Day 86 – Tuesday 22nd, June -> Day 90 – Friday 25th, June
The road to the capital of San Jose was spectacular and led through the most beautiful landscapes. Green hills and partly mountainous landscape, which was often interrupted by torrential rivers running through lush rainforests. From time to time you could see in the distance the Pacific. The clear morning air enable to see wonderful views of many parts of Costa Rica.
In San Jose we walked quite a while to reach the right bus terminal for departure to the Caribbean (There are many bus terminals spread throughout the city, one of them with the name Coca Cola!). The city was not exactly a great impression. It was quite dirty and in 20minutes we saw three drunk guys, of which one just receiving help because he had collapsed in the heat. A friendly Costa Rican woman described to us the right way to Terminal Caribe as she was heading to the same direction and we saved a bit money on a taxi.
From there it took us about 4 hours to Puerto Viejo. Also this way led through one of the many national parks and we were confident that we will visit this country again.
Once in Puerto Viejo, we found after a while a super cheap hostel (double room for $ 10!) and enjoyed the beach and that Caribbean feeling again. The next morning we watched the football games then England against Slovenia and of course Germany and Ghana. The latter we looked with a dozen Germans in one of the many bars.
Ghana versus Germany
One of the many crabs around town
Evening in Puerto Viejo
The rest of the day we spent at the beach. In the evening we met Jan and Maja in the kitchen, a couple from Poland (we ended meeting them several times during our journey). They are also traveling around the world but only about half a year and are therefore slightly faster than we are. The next day we rented bikes and rode along the coast to 12 km away Manzanillo. The trip was quite tiring in the heat, but we were rewarded with a wonderful beach and about two dozen monkeys in the trees, just on the side of the road.
On the way
Me on the bike
Two monkeys in the trees
Itching and cratching…
The Ants highway
More ants tearing down the tree
On the way back, troubles began … Lorenz´ bike, which already had some funny noises, went immediately destroyed after the first few meters and was left lying on the ground, impossible to repair. After much back and forth, we experienced the extraordinary help of the locals who called everywhere they could in order to sent us a taxi to take us and take us home with our bikes. Despite discussions with the hostel (from where we renting the bikes from) we had to pay a € 12 taxi fare.
Actually we wanted to finally go surfing in Puerto Viejo, but the waves were not high enough. So we enjoyed beach days, monkeys and the World Cup game. Then we headed in the direction of Bocas del Toro, just on the other side of the border in Panama.
Puerto Viejo was one of those typical relaxed backpacker places. In terms of prices, there were many favorable options for accommodations (10, – € for a double room in Sunrise Backpackers) and one can simply enjoy the sea. Here on the Caribbean coast there were again the Garifuna, who were here much more relaxed than for example in Caye Caulker.
Typical crowd in one the bar…
Off for a while 
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