Hello!  Just wanted to share some info and photos of our recent trip to Costa Rica. My husband and I recently vacationed in Costa Rica and Panama for ten days. This was our first trip for more than two days without our son.  We visited Costa Rica three years ago, and loved it.

This time out we decided to go to the Southeastern Caribbean coast. Our first stop was Cahuita.  We did lots of research before going.   We chose Cahuita because it’s old Caribbean, by that I mean, no high rise hotels, amusement parks, etc.  Just lots of local charm, great food and really cold beer.

We used  Anywherecostarica for our travel in Costa Rica and Panama.  We rented a car on our last visit, but due to going to another country during our trip, we opted for shuttles.  Anywherecostarica was great.  Picked us up in San Jose for our four hour ride to Cahuita.  We also changed departure times and it was super easy.  Just a quick email, and our times were changed. It was a long day of travel, so it was nice to just relax after being on a plane for six hours.

Cahuita is a laid back and vibrant little village of Costa Rica’s unique Creole culture, brought about by its Afro-Caribbean heritage. It’s a small town, but had many restaurants and things to do.

All of the food we had was wonderful.   We stayed at La Casa de Las Flores; a cute family owned bed and breakfast.  This hotel was highly rated on TripAdvisor, and we were very pleased.  Very clean, great breakfast and very comfortable beds.   We selected our hotel based on having breakfast included.  Once we got to Cahuita, we discovered  many restaurants that we easily could have stayed elsewhere for less, and eaten breakfast out for very cheap. We were maybe ½ block from the main drag.   It was easy walking to everything Cahuita had to offer.  The locals were friendly and there were dogs running around everywhere.  We are big dog lovers, so we liked that.

Cahuita National Park was a short walk from our hotel.  Since we were traveling in low season, it was not crowded.  The park is free to get in, but a donation is appreciated.  We hired a guide to walk us through the jungle.  We saw so many interesting creatures we would have never seen if we didn’t have a guide.  Our guide Richard was from Cahuita,  and was very knowledgeable.  The cost for the guide was $20 per person per hour.  One thing to note, there were no biting insects walking in the jungle.  The beaches were beautiful and mostly free of tourists.  I got some great photos.

Plantains are a staple of Costa Rican food.  We must have eaten them almost daily, which was fine with us.  We visited the  Sloth Sanctuary which was really cool. Only one other person was on the tour with us.  Cost was $30 per person.  After a tour of the sanctuary, we were taken on a canoe ride on a small river.  Very peaceful and lots of wild life.

We ate great local food at pretty much every meal.  The hubby had lots of fresh fish that he thoroughly enjoyed.  The atmosphere in Cahuita is really laid back. No high rise hotels, and not very crowded.   We stayed for three days, and it only rained one afternoon where we couldn’t do anything.  Check out TripAdvisor for all of my reviews on Cahuita.