Coast to Coast

Crossing the border on foot is fun, dragging your bags on uneven ground a few hundred metres to the check point. Always a great introduction to a country.
Pick up the car and off we go. Not to far today, down to Golfito for one night – a fun BNB (not). It advertised a kitchen so we bought food to cook – but no fuel for stove, no pots or pans or anything really so an expensive eating out experience – and apart from expensive we do not think much of the food either.

Driving into Drake Bay was not at all what we expected, a seaside town but very spread out and tucked away. Our BNB was lovely though (the first night), it was a great place but it rained so much the first night that the mozzies went mad and from then on whatever we did we got eaten alive. Walking up and down a steep muddy slope from the chalet to the kitchen was not the easiest either. The Capuchin Monkeys in the restaurant were fun to watch.

Boat trip to Corcovado National Part was great, spotting a pod of Pan Tropical Dolphins on the way.

Arriving at the park was a little scary though, the diagonal rolling waves were quite large and the captain had to time his arrival just right, coming in between two sets of waves. No dock either, we had to jump out fast in the rough waves and then wade through the water on really rough rocks, while the crew tried to hold the boat steady enough. On our walk from the boat to the station we came across a massive Boa Constrictor just off the path, HUGE and so close, very impressive.

First time we have slept in a dorm for a while, but a pretty good setup in the park, you are not allowed to bring in any food or drink though so I expected to be hungry for 2 days, but it was just about OK, particularly as I took a liking to their pineapple juice. I have never liked pineapple but am now finding it so different here I like it.

Lots of wildlife, plenty of birds and wildlife and a Tiger Rat snake.

It was quite a hot long walk but enjoyable. We saw Howler, Spider and Squirrel Monkeys – the squirrel monkeys are so cute.

Also found Sloths, 4 Baird’s Tapirs and 2 Tamandua Anteaters – a highlight for me.

We thought we kept hearing a horse neighing but it turned out to be an Owl – sounded just like a horse…

Luckily on leaving the island the weather was much calmer as the captain on the way in had painted the boarding on return as much worse and it was a bit of a concern.

Off on a day trip snorkelling to Coco Island – it was supposed to be good but not so. It was more like snorkelling for beginners – you had to wear a lifejacket and there was not a huge amount of coral or variety of fish species but we did see some things like a shark and a turtle.

Pleasant day though and in the break on a walk up to the lookout we found a racer snake eating a lizard which was pretty interesting.

Off up the coast to Dominical and a bit of fun ziplining (for Chris and I, not Steve).

It was good fun and set up really well, not the scary adventure type. On the walk up we found a Green Parrot Snake, very pretty and of course Sloth’s.

Setting of into the mountains we decided to stop for a 10 minute break (hard on Steve’s wrists all the twisty turny driving), 10 mins turned into a bit longer as when we went to set off again the car would not start. Luckily for us a couple of waiters from a near by cafe rushed out to help and had some Jumper leads to get us going again.

The Resplendent Quetzal was surprisingly easy to find as they pretty much stay in the same place, you just drive up the road to where everyone else is. We were quite early before too many people – it gets a little crazy and some people are just so rude, standing or walking in front of people trying to take photos.

Unfortunately a lot of the time we were up in this area it was very very wet, so we could not do too much apart from early mornings. Great for Costa Rica though after a long drought.

Over to the Caribbean coast for some snorkelling – we hope it is an improvement on the Pacific. Staying at Puerto Viejo was really interesting. It is much more like Asia but mixed with a Jamaican feel, very laid back and relaxed. There are even tuk tuk’s here, the first place we have seen out side of asia.

Lovely beaches with some pretty strong waves but good to play in the shallows. Really good to have a pool as pretty hot and humid.

Snorkelling here is in a National Park only allowed with a tour, even though you could easily reach from the beach (done to protect the reef). This was so much better than Coco Island on the Pacific side with masses of fish and some good coral. We were lucky to see a couple of sand sharks and a sting ray along with many very large colourful fish and shoals that were massive. Quite surprising for a reef so close to shore.

We all really liked this area, our favourite so far but now off to new adventures in Tortuguero National Park.

To get here you drive to an area on the river and get a boat down towards the coast. Amazing scenery through the channel’s – but so shallow the boats at times have to go so slow and some regularly get stuck on the mud.

So many Iguana’s and Basilik’s sunning themselves on the branches and logs.

Must be something about being on the Caribbean side as this small town has a similar feel to Puerto Viejo. The town is on a slim bit of land between the sea and the inlet – apparently a lot of it can be underwater at the height of the wet season.

We found a great guide (through a guide in Panama) to take us into the waterways of the National Park, he had an especially designed electric motor and could go places most of the other boats could not (Fuel boats not allowed in many channel’s).

Tortuguero is a huge park and people are only allowed to visit 1% of it, great for the preservation of lots of unusual species. We saw some very special birds like the hard to find Agami Heron, a great trip.

Outside our accommodation in the early evenings were a huge flock of the Critically Endangered Great Green Macaw – great to watch and try and capture (on a camera of course). I think there must be 1/8 of the entire population here.

Disaster stuck when I went out to try and photograph the Macaw’s – my camera would not work.

I posted the question on the Olympus facebook page and got lots of suggestions as to how to fix but we tried everything and nothing worked – it obviously needs to go in for repair but what to do in the meantime?

Olympus we have discovered is not popular this side of the world with no outlets or repair shops. Luckily a helpful person on facebook sent me a couple of links to facebook marketplace in costa rica where a couple of people had a used lens for sale. I picked one not too far out of the way (only 2 hours extra driving) and organised to pick it up when leaving here. This also meant a night near San Jose otherwise it would have been too long a drive.

We went out for a drink to watch sunset both night’s in Tortuguero, the first there was a massive Iguana wandering around the restaurant floor. You never know what wildlife you will find or where.

The second a great sunset.

Off to get the lens and we have found a nice place only 10 mins off our route, hidden in lots of trees – looked lovely.

Well what fun we had as 10 minutes before we arrived the heavens opened, incredible these tropical storms, so much water. I had to get out to open the gate, then following instructions took a muddy path 100 metres down into the valley only to find a big empty room and nothing else – back up the path (so wet I am surprised I have not drowned), found a gentleman in house at top who just kept pointing back down where I had just been. Eventually he got the owner on the phone who explained there is another tiny path at bottom and the BNB is under the big empty room.

It was lovely – or would have been in good weather but by now we are so wet and cold that we did not warm up all night. Plus the 3rd bed was actually a kids blow up mattress on the floor so Chris was even colder. We had bought some pasta and what we thought was pasta sauce but not so it was some brown vinegary sauce, totally inedible to us (packet noodles instead). We have tried a number of their supposed chili sauces here and they also have vinegar in – a different taste obviously.

A couple of nights in La Fortuna to visit Arenal Observatory did not go quite to plan. Firstly it started to rain not long after we got to the Observatory – and kept raining on and off all morning. Secondly due to the rain there was very limited bird activity. We did manage to walk around a bit in between downpours, taking shelter when needed. The frog finding was fun at the frog pond, so hard to spot.

Monteverde Cloud Forest was great, we found the quetzal’s again, but a little far away. Lovely walks through pristine primary forest although we did not find much in the way of wildlife but a few birds including some cute redstarts nesting at the side of the path.

We are staying at a great bnb which has a fire pit out in the garden and we were hoping to have an evening around a fire. Not to be, every afternoon the sky has hemorrhaged water like no tomorrow for hours, so much water that the stream through the garden now makes it sound like it is raining when it is not.

Great to have a pair of resident Lesson’s Motmots in the garden they are such beautiful birds to watch.

We had a guide for Curi Canchi Reserve, lovely reserve but a very quite day on the bird and animal front. Had been (apparently) amazing for the last 3 days – weather plays a big part so I am assuming it was because it had rained so much and this morning was the only dark and gloomy one. It was supposed to be a great place to see the Armadillo – but no luck again. The most interesting thing was when I saw a sign saying “Wind shelter” and I wondered why, lucky this was not a particularly windy day as once we got a bit higher metres from the Continental Divide it was very windy – hate to think what it would be like on an actual windy day.

On loading the car for our last 3 days in Costa Rica on the coast it would not start again – odd. This time we are more remote and not quite sure how we are going to get it going. Luckily a guy is chopping some branches nearby so armed with google translate Steve goes off to ask for help. A long while later he comes back thinking that it was a failure and they did not understand too much but did tell him it was Sunday so no help coming.

A few minutes later the lady of the house comes out, followed by a couple of young girls from the US who are on a work experience with the family. After some discussion and hand signals the message is done and the gentleman of the house comes out with jumper leads – minus a car to jump from. No worries though, he just flagged down a passing car and got us going again. The people here are so friendly and helpful.

Another very bad road, both in twists and turns but also in potholes like so many and we arrive at the coast, one of the interesting things here is when shopping (apart from the very limited choice of anything) if you want to buy coconut milk, it is not with other cooking items but kept with the alcohol.

Excited, after trying to find thai green curry paste in a bit city (no luck), we had found down south in a small town, we have now found in a little mini mart here on the coast. What a great change from ham sandwiches and such like.

Our last day is a snorkelling trip, which was a bit of an up and down type of morning. The visibility was abysmal despite me having asked before booking. On top of that very little coral and a few fish but the day was rescued by finding a Spotted Eagle Ray – even though the pics are so bad due to visibility. Always a silver lining to any adventure.

Love these Motmot’s nesting down at the beach here.

The locals mostly use Golf Carts to get around which is a great cheap way to travel if you don’t want to go to far.