I woke up with a completely swollen face, in particular my eye, from being attacked in the night by Mosquitos! Liv and I had a good laugh at the state of me and then decided to rent bicycles for the day and cycle down to the next beaches. It was unbelievably hot and humid so we were in a way kind of thankful that there were some clouds in the sky to dampen the sunshine.
The next beach down from Salsa Brava and Puerto Viejo's main town is Playa Cocles, a beach also renowned for enormous waves and rip tides and so is great for surfers but only at almost professional levels. We didn't stop at this beach and continued down to Playa Chiquita, and absolutely stunning beach with reefs right up to the shore where through the clear waters you can easily see fish swimming around, all amidst a backdrop of tropical forest and palm trees lining the beach. It was an added bonus that we had got out early enough to be the only people there and so it felt like a private beach - a serene paradise. We set up here for a few hours and dozed in the heat of the sun, relaxing and sunbathing and listening to the waves crashing.
We cycled on to Punta Uva and the cycling route we had so far covered from Puerto Viejo was gorgeous with lusciously green surroundings. It was so pretty seeing beach and sea to the left with jungle to the right, meanwhile listening to all the relaxing sounds that come with both sets of scenery. Punta Uva wasn't too far and although it was busier than Playa Chiquita it was still so naturally beautiful. I like that the beaches here were left as I imagine they had been found, with fallen logs and coconuts, and everything washed up from the ocean still lying on the sand. We just found a spot of sand around all of this and again dozed on and off as the sun burned through the clouds, before disappearing to allow us some intermittent relief. The beach was completely infested with crabs and j became a bit fascinated in watching them appear from their holes, and scurry around frantically after being so still for ages - I was sure they were staring at me!
We left Punta Uva and began cycling towards Manzanillo, but after a while we decided to head back to Puerto Viejo. We stopped at some hidden beaches and finally Playa Cocles to watch the surfers before returning our bikes. It really had been such a lovely day.
We decided to eat some space cakes seeing as they were being sold practically on the doorstep of our hostel, and after looking around the shops for a while we sat on the beach. As the cakes started to kick in we went upstairs, cut a watermelon in half and each ate our half with a spoon! We looked so silly and we laughed about stupid things for ages. We sat in a hammock chatting s*** and giggling like toddlers; I love Liv's company!