After Baldi, I was ready for the next leg of my journey.
I’d be fishing the Caribbean, viewing some monkeys, toucans, crocodiles, and whatever else came my way.
I booked a 4 day stay at the Jungle Tarpon Lodge online. They would have picked me up in San Jose, but I wanted more time to see the country.
At Baldi, I was pretty close to halfway across the country between the Pacific and Caribbean, so I figured about 4 hours to get the rest of the way. Having already experienced the roads, I padded my travel time a little. Good thing!
The last 32 miles on road 806, were a dirt road. And it really isn’t the road less traveled, as I passed banana plantations for miles and miles, which send their product out on semi trucks. It was a well traveled road; it just looked like it was only maintained once a year. It took me over two hours to make the last stretch of this drive.
I got pretty good at dodging potholes myself, or my ride wouldn’t have gotten me back to San Jose for my flight home.
Have I mentioned the dust? No? Dust.
The type of thick choking dust that slows you down to 5 miles an hour when you pass another car going the other way. The type of dust you don’t realize was making it into your car until you take a look at yourself in the rear view mirror and realize you look like you have been on a camel caravan in the Sahara desert. Yeah, that kind of dust….
I passed several villages on the way, and got smiles and waves from the people in all of the, just like I had throughout the country. Really friendly people, the Tico’s. Or maybe they were just laughing at the crazy gringo and pointing at what was happening to my new rental car. Who knows? I prefer to believe that they were the happy friendly folks I had seen throughout the country my entire trip.
At the end of the road was what looked like a fuel farm. Gas tanks, pumps, parking, and a long wooden dock that sat right on one of the many canals, rivers, and streams that all lead to the sea.
I parked and was thankful that Angelo, the lodge manager and guide, lived on Tico time. He knew it would take me a lot longer than I planned, because he grew up in one of the villages I passed on the road. He was waiting for me, with a cup of rich Costa Rican coffee in his hand when I pulled up, so we loaded up my gear in the boat, locked my rental car, and down the river we went.
Next up, Tarpon!!!
I asked the waitress, Maria, what the most typical Costa Rican food on the menu is. The thing most likely to be eaten in any given home. She pointed to the Arroz con Pollo. Chicken with rice. But this isn’t like anything I’ve had back in the US. The rice was cooked perfectly, then panfried with the chicken. Spices, tomatoes, peppers, onions, corn, peas, and a couple of things I couldn’t identify were all stirred up together, with a LOT of chicken. The french fries were freshly hand cut, and fried perfectly, crunchy on the outside, firm on the inside. This was a full meal, I assure you. No touristy dainty “try our food” small plates at this restaurant. Two could share this plate. It was on an oversized plate, and I couldn’t finish it. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m 6 feet 2 inches and 230 pounds. I don’t find a lot of meals I can’t finish, but after eating for 30 minutes, here I did. Everything was wonderful and I took my time. The setting, the smells, the food, the staff, everything combined to make this a memorable experience, and I will tell you one thing for sure. When I come back to Costa Rica, I’ll be staying here again!