Cahuita – A Whole Different Flavour

Many don’t venture to this side of Costa Rica as it has struggled for many years to recover from a lingering negative perception but for us we just had to see as much of this tiny country as we could.

The local bus from San Jose started out pretty empty but more and more locals joined us at every stop along the way and when we reached Cahuita we were overflowing . Lucky we were the first to board and had a seat.

Cahuita is one of the first stops on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and a haven for the backpacker crowd.  There are two parallel dirt streets crossed by four rutted roads lined with colorful ramshackle houses and little places to eat.

It was a torrential rain the day we arrived and we were starving .  We headed for this Chinese / Caribbean diner nearby, where we were greeted by Jose. Don’t know if he meant to be comical but he gave us a good story to take home . Here’s how it goes.

Us- How is the food?

Him- Depends.

Us – Depends on what?

Him- Depends on who’s cooking.

Us- Well, who’s cooking?

Him- Ah well they’re all in there.

This made us skeptical how our dinner would be but the food was great and it is every time we go .Maybe we were just easy to please because Jose did a great job keeping our expectations low. LOL

I have to admit Cahuita is not really about the food but we have another place here, that gave us a lasting memory and that is Miss  Edith’s . This is just a hole in the wall shack but she has the best and most creative way of cooking Caribbean lobster.  Pat, loves the heat, so, of course he chose the hot jerk lobster while I went for the coconut herb variety. Man it was just unbelievably great  and for a Maritimer to say that about a Caribbean lobster, that is high praise!

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