It’s been a while since I had the chance to just sit and reflect on the last few months.
We are now in Guyana, at a beautiful hotel awaiting our swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers next Wednesday. But before I even start talking about Guyana and this wonderful experience, I feel I need to talk about a very important chapter in our lives: Uvita.
While waiting on Peace Corps, we decided to stay in Costa Rica instead of heading back to the States. Our 3 month stay in Uvita was pretty fun and another wonderful adventure.
I took a job as designer / web developer / photographer / etc in exchange for housing and food from Patry and Fely, owners of the beautiful hotel Luz de Luna and La Fogata Restaurant.
Our home was a pretty rustic cabin in the middle of the jungle. Every morning around 4:30 am, we were woken up by Howler monkeys, and a concert of a multitude of birds, from parakeets to hawks.
According to our bird guide Daniel Martinez, who came one weekend with my aunts to bird watch, just around our cabin they observed 40 + species of birds! No wonder he wanted more information about getting a cabin in Uvita after visiting us!
Our lives changed a bit from the constant traveling to a more established routine. Every morning, we did yoga and right after breakfast, we would choose if it was going to be an art morning or a beach morning. We usually visited playa Hermosa, just a couple of kilometers down the road. The National Park Marino Ballena was within walking distance, but became super expensive for Mike to go there every day (foreigners pay way more to enter the park than nationals) … so we headed to the doggie’s beach instead.
One day, a beautiful Rottweiler showed up outside our door, and we made friends with her by way of leftover chicken (I just opened the door a crack, and threw the chicken on our porch for her), after assessing the situation, we determined she was not dangerous. Soon after that, she brought and introduced her cute baby to us. Pipa (Green Coconut) and Coquita (Little Coconut) would stay with us if we were home. The saying: “como Pedro por su casa” totally applies here. They would come and go at their leisure, which made it a bit scary for us when kitty started to show up. This gorgeous tabby won Mike over in a day. We started by giving her some milk right outside our cabin, and by the time we left, she was sleeping in our bed. We are still missing her.
After a nice morning, we would get ready to go to work at our restaurant, La Fogata. We would have lunch and then, prepare to work during the afternoon.
I learned a lot in those 3 months, from using Indesign, learning to do vector images in Illustrator, working on a contactless menu, printing large signs… to how to work with clients!
Our days in the rapidly growing town of Uvita, went surprisingly fast!
Mike drew all of the staff and some of the clients while I worked. Soon, everyone wanted their portrait. Some girls just wanted to take a picture of his work, others took the drawings. Everyone was happy. We were invited to several town events. We went to an Arts & Wine Festival (they didn’t call it that though), a dinner party and even a baby shower where Mike was hunting for pins in a bowl of rice. Thank you Patry for including us in all the events.
We worked on a never ending list of requirements for Peace Corps that took us to Panamá for a weekend. That was an interesting experience for us. I thought we could go to David, be able to take care of our errands and come back the same day, but Panama immigration won’t allow that anymore. We had to stay for at least 24 hours. So we had to get a hotel in David, and decided to stay for the weekend. We really want to come back and explore more when we go back to Costa Rica.
My dad came to visit for a week, got his own little cabin. We took him to “El Bambuzal” the local waterhole that looked like a scene from a fantasy movie… the water was cool and refreshing, and there were fish swimming around us.
We also went to a beautiful waterfall called Nauyaca. The Nauyaca tourist company will take you on the back of a jeep all the way up the mountain and back… highly recommend it! The waterfall is incredibly strong and you can swim there, so make sure to bring your swimsuit.
As a goodby present, my cousins showed up with my uncle and aunt and we had a great weekend at the beach.
Patry and Fely made a spectacular BBQ with all kinds of delicious fish and meat for everyone.
I absolutely loved our stay and highly recommend staying at Hotel Luz de Luna if you feel like visiting this gem of a town… Uvita.
PS: did I mentioned we saw mamas and baby whales?
Hi Ileana and Mike, Thanks for sharing your continuing adventure. It looks like fun. The food and drink shots are fabulous. Jane and I stayed at La Palapa Eco Lodge Resort near Playa Saverge a few years ago and loved it. We went down to Sierpe and took a boat out to Cano Island to go snorkeling. We had a whale singing under the boat for a while. Good luck on your Peace Corps careers! Stephen Busch and Jane Postiglione