After leaving Guatemala City then flying over El Salvador and
Nicaragua, we landed into San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica and waited in a
long queue to clear Immigration. It was in
this queue we began to understand how popular Costa Rica is with Americans.
They were everywhere!
Before we go any further, a few introductory comments about this
post because having reached Costa Rica… we changed modes away from mainly history,
culture and antiquities to concentrating on wildlife and outdoor experiences.
So let’s get started because a LOT happened and is the reason
Costa Rica will be covered via 2 posts. Costa
Rica was a 15-day immersion and in that time we visited 5 National Parks or
wildlife reserves, hence the title for this post.
Let me also apologise up front for some of the photos, which may
look a little grainy or ‘soft’ caused by a technical fault with the main longer
zoom lens we use, leading to over 95% of the photos taken being trashed on some
days… unfortunately, but no excuses.
Here are 2 maps; the first shows Costa Rica in overall context with
Guatemala and the 2nd with a closer view of the now familiar route
map of our actual travels.
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| Guatemala City to San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Our travels within Costa Rica |
A little bit about Costa Rica first because it’s different to
most other Central American countries.
Whilst it did come under Spanish rule, it received less attention from
them because it had a very sparse indigenous population and a lack of gold and
silver. It gained sovereignty in 1847, had
a brief but very bloody civil war in 1948 which lead to the permanent
abolishment of its army in 1949, one of very few sovereign countries in the
world without a standing army.
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| Locals enjoying the Caribbean coast beach |
Costa Rica has a great reputation for being both a happy place along with having very progressive environmental policies, including having an actual plan for being carbon neutral by 2021.
Tourism, especially eco-tourism, is a major focus for this rugged rain forested country with long sand rich beaches and coastlines on both the Caribbean and Pacific.
Consequently, they have many National Parks and hence the reason we were visiting.
After an overnight stay in San Jose, we boarded a bus with ~40
other people and Diego, our guide, for the 2.5hr trip, first through the very rugged
Braulio Carrillo Nat. Park before stopping to board a boat for another 1.5hr
trip through narrow mangrove lined, but very shallow channels caused by drought. Our destination was Laguna Lodge and our
first park… Tortuguero National Park.
Laguna Lodge is located outside of this 312 km2 park,
but visitors are not allowed to physically set foot on it, so ALL our visits
within the park confines would be made on boats. Accommodation in the Lodge was in comfortable
but rustic, non-air-conditioned cabins, but the fan on the wall did get regular
use due to the now constant humidity and heat. There was also a large, albeit
warm swimming pool, that provided welcome respite.
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| Iguana on roof of dining area |
Here we were in the jungle but also surrounded by vast amounts of water, which lead to the inevitable question of our guide Diago, “are the many mosquitos around here?”
“No mosquitoes, we are in drought,” he said as if he had answered this question thousands of times before which he probably has. He was also right!
In, on and around the Lodge there was constant wildlife to
observe, including our first views of many large prehistoric looking iguanas up
in trees or walking around the lodge’s lawn areas, diminutive hummingbirds
flitting amongst flowers in the gardens or the constant variety of other birds.
Each boat held between 14-16 visitors, a driver and a guide, but
was un-covered which meant by 7am we were beginning to slowly bake in the
rapidly increasing heat, so everyone had plenty of water and sunscreen on.
various lizard species like the Jesus lizard because as we saw,
it actually can run across water…
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| The sort of boats we used each morning |
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| enjoying a very serene kayak |
It
was very different to other wildlife experiences as we slowly cruised along the
waterways amongst thick surrounding jungle, stopping to observe the many water
birds…
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| aaah... breakfast |
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| We got too close to this Jesus lizard... |
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| ...so it literally ran across the water to get away |
howler monkeys whose screech can be heard kilometres away, and are
regarded as the 2nd loudest animal on the planet, the first being
the blue whale…
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| howler monkey making its presence felt |
and caimans, a small form of alligator to name but a
few.
Each water based safari lasted for
~3 hours and was a truly delightful experience, which hopefully the link to
additional photos at the end of this post will attest to.
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| a caiman trying to hide less then 1mtr away from the boat |
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| Passenger boat negotiating a deeper channel |
Everyone’s luggage was solely transferred using a smaller boat whilst the boat transferring just passengers, had to constantly ‘squirm’ its way along the channels and regularly lift the propeller to avoid jamming it in the mud beneath us.
Lorna had specifically asked Diego to try and find us a sloth to
look at and on our way out of the park to the bus pick up berth, he delivered
on his promise, pointing up into a tree on the side of the channel, a sloth,
calmly hanging upside down peering back at us.
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| a 3 toed sloth just hanging around |
It took us 4 hours to drive to the town of La Fortuna where we
would base ourselves for a few days to visit Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve, located very close to the border with
Nicaragua. Not too far in the distance we could also the classic cone shape of a large volcano… but more on that later.
We also had a free morning in La Fortuna, so we organised a taxi
to take us to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park to
walk the 3.2kms of track through the rainforest looking for wildlife, which
included crossing 16 hanging bridges of varying lengths.
It was in this park we experienced our first rainfall for the trip, as the build up to the next wet season increased.
It was in this park we experienced our first rainfall for the trip, as the build up to the next wet season increased.
On the way to Mistico, we passed an accident,
which had just happened, involving a car running off the wet road and down into
an almost vertical ravine, the bloodied but okay driver being looked after by
others who had stopped.
On our return
journey in the same taxi, a 4WD, we reached a roadblock at the same location as
the police and a tow truck were now trying to extract the vehicle, without much
success. Every time the truck tried, the
wrecked car tried to drag it back towards the ravine to join it!
We waited and waited, then a local in
the crowd, came up with the idea of chaining the front of our taxi to the tow
truck, so it could help pull the truck whilst it tried to pull the car out and back
onto the road. Most of our little group stayed in the taxi as it pulled when the truck pulled, and it did make the difference when out popped the car. Health and safety is a bit relaxed in most of these countries.
That same afternoon we did a hike up to
an observation area overlooking the still active Arenal Volcano, the cone
described earlier, which last erupted in 1998.
On July 29, 1968 the volcano also violently erupted and
continued for several days, burying over 15kms2 under rocks, lava
and ash, killing 87 people and burying 3 small villages – Tabacón, Pueblo Nuevo
and San Luís. The inhabitants who were killed
are still entombed where they died.
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| Arenal Volcano |
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| bat line |
There was plenty to look at yet again as
our boat cruised slowly northwards through the very still waters, a small sign
in Spanish next to a fence line being ignored along the way.
It wasn’t until we had returned to La Fortuna and loaded our GPS plot for the day did we discover we had actually crossed the border into Nicaragua for .5kms.
It wasn’t until we had returned to La Fortuna and loaded our GPS plot for the day did we discover we had actually crossed the border into Nicaragua for .5kms.
The next park on our itinerary… Monteverde Cloud Forest, a very special destination for our small
group, but to get to it proved an interesting journey.
First we were picked up at our hotel in La Fortuna and
transported the 15kms to Lake Arenal where we carried our bags down a rocky
dirt track to a boat and travelled across the lake, climbing up another rocky
dirt path to a small, non air-conditioned local bus, for the slow climb on a
rough dirt road to Monteverde.
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| Making our way down to boat for trip across Lake Arenal |
Doesn’t sound too bad does it!
Well the distance from where we disembarked from the boat to Monteverde
was ~23kms, it was a steep and bumpy dirt road, the temperature was 30+C,
humidity 90+% but all the windows had to be open… no air-conditioning remember,
which meant a lovely layer of dust settling all over us. And how long did it take to cover ~23kms… a
mere 2 hours.
Monteverde resides at an altitude of 1,440mtrs and as a result,
was the coldest place we visited with temperatures ‘plunging’ to 15C at night,
which was a nice relief, but it wasn’t the weather that made this location
special, it was our quest to find Quetzals.
“What are quetzals?” you might be asking. They are a bird, but not just any bird
because many regard them as perhaps one of the most beautiful birds in the
world and they are now only found in humid highlands areas like Monteverde.
Amongst the additional photos with the ‘Hola’ post is this photo
of the headdress used by the Mayan ruler, Pacal the Great and it was made from
the feathers of a lot of quetzals.
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| Pascal the Great's quetzal adorned headress |
To try and achieve our quetzal goal, we first visited the 486
hectare Selvatura Park, which has as part of its attractions, treetop walkways both through and above the rainforest using a series of 8 suspension
bridges, connected by trails totaling 3kms in length. The bridges were very impressive locations to view the ecosystem we were immersed within, and they range from 50mtrs to 170mtrs in length and are suspended from heights ranging from 12mtrs to 60mtrs above the jungle.
We had a guided tour along the walkways and
it was from one of the trails we caught the first distant glimpse of our
quarry, a beautiful male quetzal, and its 2 long colourful feathers streaming
down from its back… what a truly stunning looking bird.
Then as quickly as we saw it, it took off into the forest. After walking a little further down the track from the others, I saw it again, this time directly above me, its long feathers floating in the breeze behind it as the camera went crazy. Then it was gone, yet again!
Then as quickly as we saw it, it took off into the forest. After walking a little further down the track from the others, I saw it again, this time directly above me, its long feathers floating in the breeze behind it as the camera went crazy. Then it was gone, yet again!
We all donned our special harnesses and
hard hats, signed our lives away and had photos taken before climbing into a
small van for a short drive higher into Selvatura Park to climb a ladder to have our first ever go at zip-lining!
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| ...what have we done!! |
So lets understand the experience we all
actually completed, even though half of us were very uncomfortable with
heights. Our zip-line canopy ‘tour’ took
nearly 3hrs to complete and consisted of walking to, then climbing onto
platforms, being hooked up, before hurtling through the jungle to repeat this
again, along 13 zip-lines. The shortest zip-line was 72mtrs and the 2 longest were 650mtrs and 1,000mtrs, yes you’re reading this correctly, 1km long!
For each zip-line, a pulley and other
clips attach you to a thick cable. Then
you sit down, all your weight being taken up by the harness and sensitive
‘bits’ being squeezed in un-natural ways, cross your legs, lean backwards with
one leather gloved hand loosely circling the cable behind you to stop any
spinning.
The attendant at each tower then
smiled… a knowing smile of what lay ahead for us and you’re off!
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| Rob disappearing into the jungle |
The first few zip-lines were a blur due
to fear and trying not to spin, but soon most of us were able to look out and
down at the scenery as it whizzed past, being brought back to reality as the
task of stopping at the other end quickly loomed, usually in the motivational form
of a large tree trunk.
The 2 longest zip-lines involved a
different method; we had to go in pairs!
Rob was hooked up first and then I stepped behind her and was also connected
to the cable before we both sat down and my feet were placed under Rob’s armpits
for her to hang onto.
We were then instructed to lie back before being released for our trip into the open air above the dense jungle below.
We were then instructed to lie back before being released for our trip into the open air above the dense jungle below.
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| All hooked up and ready for the 1km zip-line |
We were really enjoying the speed, the views, and the whole experience but as we sadly neared the end of the cable, that whirring sound and our speed rapidly diminished, joined by a concerning sagging sensation in the cable.
Then it happened! About 40mtrs from the end we actually came to
a stop, the 2 of us peacefully hanging on the cable above the jungle with
nowhere to go. Now what do we do? Very quickly one of the attendants was hooked
onto our cable and came rolling down to us, the sag in the cable making this very
easy indeed.
Till then I didn’t know this person
could even speak English but he could when he said, “senor, you need to help”,
help… help with what. With both our
hands respectively on the cable, we hauled ourselves hand over hand for what
seemed like 400mtrs as Rob enjoyed a nice rest.
3 times we had to stop, catch our breath and recover, feeling totally
stuffed when we were finally un-clipped from the cable for the last time. It wasn’t very long though before a sense of
euphoria took over after such an exhilarating total experience.
Whilst our day was not yet complete, this
is probably a nice place to halt until Part 2. of Parks, Parks & more Parks.
Just click on the link below if
you want to see a few more photos covering the first part of Costa Rica:
Till then… go well!
Sensational photos Darian - particularly love the hummingbird ones! So glad your quetzal quest was successful too - what a beautiful bird. And best of all, now I know who to go to ask "do you know the way to San Jose"... (sorry - it just had to be done)
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