Invisible Volcanoes and Jehovah Twitchers!!

February 20th - I'm back in San Jose for a night before heading South to Costa Ricaś main tourist destination - Manuel Antonio for my last few days.
Since my first post - I have hired a Suzuki Jimmy!! - 4wd - so have been gadding about a bit.
I had taken the bus for another marathon 4hr journey to La Fortuna - which is a touristy town adjacent to Volcano Arenal - a still active volcano - which sometimes gives great lava displays - best viewed at night of course. The only problem is - that for about 80% of the time - the damn thing is obscured by clouds and more often than not, it is raining cats and frogs! The first day there - I trekked to a waterfall - and along the way met a little Frenchmen called Xavi from Toulouse. He was heading for the same place - so we joined up and both got soaking wet! - when it rains here - it really rains - but I was slightly prepared with my travelling brolly suitably coloured in foliage green!


Later on - I got my wheels - and the next day headed out to the Volcano again - well I think I did - couldn't see it - and got piddled on again - was going to do a trek through the rainforest but the rain put me off - so I decided to head North towards Nicaragua - where there was a remote National Park called Cano Negro which was in a lowland area - so hopefully less wet!

The roads are a bit dodgy - with some incredibly large axle breaking potholes and once you get off the main roads - it's very bumpy tracks - to get to this park - I had to negotiate about 45km of rough track - so was hoping that it was going to be worth it.
Firstly - had to suss out the accommodation - alot of the places offer what they call Cabinas - yes you've guessed it - wooden cabins - fairly basic affairs - cheap and cheerful. I had phoned the owners of some Cabinas the night before and had a pointless conversation where the only thing we both understood was "Manana" ie something was going to happen tomorrow - that being me turning up to see if they had a Cabin!! I drove into their large grounds - and they were sat in a little cabin watching the TV and looked at me as if I had just dropped in by parachute! I was their sole resident - after a bit of Hola here and Hola there - he suddenly remembered the odd conversation that he had had with a linguistically challenged man from Ingleterre. We laughed and slapped each others backs like long lost brothers - and his dumpy little wife showed me the wooden shack which was to be my home for the night.
It was actually a lovely location - right by the river whcih on closer inspection contained several Caimans - like crocodiles but smaller.

The Park was just down the road - and I went to the Rangers Tourist office and a nice young lady called Norma! - who spoke good English helped me secure the services of a wildlife guide - for a 3hr canoe trip at 7.00am the following morning. This park was a wetland area - series of lagoons - and the best way to get close up to the wildlife is to paddle as silently as possible - and have someone who can spot things!

There were quite a few boats moored up - but I seemed to be the only tourist about. This was confirmed when I later went out for a night on the town. Smelling nicely of Eau de Insect Repellent and with torch in hand I hit the local bar - a massive place with 3 old soaks and a mangy dog propping up the bar. They eventually wandered off leaving me with the barman whose English was as advanced as my Spanish and a large widescreen telly showing a sub titled film, which if my memory serves me right - was called Fried Green Tomatoes!!? I ordered fresh Pesco and Papas Fritos - yes that's right - Fish and Chips and very nice it was too! A few bottles of beer later - I left him to it and got the torch out to find my way back to the shack.

The canoe trip was a great success. Firstly - it didn't rain and my guide - Napoleon! did a good job and we saw quite alot including lots of Caimans as pictured! Mind you - it was hard work as we had to battle upstream against a strong current - and 3hrs in a canoe is not good for the backside, I can tell you. I pondered whether to stay another night and make the barmans week - but in the end decided to head South to an area known as the Sarapiqui Valley. It was a scenic drive - lots of one horse towns along the way and various plantations.
I was hoping to stay in a place recommended by Lonely Planet which was run by a local environmentalist and wildlife specialist - and fortunately he had a spare Cabinas - which was rather better than the previous nights. I had only just arrived - when a man brought in a large bird in a box which turned out to be a lovely Laughing Falcon. Unfortunately it wasn't laughing all that much as it had had it's wing badly damaged - which was starting to be infected. Alex, the owner - was obviously known locally for taking in injured animals - and set forth washing the wound with a toothbrush and special ointment. The bird escaped their clutches twice - it's claws and beak were fiercesome - but it couldn't get far because of the damaged wing - anyway - I pitched in and helped hold the claws tight while the other guy held it's head down leaving Alex to attend to the wound. He gave the bird two quite large injections in a bit of a gungho manner - and then we put it in a cage to recover. The next day - it did seem a bit better - but Alex muttered something about having given it twice as much anti biotic as he should have done - due to a mis-understanding - anyway to cut a long story short - it snuffed it! I did suggest that we could nail it to a branch - but that didn't seem to go down well.

Went for a longish walk to see the sun setting and then found a nice bar with some rather attractive bar staff . Turned out the owners were all Chinese - so ended up having a House Special Chop Suey which went down a treat - but not very Costa Rican!


Breakfast was a communal affair so was able to meet up with the other guests. The breakfasts here have been tremendous - masses of delicious fresh fruit - and then usual eggs or pancakes etc - does me for the whole day! There were 4 guests from Canada who seemed pleasant enough - obviously avid birders - I spent the morning with them on a walk to the River. Now I like to look out for a bird or two - but these guys were obsessive. I thought I was going to have to administer Oxygen on a couple of occasions. They were disappointed for me - as 3 of them saw Green Macaws - but I had offered to wait for Bruce and close a gate after him - Bruce was ages - frothing at the mouth over a humming bird nest - and I missed the Macaws. There will be more for sure along the way.
The next day over breakfast - ha asked me what I did back home - and out of politeness - I asked him the same - turned out that they were Jehovah Witnesses and working in some capacity for the society - I didn't entirely understand exactly what he did - but I did suggest that what with being an obsessive Twitcher and his strange religious beliefs - that he might want to consider some specialist counselling. I am not sure that he entirely understood the English sense of humour - he just started twitching alot - which was quite appropriate in the circumstances.

Later that day - we all went off to the owners place in the hills where more hitherto unsighted birds were spotted - their list of birds seen was up to 105 and counting. Costa Rica in all seriousness - is prime bird watching territory - so they were in the right place. I got told off at breakfast one morning because I had left my binoculars in the bedroom!

Anyway - after that birdwatching extravaganza - I decided to head off to the Caribbean coast - to a laid back place called Cahuita - should be good beaches, a small National park which you can walk round - and some funky reggae rhythms man.

Off to the Rainforest

I am back in San Jose after spending a week in an area called Bahia Drake near to the Corcovado National Park - one of the countries most remote areas. I had booked the accommodation from home at a place called Finca Maresia which came highly recommended by the Lonely Planet guide - and was also Trip Advisors top rated B&B for the area. (my cabin pictured)

My first day in Costa Rica was spent on a tour of the Cities banks together with a Swiss lady called Marlene who had arrived at the hostel the same time as me. An Attorney from Basle - it was her first solo long haul trip so I think she was glad of a bit of company although I tried her patience whilst attempting to book a night's accommodation in the Corcovado National Park ranger Station! Having e mailed them a request - they sent me a form to present to a bank for payment. All in Spanish - I didn't look at it too closely - but after waiting 20 minutes in the Bank of Costa Rica - I was told that I was in the wrong bank! Subsequently found a branch of Banque Nacional - was told to go to the International desk - waited half an hour - only to be told that I needed to queue up for a cashier - and wait for the 786 locals to be served first! Losing patience myself, Marlene was happy to give it another go - so we went to the main branch where there was only 536 people queuing up - but loads of cashiers - so half an hour later I was able to hand them 28 US Dollars - only 8 dollars for the accommodation ( I will tell you later why it was so cheap!) plus 10 dollars per day for park entry. The country has a dual currency - local money is the Colone - 500 to the US Dollar - but US dollars themselves are used most widely apart from the smaller shops. It is not unusual to pay for something in Dollars and receive change in Colones. Had to have 2 wallets in my pocket! One plus point is that if you are held up by an armed robber - you have the option of giving him the wallet with the least money in it! - Simples!

Marlene and I then took a taxi to a Bio-Eco park where they had various displays about Costa Rican natural history as well as various wild areas with local wildlife. Some great Green Iguanas (see main blog pic) - which I never tire of seeing - and a lovely little humming bird sitting in a nest - as well as a variety of other critters large and small. Costa Rica has one of the most diverse range of wildlife in the world taking everything into account and after a period where they destroyed 80% of their rainforests - they are now very switched on ecologically and have loads of preserved areas across the country. The next day - I was off to Bahia Drake and booked a taxi to take me to the bus station for 6.00am! Time difference is 6hrs behind here - so my body still thought it was noon ish. The hostel in San Jose - Kaps Place was decent enough - quite laid back - free Tea/Coffee on tap - a FREE International phone service - plus Free Internet access and Skype. The room was a bit overpriced at 40 Dollars - but I made use of the phone and gave Dad a call to let him know that all was well. Easily resisted the temptation to ring work- although it would have been nice to gloat. Temperature here is 80 +.

Getting to Bahia Drake wasn't easy- but that's why they call it remote! First it was a 5hr Bus journey to Palmar Norte - and then I was surprisingly met by a Taxi man who drove me to a town called Sierpe. I then had to wait 2 hours for a water taxi - but it was a lovely spot - and it didn't take me long to spot a Crocodile floating about in the river. The boat ride to Drake was about an hour and went downriver through Mangrove Swamps and then around the coast to Bahia Drake where it dumped everybody on the beach or sea in fact - the last few yards were wet ones! It was late afternoon by now - and I got someone to phone Miguel at Finca Maresia who drove down to fetch me. Miguel and his wife Amo together with baby daughter were running the B&B - a superb place about 2km inland up a dirt track and set beautifully into the surrounding area of fields and lowland forest. The Accommodation was either private cabins or in my case a room with shared bathroom facilities.


Miguel had booked me on a Night Bug Tour - so I didn't have long to settle in -grabbed a cold beer and chatted to some other guests before having to make my way with torch in hand down a long muddy track to the beach where I eventually found the bar where the tour began. Had another cold beer before the group gathered for the night tour. This was quite good fun - run by an American couple - we were all given head torches and proceeded to trail around looking for nasty critters. Tracey - the leader was very knowledgeable and impressed me by remembering everybody's name within about 10 minutes. We found some nice frogs - which are incredibly small and brightly coloured - plus a Bolivian Wandering Spider - related to the Tarantula - but even deadlier! I was also asked to sniff a Cockroach! This isn't something that I do on a regular basis - but gladly obliged - and to my surprise it had a sweet treacly smell - although not nice enough to make me want to eat it!
Tour ended about 10.30pm by which time I was quite knackered - there were another 4 people from the B&B on the tour - so we shared a taxi back.

The next few days - I enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and nature. The main communal eating and relaxing area of Finca Maresia is set up high on stilts and has a lovely backdrop plus the constant background noise of the jungle - the cicadas and crickets make an incredible noise plus the squawks of Macaws and the distant howling of the Howler Monkeys. It was a good spot to while away a few hours relaxing and spotting the many brightly coloured birds.
Also - there was a well established coastal path which wended it's way through the edge of the rainforest which literally came right up to the back of the beach or rocks. If you were lucky - you would spot Capuchin Monkeys - as well as the beautiful Scarlet Macaws which usually floated between trees in pairs.
I trekked along this path until I reached a small river which was in the shade - and an ideal spot for a swim. Being a Lily white Englishman from the midst of an english winter - I frazzle within a few minutes - so avoiding being burnt becomes a full time occupation.
It was even hotter here and VERY humid - sweating buckets constantly - so lots of water needed.
The area is very underdeveloped tourism wise - so bars were few and far between - and very few people about. The beaches were just idyllic - and mostly you had them to yourselves apart from the hundreds of Hermit crabs - all shapes and sizes that were scuttling about all over the place - never seem so many.
At the River - I saw my first Jesus Christ Lizard! Technically - a Basilisk lizard - they walk on water - well run really - they are so fast that they skip across the surface tension at a hundred miles an hour. Quite a sight.
I had my evening meals back at Finca Maresia where there was a communal dining area - a big long table where you could meet the other guests and have a chat. There were lots of Americans, Dutch - a couple from Chile - some nice people. I was staying for a week - but various people came and went - often staying just 2/3 days - which wasn't enough time for such a beautiful area. There was a very trusting system, whereby you just helped yourself to Beers or soft drinks, wine etc and marked it down on your own tariff card. After such hot sweaty days - a cold beer or 3 went down a treat - and the meals were always tasty and home cooked.

There were plenty of tours to go on - so I booked a Snorkeling tour to an offshore island as well as a day tour to the Corcovado National Park.

The snorkeling trip involved a 45 minute trip out to the island and some other guests had seen whales and dolphins. We weren't disappointed - and spotted a group of 3 Humpback whales together with a baby. The boats are allowed to get within a reasonable distance and staying watching for 15 minutes - taking a good picture was difficult - as the whales didn't stay at the surface for very long - and then you didn't know where they would next appear. Fantastic creatures.

The snorkeling was good - not as many fish as I had hoped - but there isn't alot of coral in this area. We did see a turtle. I was joined by a Belgian family - but after 15 minutes the father and son had had enough and were hauled back on the boat. They didn't snorkel in the afternoon either - so spent $75 to sit on a beach. They weren't that excited at seeing the whale either!
I had managed to borrow a long sleeved wetsuit - purely to stop myself getting frizzled - I'm sure that was a sight for sore eyes - no pictures fortunately!

Also on the trip were a Dutch couple who were staying at Finca Maresia- and they were diving at the same island. Unfortunately the guy forgot to equalise the pressure on his mask and got quite bad injuries to his eyes as the pressure started to make his eyeballs explode! He looked as if he had done 2 rounds with Mike Tyson - and it could have been quite serious. When back on the mainland - they took him to a Doctor who bandaged him up and recommended a hospital visit. We subsequently heard that his sight was going to be OK - but a close shave!



The day trip to Corcovado was a 5am start - with a 90 minute boat trip to the park. The best time of day to spot wildlife is early morning - so hence the early start. The guide was good and had a night scope - which he would set up as soon as he spotted something. We saw plenty of animals including a 2 toed sloth! - you've seen them on the telly - hanging about doing nothing much. The only time they move much is when they want a poo! - as they do that down on the ground and it probably takes them about an hour to get down - so it's a protracted process.
One of the highlights was seeing a Tapir - BUT - this is top secret - so you didn't hear it from me!
Our Guide swore us to secrecy about the whereabouts of a sleeping Tapir. Now these creatures are very rare and elusive shy animals - also being nocturnal - they are rarely seen.
Apparently a couple of months ago - one was found sleeping - not far from the Ranger Station and within an area which the guides would normally walk - albeit well hidden in the undergrowth. Amazingly - they decided to put up RED and BLUE Tape strung across the branches at various points where you might be able to access the place where he was slumbering. They might as well have put a sign up saying RARE MAMMAL ASLEEP. The guides have obviously been told to keep schtumm - but can't resist giving their customers value for money - so one by one - we crept under the tape and crawled within 15ft of a very large Bairds Tapir having a good snooze in the undergrowth! I did see him move - so it's not a plastic one.

Am catching an early bus to La Fortuna - the closest town to Volcano Arenal - still active but also often obscured by clouds!