Last Day on Our Mountaintop

Trip Start May 27, 2012

Trip End Jun 21, 2012

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Where I stayed

Samasati Nature Retreat Puerto Viejo

Flag of Costa Rica Limon, Limon, Costa Rica
Friday, June 1, 2012

We woke up around 6:30 again and sat with our coffees until breakfast was served on our last full day at Samasati. Lots of fruit, eggs, and some sort of empanadas were on the menu. After sitting with Sally and hearing about the school she helps with down the road, we offered to come by later and play with the kidos. First we had plans to head down to Puerto Viejo to the jaguar rescue center. So down the mountain we hiked to our morning wifi spot and then we shuttled to the beach. Since the jaguar rescue center is near Chameleon we were happy to make the familiar walk along the beach and jungle road for about 3 miles. We arrived right as the tour was beginning and jumped right in. We got to see a plethora of animals; snakes, tarantulas, lizards, hawks, toucans, ocelots, rainforest frogs, sloths, and best of all lots of monkeys. Unfortunately, there were no jaguars, despite the name. We were able to go into the monkey area and play with them, or in MacKenzie's case, be attacked by them. After being in the cage for a while the monkeys got a little rowdy and playful with each other

Our Mountaintop

. Suddenly, the rowdiest howler monkey, Irene, locked eyes on MacKenzie and sprang onto her, grabbing at her shirt and head. Before she even knew what hit her the monkey had climbed off, but we were all left looking on in a mixture of shock and laughter. A few minutes later one of the littlest monkeys climbed onto Holly's head where he proceeded to pick out and eat the flower she had put in her hair. The monkeys were definitely the highlight of the tour, and we would have loved to snatch one and bring it with us on the reminder of our trip!

We headed back to Puerto Viejo with a newlywed couple who rented a car and were staying at Samasati for part of their honeymoon. They dropped us off and we meandered our way through the city looking for a restaurant to get something to eat. We stumbled across a place called Jammin' that some of our friends at Samasati had recommended. It was filled with reggae decor, fresh juices and fruity smoothies that looked awesome so we decided to stay. Holly had a watermelon banana smoothie and MacKenzie got a carrot ginger cucumber juice. We also ordered a giant Mediterranean platter filled with hummus, babaganoush, couscous, tazihki, falafel, salad and pita bread. After chilling there with our ocean view, great food, and reggae tunes we shopped around the town while waiting for our shuttle.

The Monkeys Loved Her

Once we said our goodbyes to Puerto Viejo, we returned to Samasati and walked to the school that Sally had told us about earlier. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at El Huye where we greeted by 10 smiling young faces of children from the ages of 5 to 11. Sally founded an organization called Women of Women that has various humanitarian causes across the world, including funding this school for local children to go to in the afternoons. We played duck, duck, goose (or for the younger slightly confused ones: duck, duck, DUCK) for about an hour, while the lead teacher cleaned up for the day. We walked away invigorated by the children's energy and very grateful for the education and opportunities we have had growing up.

Because we have grown fond of our walks up the mountain, we had to do it one last time, bringing our grand total of walks up and down the mountain to 7. Per usual, we treated ourselves to the jacuzzi and met two young Canadians, who were traveling all over Costa Rica and volunteered at the Jaguar Rescue Center. We returned to our treetop room in the namaste house to shower, attempt to wash our clothes, and pack our things. We walked to our last meal, which consisted of pumpkin soup, baked sweet potatoes, grilled vegetables, mixed salad, veggie pizza, cheese pizza, hummus pizza, and thumbprint cookies. Over dinner and wine (which was actually from a bottle), we talked with Sally, Cindy, Lauren, and the masseuse about all sorts of topics ranging from weird psychology experiments to sleeping medicine. Sleep came easy that night either because of the wine or because we are more accustomed to the surprisingly loud sounds of nature.

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