Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

After spending a night in San Jose and getting a free pancake breakfast we hopped on a bus to Puerto Viejo in order to meet up with our friends Vee, Maya and Jaz who were working on an organic farm there.

When we arrived we checked into a really cool hostel called 'Rocking Js' where we booked hammocks to sleep in and then grabbed food at a soda- rice with coco-nut milk, frijoles, chicken and salad, then set out to find Maya and Vee. Our first effort was an epic fail as we turned up at the wrong organic farm and just felt really disapointed and a bit silly. On the plus side the man had heard about our three english friends and gave us some instructions that we followed the next day. He told us to get the bus to Bribri but ask the bus driver to stop outside Dona Petronela's cacao farm and then ask her to get one of her workers to show us the entrance to Alejandra's farm. When we got to the cacao farm, the lady let us try loads of chocolate samples and gave us a big bag of coco paste as a pressie before she called for someone to show us the entrance to the farm where our friends were working.

The entrance was literally an opening in the jungle, it was tipping down with rain and we had to trek it up this massive mudslide of a hill-come-river. It took at least 20 minutes of continuous struggling to scramble up the jungley hill and finally we found Alejandra who pointed us in the direction of our friends. Seeing our friendies from England was amazing- lots of screaming and shouting as we re-united. The girls have been living in a shanti shack. Their room had no walls, a tin roof, they was in a bucket as there's no running water. All their clothes were going mouldy due to the damp that they were living in and they were forced to live on a vegan diet consisting of mouse-sized portions- POOR BABYS!

After catching up and being showed around we all caught the bus back to puerto viejo and got lunch and chocolate brownies. Back in our hostel the girls showered and we all made a massive pot of hot chocolate. That night there was a live band in the hostel bar so we got cocktails and nachos. The girls left at 10ish but we danced loads and got given free shots, then went to the after party at Mangos. Got home at 4am all having had so much fun!