January was a lovely month in the Caribe. On the Puerto Viejo Satellite chart it shows as one of the rainier months, but we had a week of sunny days in a row and more generally some rains at night and early morning and sunny/shady days to enjoy the area. Feb has been turning out to be much of the same, but we did get a couple night time rains and some during the day the past couple days. Sure, there were a couple days where it was rainy, it is the rain forest, but all in all it turned out to be a great month from a weather  perspective.  Some activites we have been doing before school fires up again include my son and I riding bikes the other day down to Playa Grande on the way to Manzanillo and watch the surfers and it is a beautiful unvisited beach, and then down along both Punta Uva beaches with swims all along the way.  The girls have been taking surfing lessons with a local instructor and loving it (although can be a little sore from practicing their stand-ups)… Guests came to Pachamama in January from Costa Rica, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Canada, and the United States so it was a pretty international flavor around here and some wonderful new friends.

The Tarpon reference is one I thought was worthy of bringing up because we have had several guests now who have had some unforgettable tarpon experiences.  It started when a guest who happened to be a professional fisherman really wanted to land a Tarpon, but did not want to pay the crazy prices they charge for the dedicated fishing lodges and companies  up North and even here so  we found a local guide in Manzanillo who knows Tarpon, and most recently a young couple on their honeymoon went out and hooked several, including one two hour battle on a fly-rod with a monster (80 lbs/40kgs)…Oh yeah, the flyrod and then the reel finally broke and the big one got away..the memories will live on larger than life I am sure as it was all captured on video.  Some other activity highlights have been the usual canopy tours, but the BriBri reserve/waterfall tour has also been popular.  The Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife refuge is always a reliable good time.  Most people of late have just been going with a few tips and directions and forgoing a guide in favor of privacy in the immense jungle and isolated postcard beach coves…Que romantico!

Feel free to shoot us an e-mail asking us any and all questions about the area as we love to help people enjoy it to its fullest.