March 8, 2010
Yesterday we finally got to get out of the city for a bit and explore the beautiful mountainside. Now, THIS is why we are here! Just a short 45 min drive up a extremely bumpy dirt road, while riding in the bed of a pickup truck, you begin to see tropical forests and an incredible view of the waterfall high above the Rio Cangrejal. Seriously – this is such an amazing difference from the beach and the city. The temperature is cooler, the sun is shining and the foliage is just incredible!
I’ve always dreamed of living in a land where you could watch the Carribean from your porch and go hiking under waterfalls all in the same day!
We drove up to some hotels that are nestled deep in the woods. These places have been built from scratch up in perfect solitude. With views of the waterfall and the river, fresh water swimming holes, outdoor bars built out of rocks and mango tree wood – ahh, just a spectacular peaceful experience. We visited two hotels – the Villas at Pico Bonito and Casa Cangrejal. Check out their websites! Seems like even the mountain folk are pretty excited for us to get up and running. They used to send their clients down to our restaurant when they were looking for a day on the beach, and one lady even used to take horseback riding trips up and down the beach, stopping at the Iguana Bar and Restaurant for cold beers and a good lunch!
I can’t wait to do some more adventures in this country -there’s great water rafting trips, hiking and lots of exploring to be had!
It was just so nice to get a break from all of the work as well, although I am excited to say that the bar does seem to be coming together quite nicely. We finally have installed some shelves for liquor and glasses and whatever else. We have a juicer (yum!), two blenders and an array of glasses.
Now – just need to the beer and soda distributors to take away one large fridge and deliver two small ones. Sounds easy, right? For some reason, we have been asking them to do this pretty much since the first day we arrived. No joke. You’d think they’d want us to be good customers! Hopefully they’ll come mañana!