Right from the start it was clear to see that Puerto Viejo was kinda like a Cahuita which had exploded in tourism/partying in the last decade or so. Having said that it still held a really funky and authentic Carribbean feel to the town and straight away we explored our new area for vegan treats.
Puerto Viejo is full of cool, quirky restaurants, cafes and bars and everyone we went pass we wanted to stop by to have a closer look at.
For brekky
We found Cafe Rico, a hidden cosy little cafe with the nicest atmosphere. It has the cutest interiour design, with the decoration giving you a feel that you're in a British garden during summertime (there's even a picture of the Queen above the bar!)
We could've sat here for hours.. They have so many books for book exchange that it's like a little library as well as a cafe in one place.
This is solely a breakfast/brunch place, with plenty of choices for vegetarians and as vegans we didn't have any trouble getting full. The fruit bowl with granola that we ordered came in big pasta bowls and was lush! For only 2500 colones we were absolutely stuffed.
We asked if they had soy milk for the coffees and received the most beautiful reply; "No.. But we have coconut milk" Ah, perfection. Finally some coconut flavoured coffee!
Cafe Rico seems to have Fridays off, so on that day we went breakfast hunting and found that the popular cafe Bread & Chocolate is a kind off vegan friendly joint. Best thing I found on their menu was of course the iced cappuccino with soy milk. So so so needed in this heat.
Other than that they have a few choices for vegans on their food menu as well, but we had to ask which ones were vegan to find out because the menu didn't say (like biscuits and mushroom gravy, sandwiches, salads, etc.). Vegan dessert however, was easy to spot straight away - dark chocolate cake (!). We never got a chance to try it, but it sounds AWESOME.
For daily activities
We were able to rent bikes for just $5 each a day from the hostel we stayed at. This was such a great activity in Puerto Viejo area, as the most gorgeous beaches are a few kilometres away. We cycled passed the surfers beach Playa Cocles and Playa Chiquita until we reached Punta Uva.
Punta Uva was the perfect place to relax, drink coconut water straight from a coconut and have a refreshing swim.
It was easy to kill a lot of time here (Is it just me or does time just fly by when you're at the beach??), but after a while hunger made us leave Punta Uva.
Other than that, there is also an animal rescue center in Puerto Viejo. Which is the no. 1 ranked activity in Costa Rica on TripAdvisor. They take care of many different animals, such as baby sloths which of course many people want to cuddle with.
Me and Guy looked into volunteering here at Jaguar Rescue Centre a long time ago. Back then (like 6-8 months ago) they had a volunteer programme that costed $50/week which is understandable so that the rescue center won't lose money for food and care for the animals. However, during the time we looked into this and sent them emails requesting to come as volunteers, we got a reply saying that they now have a new owner and that the programme had changed.
It wasn't a small change. Now it costs $15 a day + a donation fee of $350.. But oh, you do get a t-shirt. What a bonus eh.. Let's just say that this change didn't make us feel keen on volunteering here. Knowing about all this and learning about it more from more recent reviews of Jaguar Rescue center, makes me feel like it is just very commercialised now. Costa Rica has once made the great decision of not having any zoos, because animals are not supposed to be kept in captivity, but now it seems like Jaguar Rescue center has turned in to something that I would call a zoo. So many tourists goes there every day and I've heard that they won't actually even let the animal go even when they are not sick anymore and so they are kept in captivity even though they're able to make it on their own (they need something to keep the tourists from coming back and giving more money right?)
So no, I refused to go there to visit. If someone knows more about this or have any suggestions on what I can do about it to help these poor animals in any way - please let me know.
For dinner
On a more happy note. Food. With it being low season many of the vegetarian and vegan food places around Puerto Viejo were closed when we were here. It was very disappointing finding all these cool sounding places on Happy Cow, and then looking for them to find out they were closed for the month. I can imagine it being very easy to eat out as a vegan here during the rest of the year though, because some vegan friendly places even popped up around Punta Uva/Playa Chiquita area (like Alice Ice Cream, where they have vegan ice cream!!!)
In town you have Como en mi casa Art Cafe and Chile Rojo (which actually was open when we were there but a bit too pricey for us, but they have plenty of vegan options like sushi and on mondays they have all you can eat sushi (!) gaahh, I wish we would've been there on a Monday!)
But because of the lack of good vegan food places and because we wanted to try to protect our wallets a bit, we went to the supermarkets for some vegan treasure hunts. Bio Mercado food store has plenty of vegan items, such as seitan and much more.
In all the regular supermarkets we also found that there is a bakery that has a section which seems to be a vegan friendly bakery, they had a range of vegan items such as banana bread, pita bread, wholewheat bread and vegan oat cookies. Aaah-mazing.
The best vegan food in Puerto Viejo was found at Soda Guetto Girl One Love (located just in the beginning of town from Cahuita way). It is easily the best and funkiest soda in the country.
The woman who runs the place is so lovely! Speaks English very well and is really easygoing. There is no menu here, so we just explained our food preferences and it wasn't a problem at all. Instead she served us the biggest and tastiest food feast we've had in a long time.
Because she cooks everything from scratch when you order, it took a while for the food to be served but I think that's a good thing because we sure needed a big appetite to be able to finish the plate of coconut rice, veggie stew, beans, salad, patacones, patacones filled with refried beans and guacamole and plantains. I think I died here and went to vegan heaven.
For evening activities
With it being a bit of a party place, we did't have to go far to find good deals for happy hour. Our favourite place is the reggae bar Salsa Brava, where they have lush ginger rum cocktails and you sit right on the beach with the sunset infront of you and reggae music in your ears.
Puerto Viejo isn't too shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment