Costa Rica - Bahia Drake 17th - 24th April

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We left San Jose on the 8.30am bus for Palmer Norte, about 5 1/2 hours journey away. We stopped for breaky at a wicked roadside restaurant that sold some very tasty food and (more importantly) had hummingbird feeders outside it’s windows which were attracting the little beauties by the dozens.

We arrived early afternoon in Palmer Norte after a rather uneventful but pleasant ride and got a taxi to the nearby town of Sierpe which is where we’d get our boat to Bahia Drake the following day. Sierpe is pretty small with only a few hotels, a couple of restaurants, one convenience store but lots of tour operators. We had hoped to stay at the Hotel Oleaje Sereno as it was situated right next to the dock, but the Lonely Planet prices are a little dated and the room had gone up from $35 to $55, so we took our taxi driver’s advice and checked into Cabinas Sofia, which was excellent. It was only a 5 minute walk from the dock, had A/C, bathroom, hot water and was very clean and tidy, and all of this only cost us $30 a night! Thank you very much Sr. Taxi Driver!

Sierpe seemed pretty nice and relaxed, a lot nicer than Cahuita. The Tico people were really friendly and eager to help, unlike the Afro-Caribbeans in Cahuita who were either crazy or high or both. Now we had the difficult task of deciding whether we should stay in Sierpe and go on daily tours out to Corcovado Park or whether to head to Bahia Drake and stay there. At that time, Sierpe seemed like the easier option as Bahia Drake has little or no electricity, no phones, the resorts are all inclusive (we really couldn’t eat any more rice and beans!) and it’s quite expensive. But we decided that we had to give it a go and reassured ourselves that we could always return to Sierpe if it all got too much.

So, after consulting the LP and checking out some of the tour operators we decided to head to Poor Man’s Paradise, a second recommendation by Sr. Taxi Driver, and another excellent one. So we booked ourselves in there then went for a wander.

While wandering we met an American couple, Buzz and Mary who were eager to head out on a night safari that evening but it was quite expensive so were looking to share the cost with someone else, so we decided to join them. We headed out at about 8pm and motored up and down the Rio Sierpe with a super spotlight and a good captain.

After our recent run of bad luck when searching for crocs in Mexico, we didn’t hold out much hope for this trip either but we were greatly surprised. We saw both American Crocodiles and Caimans, an Iguana, a Tree Boa and even a Raccoon (well we saw it’s eyes!), and some Herons and Ibis´ too, so all in all it was a very successful evening in the end. Buzz and Mary were your typical Americans and at one point Buzz asked the Captain if crocodiles can swim….at first we thought he was joking but then we realized he was serious and he genuinely wanted to know if they could swim from one side of the river to the other. Dan found this hilarious and did a poor job of hiding it.

The following morning at about 11.30am we caught the boat taxi to Poor Man’s Paradise. The trip took about 1 1/2 hours and went pretty well while we were on the river, however, this all changed when we got to the mouth of the river. We’d read in the PMP booklet that it was a bit of a hair raising ride and that they rarely had accidents at the mouth anymore but hadn’t thought too much of it until we started to bob about quite violently. The waves were about 8ft high when they were breaking at the entrance to the river; it was like looking at a wall of water. We had to wait for about 10-15mins until there was a break in this wall and then it was full throttle to get us through it, and even then it wasn’t exactly smooth!! Even Dan was slightly concerned, which didn’t fill Dani with confidence!

The following 30-40minutes of the journey remained pretty bumpy and Dani didn’t exactly enjoy it but the scenery was AMAZING! The coastline was absolutely stunning, neither of us have seen anything more beautiful on our travels so far - golden sand edged by lush green rainforest and not a building, road or person in sight for miles and miles and miles. One of the scenes in Jurassic Park was filmed on an island 500km off the shore and the scenery here looked like it was also straight out of the movie. It wasn’t hard at all to imagine dinosaurs living there.

We finally arrived in front of PMP where we had to change boats and were then told that, as there was no dock of any sort, we’d have to beach the boat. This was the last straw for Dani, especially when we hovered few a few minutes about 200m off shore, waiting for a lull in the waves, before going full throttle towards the beach! I think we can say she was pretty pleased to get her feet on solid ground again and wasn’t too sure that she wanted to ever get in another boat!

The journey was soon forgotten as we got ourselves settled at PMP. The resort is set right next to the beach with tents actually on the beach and cabinas set further back as well as a restaurant and bar in wildlife filled grounds. PMP was born 15 years ago by Pincho who started with only a tent that he had been given by an American who he’d acted as guide for. He built it up to what it is now with money he earned from fishing for King Crabs in Alaska and with the support of his family. PMP is run by the whole Amayas family who do everything from cook and clean to lead tours and take guests out fishing.

We decided to stay in one of the tents as they were cheaper than the cabinas, but this wasn’t such a clever move. The tents were very nice with a proper double bed in them and they had hammocks right outside where you could lie and watch the sunset over the sea but we chose the one nearest the sea, which was on the verge of being flooded out at high tide (Katien even gave us the key to another tent incase we were flooded out in the middle of the night!). We were also paranoid about all the insects and had to walk quite far if we needed the bathroom, so we didn’t get such a good nights sleep and moved to a cabina for the remaining nights (although our sleep still suffered because of the heat and paranoia about the bugs!).

That first afternoon we chilled out in the hammocks and checked out some of the wildlife around the site. In the evening we had an awesome dinner (all meals were included but they were far from the rice and beans we’d had on the turtle project, they were awesome! Some of the best food we’ve had since India! One night we even had mashed potato and we also had chocolate cake a couple of times (some of which Connie saved specially for Dani!). We met some of the other guests at the bar, a great Canadian couple, Alex and Karen, who we got to know well over the next few days, an English family and a couple of Dutch men too.

The next morning we were up bright and early at 5.30am as we had to leave on our first tour at 6.30am. Unfortunately we didn’t get have much for breakfast as we were running out of time, but we were keen to try the pancakes another day as they looked excellent. The tour was into Corcovado National Park, to the furthest ranger station, Sirena, which would take about 1 1/2 hours to get to by boat. There was another tour into the park that took you to the area around the nearer ranger station of San Pedrillo but the wildlife wasn’t supposed to be as great here as it is far more popular with visitors.

Dani was already a little nervous about the boat trip but Dan assured here that the sea didn’t look as bad today. He must have just been trying to keep her happy though as he couldn’t have been more wrong!

We waited on the beach with Alex, Karen and the Dutch guys, as they loaded up the boat for Sierpe with staff from the resort who had to visit the little town and watched as the men waited for a lull in the waves so that they could get them off the beach and out to sea. They finally got them off the beach after a little wait and Dani was calmed by how easy the whole process had been. That was at least until, she realized that the boat´s engine wouldn’t start fast enough and when a large wave hit the bow of the boat, it capsized, throwing everyone and everything into the sea. Luckily most people were wearing their life jackets and were pretty easily rescued by the men who had been on the shore. One lady hadn’t been wearing hers and she suffered quite badly as the waves just kept crashing on top of them and the boat was being washed all over the place. It took them about an hour to get everyone safely ashore and to collect all the bits of the boat which were washing about amongst the surf. It was, to say the least, a pretty scary affair but luckily no one was hurt.

After watching these crazy antics, we assumed that they would probably just take us on a walking tour of the nearby forest, but no this was not to be and instead they walked us to the next bay along where it was a little calmer and we managed to board the boat without too much difficulty, and much to Dani´s horror, we were on our way. It was pretty grey and cloudy and the sea was rough. We were bobbing up and down all over the place, which didn´t impress Dani at all. They had to take a route quite far away from the coastline because the sea was so rough that they were worried about getting washed onto the rocks that were dotted about. We passed some cliffs, about 100ft tall and the waves were breaking at least half way up and the spray from the waves reached the top and above. It was impressive to see and even Connie, our guide, was "oooing and ahhhing" which wasn´t exactly what we wanted to hear at that moment. We´d definitely have preferred to have seen it from the shore! When we finally got in sight of the bay for Sirena we waited for about an hour, bobbing around feeling rather sick, for a lull in the waves (which were about 20ft high and breaking 2-3km out from the shore - Dan said he´d never seen anything like it - comforting!) and we attempted to ride in between two waves but pulled out at the last minute. What made it twice as difficult for the captain was that he couldn´t just beach the boat because there were too many rocks around, so he´d have to get it near to shore and then turn it around, Dani was a bit concerned to say the least, as were we all! We were all starting to panic a bit thinking that the captain was going to try it anyway because we´d been waiting so long so we all decided that it´d be best to head to San Pedrillo instead.

We were all extremely happy to get to shore again especially in one piece and still pretty dry. We got ourselves sorted then headed out into the rainforest near to the station for a couple of hours before lunch. We were guided by Consuelo (Connie), Pincho´s sister, who was brilliant. She knew so much about the wildlife and the vegetation and had brilliant hearing. She was chatting away to us about one of the trees when she suddenly stopped and went walking off. She´d heard a group of about 30 white-nosed Coati´s and we could hardly hear them when we were in sight of them! They were awesome to watch as they had loads of little babies with them who were really inquisitive and just SO cute! The rainforest was really cool but, as we expected, we didn´t see too much here. We saw some Howler monkeys, lots of Leaf-Cutter Ants (there can be up to 10,000 queen´s in a nest......just imagine how many ants there would be in total!), a large cricket thing, the Coati´s, an Agouti and a really really cool Yellow Striped Poison Dart Frog. This was an awesome spot by Connie, it´s only about 2cm long if that and was quite well camouflaged in the leaves, but it was really really cool and Dan got a good photo of it.

We had a very good lunch provided by PMP - ham, cheese, onion, cucumber and tomato (no ham for Dani) sandwiches, fresh pineapple, biscuits and a lovely tuna dish that Connie put together, then hiked to a near-by waterfall. The walk was a bit more difficult than the earlier one, especially as we had to cross quite a few small rivers that had very slippery rocks, but the waterfall was cool. After this the rest of the group headed back to PMP by boat while we walked back with Connie. Dani wasn’t keen on the boat at all now and as we hadn’t see too much we hoped to see some more on the walk back.

The walk took about 2 1/2 - 3 hours and was quite muddy and sticky in places but we did get to see some more wildlife. We saw a Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Scarlet Macaws and Spider Monkey´s, so it was pretty successful.

The next day we thought we´d save some money and take a walk from PMP to Drake Bay itself, about 10km away from the resort. Connie said that the walk was nice and that there was a chance that we´d see some Squirrel Monkey´s so we were pretty eager. We left PMP after breakfast at about 7.30am and headed off down the beach. We had to walk along the beach then through the forest and then along the beach and through the forest again pretty much all the way there. We picked up a dog (we named him Ed) in the next bay along to PMP who was great fun, and then we picked up Reef (who we called Yappy for obvious reasons!) a few bays further along. Reef stayed with us the whole way there and back (he is owned by Pincho) and Ed stayed with us for almost the whole way there but he was too tired to make it to the end (by this time we´d also picked up Fat Lab who hung about with us for a bit). The walk wasn´t too hard going and the scenery was absolutely stunning. We passed so many little bays that had pristine golden sand and palm trees and were completely deserted and secluded. We got to one bay, divided and surrounded by a small river that was so gorgeous we almost stayed there for the day. It was a great place where we played fetch with the dogs and cooled our feet off in the crystal clear water. It was like heaven.

Unfortunately we didn´t find any Squirrel Monkeys but we did find a large group of Spider Monkeys who we watched and photographed for a while as well as some Scarlet Macaws and a large group of Capuchin´s who Reef tried to pick a fight with but they weren´t having any of it and gave as good as they were getting!

It was a great day but we were glad to get back to PMP, especially Dani, who´s feet were in a pretty bad state at the end of it! We´d made a friend for life in Reef who barely left our side from that moment on, even sleeping on our balcony at night and sitting at our feet in the bar and at dinner.

For our last day at PMP we decided to try and head to Sirena again. Dani was slightly dubious about the boat ride but it all went smoothly, we landed easily on the beach and we even saw some Spotted Dolphins really close to the boat! We went with a different company as PMP could only run the trip if there were 4 people and it was only the two of us who wanted to go. This other company, Corcovado Expeditions, were very good and the guide, Manuel, was very knowledgeable and even had a scope with him so we could see the animals really well. We met some really nice people on the tour, two couples, Rogier and Sanneke and German couple.

Sirena was definitely a better place for wildlife watching than San Pedrillo. There was only one other group, who unfortunately were in front of us (although it didn´t seem to make too much of a difference) and we saw loads of animals and birds. The rainforest was again really nice and pleasant, the trail was pretty flat and straight and there wasn´t too much to duck under or climb over which was good. We finally saw the Squirrel Monkeys who were SO cool (we´d hoped to see all four before we left and we did!), a three toed sloth (we´d only seen the two toed so far), the Howlers, Capuchins and Spider Monkeys, more Coatis, a large herd of White-lipped Peccary (wild pigs) who were really inquisitive and a little scary when they looked like they were going to charge us, a large crocodile and at the very end, a Tapir. The Tapir was so awesome, it was a lot larger than we´d expected. We´d thought it was the size of a large pig but it looked more like a hippo, especially as it was wallowing in a large pool of mud. We didn´t get very close and could only see it through some trees but it was wicked to see it´s ear flapping and it´s nose moving around. We were very pleased with what we´d seen on this tour, but we still have to come back again to try and glimpse the illusive Jaguar!

We had another good lunch, though not as good as Connie´s, before heading back to PMP. The journey back was equally as easy and we arrived back at PMP at about 4pm. Alex and Karen had spent the day fishing with Pincho and they caught the largest Red Snapper this year, about 30lb, which they had for dinner and which we all got a taste of and it was exceptionally good. The LP described PMP as the best place in Drake Bay for fishing and from what we heard, it wasn't wrong. They had also caught a huge Sailfish when nobody else out on the water had caught anything (except Pincho's uncle!), which certainly says something! We had another good meal and another reasonably early night (the electricity is only on between 6-9pm so there´s not much to do when it goes off).

The next morning we left PMP on the 7am boat to Sierpe. Getting off the beach was fine and we made it safely and rather quickly too Sierpe, without too much problem at the river mouth. We'd planned to spend the night in Sierpe anyway, but before we left PMP Alex and Karen kindly offered to give us a lift back to San Jose with them the following day, so we jumped at the chance, as we weren't really looking forward to another bus journey!

So yesterday we packed up and headed down to the dock to meet the guys when they arrived from PMP at about 8.30am. All 4 of us and Connie just about squeezed into their NoGo (it´'s actually called a BeGo or something but you can guess why it required a name change!) as our bags took up quite a lot of space! We dropped Connie off at Palmer Norte then continued on our way to San Jose. The journey was very easy compared to some which we've had to do and it only took about 3 ½ - 4 hours. The scenery along the way was stunning and there were some beautiful views from the top of the mountain when the clouds weren't surrounding us.

We parted with Alex and Karen in San Jose and headed to our hotel, Kap's Place, recommended in the LP and it is brilliant. We've got a lovely, well decorated and clean little room with cable T.V, a shared bathroom (but only with one other room) and free breaky for $35 a night, and it's walking distance to the centre of town.

Last night we got a taxi to the nearest cinema and watched the film 300 which was surprisingly ok (we'd read some bad reviews of it) and may go back there again tonight as there’s not too much else to do. We had thought about taking a day trip to the volcano Arenal as it’s the most active in the area and supposed to be really beautiful at night but the trip cost quite a lot and it doesn’t seem like you’ll get much time to see the volcano in the dark so we decided against it.

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Comments

[Dan and Dani]

Hey P&T!!!
Glad your enjoying the blog. Beard wasn´t intentional, clippers didn´t work and so it took over a bit! Back under control now though! Rusty you cheeky bugger! You should get some chickens to sort him out (check out MSN videos). From what my folks tell me the girls are ok, just sulking a bit. Looking forward to catching up with you guys too, a think a trip to the Barley Mow is in order! Take care. D&D. ps we didn´t get the text unfortunately