Manzanillo Refuge I finally explore north of Puerto Viejo! Why did I take so long? - (38) more edit 2008-05-06 - rec# 156

I've visited Puerto Viejo several times in the past couple of years. It's not the end of the road, but you can see it from there, but I've never gone down that road. In case it works out that I don't stay in Costa Rica there are a few places I want to visit. Manzanillo Refuge is one of those places. Manzanillo Refuge is in fact also, the end of the road. Before beginning my trip to Manzanillo I tried to find a place to stay there, and to set up a tour. The ONLY place I could find on the Internet was full and I was never able to get any information about tours. I wound up making a reservation to stay at my favorite hotel in Puerto Viejo, Los Suenos, and hoped to set up a tour when I got there. The bus ride from San Jose to Puerto Viejo is rather interesting. You leave the big city, go up into the mountains, through the park when Jurassic Park was filmed, down the Caribbean side, through the banana and pineapple plantations, past where Columbus landed and down palm lined beaches. In this one road you see a great variety of Costa Rica. I suspect there is no other road in the country where you see such diversity of ecosystems. When I first arrived in town I went to the tour agent I usually use. They had a tour (for $65) to Manzanillo and BriBri (a second location I had planned to visit), but not until Friday. I then checked in to my room. The woman that runs Los Suenos is from Switzerland. She's so sweet. I really like talking to her, she really cares about her city. She asked if I had gotten a guide for Manzanilla and I said no. She suggested someone she know. This black guy who usually hangs out at the pool hall in the evenings. No phone, no address...but he can be found in the pool hall. Welcome to the Caribbean! Well, the guide thing didn't work out. He didn't play pool that night. BUT...I found a bus that would take me there for a buck. So, off I went. Manzanilla is in some ways like Puerto Viejo, only clean, more birds and lizards, less garbage, really interesting buildings, no garbage in the streets, incredible beaches...and clean. I wandered around town kinda looking for the refuge and kinda exploring the town. A town with...get this...a town with STREET SIGNS! Unheard of in Costa Rica. STREET SIGNS! (and SUCH street signs.) I wandered down the beach until I came to the river then went back to town. There I asked where the entrance to the reserve was and was pointed back down the beach. This time I crossed the river and found the entrance...right there, on the other side of the river. There is a single train going between the beaches and the jungle. The beaches are the most beautiful I've seen in Costa Rica...anywhere! The jungle some of the wildest. Full of birds, lizards and a lot of rather large spiders that you need to keep on the watch for. When I got back to town (Manzanilla) it was time for lunch. I've heard a lot about Maxi's. It's supposed to have the best food in the Caribbean. But, of course, it was closed. The the soda across the street was really good too. So what to do the next day...? The water was SO inviting. Also I thought renting a bike and going to BriBri would be a good way to spend the day. Turned out SCUBA won. I was suggested to me that taking a week and coming back and living with the Indians was a better way to see BriBri, and I might just do that. As it turned out I had the best day of SCUBA in Puerto Viejo that I've ever had. The dive master was a guy from London, England, who had worked in Thailand teaching English and then in Nicaragua. Now he was in Costa Rica working in the dive shop. Some people really know how to live. The dive shop was having troubles with their boat, so they hired a local fisherman to take us out in his boat. This was a big old black man who was as gentle and wise as anyone I've ever meet. He had lived in Puerto Viejo for all his life. He had a little land (1,000 HA) just out of town. During our lunch break he was telling us about how life had been when he was a kid. About the fish in the ocean, about the jungle, about the reef. He had seen the changes brought about by the banana plantations. By the erosion created by the clear cutting of the jungle for the banana plants. By the chemicals that had washed into the sea. And now by all the new construction, homes, businesses and such, in the area. Many of the poor locals grow cocoa as a crop to sell. He says that people come to them saying that there is a disease in the trees and that they need to be sprayed and that the spraying will be free. Assuming that they are from the government they allow the spraying. THEN the trees get sick and THEN the man comes to buy the land for cheap. He said that someone had come to him and offered him $104,000 for his land, but that he wanted land, not money, so he would not sell...never. What a lovely man. Someone who had obviously lived outdoors all his life. A man to lived simply, childlike, in the moment. A man who had wealth beyond measure. Talking with him and swimming with him in the Caribbean was the best part of the whole trip. A simple frisherman.