Reggae meets salsa in Cahuita

The 3 hour boat trip through the canals from Tortuguero to the town of Moin on my way to Cahuita was quite pleasant and included a short break in the shallow waters as we got stuck mid way. Of course being from Egypt, I suggested the second thought that came to mind: get out and push the boat for a few meters “egyptian streets style”, which we also did. For those wondering, the first thought I had was to hit the motor on the side a few times 😉

Josue picked me and two other tourists up and drove us to Cahuita. He’s a very charismatic guy and loves his music. He introduced us to Calypso music on the way, which is a mix of reggae and salsa and was born in Cahuita, where latinos and caribbeanos mix as well. His favorite calypso singer is “Shanty”, because he made old school calypso with real instruments, not like the young kids today with their electronic ones. Josue used to work in the banana fields, so his favorite Shanty song went something like this: “In my country costa rica, everybody loves bananas”. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any trace of it online (UPDATE: I found it!!).

Cahuita itself is a very relaxed town with one 2-3 main intersections, two beaches (Playa Negro & Playa Blanco) and a national park on the sea. After finding a very simple place to spend the night I headed out to the Playa Negro, where the sand was a very dark grey, that turned in to black when the sea water got to it. As opposed to the Playa Blanco, at the entrance of the national park, which had the normal light sand.

As food was still quite expensive, I managed to find a place which was affordable for the locals as well and had the typical rice, beans and meat. Afterwards there was a circus show for the town’s kids in the main square, which I somehow got involved in as a crowd participant to hold one side of the string so the clown could walk across it. They were quite funny and had all the kids laughing, which is always contagious.

I woke up very early the next day to walk through the National Park and as soon as I got out I found three monkeys hanging out on the bananas that were hanging in front of my room; Jackpot! I took the chance to take a few closer photos before starting the hike through the national park. The cool thing about this piece of jungle is that it`s on the sea, so you have the caribbean sea on one side and the jungle full of monkeys, birds, squirrels, deer mice on the other side. Sometimes you also have to take off your shoes and cross a river or two and if it gets too hot, you can always jump in the sea to cool off before moving on. I decided to cool off at the end on the Playa Blanco before moving further south along the coast to the next town.