Uvita, Costa Rica - Days 40 & 41
Friday, March 22
Our plan this morning was to visit the beach town of Manuel Antonio, which is about one hour away from Uvita. Only when I woke up at 5:00am this morning like I always do, I had a feeling the family wouldn’t be getting an early start on the day. Andi was up quite a bit in the night with a stomach ache. He was sleeping now, so I decided to let him rest and we’d play the day by ear.
When Andi and the kids woke up, we decided to scrap our plans to visit Manuel Antonio and hang around the airbnb this morning instead. We’d venture to another town called Ojochal closer to Uvita this afternoon. After breakfast, the kids swam in the swimming pool and Andi and I did some work on our computers.
Around 11:00am, we loaded the car with beach gear and drove to Ojochal, about 15 minutes from Uvita. There’s lots to do on the southern pacific coast of Costa Rica between the small beach towns of Domincal, Uvita and Ojochal. You could easily spend a week here exploring the beaches, waterfalls and farmer’s markets in each of the three towns.
In Ojochal, we picked a quiet, unassuming French bakery for lunch called Pancito Bakery. Andi ordered an espresso and charcuterie board for himself, chocolate croissants for the kids, and I had a vegetarian wrap. Tory and I played on the Duolingo app while we waited for our food to come. Since our first week here, she and I have been using this app to learn Spanish. The waiter flashed us a smile as he re-filled drinks at our table. “Naranja” he repeated along with us.
Aden, our animal whisperer, loved playing with the restaurant doggies. He’s gotten so big on this trip! I don’t know if it’s his grown-out hair or the way he’s adapted so well to our ever-changing surroundings. It makes me proud every time we leave a restaurant and he yells, “Gracias!” to the waiter, or he meets someone new and shakes their hand saying, “Hi, I’m Aden.” The other day as we were walking on the beach Andi asked him what he was thinking about and Aden responded,“Just thinking about an iced cold Ginger elk.” (Ginger elk = Ginger ale in Aden speak).
Down the road from the restaurant, we saw a pescaderia (fish store) sign so we stopped in to see what they had to offer. Surprisingly, there hasn’t been an abundance of fresh fish in the places we’ve traveled in Costa Rica. Andi ran inside to check it out, and returned with a bag of shrimp for dinner.
We drove to Playa Venturas to spend the afternoon at the beach. It cost 2,000 colones to park in the small parking lot, and then we carried really nice chairs and boogie boards that our airbnb had available for us to use down to the beach. The minute we set up in the sand, we realized the tide was coming in and we’d have to move spots again in a few minutes — once again being reminded that life hear revolves around the tides.
Andi noticed some caves on the right side of the beach, so he and the kids walked over there to check it out. The caves looked like little windows which is why the beach is called Playa Ventanas. (Ventanas means windows in Spanish).
Andi returned with a cold coconut to drink and two cans of Fresca he bought from one of the vendors set up on the beach. We lounged on the beach under the umbrella and watched people boogie boarding in the water. Pretty awesome way to spend the afternoon!
Tory, Aden, and I watched Andi boogie board in the water for a bit and then he came back and invited one of the kids to join him. I think Aden was still nervous to try anything like that after his surfing experience in Samara, but with a little coaxing he followed Andi to the water to try it. This beach had nice, calm waves so it was a great spot for Aden to build his confidence again. He did great!
Tory couldn’t stand by and let Aden have all the fun. Soon enough, she followed Andi to the water and tried boogie boarding herself. She did great, too! Aden and Tory are the perfect competition for each other. There’s been so many instances on this trip where Tory is adventurous in trying something new and Aden is less confident, but after watching his sister succeed and have fun doing it, he will give it a try, too. And vise versa. Many times, Aden demonstrates his bravery which gives Tory the confidence to try something outside her comfort zone.
Around 3:00pm, the kids asked if we could go back to the house to swim in the pool. We packed up our beach toys and drove back to Uvita. As soon as we arrived at the airbnb, Andi realized we’d left the boogie boards at the beach so he drove back to get them while I stayed at the house with the kids so they could swim. There isn’t a lot of alone time in our family travels, so he told me later that he rolled down the windows and turned up the music on his drive back to the beach. Whatever works! It’s important to steal those moments of peace when you can get them.
After swimming, Tory and I started a new math unit about graphing and Aden joined us for school, too. He’s showing more and more interest in doing schoolwork with Tory and I which I think is great.
Andi grilled shrimp and zucchini for dinner, and the kids swam in the pool at night which they’ve been begging to do since we arrived at this house. Tory and Aden thought the lights that glowed underneath the water were pretty cool. When they finished swimming, Andi quietly suggested to me that we go into town for gelato since it’s our last night here. I agreed, so we hopped in the car and drove to the ice cream shop by the information center down the road. Andi ordered pistachio gelato this time, Tory and Aden had chocolate, and I had banana.
Saturday, March 23
To the Osa, we go! We packed up and left Uvita this morning. Nothing about this airbnb felt very Costa Rican, but it sure was easy living and we all a bit sad to leave it. The kids had their own bedrooms here, all the rooms had air conditioning, there was a nice private pool area, and we had tons of accessories to use — anything from a washer & dryer, a new outdoor grill, kitchen cookware galore, pool towels, and lots of beach toys. Don’t forget about the screaming fast internet! The one thing missing from the house in Uvita was any kind of wildlife or local culture. Our airbnb could have just as easily been situated in Florida. It was too easy to shut the door and get sucked into our own world inside the house’s four walls. Now, we’re heading to The Osa which is the complete opposite — quite literally the end of the road on Costa Rica’s southern pacific coast.
We’re staying in Cabo Matapalo for the next four days on the outermost point of the Osa Peninsula. Matapalo is known for its remoteness, “it’s the way Costa Rica was 20 years ago,” many people have told us. It took us about 4 hours to drive to Cabo Matapolo from Uvita. The road was in much better shape than we expected.
We stopped in Puerto Jimenez, the largest town on the Osa, to have lunch and buy groceries. There are no stores in Cabo Matapalo so we needed enough food for our entire stay there. Our lunch spot was called Los Defines which was a cool, beachside restaurant overlooking Gulfo Dulce. The kids ordered chicken and fish fingers with French fries, Andi had fish ceviche, and I had chicken fajitas.
Our new airbnb is called Casa Bambu, located on Pan Dulce beach. Everything south of Puerto Jimenez is off-grid, meaning there’s no electricity, so the entire house (the whole area, actually!) operates on solar. This airbnb might be as close as we’ve ever come to staying in a treehouse. The entire structure is made of bamboo and is all open-air living. No air-conditioning here and no screens on the windows. The property caretaker advised us not to leave any food on the counters as the capuchin monkeys will come into the house and steal it!
For as “wild” as this place is, it still has the conveniences you’d need in a house like showers with hot water, a stove/oven and a solar-powered refrigerator.
It was SO HOT in the house! By the time we carried in all our bags, Andi and I were dripping in sweat. We collapsed on the furniture in the living room and just hung out. The extreme heat has a way of just sucking the energy right out of you. As we lounged around, we watched a flock of 10 scarlet macaws flying around the trees. They looked so beautiful with their rainbow red, yellow, and blue backs. A random guy stopped by peddling food out of the back of his motorcycle. Andi stood outside the house talking to the guy for a while, and returned with a little pan of passion fruit cheesecake. Apparently the guy left Chicago 20 years ago to evade the tax man, and now lives in the Osa selling chicken wings and cheesecakes.
Around 4:00pm, we mustered up the energy to walk down to Playa Pan Dulce to cool off. It wasn’t long before we met a few new friends. Andi struck up a conversation with a guy from Montana doing some shore fishing. We also met another couple from Colorado who’ve been coming to Cabo Matapalo for the past 15 years. Our kids became fast friends jumping waves in the ocean and eventually making their way up the path to the pool at our Colorado friend’s airbnb. Clay and Jill from Colorado shared with Andi and I some of their favorite things to do in the area.
After sunset, we walked back to Casa Bambu to shower and have dinner. It was a challenge cooking in the dark! There’s electricity by way of solar power here, but turning on lights in the house attracted all sorts of bugs. Andi grilled chicken which we ate with broccoli and zucchini & then we shared the mini cheesecake for dessert.
The jungle was coming to life around us as we heard birds and critters calling in the trees. Aden and Tory said they were ready for bed, so the boys said good night and headed downstairs. The room layout in this airbnb is a little different in that there are three bedrooms, but two of them are on the ground level. Andi and I didn’t feel comfortable with the kids sleeping down there alone, so he and Aden are sleeping downstairs in this house while Tory and I share a bedroom upstairs. It was still 82 degrees at 7:00pm without much of a breeze. It was so hot going to sleep! Fortunately, we had bug nets around our beds to keep out any unwanted critters in the night.
Tomorrow is our first full day in the Osa. I’m excited to explore!
