Puerto Viejo – switching the trip to second gear, including the new AShap look

ooooooooffffffffff

It is on. It is so on. If this was a movie you would hear a rock song in the background.

After the first few days over there, this should have been a nice sum-it-up post about Costa Rica, and a here-I-come wink in the eye towards Guatemala. The beaches were great, so was the national park in Cahuita. Perhaps a feeling of “please AShap – tell me something new” was starting to rise. The old man in the hostel where I stayed at the time lied to me through his plastic teeth, and I had to switch places. After 2 days (while staying in a certain place, I don´t count the arrival or departure day, which is a “dead day”. Just the feeling you get  after a 5-6-7-8 hour bus ride. Unless you take more than one bus, it shouldn´t feel any better), the overall feeling was that one more day and I´m back in San Jose, buying the ticket to Guatemala, spending 4 more days back in Monteverde and in a place called Rincon de la Vieja, and say bye bye Costa Rica.

On the brighter side, this place is great for mingling with many travellers. I met a few isareli people in Cahuita, which I already knew from Tortuguero – a guy and two girls from Rehovot, and a nice american guy called Kevin that helped me throw down a few beers at night. And then, the music came. I was sitting at a great restaurant called “El Loco Natural”, eating a New Orleans baked garlic for an entre, when a Caribbean Costa Rican band went on stage, to play what they call Calypso music, which comes from Jamaica. Basically, the whole caribbean coast is populated by Jamaican natives – Reggae land, Bob Marley country… Anyway, the band was amazing. All of a sudden, another beer finds its´ way to my place, and I bought a calypso music cd of this band, which they sold over there.

The next day, I went to the beach and met some Israeli guys that I hung out with for a few days. One of them made me taste something that I thought was a waste of print on a menu till now – strawberry juice (o natural). I mean, wasn´t that allways something to be mocked at in the Shapiro family. I couldn´t believe it, but a lifestyle was changing…

In addition, some more Israeli people that we met on that same beach, which quite simpley becam an extention of Gordon beach in Tel Aviv – a couple and 2 more girls (“way shyou shamati sheofer shechter becosta” – who the f*%& is ofer shechter? “costa” – a short term for Costa Rica). I rented a surf board these days, which was where I met Pepe – a very nice guy from Barcelona which I surfed with. The party scene was on, and I also ran into 2 black girls from Limon, which were also seen at the dance floors.

Overall, a day at the beach, eating some coconuts which had just fell from a tree, surfing, all-you-can-eat sushi for an early dinner, a short rest and a party with everyone that I met over the last few days – not a bad way to cap off the caribbean side.

One more important note – I finnaly got the much discussed “this whole Gur Shelef situation is getting out of hand” short haircut. I´ll try to give a picture with the “Blue steel” look from Zoolander.

Later dudes