The Cahuita National Park, Muay Thai training on the beach, and saying goodbye to Puerto Viejo.

Hello friends and family 🙂

I wish you all a healthy and happy new year. In Spanish: Feliz año nuevo.

My year started with a cold. Again. But I don't want to complain... pura vida 😅

This time I want to tell you about my visit to Cahuita National Park. Or rather, my visits. Because I went there not only for Christmas with Jana, but also multiple times afterwards. But let's start from the beginning. After moving from the hostel to another accommodation with a single room, I continued my journey to Cahuita on the 28th of December, about 30 minutes by bus from Puerto Viejo. The main reason for moving to Cahuita was that Josefina told me during my stay with her that I should book accommodation for the days around New Year as soon as possible, as everything would be fully booked. Christmas, New Year, and Easter are crowded everywhere and there are hardly any available rooms. In addition, the prices are multiplied. So I spontaneously booked accommodation in Cahuita, as I wanted to go there anyway and thought it would be quieter there on New Year's Eve than in Puerto Viejo. In hindsight, that was completely pointless. Because I didn't like Cahuita at all, the accommodation there was terrible, I continued my Muay Thai training in Puerto Viejo, Jana and Josefina were also there, and in the end, I spent New Year's Eve in Puerto Viejo 🤦‍♀️😅 But more on that later.

First, I want to take you to Cahuita National Park.

The park is located on the edge of the town and is as small as the town itself. Nevertheless, you can easily spend a day there and see many animals. Jana and I decided to visit the park on the 24th of December. As it turned out, choosing that day was a very good decision, because after that, especially over New Year, the park and its beaches became overcrowded. We took the bus from Puerto Viejo to Cahuita early in the morning to be there as early as possible. You can hire a guide at the entrance, but we decided not to, partly for cost reasons, and partly because I have a very good eye for finding animals. The national park itself is free, but a donation is requested at the entrance. At first, it was quite crowded, but after a while, the crowd dispersed and by the time it became rough, we were almost alone. At one point, we met a Swiss couple again, whom we had seen before at the Jaguar Rescue Center. They were very nice, so we continued our journey together. The two of them had the brilliant idea of finding and opening a coconut. They had bought a knife specifically for this purpose. After unsuccessfully trying to shoot a coconut from the tree (using old coconuts or beach junk as tools), I found a non-rotten one on the ground. After half an hour of wild hacking on the coconut with the completely unsuitable kitchen knife, we finally had a small hole in the actual nut and access to the coconut water. Coincidentally, a few days earlier, I had taken one of those completely unnecessary straws from a restaurant. A totally crazy coincidence because without any tube, we wouldn't have been able to drink the coconut water. So we sat on the beach, drank fresh coconut water, and enjoyed the atmosphere.

And of course, we were able to observe several other animals:

And even more animals. I took some of the pictures on my second or third visit to the national park.

And even more monkeys...

I took some of the pictures of the Mantled Howler monkeys in the hostel since it was very close to the park entrance. However, the hostel owners regularly hung a banana bunch, apparently to attract animals intentionally. I didn't like that at all because the animals find enough food in the national park and shouldn't get too used to humans. Such actions may cause the animals to lose their natural fear of humans and exhibit altered behavior, such as not searching for food themselves, but rather sitting at a table set for them. The actual purpose of going to a national park, which is to observe animals in their natural habitat and behavior, is completely alienated and potentially destroyed in the long run.

There were apparently also Capuchin monkeys in the dining area of the hostel (because that's where the bananas hung 🙄) and I myself saw raccoons and agoutis on the hostel grounds eating the bananas. Bananas are actually a poor food source for animals. In addition, a girl from the hostel told me that she had been bitten by a raccoon shortly before and an ambulance had to be called. The wound didn't look good and was still bleeding. This could probably have been avoided if the animals had more fear of humans.

I didn't particularly like the owner, a Frenchwoman, anyway. Somehow, it started when I wrote to her that I would arrive one day later, and she replied that I should contact her by evening, otherwise, the room would be completely canceled. But I only read that at night because I was on the way. Then I panicked, but couldn't reach her the next morning. Luckily, she eventually wrote to me that my bed was reserved. That would have been a disaster because there wasn't a single affordable bed available in Cahuita over New Year. Well, the room was terrible. Small, packed to the maximum with bunk beds made of metal, and there was only one shower and one toilet for 10 people. At least there were lockable lockers that my stuff just fit into. But I had nice company. Among others, an elderly man from Cottbus who had to leave because his Mexican visa had expired but probably can't get a residence permit and will likely spend his retirement illegally in Mexico. And a friendly Italian guy who lives in London and with whom I had a nice conversation and went out for dinner in the evening. There is not much else to say about Cahuita. The town is tiny, the selection of restaurants and activities is limited, and the beaches were overcrowded. However, the latter was due to the holidays. That's why, and because of my Muay Thai training, I was drawn back to Puerto Viejo again and again. And of course, because of Jana and Josefina.

And then it was already New Year's Eve. I feel like I've been here for ages, but it's only been 3 weeks. The original plan was to spend New Year's Eve in the quieter Cahuita. But plans are known to be thrown overboard. At least for me. On the one hand, I wanted to spend New Year's Eve with Jana, and on the other hand, I really wanted to go to training one last time before I continued my journey. But since the last bus to Cahuita already leaves at 7:20 pm and Josefina advised me against taking a taxi, she offered me to stay at her place. Coincidentally, one of her 2 rooms was available exactly that one night. So on New Year's Eve evening, I took the bus from Cahuita to Puerto Viejo again. There, Jana, Josefina, a friend of Josefina, and I had a nice dinner. Somehow, everyone seemed to know each other in the restaurant, it was very warm and familiar, and there was live music. After that, we went to some other friends of Josefina. We also met the Zumba instructor there, but he was already pretty drunk and didn't seem to notice much anymore. However, I felt a bit out of place there because we didn't really know anyone and we were actually just 'guests' at Josefina's place. Moreover, everyone was dressed up nicely, and especially Josefina looked amazing in her new dress. Apparently, it is a tradition here to dress nicely for New Year's Eve and also for women to wear yellow underwear. Jana and I were wearing our everyday clothes. But we wanted to go to bed early anyway because Jana had to fly back to Germany the next day, and I had caught a cold and wasn't feeling well at all. Plus, I had a date with my Muay Thai trainer on the beach at 10 am the next day. Unfortunately, not a real date, but an appointment for training. So we watched the fireworks and shortly afterwards went home.

After a short but comfortable night in the room at Josefina's place, she served me coffee and a delicious breakfast. She is really so nice and took care of me and Jana so well. A bit like a mom, even though she is only 13 years older than me (50, for those who don't want to do the math). At 10 am, Francisco and I went to the beach for training. He had arranged a bicycle for me so that we could go to a beautiful beach area where it is quiet and good for training. Although I was quite exhausted due to the cold, I didn't want to miss out on training on the beach.

Unfortunately, you can't upload videos here because we filmed the last 2 rounds of 3 minutes each. They will be included in my status in parts. In any case, it was an incredibly amazing experience, and Francisco praised me at the end, saying that I was a very good student, very disciplined, and a quick learner. Well, he was quite cute ☺️ If I'm ever in Puerto Viejo again, I can contact him anytime.

I will miss Puerto Viejo. Especially the relaxed atmosphere of the town and the people I got to know there. After a few days in Cahuita, I already moved on. On the 2nd of January, I took the bus and then a 3-hour boat ride along a river to Tortuguero, at the very northern coast of the Caribbean in Costa Rica. But more on that next time.

I have no idea who will read this whole thing with the amount of text 😅 But thank you very much to those who do.