Costa Rica revisited

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  Palma Norte, Costa Rica
Saturday, February 17, 2007

Before I left for Australia to top up the coffers with filthy lucre we had to get the car from the "knocking-shop" to Sheila's backpackers. Sensibly we waited until rush hour to do this and chose a busy street to do it in. But that wasn't the most important part: I found myself straddling railway lines which I thought were either defunct or for trams; no, they really were for a train. Behind us I could see that bright light they shine and heard the hooter (I learnt later that they don't actually run you down) but at the time I could not be sure so I joined everyone else squashed over to the side except for the motorbikes that saw an opportunity! Alongside came a seven car passenger train. Luckily the lights went red at the next intersection so I could take a breath but the train simply barrelled on so presumably Tico motorists understand it all; it then went from one side of the road to the other; so this quite narrow higgly-piggly road shares its space with a fully fledged train which switches from one side to the other; the most frenetic few driving minutes of the whole trip. Anyway we got Sheila in and she takes over the story...

My first night in my Backpackers hostal in San Jose was "interesting" - populated mainly by 18-25 year olds (although there was the odd family with very small children and the odd grey haired couple) and with paper-thin walls, and so although I went to bed at 9.30 there was no chance of sleep until after 1am. The garden and small pool were wonderful; the non-stop electronic music was dreadful! There was a communal kitchen and so I cooked all my own meals and so didn't have to worry about going out after dark to eat (dark at 6pm) - San Jose not being the safest of cities.

Cna see trhe river below

My evening entertainment was either a film on TV (me? yes, really!) or on several occasions fire dancing accompanied by drummers by the pool. I made an attempt to set up Spanish conversation sessions but when I met the person he turned out to be a very inexperienced guy in his early twenties and I had severe doubts but didn't like to say so. Think he must have felt the same because he never pitched up to our first lesson - relief on my part!

San Jose sits in the centre of the country at 1000m in a large fertile valley with mountain ranges to both the north and south separating if from its Caribbean and Pacific Coasts. As a city however it has to be one of the most uninteresting cities that we've visited since there are no old buildings and no character to it. I was also upset by the number of young African/Spanish descent males that one saw, who were clearly drug addicts and spent their day lying prostrate in the middle of the pavement, completely out of it. Although we saw poverty in other countries the people were all trying to eke out a living by selling things in the street, and we had previously seen no evidence of drugs.

I took myself out for the day to botanical gardens outside Cartago. This entailed two buses and as always everybody was so helpful to me. It was wonderful to wander around the gardens - so peaceful - I realise I could never live without a garden, my spirit needs it! Also did a daytrip to Vulcan Poas, one of Costa Rica's active volcanoes. It was a three hour drive in a bus to the northwest of San Jose, through rich agricultural land growing strawberries, other fruits and vegetables and flowers for export, followed by coffee plantations as the altitude increased, and finally dairy cattle.

Corcovado Coast

The 2500m volcano was quite dramatic as you look down into the crater filled with steaming water and sulphurous vents.

I (chris) then returned and made Sheila's life worthwhile once more. I know what she means about the hostel: poor nights sleep, and very, very young. Left early for the coast and the Corcovado Park in the Osa peninsula which is largely untouched tropical forest in the south west of Costa Rica and Sheila has wanted to go there for years. We reached Puerto Jimenez on the Sunday. The town seems to have no function other than to service tourists and has little of interest. We did sample the little fair that was running and watched very serious locals doing karaoke.

Next morning we drove another 40 odd kms to leave our car and pack up food and tent etc because the park can only be accessed by walkers (unless you have the money to fly or boat in). We had an interesting set of bridges to negotiate where parts of the bridge deck were missing and only the I beams remained; you had visions of the tires getting caught between the beams and I felt them catch once!

We are not really equipped for hiking with small rucksacks and a large tent but we put something together to get us to the first park rangers station where we could camp and day-hike. We learnt much later that in fact the main camp (16km further on) serves meals and can provide beds so we could have made it but now it will have to wait for another trip. Anyway the hours walk along the beach nearly killed us as the humidity was off the clock; in fact we have now been dripping wet for four days.

It really is a beautiful and unspoiled part of the world with the jungle coming right down to the sea and hardly anyone around.

Golfe Dulce

The beach is magnificent, the best we have seen by far. On one early morning stroll (I stayed behind trying to keep cool) Sheila was watching a small anteater when she realised that a puma was only a few feet away watching its breakfast; her sharp intake of breath sent it away but what luck. She saw lots more animals and is quite ecstatic about the place. Her good luck was rewarded that evening by a large scorpion's bite! She screamed and dropped everything and I was worried that it was a snake and in fact was relieved when I saw the scorpion; Sheila was not relieved for many (sheila: at least 5 or 6) more hours and said it was like giving birth multiple times. Even the next morning her fingers were still tingling and her teeth were on edge. She now goes everywhere in hiking boots. We also saw peccaries and all four species of monkeys.

While at the coast I experienced one of life's profound mysteries: where do hermit crabs get their shells? We have seen a few elsewhere but here the beach and forest edges are swarming with them; but the beach itself has no empty shells whatsoever. When a home gets too cramped what do they do? Put up a sign? And if someone answers their advert it must be every house buyers worse nightmare: everyone has to move up or down until you get to the smallest or largest. And where do the largest hermit crabs go; what if there are no monster homes available at that time; do they just go homeless? I noticed that some of the shells were getting pretty ropy with holes and chips so they are clearly multiple tenant dwellings.

Improbable trees

I will ponder this mystery and if I find the answer will post it so that you do not all have to worry like me.

One other little mystery is how lizards are able to walk or run on water; they zoom across quite wide rivers as thought they were running on the land!

We had three nights at the coastal part of the park and then drove to the other eastern entrance so that we could access the deeper jungle - the footpath along the coast from Carate was low jungle and scrub. So we drove back through La Palma and then onto a 14km stretch of road that had over 25 river fords; often the river and the road were the same thing and Sheila had to walk ahead to try and fathom out where the road went! Memorable motoring but I now write this from our own little jungle hide-away surrounded by innumerable bird and insect noises and with two toucans just around the corner. The dense jungle part has given us much less fauna to look at than the coastal portion but the jungle itself is magnificent, with incredible plants, butterflies, huge trees going up for ever and covered with monstera, lianas and masses of other vegetation. The park is famous for its scarlet macaws of which there are hundreds. They mate for life but if their continuous squawking is anything to go by their marriages are anything but peaceful. The toucans are incredible with their improbable bills. We haven't seen as many birds as we'd expected but likely because the forest is so dense.

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Our most perfect campsite	Sharing our tent	Volcan Poas	What Toyotas do best
Where has the road gone

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