Days 7 - 11 "Life In A Small Town"

RC: We have a 4-hour road trip to the town of Puerto Jimenez which lies on the west coast of the Golfo Dulce. Beanie booked us at the Cabinas Jimenez Hotel, which is right on the gulf and should be an interesting adventure.  Once again, we have the 12 passenger Toyota  van, so we have enough room for both suitcases, my backpack, and me and the Bean.  Could be tight.  The roads are all pretty good and once again mostly two-lane blacktop. As we entered the Osa Peninsula, we stopped and got a really good picture of the gulf.  Check it out!  Actually, it was just the best of the ones the driver took.

Golfo Dulce 

When we arrived in Puerto Jimenez and the Cabinas Jimenez Hotel, I must admit, after the two prior stays in the Marriott Resorts, my jaw dropped just a little bit, and not in a good way. 

 

Welcome to Puerto Jimenez!!!

Hard To Miss Signage - Unless You Look The Other Way!

Reception and General Gathering Place

Entry to Cabina Numero Uno

Queen Bunk Beds . . . or As We Call Them:  Storage!

King Bed

Patio/Kitchen/Dining Room/Conference Center

The Queen's Dining Area , Barista Quarters & Internet Cafe

 

March of the Cutter Ants. Nope Marching Sideway!

The hotel has about 12 rooms and ours was one of two that has a king size bed.  It also has queen bunk beds, which is all very well until you put it into a 160 sq ft room. While "quaint", it was also pretty tight.  The bathroom was slightly larger than the powder room at the JW Marriott Guanacaste.  We got settled in and the longer we stayed, the better it got.  It had a large patio that included a full kitchen, cook top, frig, dining table, sink, two sofas and sat right on the water.  Great views of the Golfo Dulce.

 

An "Almost Kitty Fix". Just Screams Attitude eh?  Well, He Is A Cat!!

Local Cemetary:  Above Ground Internment Due To Water Levels.  Right Next to The Airport Runway So If Something Goes Wrong......... 

Outboard Powered Bar - Now That's Innovation!! Could Use a Renovation

The "Suicide Shower" - A Faucet w/an Electric In-Line Water Heater:  No Problemo!!

View From Our Balcony

The Royal Throne

Patio View

The more relaxed we got, the better the room got.  Go figure. One of the highlights was returning to the room, flicking the light on in the front entry way and watching the crabs scramble in the courtyard.  First time we saw this we thought they were huge cockroaches!  Beanie came back from a walk about one day and a big iguana was in the courtyard and when she opened the door he panicked and ran around like crazy in the courtyard.  For some reason he couldn’t get out the way he came in and was too panicked to realize the door was open and he could get out that way.  I heard the commotion and grabbed the broom and herded the poor guy out the door.

Puerto Jimenez has a population of about 4,000 people and I think we got to know a good deal of them.  There is a routine each evening at dusk where thousands of parrots fly in from parts unknown to congregate in this huge tree across the bay next to our favorite restaurant.  They fly and squawk and repeat for about 20-30 minutes until it gets dark, then they just disappear to where ever they roost for the evening.  We have a video below, poor quality, but it does somewhat capture the noise factor.

Night of the Squawking Dead

We walked everywhere and sometimes you get to see things you would ordinarily miss if you were just checking things out on a tour.  On our way back from one of the local restaurants (food was very good) we came across a Tico (male Costa Rican) doing some night fishing and he had three dogs with him.  Two were kinda cuddled up and the third was right down with the fisherman like he was his mate  A couple days later on a walk-about return we ran into him again on the other side of town.  Granted, we recognized the dogs first, but it was pretty funny to run into the same people over and over.  He recognized us too and we got a laugh about running into each other again.

Night Fishing with Good Friends

The “airport” is basically a 3500 ft two lane road where 12 passenger, single engine Cessnas come and go. It is separated from the regular roads by a sign and about 4 feet of grass ditches and a chain link fence.  We walked a back road searching for a place where the caiman hang out.  We didn’t find it, but on the way back we came across a couple young boys, brothers, probably 10 and 6.  They had been to the beach and came walking out of the jungle, the older boy holding the hand of the younger boy, who wasn’t happy about it.  The older boy was pretty proud of his command of the English language, hey, who am I to judge, and started to chat it up a bit.  Fun conversation about the town and its people.  Interestingly the older boy had a pair of flip flops and the younger was barefoot.  The younger seemed to complain so the elder gave his flip flops to him, which of course, did not fit, and he immediately walked out of them. After some time of shuffling along, in and out of the shoes we finally made it to the black top.  It was hot, so the road was tough on bare feet.  The older boy ran from shade to shade along the road and his little brother walked with the shoes.  It was a pretty touching thing to watch. Not sure many brothers would have done that.

KC:  I ended up really enjoying our 4 days in Puerto Jimenez, the largest town in the Osa at 4000 people.  The little hotel was charming (though I think Randy would choose a different adjective) in a funky kind of way.  Once we got our room organized to our liking it suited us well - good a/c, comfortable bed, right on the gulf with a gorgeous view and warm water in the shower.  Oh, and a pair of scarlet macaws right out our front door.  They were feeding in two fruit trees for a couple days while we were there and let us get within ten feet of them - obviously city birds and used to people. The shower is what is called a suicide shower (see the picture).  Water and electricity together, what could possibly go wrong?  Always wanted to try one – haha!  The two girls who took turns managing reception were so nice and gave us a lot of helpful information – like where to look for caimans and what their favorite restaurants were.  One day we followed their directions down a trail along the stream to see the caimans.  Didn’t see any caimans but did see a huge nesting area for white egrets.  I’m guessing there were at least 100 of them all coming and going as they fed their chicks.  What an incredible racket they made! 

Egret Birthing Center

Egret

 

Egret Nesting Area Video

We spent the first two days exploring the town and trying to get cash from any ATM machine.  The town has three banks but for some reason our card wouldn’t work at any of their ATMs.  We returned on Monday, waited our turn in one of the banks to talk to a teller.  He used his phone as a translator and after a lot of back and forth never got the ATM issue resolved but we were able to get cash from one of our credit cards.  The bank adventure took up the better part of an afternoon.  Randy called Chase and the mutual finger pointing began.  Finally on our next to the last day we got a Scotia Bank ATM to work.  That’s the good news, the bad news is they wanted to charge a 33% “fee” for the privilege of using their ATM.  Pass.

 The third day we went to an organic cocoa farm and that was entertaining and fun.  One man and his wife, son, and daughter-in-law do it all from growing the cocoa, processing it into chocolate and packaging it.  They do everything but printing out their label. 

Private Label - Very Exclusivo

 

Raices Chocolate Farm.  Owner German w/Wife, Daughter & Grandaughter

 

I enjoyed the last day best.  First, we visited the new Hilton that just opened a week ago.  This hotel is a big step for this little town and the locals we talked to have very mixed feelings about it.  Before the Hilton, our little hotel was the “fanciest” in town.  The hotel is gorgeous but has no real Costa Rican flavor to it.  Hope it isn’t the start of things to come as it would be a shame to see this little town become more touristy. 

The New Luxury Hilton in PTO Jimenez

Pool View From 4th Deck

Two Room Suite

Kitchen Area - Fully Equipped

Master Bedroom

Front Lobby Area - Eh!  No Starbucks!!

Rear Patio

Since the Hilton was on the same road as The Iguana Inn, a small hotel 4 miles south of Puerto Jimenez, where we had stayed for a few days 9 years ago, we decided walk to the Inn.  The dirt road went past small farms and ranches and forest.   It was a nice walk out and back and I set a personal step record!!  

Lots of Cattle Ranches Along the Way - This is for Terry and Allen

When we got to the Iguana Inn it was very disappointing, a mere shadow of what it was when we stayed there.  The cabina where we stayed was pretty much in ruins.  We spoke to a member of the staff and she thinks the owners are going to do a massive overhaul and try to bring it back as a higher end resort.  They may be on to something if the new Hilton is any indication.  

Entrance to the Iguana Lodge

Our Old Cabina Falling Down

On our way back to CJ we got adopted by a local dog.  She was a real sweetie and we really started to bond as she walked with us for about 1/2 mile.  Then the owner drove up, looking for her dog, so that was the end of that.  

Me and Sweetie (Hey Beanie named her!)

We got back, got cleaned up and headed out for our last dinner here at a small restaurant that we liked.  Glad to say that after some initial concerns that it would be too long of a stay here, we enjoyed it a lot.  For me, especially.  Oh, I almost forgot!  The scarlet macaws were everywhere feeding in the trees right outside our room.  Got some gorgeous pictures of this very noisy and showy bird!

Scarlett Macaws AKA "Resident Squawkers" Right Outside Our Cabina!

More Squawking

And Yes, More Squawking!!

 

RC:  Well I did get my kitty fix!! 

 I Feel So Much More Relaxed!! (RC, not the kitty!)