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Up at 5:08 a.m. Breakfast, more gallo pinto & eggs which makes me happy because I love it. We walked to the beach with Emilio (the owner of our place, who packed us a nice lunch & helped us carry it to the boat). We waded through waves on shore to the boat, off to Corcovado National Park this morning to find some jungle animals hopefully. Along the way our guide, Elia, pointed out from the boat where the park began, then we spent another 30-45 minutes in the boat, going fast, along the coastline before we got to the park entrance. It is a humongous park! That wasn't the entire length of the park either, just the point at which we were getting off the boat! The park entrance is on the beach, where you have to wade out of the boat to the shore carrying your stuff. Awesome! What's funny is that we booked this trip through Emilio & ended up with just us & the Belgians (who are staying at Emilio's sisters' hotel). We're spending our whole time here with the Belgians so far. We all got a good laugh out of it when we walked up to
the beach & they were already on the boat.
We began our walk through the jungle in rubber boots that Emilio loaned to us. We saw Secondary & Primary Jungle. We saw 4 species of monkeys: Howler, Spider, White face, Squirrel & 2 species of snakes: Eyelash pit viper, Black tailed boa (whose exact name we can't remember). We saw Toucans, Scarlet Macaws, Green Parrots, Turkey Vultures, Turkeys, a group of Wild Pigs that looked like Boars, a couple different Anole Lizards (splaying out their orange neckwear), A Cayman (like a mini Crocodile), the back of a Sloth (who wouldn't turn around to look at us, lazy bum!), the biggest shiniest blue butterfly I've ever seen (it had to have a 5-6 inch wingspan), a Dragonfly that had 4 seperate wings that looked like they formed boxes (he also had a 4-6 inch winspan), & a lot of ants, mosquitos, butterflies, lizards & some fish in the river. We walked for at least 6 hours seeing & hearing monkeys the entire time. Of course we only brought 2 small sandwiches & a bottle of water. Oops. When will we learn. We probably each sweat out about 7 gallons of
water. Thank goodness we were covered by dense jungle because the sun was really hot & the humidity without the sun was much more tolerable. Crazy heat & humidity (I guess that's why it's the jungle). We had our lunch next to a river & we all just sat there & stared at it. Another guide shared his homemade chocolate chip cookies with us. We must have looked a little pathetic. But I think they may have saved our life (at least they gave us energy for the 45 minute walk back to the boat)! We then waited by the shore for the boat to find the exact right moment to get to the shore to quickly pick us up. It is really an artform watching these captains manage the boat, the waves, us gringos getting on the boat with all our crap. Pretty impressive for sure. On the way home we stopped to watch a beautiful waterfall that emptied right into the ocean. We saw a green turtle in the water from the boat. So much green jungle everywhere! It's incredible & unlike anything I've ever seen. Dense, dense jungle as far as the eye can see & for
Another view from the boat.
I just love the color of the water.as long as we were on the boat. It was Amazing.
We arrived at our beach & began our short walk home. Almost immediately after getting onto land we walked by a tree with 2 Scarlet Macaws sitting & squaking in it & they were sooo close to us. At this point we ate our second set of sandwiches that Emilio had made for us but for some reason we left them behind on the boat like dummies. We are starving & they were the best simplest sammies ever! 😉 Julie & Barron had just returned from the beach & we sat & chatted with them for a bit until they left in search of a snack.
We sat in our plastic chairs & talked (for a very long time) about our 4 favorite places we've been so far. It started out as our 3 favs but we both decided we couldn't narrow it down to 3. Mine (from 1st to 4th): Little Corn, Bay Islands, Cayos Cochinos, Drake. Geoff's: Little Corn, Cayos Cochinos, Bay Islands, Drake. While talking we watched Macaws fly from tree to tree & overhead. Geoff saw "the most beautiful bird of this trip"
just sitting on the outdoor sink by our outdoor bathroom.
Now I'm journaling & listending to the Macaws squak & thinking about the fact that most places like this have come to us because of the kindness of absolute strangers like Craig next door who turned away good business so we could find a place that made us super happy. Life is really pretty good.
While sitting here in our plastic chairs I began thinking about how a minocular would be really handy right now to check out the hummingbird that keeps landing on the tree right in front of us. He's sparkly green & blue with orange under his wings. We are getting a minocular for the next trip!
The rest of the afternoon & into the early evening was spent basically sitting in our chairs & talking about the view & the beauty of this place. Julie & Barron returned & sat with us. We shared a few beers & talked & talked until we were all hungry again. Then we headed out for pizza. While waiting for our pizza we played Yahtzee! They brought the game for travel entertainment & I was super stoked
about it. We played a good game, dropped the dice off the edge of the table & off the balcony only twice & it worked out perfectly that our game lasted exactly as long as we had to wait for our pizza to be made. The pizza was great. All homemade & super tasty. They served it with a garlic/onion/olive oil puree that we devoured. We are all going to smell like walking garlic tomorrow, no doubt about it.
We walked home, hearing the random assortment of frog calls, guided by the moonlight. After saying our goodbyes to J&B, who are leaving tomorrow at the crack of dawn, we headed to bed. There's no music tonight, just the bugs. Perfect.
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