was totally black. The whole village was without power. We had to go to the market and it was quite fun. Haven’t been in a grocery store shopping with a torch before :D So, if we had had the tour the same day, it had probably been cancelled anyway due to bad weather.

Our way back to Cahuita in the storm

Looking for groceries with a flash light was a new experience :p

Next day we went to Chocorart that makes only organic cacao products which is great. Before our tour we got to taste zapote colombiano fruits that our guide took down from the trees. They were really delicious! In the beginning of the tour, we walked trough an abandoned cacao farm. Our guide showed how plantations turn into jungle if they are not taken care of. The current cacao farm has a lot of different trees and plants which is good for the cacao trees, but e.g. banana plantations have only banana trees. Such plantations destroy pretty much all other vegetation inside plantations. Chocorart's plantation is not very big and it looks a bit like a big jungle garden. 

Zapote colombiano

Our guide opened a cacao fruit and we tasted the fruit. A bit slimy and Edda didn’t like it that much but for Markus it was ok :p

Our guide opening a cacao fruit

Cacao fruits growing

Tasting a piece of a cacao fruit

We got to see how the cacao beans were roasted in a large pan and how the shells were then removed by using a stone and a fan. While we were watching this process happening we were offered a drink made of hibiscus flower and ginger. So good again! The best part was tasting a thick cacao drink. Yammyyyy! Then we got to make chocolate paste from the roasted cacao beans.

A good work-out :p

Breaking the toasted cacao beans with a stone to remove the shells

Separating shells from the beans with the help of wind :D

We were also surfing in Playa Cocles. For Markus it started to maybe go a bit better already. Edda didn’t find the momentum yet. :p Also, the surfboards were not in a very good shape and the rental guys did not really care what type of a board they gave us: “Just take this and go and have fun in the waves, it doesn’t matter which board you have”. The waves weren’t either the best on the days we were there. There were some small waves before noon but after that it became just really choppy and no surfable waves.

The German couple we met during our stay in Cahuita, Ronja and Johannes, came also to Puerto Viejo. It was nice to meet new people and we went out eating with them one night and sat at Nema for a few drinks too. If everything else is more or less more expensive here than in Finland, the drinks at a bar can be much cheaper. We calculated that our 6 “caipirinjas” and 4 beers would have cost apprx. €100 in Finland and here it was around €30.

As our last activity in Puerto Viejo we walked through the Toucan road, where there should be many toucans. We didn’t see many, but we did see two of them. And 2 tiny cats too ;)