Costa Rica day 9: sand in our shoes

I slept hard, with my usual facial covering to stop the sound of Sam’s snoring. I work in the night and pee’d outside the tent, and then spend an hour worrying I had pee’d into Sam’s boots. Alas, I had not.

I was slightly late for breakfast as I was having a jungle shave! We then ate rice, egg and beans and then boarded the bus, there was one last trek left. This was nearing the end point…

We travelled towards Cahutia, only stopping for plantain chips and aloe vera juice (most had dorito’s). We put on- shock horror- almost dry boots, and loaded up our shells and entered Cahuita National Park!

We were on extreme wildlife watch today, with an added pressure on Randall as we had not seen a snake. We did see 205 lizards though, and lots of blue, floating butterflies, which are impossible to photograph, so you’ll have to google those.

As we got nearer to the beach we were alerted to the presence of howler monkeys, no more so than when we looked right and one was within a foot of us, at body level. The monkey soon jumped on Carol, and we all clamoured to take photos as she screamed. I didn’t report yesterday’s difficulties she had with a chihuahua at the campsite, but this now seems the time to reveal that too.

She screamed almost as much as I would have done in the same situation.

We reached the beach, this was the Atlantic Ocean. We had travelled, mainly trekking, coast to coast. We were (sort of!) done! FINISHED! COMPLETED! Not even tired! We all embraced and took photos. Idyllic, but sandy.

We walked a bit more, saw some more lizards, then I begged Randall that we stop for lunch. He agreed. We sat on the beach, sand in our bits, we didn’t care, we’d been in the jungle, b’tch!

I ate half my sandwich. The monkey returned and finished it. He also stole Randall’s wallet, ironic as he’s the one who told us to pack our items away. Somehow he got it back, I didn’t see how.

Chris searched for a nice pair of coconuts on the beach. AJ also enjoyed strutting up and down the beach, the glamour queen! We all sunbathed, dipped, paddled, and were actually allowed to rest…! We watched the oddest photoshoot ever, and lay in fear of monkey attack.

We carried on, our final hotel was in sight, but seemed to take forever, just like a desert mirage. My inner legs chafed, my blister swelled a little, I whined a lot. Then, we turned a corner and it was Cahuita, a Caribbean dream, with bongo music (or similar).

Again, we strolled through the town like homecoming queens, but nobody reacted. I guess this happens all the time. The hotel was 14 miles outside the town. I was given a single room, result!

We chilled for a tiny bit, then soothed AJ’s laundry issues by visiting the launderette. She had even separated her whites. I didn’t think anyone could emerge from the jungle with whites??

Ken and I sought out macchiato and had a blissful sit in a cafe on the street.

We all got dolled up that night for our celebration meal- I even had a linen shirt that made me look a touch like Jesus. Girls straightened their hair, boys used hair gel. I prepared a mini awards ceremony, which I’ll post separately! Chris gave his final speech, and we gave him a coffee mug.

Our meal was the right side of burnt. We then moved to a dancing bar, where I drank 10mm of mojito and felt hammered. At one point, the cocktail bar ran out of bananas.

AJ/Lulu and a random woman had a dance off. I layered Mojito with a milky cocktail and felt sick. Ken, Chris and I ate street kebabs. We lost Terry briefly to the burger bar next door.