Now I did warn you… a LOT happened in Costa Rica.
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| Green viper |
So with the euphoria of quetzal sightings and zip-lining still surging
through us, that day in Monteverde was not yet over because we booked ourselves
on a night walk into the jungle.
We
joined other visitors making a group of around 12 of us to receive the guides
briefing, before setting off and the big messages were, stay together and do
not go off the track.
Why… very simply…
snakes, very poisonous snakes, especially in scrub near tracks or in
trees.
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| Tarantula |
Night walks or safaris can be very hit and miss having done them
before, but tonight we were in for a real treat and it wasn’t very long before having to take turns peering into a hollow log, the legs of a tarantula beckoning us to come
closer.
The deeper we walked into the jungle, more wildlife kept
appearing in the form of a toucan sleeping above us, a scorpion glowing under
the glare of ultra violet light, fireflies flittering all around us, tiny frogs
with red eyes trying to hide and a coiled green viper in a tree above us as the
guide had warned.
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| Red eyed frog |
It was first hard to spot amongst the tree branches and then we
were surprised at how quickly it moved but we soon learned why.
It was a 3 toed sloth and a mother at that,
because occasionally on her chest we could spot her baby sloth peering into the
darkness. What a delight!
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| 3 toed sloth and baby |
Even with limited rest after the previous nights wildlife walk, at
6:00am we were collected by our privately hired local guide to head back into
the rainforest looking for more quetzals.
With the sun having just risen, we quietly walked down a path, the guide
pointing out a few small common birds when suddenly he cocked his head to one
side, a weird noise grabbing his attention.
“We are going to have to run, seriously, we have to run NOW!”
and with that he took off down the path.
Run… who said anything about running and then we saw it, another quetzal
male and yep… it wasn’t long after, we spotted this glorious birds mate,
sitting quietly in another tree, both of them calmly looking down at their
excited observers, us.
Then they were off,
weaving their way amongst the trees and were gone… wow!
The rest of the day was used to simply chill out before again
being picked up for our transfer to Quepos in the Puntarenas district on the
west coast of Costa Rica. We were to
stay for a few days and visit the coastal Manuel Antonio National Park. Our hotel here was located not far from the
beach, so it wasn’t long before we were all enjoying a swim in the Pacific
Ocean.
It was obvious when we reached the park’s entry gate next
morning, we were yet again in for a new experience, a national park filled with
people, lots and lots of people and most of them not overly interested in
wildlife.
Our guide explained that because of the parks location next to beautiful beaches and with the need for constant funding to maintain all the parks within Costa Rica, people pay to enter the park to reach a stunning beach located well inside it.
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| Manuel Antonio National Park |
Our guide explained that because of the parks location next to beautiful beaches and with the need for constant funding to maintain all the parks within Costa Rica, people pay to enter the park to reach a stunning beach located well inside it.
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| Locals enjoying the beach inside Manuel Antonio National Park |
We joined a few hundred people walking through what was quite a beautiful area, us looking for wildlife, the others looking for the beach and surprised when they saw some wildlife.
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| Basilisk lizard |
We did see some worthwhile animals like more lizards, a snake and another
sloth, this time a 2 toed sloth watching over its baby curled up in a nearby
tree.
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| 2 toed sloth & baby |
Also for the first time back near our hotel, we also observed
the diminutive squirrel monkey, a new species for us.
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| Squirrel monkey |
With the heat and humidity constantly sapping our energy, the
rest of the day we joined hundreds of others swimming or resting under the
shade of the palms on the beach near the hotel.
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| Beach in front of hotel at Quepos |
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| Las Bolas - perfect spheres |
Our transfer next morning was fast, not in terms of the time
taken, but for the speed we were travelling, south again along the massive Pan
Pacific Highway, the same we also traversed in Mexico.
There was one brief stop to look at one of
the world’s great-unsolved archaeological mysteries, Las Bolas or almost
perfectly round stone spheres, some weighing up to 15 tons.
Two of the 300 existing were sitting in a
park, their true makers and purpose unknown, but its thought they were created
around 1,000 AD in the original quarry over 80kms away and it begs the
question, how did they move them there.
We arrived at our pick up point in Sierpe for yet another boat
ride and our driver quickly found the owner of this transfer service, who told
us where to leave our bags to be loaded onto a large boat sporting 2 big outboards
motors. Soon there were at least 20 of
us sitting on bench seats as we departed, not really knowing just what was in
store for us.
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| Charging past another speeding boat at 77kph |
Those outboard motors were good, as we sped past other smaller
transfer boats at 77kph whilst weaving back and forth along snake like
channels, which slowly widened as we progressed.
An hour had passed when the skipper blabbered
something in Spanish, which others obviously understood, because life jackets were rapidly being donned. We followed
suit but why put them on now?
The waves ahead soon provided the answer, as we charged headlong
towards the mouth of what was now a river…
we were going out to sea! The
boat did gratefully slow down as the skipper skilfully picked his way through
and around the breaking waves and once clear, our speed picked up for a bumpy
ride down the coast.
So what location were we visiting this time? Our destination was the 424km2
Corcovado National Park, a very important place because it is regarded as one
of the most bio diverse regions in the world, with National Geographic
labelling it as the ‘most biologically intense place on earth’. Special indeed!
Corcovado is a lot harder to reach as you will soon understand,
but more excitement was to come as we neared our destination for 4 nights,
Rancho Corcovado, located in Drake Bay, named after that English pirate Francis
Drake, who operated in this area. We had
got into the rhythm of this ride when our boat made a rapid turn towards the
shore, now what was going on? Some words
were again mumbled in Spanish, two large bags retrieved from the storage area
up front and 2 people behind us took off their life jackets then shoes and next
rolled their pant legs up!
With the boat now very close to shore, it spun around in the
waves pointing the nose back out to sea and then started reversing towards the
open beach, a building visible in the trees and some people standing on the
shoreline waiting. There came a point
where the boat could reverse no further for risk of either being beached or the
motors digging into the sand.
The 2 people with backpacks now on and holding their shoes and
anything else, stepped off the boat into the sea, the people who had been
waiting on the beach grabbing their larger bags, lifting them onto their
shoulders as everyone headed towards the beach, small waves rushing in around
them.
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| The 2 Robs wading to shore |
All 6 of us looked at each other with both a look of incredulity and
the same thought… were we going to have to do the same and the simple answer
was… yep!
Five minutes later, the boat again did its spin in the waves and
reversed towards the shore as we rapidly removed life jackets, hiked pants up
and put backpacks on as our luggage was also hauled out of storage.
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| Geoff, Lorna & luggage coming to shore |
Now whilst the waves and water wasn’t too
deep, we did have to ‘launch’ ourselves off the back of the boat from a small
platform as it bucked around in the waves.
So the real challenge was not to step as the boat rose up in the surf,
the risk being we would end up face down in the water, our cameras destined for
a very salty wash.
We all made it off successfully, including our luggage being
carried for us, and walked up towards Rancho Corcovado sitting in amongst the
trees and palms, right on the edge of the beach, a truly stunning
location. We were greeted warmly by the
manager and shown where we could wash the sand off our feet, before then being
briefed on how everything works. All our
rooms were excellent, with views to the sea and very importantly, were air-conditioned. We also discovered there was a local village
up a hill behind us and that the beach was very safe to swim at.
Perhaps the photo below will provide some sense of what this
wonderful location had to offer as we settled down for our first open air
dinner.
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| Sunset over Drake Bay |
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| Rob hanging on in choppy seas for 1.5hrs |
After picking up 2 other passengers, again straight off the beach further down the coast, we headed out to sea for a very very bumpy 1.5hr trip along the coast before yet again picking our way through quite large waves for the now familiar ‘quick spin’ near the shore and stepping into the sea.
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| Dragging lunch off the boat after landing in Corcovado Nat. Park |
We were the last group to leave, just our guide and the 6 of us, the first task being to walk 2kms to a Ranger Station to check in, before exploring this magnificent park properly.
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| Crimson crested woodpecker |
We watched him in the distance and soon he returned saying, “ I have been looking for tapir in a favourite wallow they like to use”.
Suddenly out of the jungle walked a man wearing a khaki Ranger uniform,
a gun on his hip, and some sort of badge on his shirt. He walked straight to our guide, ignoring the
rest of us and started yabbering to him in Spanish and a little distance behind
him, appeared another man dressed in black, a machinegun held in front and
wearing a cap with the word ‘Police’ on it!
What on earth was going on we thought.
As quickly as they had appeared, our guide solemnly informed us
we had to immediately go to the Ranger Station and that we were in trouble. In trouble… why were we in trouble. So off we went in single file, the gun-toting
Ranger in front with the machine gun armed policeman behind me at the back!
Outside the Ranger Station, the other tourists we had seen on
the beach were all hanging around, some talking in a somewhat angry manner, our
guide not sharing much with us. “What is
going on?” we asked another visitor. “We
think we’re all being expelled from the park!” she replied. What!!!
All the guides had been called into a meeting with the Rangers,
so it was up to the other tourists to explain what had happened. It is apparently common practice for all the
guides to detour off the main path from the beach on the way to the Ranger Station
and look for tapirs. However, the rules
in the park as we now learned, are that everyone must stay on the main
paths and not make detours down side paths.
We couldn’t even tell the difference between main and side paths.
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| Walking through Corcovado Nat. Park |
Our guide returned and explained the same thing and almost tried to blame us for asking him to find a tapir and we soon told him we had not asked him to break the rules, especially considering as his clients, we weren’t briefed on what any of the rules were anyway.
With that, a few in our party found the Head Ranger and tried to
argue they were punishing us for something the guides were doing. It did not seem to compute in his mind that
the guides should be punished in some way after the fact, for example, suspend
them from being able to enter the park… but punish the visitors!!
It did not change the decision to expel everyone, he did however
allow us to walk back to the beach along a longer path, but we needed to go
immediately.
It was very hot and humid and when added to the sheer annoyance we were all feeling, it wasn’t long before all of us were soaking in sweat. We were able to see a little wildlife including spider monkeys and a deer on the way back, but our visit to this beautiful and very special place was over, with none of us ever likely to return. Our sense of disappointment and frustration was palpable.
It was very hot and humid and when added to the sheer annoyance we were all feeling, it wasn’t long before all of us were soaking in sweat. We were able to see a little wildlife including spider monkeys and a deer on the way back, but our visit to this beautiful and very special place was over, with none of us ever likely to return. Our sense of disappointment and frustration was palpable.
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| White tailed deer |
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| Spider monkey hanging around |
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| Boarding a boat for trip to Isla del Cano |
There were colourful fish everywhere, a sea turtle deciding to pop up for a breath right in amongst the middle of us and admiring some reef sharks asleep on the bottom.
By now we were becoming quite relaxed about beach landings.
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| Beach on Isla del Cano |
The last full day in Corcovado finally delivered a real treat
for us in the form of multiple, lengthy and very noisy sightings of the
fabulous scarlet macaws, local to the area.
The ones we saw were always in pairs, enjoying the ripe bounty on many fruit
trees growing along the coastline. We
watched them for hours feeding in the trees above us but not overly concerned
by our presence but their magnificent colours were fully on display when they
flew from tree to tree.
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| Feeding macaw |
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| Cavorting macaws |
Our time in Corcovado was up as we made yet another beach
departure and despite being expelled from the Park, would highly recommend this
location for people looking for something very different. The return journey back down the coast and
through the mouth of the river was very benign this time as the sea was flat
and soon we were disembarking and looking for our next driver for a trip to yet
another border.
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| Last night on beach at Rancho Corcovado |
So if you want to see a few extra final photos of Costa Rica then
just click the link below.
CLICK HERE for more photos 2017 Costa Rica Part 2.
CLICK HERE for more photos 2017 Costa Rica Part 2.
Go well!
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