Caribbean Living ~Managing a hostel and restaurant in Costa Rica

Managing a hostel and restaurant on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast

We spend 2 months looking after a little hostel and restaurant named ‘Funky Manza Pizza’ in Manzanillo, a small town at the end of the road on the Caribbean beach.

In the beginning we were working a lot, and stressing a bit, about the business and the quality of our pizzas -the main delicacy of the restaurant.
But after a few weeks we managed to let go of our fears, and relaxed more in Caribbean paradise whilst being responsible for a business 

We spend lots of time getting to know the Caribbean flora and fauna, and went on little trips with new friends. We went on a boat ride with Sherman, a local guide, spotted dolphins, and explored permaculture farm Punta Mona www.puntamona.org
And we went to amazing waterfalls near Bribri with our friend Thomas.

Fermentalicious

We hosted a few workshops on fermentation of foods and drinks at Funky Manza Pizza, which were mainly frequented by the many expats living in this part of the world.

And we facilitated more workshops, at ‘Botanica Organica’ an organic restaurant down the road, and a wellness center named ‘Tierra de Suenos’ in Playa Chiquita.
This center is quite interesting; it is a beautiful calm place, run by Dr. Greg Damato and his wife Hillary. People come to learn about (raw) food, detox and.. yeah, wow, it sounds a bit much writing this, but we saw a guy come in severely ill with cancer, and over the course of several month we saw him grow healthier, with a (radical) change of diet, fasting, sauna, yoga, enema’s, massages, and more..! It is amazing to see what we can do for our health by making conscious choices and changing our behaviour!!
Dr. Greg Damato’s website is: www.mindbodywellness.com.au

 

Nature Observatorio Treehouse

We had the opportunity to visit one of the most extra ordinary houses; a treehouse suspended from a huge tree, in the midst of the Talamanca rainforest.
Peter Garcar, an engineer, built this structure with the help of a team of indigenous people, hanging from the tree’s branches, 25 meters of the ground.

We hiked a few kilometres into the jungle and climbed up into the tree house using ropes…

We spend a magical 2 hours in the house, and watched rain soaked the forest, animals took shelter, and came out again. We counted a tucan, a troop howler monkeys, a curacoa (bird), a mob of spider monkeys and more..!

Peter’s set up is a new type of tourism, actually, it is a mix between tourism and scientific research.. Scientourism? Or tourscience? However you call it, he takes people up there to observe nature, and if they want, to spend the night in the midst of the rainforest, in the actual canopy!
For us it was an amazing experience and we feel very inspired by Peter’s work. The website of the Nature Observatorio:  www.natureobservatorio.com

 

People that came to visit

We met a lot of nice people whilst we were in Manzanillo.
The restaurant and hostel are at the end of the road, and it never gets super busy, which was GREAT as it allowed us to get to know the people that came to eat and/or stay.

For example, Juan and Alberto, two guys from Paraguy who just finished their masters in the USA decided to travel back home over land in a van. They stayed a few days, sharing about their journey, Paraguy, playing music and lots of laughs.
Their website is: http://unviajealinterior.org/

We spotted Uli and Bine with their bicycles at the beach front of our place and offered them a bed in the hostel for the night.
~Whilst we were cycling we had many people offering us a bed, and it was GREAT to be able to offer this in return!
They shared some inspiring stories of their experience cycling all over the world, presently they are in Columbia.
Their website is: http://www.pedalglobal.net/

Our friend Tom, who we met last year in Haiti, had just completed a bicycle journey around South America and he came to stay 2 weeks to help out, share stories and enjoy the Caribean.
His cycling blog with amazing pictures is:
http://wheelingitsouthamerica.blogspot.com/

Mucho Amor!
<3