Costa Rica 2013

Friday15November

130 km and 4 hours of driving to reach the small town of Puerto Jimenez located in the Osa Peninsula, in the very south of Costa Rica. An opportunity to make a small time-lapse with an onboard camera in the car.

And as soon as we arrived, we ate at this very good little 'Soda'. With fajitas, of course!

And in the evening, just below our small hotel, a store is being inaugurated! The whole village (well, almost) is downstairs!

And end of the evening with a fish casado (rice + black beans)

Saturday16November

Woke up at 4:00 AM to reach Corcovado Park, located about twenty kilometers from Puerto Jimenez, which means 1 hour of dirt track with river crossings! We leave with Alvaro Montoya, one of the park's official guides. The hike begins with 1.5 kilometers of walking on Corcovado beach.

At the end of the beach, we get to the heart of the matter by entering the forest. Corcovado is the wildest part of Costa Rica where tours are organized. Since January 2014, a guide is mandatory to enter here!

Beware of crocodiles!

Alvaro checks the surroundings, and comes back all happy, raising his arms, he found it! It's there! But who? But what??? And very proudly, he announces that the fer-de-lance snake (bothrops asper) is there!!! Oh yes, it's one of the most dangerous snakes in Costa Rica... But fortunately, it's sleeping and we can approach it with extreme caution... One bite and we have 4 hours to get treated...

Obviously with my smartphone you can't see much but you can clearly make it out in the center of the photo, coiled with its striped skin and its head in the middle.

La Leona, first guard post and official entrance to the park.

Here we are in the heart of the humid tropical forest. This is the kingdom of frogs, and it's easy for Alvaro to find us a magnificent specimen of the green and black poison dart frog, the dendrobate auratus! This frog is not dangerous but can be toxic to mucous membranes.

The enormous, above-ground roots of tropical trees

And here's a square root!  

A Halloween crab (Gecarcinus quadratus) that comes to challenge me.  

Hop, we take off our shoes to cross the river.

A white-nosed coati (nasua narica) goes to get its bananas directly from the producer!

Under a large leaf, three small tent-making bats (uroderma bilobatum).

Short break for a coconut tasting served by Alvaro!

And now, the Phyllobates vittatus frog, recognizable by its lateral orange stripes. They squat in holes made in the ground by crabs.

A black-handed spider monkey (ateles geoffroyi) in the middle of foraging.

End of the circuit, we have to go back the way we came. An opportunity to enjoy this superb beach, still in its wild state.

And finally, the traditional fungus-growing leaf-cutter ants!

Then back near Puerto Jimenez to rest our muscles in Golfo Dulce!

Sunday17November

It's Sunday, so we continue to rest our muscles! After Corcovado, it's well deserved!   For the morning, we stay in Puerto Jimenez!

We follow up the afternoon with a short walk in the swamps located just behind the small airport of Puerto Jimenez. This place is known for seeing caimans. So we go there confidently, thinking we could see them from afar from a pontoon... But once there, we quickly realize that we are walking among them!!!   And indeed, they are there on the banks, taking their nap, and we are walking right next to them!!! Haaaaaa!!!   But apparently, the risk is measured because they are not very aggressive towards humans... But still!!!

Look for the caiman in the water, you can see its tail sticking out...

Phew, what emotions... Back through the mangroves right next door. Small white crabs offer a little show where they come and go in their holes, hitting the sand with their large claw.

Then we quenched our thirst on the terrace of a Soda when a noise suddenly reminded us that we were right at the end of the airplane runway!!!  

Puerto Jimenez beach.

Beach afternoon about twenty kilometers North at Playa Blanca.

Our hotel in Puerto Jimenez. Tomorrow we leave the Osa Peninsula to reach the Capital San Jose. Oh yes, it feels like the end of the trip!