Costa Rica often gets a bad rap as the most expensive country in Central America. There is some truth to that, but you can still find $10 a night hostels, $2 beers and a wealth of free sunshine, white beaches and clear water off the Puerto Viejo s coastline in Costa Rica s southern Caribbean.
You ll know you ve reached Puerto Viejo as you come around the curve of Playa Negra arching its back against the Caribbean coastline. There, near the entrance of town, an old barge sits anchored where the coal black sands of Playa Negra swirl with the ground quartz and sea shells of Playa Chino. A single tree grows from the barge. Though still a sapling, its foliage has the thick green leaves of a coastal almond. A handful of locals often sit on the barge s edge with fishing lines dipped into the Caribbean s turquoise waters, like a painting, like it s all part of some forgotten paradise sitting at the edge of the world.