Three chilled days in Puerto Viejo

It wasn’t a coincidence that I started my trip in Central America by spending a few days in Puerto Viejo. I figured this would be the perfect place for settling back into the backpacker lifestyle, and I couldn’t have been more right. This laidback and colourful town on the Caribbean coast was everything I needed it to be and more.

Getting to Puerto Viejo

Getting to Puerto Viejo from San Jose is easy. There are several direct buses departing from Terminal Atlantico Norte in San Jose every day. I got the 8 am bus and arrived in Puerto Viejo four hours later. The town is small so if you’re staying in the centre you can easily walk to your hotel or hostel. The bus is spacious and comfortable, and the ride cost me 6065 colones.

What to do in Puerto Viejo

Hire a bike and go to the beach

I came to Puerto Viejo to relax and spend some time in the sun so that’s what I did. The town beach in Puerto Viejo is called Playa Negro, which means «black beach» and is due to its black sand. To be fair it is not the prettiest beach I’ve been to. Also it is mostly occupied by locals, especially on the weekends.

For that reason most people choose to hire a bike and go cycling to the beaches further south. I cycled all the way down to Manzanillo, which is 13 km away. It’s a lovely and easy ride along the coast. On the way I stopped at Playa Cocles, Playa Chiquita and Playa Uva, and they were all a lot more beautiful than the city beach.

Visit Cahuita National Park

The small town called Cahuita is only a 30 minute bus ride away from Puerto Viejo. Some people choose Cahuita as their base in the Caribbean region, as it is a bit calmer than Puerto Viejo. I took the bus to Cahuita one morning to visit the National Park.

Cahuita National Park is one of few parks in Costa Rica that is free to visit. It is purely donation based, so I do recommend that you leave a few colones at the entrance anyway. The National Park only has one trail, so it is easy finding your way. The wildlife is the main attraction of the park, and if you’re lucky you can spot a vide range of species. To be honest I saw mostly lizards, but I do know that sloths and monkeys, amongst others, frequents the park.

One option when you go hiking in the park, is to follow the trail all the way to the end and then walk the same way back to the entrance again. Then you can catch the bus back from Cahuita. If you don’t feel like walking all the way back, you can flag down the bus from the main road at the end of the trail. This is what I did.

Useful info: The bus to Cahuita leaves from the main bus stop in Puerto Viejo every hour on the half hour. It’s not a given which bus that will stop in Cahuita so ask the bus driver to be sure. The park is a short walk away from the Cahuita bus station.

Enjoy!

Sadly I was extremely jet lagged during my time in Puerto Viejo. Therefore I mostly fell asleep early and didn’t socialize much. On my last night, however, I finally managed to go out with some newfound friends. We went to a bar down by the ocean and spent the night dancing in the water with a beer in hand. Such happy and careless moments!

Long after midnight we walked back to the hostel in the rain. The others stopped for fried chicken while I ate their leftover plantains. We ended the night by spotting a sloth slowly making its way across our hostel fence. It was a perfect end to my time in Puerto Viejo.

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♥ Erica