The spider hike - Manglares Churute

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I had some problems getting a hike organised in the Manglares Churute park. The place doesn´t seem to be set up to receive toursits and the staff were not really helpful. After 4 hours of waiting the finally allowed me to climb Cerro de Mate, a small hill next to the visitors center. However the hike turned out to be a battle with the tiger spiders. These spiders are harmless and I already knew them from Cerro Blanco. Howwever, they have a tendency to spin their nets (of 1.5 - 2 meters diameter) across the path and the thing is that with the sun shining through the leaves you don´t see them. So I kept running into them, and having the nets all over my face and body, the 5cm diameter spide running over my shoulder and the fat prey hanging somewhere else. Usually the spiders were as shocked as me and running away quickly, but it was still an unpleasant experience. You have to imagine that there was not just a net every once in a while, but they were every 2 or three meters along this 3 hour hike! So I have encoutnered hundres of them. I finally kept swinging a stick in front of me to hit the nets befor my face was hitting them. However, I stil kept missing loads of them. Together with the heat and the misquitos, this turned out to be not one of my favourite hike, and I don´t think I will include it in the book.

The one nice encounter was with a deer from really close. He wasn´t afraid of me and even walked towards me a little.

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