Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Yesterday morning we left the hotel to catch a 10:00 bus to the Caribbean coast. I didn't realize how small all the taxis were until we tried to load 4 big backpacks, a couple of carryons, and four people into one. Anyway, we wanted to get to the bus station a little early to make sure we could get seats on the 10:00 bus. I guess we weren't the only ones wanting to do that. We ended up having to wait until the 12:00 bus because the earlier one was full. The bus had no air conditioning, but the breeze through the windows was plenty cool as long as we were moving. After a 4 1/2 hour trip, we arrived at Puerto Viejo. The next thing was to find a taxi who will take us to the lodge. We made it!

The lodge is quite beautiful, but we have no air conditioning. We need to keep the glass doors to the patio closed at night to keep out the mosquitos, so we stay cool by blowing fans at ourselves. Today we caught a taxi to a beach known for its snorkeling. We had to wait about an hour for a taxi, because the "road police" were out stopping all illegal cabbies (which is most of them). They don't get paid much, so they have to stop people and hope to get some money from people who don't want to face fines or penalties.

The beach is gorgeous, but the snorkeling was a challenge. The waves and currents were quite powerful today, due to storms over the past few days. We tried snorkeling a little, but found it too difficult due to the conditions. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have better luck.

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