Day 7 : Uvita

Uvita was kind of the destination for the whole trip. We finally had a day that did not require any driving. Our hotel keeper and his kids served us breakfast in a palapa-like building at the top of the hill, with a large open air dining area. There were great views of the Pacific ocean on one side, and vast expanses of jungle-covered mountains on the other. It was a beautiful setting, and the kids and their beagle Rancho were as sweet as can be.






We strolled to the beach after breakfast, and had nothing to look forward to except doing nothing. Just what we wanted! The beach at Uvita is part of the Marino Ballena National Park, so we had to pay an entrance fee to access the beach. Since it is a National Park, there was no development along the beachfront, just one vast beach extending for miles. And we had it all to ourselves when we first got there.













Going north the shore continued out to a point, Punta Uvita, that is only exposed at low tide. The man at the park entrance said our timing was good, as low tide was at 11am. Punta Uvita was about as nice as it gets. There is a wide sandbar at low tide that connects the rocky point with the mainland.






As you walk down the beach, you see hundreds of red crabs running away from the sound of your footsteps. It looks like a red wave, moving in arcs about 30 feet in front of you. You have your choice of the left beach or right beach, one as nice the other. And whatever you did, you would see all these red crabs running away to the side that you weren't going to.















We hung out on the beach until the sun started getting a little too high. To keep from getting sunburned, I covered my legs with Fabienne's new sarong, which she thought looked so silly that she took a series of photographs.



We left the point, hiked on the beach some more, and then followed a path along a little stream that led us to a road with several bars and restaurants.







We had an excellent meal with platacones (flattened fry plantains) and a whole red snapper. Ricissimo.




After lunch, we hiked along the beach some more.











This crab got really mad when he saw us coming! He wanted to fight!















A rain started to fall, and it got stronger and stronger. We had to get off the beach and into the shelter of the trees.




We got back to our hotel just as it started dumping rain. We hung out in hammocks in the hotel's palapa, reading and listening to the thunder of the rain on its roof, until the roof started leaking onto us. That evening, we headed back to the same restaurant with no name. They were still out of limes, but had plenty of good seafood with limas mandarinas. After dinner, we spent another evening listening to the bats from the balcony of our room. The chimes of the bats is one of the most soothing sounds you can imagine.

In the middle of the night, the mysterious groans of howler monkeys filled the air. I thought about getting out of bed and trying to record it, but didn't. You can listen to them on this YouTube to get a feel for the sound. It's spooky.



Here's another youtube of a single howler monkey howling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV22Ua3zwN4