# Things to Do Nearby

> Restaurants, shops, and outings in Playa Chiquita & Puerto Viejo

Playa Chiquita and the surrounding stretch of the Caribbean coast — Cocles, Puerto Viejo, Manzanillo — are packed with small, owner-run restaurants, beach bars, cafés, organic markets, surf shops, and reggae spots. Walk to Selvin's for Caribbean rice & beans, bike into Puerto Viejo for nightlife, or head south to the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge. We keep a current list of favourites at reception and the AI assistant can give live tips by season.

## A sample week at the lodge

Guests often ask what a week here actually looks like. There's no fixed itinerary and none of this is a package — it's simply the rhythm that seems to make people happiest, assembled from the outings reception arranges most often. Ask us to set up any of it, in any order.

- Day 1 · Arrive — our private shuttle from San José, with a lunch stop en route. Keys, a barefoot walk to the beach, dinner in Punta Uva.
- Day 2 · Settle in — a morning yoga class when Pamela's classes are running, then nothing more ambitious than the 300 metres of beachfront.
- Day 3 · Cahuita — snorkel the reef with a licensed local guide in the morning, then walk the park's shoreline trail before heading back.
- Day 4 · Iguanas — the Iguana Conservation Tour here on the property (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), with a massage at the lodge in the afternoon.
- Day 5 · Macaws — visit the Ara Project's release station in the hills above Manzanillo, the program that bred the Great Green Macaw back onto this coast; the birds are a common sight again. Ask reception to confirm current visiting times.
- Day 6 · The big day out — white-water rafting on the Pacuare, a canopy tour in the rainforest, or a two-hour Caribbean chocolate workshop a short walk from the lodge gate.
- Day 7 · Departure — shuttle back to San José; some guests break the trip with a rafting run on the way.