Cahuita is about 5 blocks of dusty roads, carribean restaurants, reggae bars, cabinas, stray dogs and the odd chicken; the shabby tropical state of decay and extremely laid-back vibe reminded me a lot of my childhood in West Africa. It was a great place to just switch off and have the luxury of trying to invent ways to kill time.
We first stayed at 'Cabinas Smith', in a nice clean room off a little courtyard, complete with a Rooster morning wake-up call. Across the yard was rickety old porch permanently occupied by a rickety old man and a middle-aged lady who slowly drawled the day away in the local creole english. Here's the porch, sans old man:
The town has 2 beaches: black and white. We visited black beach first, the waves were perfect for lazily splashing about.
We saw leaf cutter ants along the way:
The next day we hiked through Cahuita National Park, which contains the white beach and the first 2 animals we saw were a squirrel and a racoon, both common in Wisconsin so exciting but not mind blowing. Then came the monkeys.
The monkeys:
Our faces after seeing the monkeys:
We also saw Howler monkeys which have much uglier faces and make some pretty loud, scary grunting noises.
We decided to move to Spencer's Seaside Cabins that day to get a bit more of said Seaside and scored a private balcony in the process. Here's the view!
Not a moment too soon as Justin came down sick while relaxing in one of the many hammocks at Spencer's and went into old-style invalid mode, taking lots of clammy naps on the ocean-front balcony and under the mosquito net. Was it all the cheese we ate for lunch or Roberto's "special rice" full of unidentifiable seafood the night before? Perhaps we'll never know but the next morning I once again got to mangle some Spanish, this time at the Pharmacy. Luckily the lady put me on the phone with an English-speaking doctor and I triumphantly returned to Justin with meds plus some delicious pediatric electrolyte drinks. Look at the Teddy!
