But if you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to swoop, hover and move in 3 dimensions there is a way to experience that: Learn to dive.

Underwater you can move like a bird moves in the sky…you can hover, swoop, nosedive…actually you can also do a few things birds rarely do – like back flips, cartwheels and lie motionless on your back viewing fish above you.

The feeling of diving is an exhilarating sense of freedom and conversely deeply calming – a feeling quite incomparable to those we experience in our everyday lives. Imagine yourself moving in slow three dimensional motion, with the sound of your breath and the static of the water as accompanying rhythms.

Of course it’s not only about freedom of movement and different sensory perceptions: as most divers will tell you, it’s about discovering a different world. And that underwater world is beautiful, fascinating, stunning in its diversity and just off the beaches of this coast. You could say that the difference between snorkeling and diving is that the snorkeler remains an observer and the diver becomes a participant. Below the surface you become part of that underwater world and that is a thrill in itself.

It’s easy to become enthusiastic about diving before you’ve even tried it when you listen to Robin (Dive Master), Jessica (Dive Master) and Esteban (Instructor) describing diving with turtles, getting up close and personal with multicolored tropical fish, sponges and healthy coral reefs. Robin, Esteban, Jessica and Austin are passionate about what they do and they are the team that form Reef Runners.

Reef Runners was the first dive shop in Puerto Viejo, opening in 1997, so Reef Runners have been exploring the local reefs for 13 years now. One of two operating dive shops in this area Reef Runners has good relations with Punta Uva Dive and the friendly competitors regulate their prices to benefit both customers and operators. The current team run a tight ship at Reef Runners. Professional and efficient they are also approachable and friendly – and passionate about diving! Safety is paramount and equipment is new, maintained in good condition and regularly replaced. Robin, Jessica, Esteban and Austin all agree that the focus at Reef Runners is Customer Service with an emphasis on Quality rather than Quantity – which means that you won’t be one of the masses.

It’s 8.30am at Reef Runners on a Monday morning and the diving conditions are perfect: calm and sunny. The sea is like a bolt of blue silk laid out in front of us as we sip some coffee and prepare to leave for Uli Fish Reef.

There are 10 of us: 2 students taking the Advanced course with Austin (Instructor), 2 students taking the Open Water course with Esteban (Instructor), and a certified diver with his buddy.

The short boat trip is a pleasure in itself … Puerto Viejo from the water looks almost uninhabited. Kitted up, the divers disappear off the boat, returning with enthusiastic reports of great visibility (25 meters), colorful reef and myriad types of tropical fish. (Attention Divers: According to Robin, the best visibility on this coast is usually during May, end of August, all of September and most of October.) It’s been a good dive and we head back for a lunch of pizza and watermelon before the afternoon dive.

Chatting with Esteban and Robin back at Reef Runners (one of the prettiest views in town incidentally) I acknowledge that diving for them is a way of life, but what do they think makes diving special for the rest of us that do it occasionally? Esteban replies: “There are two answers to that: Land and Sea. Most places that offer good recreational diving are also beautiful places with much to offer visitors. And diving, you feel part of the environment you are in, rather than just a spectator. You move within that world rather than observing it from a distance.”

Reef Runners offers the diver plenty of choices:

• All PADI courses from Open Water up to and including Dive Master
• Recreational Dives for Certified Divers: 2 Tank dive including all equipment and lunch: US$ 90
• Discovery Dive: US$ 55

If you still don’t feel like getting up close and personal in the marine sense, Reef Runners offer other treats in and around the ocean: How about Dolphin-spotting off the coast at Manzanillo or taking a Sunset Booze Cruise followed by a beach barbecue? Naturally there are snorkeling trips to be had too: allow the experts to take you to the best spots and en-joy a boat trip too!

Drop by, have a look at their newly updated Tour book and have a chat – with a good soda right next door Reef Runners is a fun place to spend an hour or two.

If now, you’re even just a little bit curious about what it feels like to ‘fly’ underwater, be adventurous and try a Discovery Dive in the clear, warm Caribbean ocean.

Reef Runners can be contacted via their website www.reefrunnerdivers.com, by telephone at +506 2750 0480 or book online through Gecko Trail Adventures at www.GeckoTrail.com/tour.htm?tid=scuba

Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com

This Sunday, May 16, is census day in Panama.

Panama has an interesting census system that counts the entire country in one day. To do so, the government requires that everyone, even tourists, remain in the building where they slept that night until they are given a document confirming they have already been counted.

If you are in the street, you will be ticketed and possibly arrested and detained until counted. This applies to captains of the boats, drivers of minibuses and tourists, everyone.

As such, the entire country shuts down until this process is complete. Sort of like putting the whole country under house arrest, but is the only practical way for the government to count everyone in one day. Most people should be counted by noon, so that businesses can open and life can return to normal.

Shuttle and boat services from Panama to Puerto Viejo will therefore not operate on Sunday morning so travelers planning to leave that day will have to do so later in the day.

Caribe Shuttle which normally operates a morning service from Bocas del Toro to Puerto Viejo has advised that they will pickup passengers who are booked for that service for their afternoon service instead. Hotel pickups will begin at approximately 1:00pm.

A feature article in Sunday’s New York Times travel section has many locals and business owners talking optimistically about the future.

This article and others from publications which generally focus on higher end travelers such as Travel+Leisure Magazine,  Condé Nast Traveler or USA Today also make official what we’ve all been seeing for some time now: Puerto Viejo isn’t just for backpackers and surfers anymore!

The number of visitors to the Puerto Viejo Satellite and Talamanca News sites also indicates a strong interest. There were more than 20,000 visitors to the sites each month for the first three months of 2010!  Page views were 43,800 per month in this period (see the full traffic graph here).

Downtown Puerto Viejo, Dec 19, 2009. Photo by drewdomkus.

The Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels surveyed hotels around the country and the Caribbean hotels surveyed had a 100% occupancy rate. Other beach areas also reported very strong occupancy numbers although San Jose results were less positive.

Here at Puerto Viejo Satellite, the year also ended very strong with more visitors to the site than ever before: December ended with a record 15,735 different visitors coming to the website (32% over last Dec) and over 34,000 page views (37% over last Dec)!  That indicates a lot of potential visitors researching the area for the future vacation planning.  Of the visitors about 40% surfed the site from the United States, 10% from Canada, 26% from within Costa Rica and the remainder from the rest of the world.

The site also hit a new high ranking on the Alexa web tracking service; steadily rising through the rankings to break through into the world’s top 500,000 websites and is currently ranked 455,390. This is substantially higher traffic than any of the other Puerto Viejo area websites.

Why are these numbers significant?  Vacations always start with research and planning.  Bigger numbers can indicate more people are looking to plan their vacation on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  An informal survey shows that much of Puerto Viejo’s popularity has come at the expense of the traditional Pacific vacation crowd.  Despite decreased travelers overall due to economic slowdown, there continues to be a growing interest in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica.

We attribute this to our great community of users who over the year have left 100’s of comments on listings and on news articles and have helped us keep all our information current. There are now 204 places listed on the map: hotels, restaurants, stores, services, tours and more.  The site has also had a lot of new features added over the last year to keep up with the growing interest in the area and make one comprehensive place where visitors can find out everything they need to know about Puerto Viejo.

Here’s to a prosperous and safe 2010 for residents and visitors alike!

With it are expected to come some 20,000 visitors, 5,000 all the way from Europe.  Those visitors have reserved local hotels rooms from Limon to Manzanillo and are expected to spend an estimated $25,000,000 while in the area. The estimates are based on the amount of economic impact that the race had on Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 2007.

The race finished in Salvador de Bahia from its inception in 1993 to its last occurrence in 2007. The Costa Rican government is using these economic impacts to justify the investments they made to lure the race to Limon.

The biannual race is huge in Europe, considered one of the major sporting events of the year so will also bring lots of media attention and reporters to the area.

Transat route from La Havre France to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

More: La Nación: Regata dejará más de $25 millones en el país

Sitting at Chocorart looking out at magnificent rainforest I sipped my freshly made hot chocolate and sighed with pleasure… Chocolate and Humans were made for each other.

It’s the smell isn’t it, or is it the taste or the velvety feel of chocolate melting on your tongue? Ah, but it’s all of that and more. Our love affair with chocolate is an ongoing global passion … we give it as gifts, use it to express love or friendship and associate it with luxury. It’s indulgent, delicious, uplifting…chocolate makes you smile.

A tour around Chocorart in Playa Chiquita is a pleasure trip for the senses culminating in a wonderfully aromatic tasting session!

Following owner Marcos along woodland paths it wasn’t only the coloured cacao pods that caught our attention, but also the beauty of the surrounding forest, alive with butterflies and birds.

As we tasted the fruits of a cacao pod and chewed on a sliver of sugar cane there was a subtle aroma of chocolate wafting from cacao beans drying in the sun.

Meanwhile at the rancho Claudia had been busy….and on arrival we were presented with the purest hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Delicious, smooth and strong, it was a taste-bud sensation. As we listened to a little about the history of chocolate, Marcos crushed the beans and a heady perfume of chocolate filled the air.

No wonder the Aztecs considered chocolate as precious food for the Gods, using it in religious ceremonies and also in trade. And did you know that Costa Rica was the last country in the world to use cacao beans as currency? My mind drifts with the mouth-watering possibility of paying in chocolate…

Originally from Switzerland (also synonymous in my mind with chocolate) Marcos & Claudia are mines of information on ‘chocolatey facts’, having been farming their cacao plantation and creating organic chocolate here in Costa Rica for the past 15 years.

Their hand rolled chocolate batons, some with ingredients such as orange peel direct from their farm, are on sale in this area and further afield. Whenever I taste them I’m transported back to that fun sunny day that smelt of chocolate.

But before we leave, Claudia and Marcos have a final treat for us…A paste of organic chocolate and brown cane sugar with a slice of banana. It looks like the perfect chocolate mousse and tastes…yes, you guessed it: sublime.

There’s one little problem I should warn you about before you decide to take a Chocorart tour: you may find it very difficult in future to accept anything other than the purest in chocolate perfection. You have been warned: Once Tasted, Never Forgotten.

To take a guided tour of Chocorart:
Telephone: 2750 0075
Tour duration: Approximately 2 hours.
Advice: Wear closed shoes.
Price per person: US$22
Reduced rates for children: please inquire.
Spanish, English, French, Italian and German spoken.
Email: Chocorart@racsa.co.cr

Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com

Gecko Trail Adventures also offers a combination tour which includes a visit to a local indigenous Bri Bri family which grows their own Cacao and demonstrates the process of making chocolate from scratch as they’ve been doing it for generations. You can get details on that tour here.

The prices are only available for tickets booked on their website by Sept 15 for travel completed by Oct 31 and is subject to availability. But there are real tickets for sale on this deal: I did a quick search for a flight between San Jose and Tortuguero in September and sure enough a $15 flight was offered.

Go to www.natureair.com, put in your flight search details and look for the “Locos” fare category.

Remember that these are small prop planes with strict luggage limits of 30 pounds (13.6 kg) per person. If you exceed this, expect to pay more for your excess luggage than you paid for  your ticket!

Angelina Jolie stretched out a delicate hand and gripped mine tightly. I was enchanted. After all it’s not every day that you meet a star. Impressively beautiful but also graceful, her charisma was palpable.

As she wound her tail around my neck and swung upside down I wondered if her namesake has the same ‘star presence’… For the Angelina Jolie I met lives in Playa Chiquita, not Hollywood, but like her namesake, is surrounded by stars – of the Rainforest.

At Jaguar, Rescue Centre for the Protection and Conservation of Wild Fauna of Costa Rica, orphaned, mistreated, injured and confiscated animals are brought to heal and/or grow before being reintroduced where possible, back into their natural habitat in protected areas.

Young smiley sloths with Blanca, the famous ‘Barefoot Vet’

Angelina Jolie and friends are lovingly looked after by the owners of Jaguar, Encar & Sandro who are ably assisted by this coast’s own ‘Barefoot Vet’, Blanca, and enthusiastic volunteers. Encar & Sandro created Jaguar to fulfill a need and it has become their passion and indeed a way of life. Totally committed to conservation and rehabilitation, Encar & Sandro can be found surrounded by an ever changing ‘galaxy of stars’. For a guided visit please telephone 2750 0710 or you can book a tour online through Gecko Trail Adventures which includes transport and other area spots of interest.

Amanda, dreaming up some new seductive moves.

Your donation of minimum US$10 will go in entirety to caring for their stars of the rainforest.

Angelina Jolie may be one of the newer stars, but she shares the stage with an impressive cast. Amanda, a flirtatious kinkajou with an eye for a good looking man, is a permanent resident. With three feet instead of four, she lives at Jaguar and practises her seduction techniques on visiting men.

Hollywood stars often claim that working with children or animals is to sacrifice their share of the limelight and certainly the ‘baby stars’ at Jaguar steal the show.

The baby stars at Jaguar may be adorable but the ‘dangerous’ stars have an appeal all their own. Ever seen a Margay up close? Stunningly beautiful, fantastically feline and deceptively cute, try and resist the temptation to play with them…they’re wilder and stronger than they look!

Eyelash Palm Pitviper

And last, but certainly not least, are the creepy, slithery stars that can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck if you come across one unexpectedly…The Snakes.

Venomous and non-venomous, Jaguar’s snakes are reassuringly housed so that you can see them up close without fear. But perhaps after listening to Encar or Sandro you might feel quite differently about the Snaky Stars and applaud their efforts to breed endangered snake species to reintroduce into the wild.

So the next time you’re in the area, give Jaguar centre a ring and visit some of the ‘stars of the rainforest’… you’ll be helping to protect the wildlife of Costa Rica and enchantment is guaranteed.

Amanda enjoys a snack from a volunteer and Sandro	A baby raccoon cuddling up with brothers and sisters
Baby Ginger monkey with cool dude hairdo	Tigrili, the Margay, on the lookout for a game at Jaguar Centre
Gianni the owl at Jaguar Centre	Terciopelo / Fer de Lance at Jaguar Centre

All photos taken at Jaguar Centre and used by kind permission.

1. Cannon Beach, Oregon
2. Tulum, Mexico
3. Placencia, Belize
4. Morro de Sao Paulo, Brazil
5. Negril, Jamaica
6. Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
7. Cape Ann, Massachusetts
8. Huntington Beach, California
9. Outer Banks, North Carolina
10. Destin, Florida

We think we’re #1  but we’ll take the compliment! You can read the article here.

With average $250 a night rates, its also in a price class by itself.

A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World association, they offer a pool, spa, rooms with lighting which can change with your mood, restaurant and bar.

You can make reservations inquiries here.

Pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words, so here are a few:

Reception and Lobby

Room

Pool