Puerto Viejo again

We’re just back from a lovely weekend in the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo. The locals are quite disappointed in the summer. While it’s beautiful, and we’re in the high twenties during the day, it does get cool at night.

We have a President - Provisionally
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The electoral commission have released the figures from the count showing that the former Nobel peace prize winner, Oscar Arias, won the Presidential election with 40.9% of the votes, compared to 39.8% for Ottón Solís. He’s just over the 40% required to avoid a run-off election. I think in Ireland, he’d have lost, because the nearly 20% that went to other candidates would mostly transfer to Solís. There are a number of irregularities being investigated before the results are declared publicly.

Puerto Viejo
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We went to Puerto Viejo for the weekend, my last trip before my next Saturday rotation. It’s a really nice laid-back town on the Caribbean. More Jamaican than Tico. On Saturday, we walked to the beach to the south, Cocles, where there were very beautiful and dramatic waves. One guy either swam out, or was swept out, too far. The lifeguard had to swim out to rescue him, it was just like Baywatch.

Salsa Brava
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Puerto Viejo became popular (as I think I wrote when I was last there in July) because of the ‘Salsa Brava’ or ‘rough sauce’ wave very popular with surfers. This wave was much more obvious on this trip, so much so that the horizon was very clearly jagged in the shape of the waves forming.

Colombian party
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On Thursday, Nicolás, one of the receptionists in school, had a party. He’s from Colombia, so there were a lot of Colombians there, along with teachers, Ticos and American students from the school. It was Jack’s first house party in Costa Rica. Nicolás lives with his family right beside the school, and the party was around a bonfire in his garden.

Squirreling for nuts
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I forgot to mention that when we were in Montezuma the other week, we were having breakfast one morning, when I heard a pouring, splashing sound behind me. I looked around and there was a stream of water from overhead. I looked up expecting to see a burst pipe, but all I saw was a coconut tree. As I looked closer I realised that there was a squirrel in the tree gnawing his way through the coconuts, creating a mini waterfall for each.

Crocodile!
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On our way back in the bus from Puerto Viejo, we crossed a bridge, and as we looked out of the window saw a huge crocodile basking in the sun on a mud flat in the river. I still get a thrill from just happening to see wild animals in their natural habitat.
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So, I’m back to Saturday classes this coming weekend. This normally would mean no more travelling for the next five weeks, but my sister Sharon and her husband Niall arrive just before Paddy’s day, so I’m hoping to have a few days off to travel a little with them. So for this week...

Pura Vida,

Éamon

Today’s headline in La Nación: Health service employees don’t know how to evacuate patients