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Finally on the Osa Peninsula!
Quite a trip to get here from Heredia, where we left on Monday morning at 10 am, only just making the bus to Palmar Norte. The absolutely amazing road (hardly any potholes would you believe it!) went straight through the mountains, into the clouds, and 6 hours later, we were in Palmar Norte. From here we decided to wait just over an hour for the bus that would take us to Sierpe, a little village, surrounded by millions and millions of palm trees, and has a slightly ¨swampy¨feel to it. I don´t mean that in a bad way, it´s definitely a very cute little place. We stayed in another great $5 dollar a night place, Hotel Margarita. We enquired about the watertaxi that would take us to Bahia Drake/Drake Bay the next day and were told there was one collective taxi that left at 11am. We were hoping for an earlier start (one of the reasons we stayed overnight in Sierpe) but didn´t really want to pay more to get a private taxi.
We went to grab some dinner at the local bar-restaurant Las Vegas, a great place with a terrace on the water.
Me in Sierpe
All my gear, ready to leave Sierpe by watertaxi (Bar Las Vegas in the background) I made the mistake of wearing 3/4 pants and my legs are still covered in very itchy mosquito bites. The repellent does not work! We had an amazing creole fish filet and shrimp ceviche, very reasonably priced. It didn´t take too long for one of the locals to come join us and offer us another watertaxi to Drake Bay, which could take us there earlier. Although we´d read about this possibility in the Lonely Planet we were slightly skeptical, we´d heard about the high waves at the rivermouth and didn´t want to be in a tiny fisherboat when we got there. It was the same price as the collective boat and so we decided to go for it.
After a good night´s sleep we got to Las Vegas at about 7.30 am as we´d been told the boat would leave at 8am. We had breakfast, and no sign of anyone who would drive our boat. Of course, this is Tico Time, and so we finally left at about 9.30am! It was a scenic boat ride, and got a little bumpier where the river met the sea as predicted. Our driver weaved us in between the waves and we made
Sierpe Accomodation
Our luxury room in Hotel Margarita it safely to our hotel, Mirador Lodge, where our hosts greeted us with a fresh juice and a great lunch.
Our stay in Drake Bay was definitely a huge splurge for us, $35 dollars a night per person, including meals (I have to say, amazing meals) for a room with mosquito screens, private bathroom, and no electricity (!) but some amazing views of the sea from our porch.
The first day we went for a stroll along the road (the one road) looking at the amazing variety of plants, birds and just the peace and quiet of the place (a nice change). After dinner we played some more cards (definitely worth the 120 colones, about 15 cents) and chatted to a Spanish couple staying at our lodge. One of the reasons I really wanted to come to the Osa Peninsula was because of Corcovado National Park. And so, after much debating we decided we would join a few others on a guided tour of the park at La Sirena station, for $80 dollars each. (So much for our careful spending)
We got up at 5.30, had another great breakfast, and left with another boat to the other side
of the peninsula, a very, very bumpy ride that took 90 minutes. Numb bums, we arrived at La Sirena and straight away, spotted a tapir strolling on the beach. A great start. Our guide was great at spotting animals (as you would expect of course) and throughout our walk, we spotted three kinds of monkeys (howler, spider and squirrel), an agouti (like a huge rat without a tail), some weird huge spider, toucans, macaws, and some very complicated bird names, and of course a lot of plants. He was able to tell us lots about the lives of these animals and plants too, which was really interesting. It started raining after about an hour and a half, and even though we were trying to keep our feet dry for the first part, we had to cross a lot of rivers and plough through a lot of mud, so after a while we just gave up and ended up sloshing our muddy feet and legs for the next 4 hours or so. It was absolutely hilarious, our walk became an adventure- definitely worth the money.
At around 2-3pm we got back in the boat, ready to hang on to the
boat for the next hour ad a half. We were absolutely knackered and spent the afternoon just relaxing in the lodge and playing cards. The next day we had to catch the only bus leaving Drake Bay, at 4 am (!!), so we had a quiet evening and tried to get as much sleep as possible.
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Ronald
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time flies!!!
My last time that I was in Serpent the streets were not paved and only Las Vegas and another restaurant were more. We were going fishing from the terrace of Las Vegas. Well, it was more than 15 years, I even was in the High School ... nevertheless the mosquitos were there and always they will be :P