January 31: 93 degrees

We are on the move again today. Our final destination is Puerto Jimenez in the Osa Penninsula. As we drive south, the landscape is what I imagined Costa Rica to look like. It is lush, green with exotic plants and trees, and shows very few signs of development. Every picture taken with our mediocre camera doesn't even begin to capture the essence of its beauty.

The first leg of our trip is fairly straightforward until we turn just outside of Chacarita. From this point, we wind our way up and down mountain sides blown away by nature all around us. The further we drive, we begin to see signs of the gulf. We pull over to get a picture, and again it just doesn't capture the stillness, the sounds nor the enormity of the moment.

Finally, we arrive in Puerto Jimenez and try to check into our cabina. The woman looks at us strangely and asks if we had a reservation. For a moment, our hearts pound as we have selected Puerto Jimenez as one of the places we were going to settle for five days and splurge on a place with more amenities. After showing the woman our online confirmation she makes a phone call to confirm. Apparently our reservation was stuck in their spam filter, but she is going to check to see if our room was ready. She waves us over indicating it is ready. Relief.

Mandy settling in too soon at Cabinas Jimenez

In the middle of unpacking, the woman from the front desk stops by to tell us that they are double booked for the next day and asks us if she can help us find a place to stay for the night. After a long day of travel and the anticipation of settling in for a few days we think, "What the f@&$k? Why not help the other people move since they are only staying one night?" But we remain calm, and we know it isn't her fault. The woman apologizes for the mix up and explains that the other reservation was actually made before ours. Dammit. We agree to stay somewhere else for a night. It pains us because we have a great little room with a fantastic private porch that overlooks the gulf. Oh well, we will take this as an opportunity to explore other parts of town.

We settle in by only unpacking for the night. Now, it is time to explore the town. Exiting our room, we meet a couple from Canada named Bill and Michelle. They were hanging out at the pool just outside of our room. I can't remember how we even started talking to them but we engaged in conversation for about an hour. We talked a lot about travel. Places we've been, places they have been, favorite places, etc. We even told them that we quit our jobs to experience the world for a while. Their response similar to just about everyone we have told. We are congratulated and encouraged to do it every chance that we get. Bill himself, although retired now, has taken time off to travel about 4 times in his life. Now, he is making a retirement out of it. It feels refreshing to be around others who feel similarly about life and the worth of experiences. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day that we often forget about this huge world around us and all that it has to offer.

Finally leaving our place, Cabinas Jimenez, we venture out to check out the town and grab dinner. Puerto Jimenez is a small town with a handful of restaurants, bakeries, a cafe, a produce shop and many tourist shops offering any tour imaginable related mainly to Corcovado National Park. Because of its hard-to-reach location in the gulf, Puerto Jimenez has its own airport. Only a handful of small charter planes and inter-Costa Rica flights come in and out. It's cool to watch the planes take off and land.

We cut through town and head toward the gulf for a bite to eat. Tucked behind a very small beach is a restaurant where we sit to have a bite. In front of us are many locals enjoying the beach and picnic tables. Mostly families. Looking around us, Puerto Jimenez appears to be a small and humble community with a strong sense of family.

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