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Published: March 29th 2009
Snake!
It jumped out of a pile of dead leaves and stopped to pose for photosDuring my rapid ascent up through Central America, I figured I could make the time for a week in Costa Rica, and the Corcovado National Park came highly recommended by others who had travelled here.
The park is on the Osa peninsula in the south of Costa Rica, and is home to reptiles, amphibians, big cats, primates and a whole lot more. There are trails throughout the park and accommodation varies from luxury lodges to tent space at the ranger stations.
My journey started in Panama City at 5am, and by mid afternoon I was over the border into Costa Rica. Here, I caught a bus to Golfito where I was welcomed off the bus by a prostitute (they are the biggest industry in this small town since the close of the banana port). From here, I caught a boat at sunset over the water to Puerto Jimenez, the town from which most people start their trip into Corcovado.
I normally enjoy boat trips, and plonked myself on a seat at the front of the boat, then watched as the locals boarded and made their way to the back of the boat. I wondered why they sat there
Spider
Spotted on a night walk in the jungle and a few minutes later I found out: just after setting off, the sun went down and out came thunder, lightning and torrential rain. The sea got choppy and I spent the entire journey crouched on the floor holding a piece of tarpaulin over me and feeling the rain seeping down my back. Next time I´ll sit where the locals do, as they were barely touched by the rain.
The following morning, my clothes were dry again, I´d had a blissful night´s sleep and it was time to organise the trek. I hired a tent from the hostel and booked some tent space and a permit at the park office, then went to the supermarket to try and find four day´s worth of food. I came out with 3 avocados, 3 tomatoes, tortillas, 6 eggs, chocolate, apples, nuts, 3 tins of refried beans, cereal bars and a sachet of orange Tang to make my water supplies a bit more interesting. I later discovered that I had mistakenly bought carrot and orange flavoured Tang (with the emphasis very much on the carrot) and so I had carroty water for the next few days.
If you go to Corcovado, it
Holy cow!
Spotted on the walk into the park is worth knowing that it can take a few days to organise the trip. I had arrived on Sunday, made all the preparations on Monday and was ready to start the trek into the park on Tuesday. However, I did meet people who had waited a lot longer, either because all accommodation (even tent space) was full, or because the park office was shut for the weekend.
So on Tuesday morning, off I went on the bus to La Palma, the town from which you start the walk into the park. My first night was going to be spent at Los Patos, a ranger station at the edge of the park and a 13km walk from the bus stop. The first couple of hours were spent walking through villages and then all traces of civilisation ceased and the river came into view. I had been warned that this leg of the journey involved 27 river crossings and clearly I was about to make the first one. The river was pretty shallow, but very wide and I figured it was going to be easier to just walk through the water in my shoes and then squelch along the path to
Under water
The first river crossing - shoes took two days to dry... the next crossing. Had I known it would take two days for my shoes to dry out, I might have taken them off and walked in my flipflops but there you go!
By mid-afternoon I reached Los Patos and wolfed my lunch down, then put up the tent. The ground was very hard, and I had nothing but a silk sleeping bag liner to sleep on, but convinced myself it would be fine.
The last couple of hours of daylight were spent at a waterfall with a beautiful pool, 30 minutes up a trail from the camp. Sadly, this is the only place you can safely swim in the park as the rivers by the coast are full of things with teeth, such as bull sharks and crocs.
Back at the camp, dinner was eaten and then a small group of us went out for a night walk. I was really keen to go, but a little apprehensive as my torch was basic (bought after a succession of broken head torches) gave out a pathetic little yellow light. Still, I was glad I did go as within minutes we had seen an owl, cayman, crayfish, frog and
various birds. I´m sure there was even more wildlife watching us, but I don´t really like to think about it!
The following morning I woke up at 5am after a pretty miserable night in the tent. Surprisingly, it had been quite cold in the night and however much I tried to convince myself I was comfortable I would wake up in pain every time I turned over in my sleep. What I would give for a mattress right now!
At 6am I set out on the 20km walk to Sirena, the ranger station on the Pacific coast and where I would spend the next two nights. Embarrassingly, only 5 minutes down the path I managed to lose the trail and had no idea which direction I was meant to be heading in. Luckily I found the path again after a few minutes of wandering around in circles and I set off in the right direction, wondering to myself what would happen if I got REALLY lost in the middle of the park. What would try and eat me first?
It wasn´t long before I got attuned to hearing and seeing the wildlife in the jungle as I
Cicada shells
They jump out of their bodies and leave these things behind walked along the trail: spider monkeys moved from one treetop to the next, howler monkeys roared somewhere in the distance, and a hummingbird darted past my face. It was actually quite difficult to walk as there was so much to see, but I reminded myself I had a long way to go and really ought to get a move on.
I walked some of the way with a vacationing law student from the US who had been at the camp the previous night. Between the two of us, we managed to spot quite a lot of wildlife along the way by keeping our eyes trained on the ground by the path and glancing upwards at the surrounding trees. But neither of us were prepared for the rustle of leaves by a tree next to the trail and the sudden appearance of a snake´s head! I don't think it was expecting to see us either, and it lay quite still on a tree root for about a minute as if it was embarrassed at being spotted and was trying to pretend it had deliberately popped up to pose for photos.
I had got a map at the park office
No crocs or sharks here!
Waterfall near Los Patos before setting out: when I say map, it was actually a photocopied pencil sketch and certainly not detailed enough to be able to establish where you were in the park, or how far you'd walked. And now it was disintegrating in my hands due to the humidity and sweat. I had been walking now for seven hours and was convinced the next camp would appear just around the corner. However, at the next river I met a couple of other hikers resting and they told me they figured there was at least another 7km to go. By now, I had drunk all my water and felt pretty done-for, so I wasn't at all pleased to hear I was nowhere near the camp!
The rest of the walk took just over an hour, along agonisingly straight trails that made you feel like you were walking on the spot. The surrounding trees were enormous and every so often I would come across one lying across the path. This jungle assault course had been fun at the start, but now I was just plain hot and tired and barely had the energy to swing my legs over the trunks. And then the
Cayman at night
Probably wasn´t the best idea to stand in the river with it! mosquitoes came! Up until now, there had been no sign of them, but all of a sudden they were all over my arms and back and stung like hell. I marched faster and faster, cursing the insects and all of a sudden, like a dream, the ranger station at Sirena appeared before me.
And then came the miracle... they had mattresses!!! The camping area was a raised platform with a roof and a pile of mattresses in the corner. Despite the newly-found comfort, sleep that night was intermittent, and completely over at 4am when people started getting up and packing away their tents.
By 8am, after breakfast (including some fresh coffee kindly donated by a fellow camper) I felt ready to face the world and perhaps a few hours on the trails surrounding the station. I went out a couple of times, and on the first trip I saw an enormous black dragonfly, several birds, monkeys and a tapir sleeping under a bush (ears twitching, as if it was having a particularly exciting dream). On the second walk of the day, a group of us first went to the river to see if we could see any bull
Still looking happy...
Didn´t look quite as pleased 8 hours later, when I was still walking and had run out of water! sharks, as we had been told they swim into the river from the sea. We weren´t disappointed, as one quickly came into view, then minutes later we saw two crocodiles in the river too. Clearly not a place for swimming, despite the beautiful turquoise waters...
One animal I was mightily relieved not to run into on the trails was the pecary, a type of wild pig: I had heard horror stories from other campers who had been chased by these creatures, and the advice given when encountering them was to climb the nearest tree. As I walked through the jungle, I was constantly making mental notes of climbable trees nearby (and they were few and far between because the trees are blinkin´ huge!). We did encounter one group of pigs, but they turned out to be a different, far less dangerous species - I stood in front of them for a moment, preparing to be chased to the death, but when they just turned away and carried on eating I figured they may not be the killer-pecary-pigs-from-hell.
And so to the pumas: many stories were circulating around the camp about sightings of these big cats. Despite all the
stuff you hear about them being elusive, nocturnal, etc, it seems that the Sirena pumas were rather casual about where and when they were seen. One girl had seen one the previous night, staring out from the edge of the jungle near the station. Another person had apparently seen one walking across the grass in front of the station in broad daylight. And then amazingly (and rather frustratingly), a puma was seen by a group of Americans down by the river, just two hours after we had been there watching the sharks!
On the second evening at Sirena, a group of us went out for a walk after dark, in the hope of spotting a cat, or anything vaguely exciting. Our hour-long tiptoe through the jungle and along the beach yielded a group of multicoloured crabs and a spider like a mini tarantula, but little else. Then it was early to be as I wanted to be out of the camp at 5am, ready for the 20km walk to the edge of the park.
Early the next day, after a rather fumbly tent-dismantling session in the dark with a very weak torch, I was packed up and ready
Lizard
Quite well camouflaged! to leave. The sun was just coming up as I walked out of Sirena, and minutes later, approaching the first river crossing near the beach, I noticed tapir tracks leading into the river then disappearing. The track then carried on along the beach for some distance, making the walking quite difficult. The map indicated that there should be a track running along the edge of the jungle, so I stepped up the beach into the bushes to try and find it, and walked right into the most enormous spider´s web. When I say enormous, I mean the web was huge, and so was the spider occupying it. I felt like I was picking bits of web off my face for the next two hours; in fact, I think I can still feel that web now...
Some time later, the track diverted back onto the beach again, and as I was walking along I suddenly noticed some tracks in the sand that were most definitely those of a large cat... The puma!! I suddenly remembered I was walking on my own, and walked turning my head in every direction, just in case... The tracks went on for some distance and
Large bird
Not sure what its name is their proximity to the sea meant they must have been very fresh. Sadly, I never saw the owner of the prints, but then that´s probably just as well as I would no doubt have panicked about 10 times as much as when I walked into the spider´s web.
Just before midday, and seven hours after setting off, I reached the one-house village of Carate, where onward transport back to civilisation awaited. It had been an amazing four days, and I felt like a proper grown-up, having carried all my stuff and put up a tent by myself (tragic I know, but I always believed that I wouldn´t be able to do it on my own, espeically with all the creepy-crawlies around).
It´s now a week since I left Corcovado, and the horrendous blister that engulfed my toe has gone down, and the torn skin on my shoulder where my rucksack rubbed has almost healed. I would love to return someday, but maybe next time I will take a tin of Kitekat and a catnip toy, just in case...
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Lyniebish
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Update: Los Patos to Sirena
Nice adventure post DebP! Here's an update for those who want to follow in your footsteps, since November 2009 hikers must have a guide with them on the Los Patos to Sirena trail. I can fully recommend a local Osa born biologist Ballardo Diaz, of Jaguarman's Jungle Adventure. He educates you as you trek, as well as cares for your safety. You can find him at his FB fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jaguarmans-Jungle-Adventures/203977601764