Uvita!
- Anna
- Feb 11
- 7 min read
I arrived in Uvita on Wednesday, February 5th around 3:30pm. The ride there had been relatively uneventful and comfortable. For some reason people on the shuttles, I take always want to talk. I have always been a person who prides themselves on giving off a “stay away from me” energy, I guess that does not translate to Canadians. I did not have anything planned for my evening beyond checking in to my hostel, visiting the bank and getting a good chunk of my schoolwork done. I did all of that and was even able to do most of my schoolwork out on a hammock as the sun set.
Thursday, I had a morning whale watching tour, the whole reason I made the trip to Uvita in the first place, as this time of year is one of two times that humpback whales migrate to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica to mate. Our group got to spend most of our visit following around a male humpback whale. While I would love to show you all these fabulous photos of him, my bag (phone & camera) were in the front hatch of the boat for about 75% of the excursion so I got maybe 10 pics total :/ That’s okay though as I would learn to accept this as most of the marvelous things I saw this week in Uvita happened away from any phone or camera. So, you’ll just have to take my word for it I guess, the whale was big and cool!
This tour only took up about 4 hours of my morning so the rest of the day I spent at Marino Ballena National Park, enjoying the beach and finishing up my Elin Hilderbrand book. While whale watching was super cool, in hindsight, the best part of my day was when one of the women in my hostel dorm told me about her day snorkeling at Caño Island. I spent that evening looking into it and figuring out how I could extend my stay to include this excursion as well! I was lucky to find a last-minute Airbnb where I would spend the last 2 nights at, it had AC and a pool, spectacular find! I was also able to squeeze onto a tour to Caño Island for Saturday with the tour company I had just used for Whale watching. I was able to go to bed with my plans extended and excitement blooming!
Friday I was headed off to Corcovado National Park, which holds 2.5% of the biodiversity of the world. This trip took 1.5 hours on a boat to get to a park entrance, which was honestly amazing, a gorgeous ride and we got to see more dolphins and whales along the way! Once at Corcovado it became clear that I should have researched and planned this visit to Uvita better. Not only had I not investigated snorkeling, but I did not book nearly a long enough visit of Corcovado NP. The 3.5 hour guided hike was not enough time to get a full taste of all the biodiversity this park has to offer. I will need to come back at some point in my life and do a multi-day exploration. Overall, the guide was personable and knowledgeable, the flora/fauna was gorgeous, and the wildlife was fascinating. After a long day in the scorching heat (90 degrees) hiking through a forest, I arrived back at my hostel, got a frozen lemonade and packed up to check in to my Airbnb.
This Airbnb was perfect, I was able to wash my clothes, relax by the pool and then work on my schoolwork in a chilly chilly house! Not to mention the convenience of being a couple blocks away from the highest rated restaurant in Uvita, Seba’s, who won Costa Rica’s best pizza contest! I was able to indulge in some spicy crudo verde, sauvignon blanc, and say screw gluten and dairy to try the famous pizza! After a delicious night I went to bed happy and full, although I will admit, TMI incoming, that I did wake up a couple times that night with a stomachache, so the happiness did wear off some.
Saturday, snorkeling day, was finally upon us! Similarly to Friday, the island was about an hour and a half long boat ride away. I lucked out and was seated next to Steve! Steve is from Canada, around Lake Huron, was in Uvita for surf camp and is in to meditating (?). Most importantly Steve has good eyesight and can see a whale breeching at the horizon. So together we made a great team, notifying out captain/guide of a pod of dolphins, humpback whale and sea turtle that we spotted on our outbound ride. Once at Caño Island we all assembled our gear and jumped off the boat to find the most beautiful underwater world. I know this sounds so cliché and probably annoying, but I had one of the best days of my life. Hands down the coolest thing I have ever done. Within the first two minutes above the reefs, I had swum with an Olive Ridley sea turtle and a sting ray, not to mention the hundreds of colorful fish around! I don’t think many people know this story, but the last time I was snorkeling my family was visiting Puerto Rico, I was probably around 8/9 years old at the time. I was so paranoid of touching or bumping into the coral reefs, something the guides had stressed heavily not to do, that I was not enjoying myself. And then I saw a swordfish type fish I became terrified that it was going to stab me, so I ended up back on the boat and watched while the others continued snorkeling, meanwhile I got the worst sunburn of my life. Not to mention, I cannot stand the taste of salt water, I mean I guess every hates it too, but overall I have never been like a huge ocean girlie. All this to say that I was not expecting the mind-blowing experience that I ended up having.
Quickly, I noticed how the guides and a handful of the other snorkelers were diving down to get closer to all the amazing fish and reefs. I’m a good swimmer, I can totally do that too, or so I thought. I was not ready for the head pressure that accompanies diving down like that, I still can’t believe how easily these other snorkelers made this look! Once back on the boat I asked them how often they do this and where they snorkel, and they shared their family is from Sicily and they snorkel all the time, dream life! There were two guides in the water with us and about 25 snorkelers, some of which were young kids and families so naturally we ended up separating into two groups. One that moved much slower and didn’t go exploring far, then there was my group that was able to move quicker, while still being able to enjoy all the sights, along with exploring a larger portion of the reef. During this time, we continued to see more sea turtles, all 3 of the types that live in this area (Green, Olive Ridley and Hawksbill), reef sharks and more sting rays! By the time our little group of about 8 finally got picked up by the boat we were all ready to discuss and debrief on everything we saw! Also, side note, on ALL these tours the guides offered us freshly cut watermelon and pineapple halfway through the excursion. I cannot stress enough how refreshing it was to have fresh fruit and lemonade after spitting out salt water for an hour. Our boat took us to another section of the reef where we were offered another 45 minutes of snorkeling if we wanted, of course I wanted!
This time we were in much shallower water so having to stay more horizontal as the reef was much closer to us all. Clearly the area of the reef that the sea turtles love because we saw them all over! Also, my guide spotted an octopus curled up along/under a hunk of coral. It was blending in and invisible but then would move and you could see it breathing, but if you looked away it would camouflage again and good luck to you to spot it. More sharks, more fish, overall, just more of everything! I kept feeling such disbelief at what I was seeing and experiencing that I would be smiling and laughing to myself causing me to take in more salt water After this second excursion in the reefs we landed on the island for some lunch and time to explore. Steve and I went on about a 30-minute hike on a trail that we found out would have led us to a closed down ecological site, whoops! Amazing views and scenery along the way though! On the boat ride back, we saw one humpback whale in the distance throwing his body all over and creating these massive splashes, it was amazing!
Honestly, I cannot say this enough, I was/am completely mesmerized by this experience and once back on dry land with a cell signal, I immediately was looking up where I would scuba so I could get even closer. After some re-organizing of my schedule/plan I will be leaving Puerto Viejo a week earlier than planned to travel back to the Pacific side of CR to Coco for a 3-day PADI scuba open water diving certification program. They do offer these programs right in Puerto Viejo, but I was informed that February is not a good time to learn as they clarity is low, and the conditions are not good. But this new plan of attack works just fine for me and has now opened a whole new life plan that will hopefully include renting scuba gear and getting a chance to dive anywhere I travel!
I’m writing this Sunday, going on my 11th hour of traveling just to get back home to Puerto Viejo. I can tell the man in front of me is annoyed at the typing sounds, but I am not at a point to care right now lol. I am excited to get back to my home base and familiar setting, and back to my pals Matey and Inchie! Here are the limited photos I was able to get from my time in Uvita! If you made it through this torturously long post, damn you really don’t have anything better to do? But also thank you!
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