Advertisement
Published: April 29th 2008
And into the jungle we go!
Corcovado Park is in the Osa Peninsula on the far southwest of Costa Rica. Not many tourists bother to go to this park as it requires a fair amount of difficult travel. This is good news for hearty explorers like us as it leaves the animals and vistas in pure form. We did take 1 pretty serious shortcut in that we took a small plane into Puerto Jimenez. This allowed us to skip an 11 hour bus ride from San Jose. We didn´t feel too bad about this cheat considering the piles of effort that is to come. This pricey specialized flight was full of well dressed locals. I wondered what sort of affairs they were involved in that brought them to this far flung town. The small plane voyage was spectacular. We flew pretty low to the ground and could see the rivers, mountains and coast lines that defined the Costa Rican geography.
We land on a tiny airstrip that is surrounded by a cemetery. Kind of a strange city planning choice. We exit the aircraft and now have to finally confront an important issue. We have absolutely no idea what we
are doing. We have no guide, map, reservations or supplies. Strangely, none of us are too bothered by this...even though we have arrived in an isloated jungle. Lo and behold, only a few mindless steps into this dusty town, we are approached by an old grey bearded man with a large hat. He looks like an elderly crocodile dundee. He offers some lodging in his Cabinas on the edge of town. We nearly brushed him off but decided to listen. Upon further probing, he is actually an endless wealth of knowledge. He knows the best way to get to the park, a guy who can rent us supplies, the best food to buy at the grocery store, a place to store our extra luggage, a place to stay after our trek, a person to clean our clothes when we return, how to obtain our permit and maps for the park, best supplies to use in the park, best places and times to see the coolest wildlife when we are in the park and much more. This was buffet of information was spectacular considering this town was nearly motionless in all directions. This man felt like our own guardian angel and
expected nearly nothing in return. Only that we stay in his cabinas after our trek for 1 night...which cost only a few dollars per person. Stupendous!
After hours of gear and food prep, we hop on the back of a pickup truck and begin a 2 hour ride further into the peninsula. A few locals hoped on and off the truck as we cruised along...including a 7 year old girl traveling by herself with a pink lunch box. Pretty adorable. We stop when we reach the end of the road. Cars cannot go where we are going. At this point, we have gear and food, but we still have no real plan. A few men are loading a donkey pulled wagon nearby. A few conversations later and we discover that our next mission is to walk along the beach for an hour till we see some cabins. Oceanside lodges for 15 bucks! Score! The donkey is bringing down basic supplies to the cabins for the hand full of guests that will end their journey there. This is our resting point before we descend even FURTHER into the jungle.
The next day begins at 5am and we set out
to finally enter the national park. Our packs are heavy and we are tired from getting a pitifull amount of sleep during the steamy hot night. Almost instantly we notice some trees swinging above us...MONEKEYS!! First we see a few white faced monkies above us, then a big squirrel monkey behind us...and then its babies...and then a few more white faced to the right....they are everywhere! They are not timid either. Swinging and climbing and generally showing off for us. Seeing monkies like this in the wild was quite a different experience than in Ecuador. Industry and population have mostly destroyed opportunities like this in many other parts of the world. It felt quite special to be so immersed with these spunky creatures. It instantly made it worth all the effort to get there. and this was just the beginning! A short hike later and our path is crossed by a large family of Coati. These look kinda like a mix of a racoon and an ant eater. They are rummaging through the forest floor. The adult coati dont seem bothered by us but the babies scamper and hide when we make any sort of movements. A few minutes later
we come to our first river crossing and we see a handful of large colorful Macaws above us. Vivid greens and reds and a loud squaking call make these birds quite fun to watch. Biological intensity to the MAXX!
The hike was long and hot. The beach sections forced us to struggle with loose wet sand that was slightly angled toward the ocean. This is not a big deal for a comfortable stroll down Santa Monica beach but quickly becomes grueling with 40 pounds on your back for hours at a time in 90 or 100 degree weather. The other half of the hike wasin jungle canopy.This gave us shelter from most of these difficulties. We even stumbled across a few small waterfalls to cool our feet. Some of these water sources connected to the ocean creating rivers that we eventually had to cross. We had tide charts to make sure we crossed these at low tide. Trying to cross at high tide could be disastrous due to deep water, rip tides and even crocs and sharks! So we made sure to adhere to the timing suggestions and it proved to be no problem. After 9 hours of pretty
consistant effort, we arrive at Sirena Lodge. This lodge consists of a few wooden buildings and an emergency airstrip (which is an open grass field and doubles as a campground). Phew! We break out our teeny campstove and bubble up some crappy meager pasta. Not exactly the feast we deserved. We go to bed at 8pm and wake up every hour covered in sweat. Yum!
We wake up at 2am in an attempt to see Jaguars patrolling the airstrip. We sit and finally hike arround in search of this rare sight to no avail. Why do we want to see a Jaguar? Because it would be amazing! Arent they kind of dangerous? Not to humans. Attacks are extremely rare and deaths are almost non existant. Regardless, by 4am we set out to a river to see the famed Bairds Tapir. Hiking through the jungle in pitch black is a unique and tremendous experience. We have all the normal symphony of bugs and spookey moving shadows that I swear are giant monsters preparing to bounce. The bonus greatness of this hike were the Howler Monkies. At first they were distant and sparse. As we descended deeper into darkness, their calls
became louder and more fierce. Soon they were doing a call and response that surrounded us from all directions! These sounds came from seemingly nowhere! I think i got a decent recording of this experience that I hope to post soon. We arrive at the theoretical Tapir area and find some fresh tracks. This seems like a great start but 1 sunrise later we have not seen any Tapirs. We hang our heads in defeat and walk back to camp for a 6am nap.
Mid day in the jungle is grossly hot. It is hard to do any real activity without immediately sapping all of your energy. So we spent the hottest parts of the day chatting or sleeping in the shade. One of the main topics of conversation was food. I think we each spent an hour per person describing our favorite foods. We were hungry! Another great way to pass the swealter is in a swimming hole. It certainly felt like heaven to lounge in this cool river for what seemed like hours. This river was known to be safe...meaning no crocs or sharks. Being the adventure seekers we are, we had to take a closer look
at the the Rio Claro. They gave us some oars and we jumped in a big metal canoe to search for crocs and sharks. The river journey was beautiful. Each side of the river is covered in lush tropical trees and exotic birds. We keep our eyes peeled but only see a glimpse of 1 bull shark. I am not too bothered as we will get our share of sharks during our diving later in the trip. Finally we do some canoe surfing in the waves in the mouth of this ocean fed river. YeeHAW!
Again, we go to bed at 8pm to wake up at 3am for our last chance to see the big nocturnal creatures. Exhausted, dirty, hot, blisters, cuts, bites and all....this silent pitch black hike took 30 minutes to arrive at another possible Tapir spotting ground. Just as the river comes into flashlight view, BAM....a large ugly creature with a long snout is only a few feet away. We are filled with excitement as it pokes around the forest floor. Again, this creature is not bothered by us and approaches quite near us on several occasion. I got some nice video of this encounter but
no pictures.
This was an incredible trip. The pictures do not do it justice. I am hoping the video will.
p.s.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0467s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jenny
non-member comment
So Glad...
It's amazing - I read this entry and it is just so fun. It's like getting lost in a good book, but it's even better b/c it's my friends and family who are the main characters! Just as I begin to feel a bit jealous of your experience, there will be a line about not sleeping/being covered in blisters/sweat and I feel just as happy simply reading about these adventures and not partaking in them. :) Keep up the excellent detailed blogging - it's my new favorite book!