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Published: March 10th 2008
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Back on route North we stopped in at Golfito to organise a hire car so we could explore the Corcavado national park. A place which we heard from a few people throughout the journey as a must see spot. Basically there is a huge bay, with waves breaking down each side of the entrance. On the northern side a huge national park covers a large part of the coastline and deep in to the jungle. We hired a small suzuki 4wd for the trip and lucky it was 4wd as there were a few river crossings through swollen rivers.
First stop was off to the southern side in search of waves but more importantly a replacement fin for one that was snapped off. This was the best chance of finding a surf shop or someone with a spare. There are great waves on this side and is popular with people visiting on surf trips mainly from the states. As the waves were good, the surfshop was obviously shut, so it was off to ask randoms. We asked lots of people, but finding the right type of fin was proving near imposible. We had a beer in the bar
and did the rounds asking for a fin. We got talking to a guy and he was telling us about the animals on the other side. He said look out for big cats if your sleeping there. We were like yeah yeah, hes just trying to scare us. Then he goes have ya seen an anaconda? Then he reaches into his pocket and pulls one out, no kidding. That was the strangest thing ive seen in a while. We decided to hit the road for the other side finless. Then just as we were going to leave someone told me to ask the guy riding up the beach on a horse. He said yeah ive got one, so he bolted off on his horse and was back in 5 minutes with the goods. He noticed Em's pating the horse and offered if she would like a ride. She said ok and went about 50m came back and jumped off. The guy goes alright its 10 bucks for the fin and 5 for the horse ride. Em's was a bit taken back as she was on the horse for less than 2 minutes and just thought it was a nice gesture.
Didnt matter anyway because a new fin would have cost 40 or 50 bucks.
Although you can see the National park on the other side of the entrance quite clearly, it took us ages to drive around the bay to the other side. Passing through the last town before the national park we stocked up on food and petrol so we could have a good look around for a few days. The dirt road that wound through the jungle was filled with animals. I just read that national geographic named it the most biologically diverse place on the planet! We saw an amazing amount of things hanging out of trees scurrying along the ground or in the water. A Huge Spider, howler and squirrel monkeys, Spider monkeys and the white face monkey, green iguanas, coati, ant eaters, toucans (once again Em's favorite animal) , scarlet macaws, Massive Blue butterflies, turtles an otter and much more. Mostly you could see them while in the car but when you got out you could here just how much was out there. Howler monkeys carrying on and birds screeching, it was at times really loud.
We decided to sleep in the car
because it was a bit too wet from some rain for the tent and being on our usual budget a nice bed was totally out of the question. There was a nice beach that we drove down and found a cool little spot under a coconut tree to rest for the night. After scrounging up some drift wood and dead palm leaves we managed to get a fire going, which is near impossible with wet wood. We saw a guy fishing just before the sun set with a hand line made from a glass bottle with fishing line wound around it. He was casting a lure into the surf and after not to long he emerged with a monster fish, dont know what it was but he could hardly carry it up the beach.
There were some fun waves the next morning and the view from the water was amazing. I spent most of the time looking back at the shore, not really noticing the waves coming from behind. You could hear the monkeys and birds in the surf and made me realize what a special place this was. Luckily it was spared from the destruction of logging and
mining.
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