THIS IS INCLUDED IN A LARGER POST ON THE ENTIRE COSTA RICA TRIP
[see: before it was famous]
Cahuita Beach, Costa Rica. December 1990
Restorative herbal teas and Visa cards
In 1990 Costa Rica had not yet been "discovered". In fact, it was only starting to market itself as a destination alternative in the region. Costa Rica had "everything" - mountains, beach, rainforests - while being politically safe and stable. Brian and I planned a Christmas/New Year vacation there since I had a long work holiday from NYU and he had an even longer study break. One of the places that was promoted to visit was Cahuita with supposedly unspoiled, fabulous beaches. Cahuita was to be a high point of the whole trip - again, expectations kind of dogged us. Cahuita, unfortunately, was a bust.
From the transport hub and relatively large town Limón, we took a local bus south to Cahuita. I guess we were expecting to step off the bus into a typical Caribbean beach town like in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. Instead, Cahuita was small, dusty and run down. We did learn that actually we needed to head further south to Puerto Viejo which promised "good beaches" . While in Cahuita we had to try "Miss Edith's Restaurant", famous for its restorative herbal remedies as per our travel guide. As Brian said often, "It's a Lonely Planet", referring to our preferred guidebook series. Following Tony Wheeler's advice, we located Miss Edith's and sat down for a bite and some famed herbal tea. The place was laid back to the extreme. When our waitress finally got around to taking our order, she sat down with us at the table. let out a huge sigh, and just put her head down as if she wanted to sleep immediately. We were the only customers. Brian and I had to try hard not to laugh. I don't remember the food at all, but the tea was in fact as restorative as Lipton's. It became a running joke with us for years. After any bad restaurant service or drinking any herbal tea our comment was always "this CANNOT COMPARE to Edith's" as we were magically transported back to Cahuita. Moments like that during travel really do become bonding moments with those close to us.
We continued further south to Puerto Viejo and got a room (I really can't recall, but we stayed a couple of nights I am sure) where we saw the above pictured beach. Still under-impressed, it was vacation and we were on a beach in the Caribbean. During a New York winter we were obliged to have some fun in the sun. A big part of the vacation was about food, so in the evening we went to what looked like a good seafood restaurant. In the days before global ATMs, we used travelers checks. We were getting low on colons, so we ordered modestly even though we saw amazing seafood dishes around us. There was no bank in Puerto Viejo to change a travelers check - that would have been way back in Limón. We were disappointed until we saw the credit card logo at the cashier while we were paying. We verified, you take credit cards, right? "Yes, of course." We would be back!
The next evening we went back and ordered a feast. It was very good value for money and we were on vacation. Then it came time to pay - "Sir, we don't take credit cards". What?? "But last night you said you did??" "Yes, but we don't now". We didn't have close to enough cash and told them we would have to get them the cash the next day. They were amazingly chill about the whole thing and took our details. We got on the bus the next morning and went ALL the way to Limón to the bank, changed a check, and then went all the way back to Puerto Viejo, basically giving up most of the day. When we went to the restaurant to pay, they had no record of us owing anything and frankly, seemed not that bothered. We convinced them we owed money, paid, and then just laughed at the whole experience. It became another "travel tale" for us (and a cautionary tale about depending too much on credit cards).
So Cahuita might have been a bust, but we did create some of our funniest travel memories there. Travel is always best in retrospect - so rarely in the moment.
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