Month: February 2020 Page 1 of 4

I wake at 04.30, wash and collect my last bits together then head down stairs for a coffee before leaving. The hotel gives me some banana bread and some fruit for my journey, I hug the staff goodbye then walk across the beach to the boat. Paola from guest services accompanies me. The sun is not yet up and there is a rosy glow to the sky. It is going to be another beautiful day in paradise. We speed across the bay. The trip takes 30 minutes and as we approach Puerto Jimenez we see the sun rising. I disembark and take the short car ride to the airstrip. Parrots and macaws squawk in the trees but manage to keep themselves well hidden. Even with their vivid red feathers the macaws are hard to spot until they take flight. This would be a great place to sit and watch the world go by if it were not for the fact that the airstrip is right next to the cemetery. No bad omens I hope!

The flight from Puerto Jimenez to San Jose this morning was very turbulent, with a pretty nail-biting landing, as the wind was very strong. The BA flight home was on time and smooth until we approached the UK. Thanks to Storm Dennis, the last few miles were very bumpy but the landing at Gatwick was textbook; much better than the San Jose experience this morning.

This morning I am making the 3 hour hike from the hotel into Piedras Blanco National Park. Details in my room say it will be a steep uphill ascent and I will get very hot and sweaty. This is an understatement. It is an exceptionally hot and humid day and once in the forest there is not a breath of wind. My guide is Alejandra and she is another research assistant.

We clamber over tree roots, climb up muddy steps carved into the path and just walk up and up – 300 metres vertical ascent. I am very pleased that I have walked up so many hills in the last two weeks as I am neither breathless or have aching legs. I’m just hot. Oh so hot and dripping wet. We take pauses along the way and listen to the forest and watch for any movement of birds or wildlife. Eventually, after an hour, the path levels out and there are occasional breaks in the canopy where trees have fallen. This allows light and a little air to penetrate.

Some of the trees are immensely tall and have impressive buttress roots. We sit on a fallen tree trunk and chat. The sound of cicadas fills the air. Ale tells me that she has set camera traps and has filmed pumas and ocelots on the path where we are sitting. None visit us today, though I did see ocelot tracks on the beach trail yesterday.

We start our descent then high up in the trees Ale spots a howler monkey. They are very shy and incredibly difficult to see in the dense canopy. Initially we just see one but then as we look we spot more. There are certainly two mothers with babies. I have an excellent view through my binoculars and we sit and watch them for an hour or more.

Reluctantly we leave the monkeys and head back to the hotel. The path down is steep and slippery in places and I need to side-step; occasionally holding on to tree trunks for support – checking first for soldier ants.

I return to my room and luxuriate under a cool shower. I spend a lazy afternoon by the pool and in the gardens and at last I see a toucan close up as well as a pair of curassows.

I decide to take one last walk along the beach track and to my delight see some more howler monkeys and they are a little nearer than those we saw this morning.

The hotel is preparing a special 5 course Valentine’s Meal tonight. This means there will be no choice of dishes. Victor, one of the the barmen, tells me what the menu will be at lunchtime and I ask if I can not have octopus for my main course. He orders me a tenderloin steak instead and gives me a Valentine’s hug!

I eat dinner then it’s back to my room to pack as I leave at 05.30 tomorrow.

I was meant to be up at 05.30 for bird watching but that has now been changed to this afternoon so I have a free morning. The hotel has several self-guided trails so I choose one and set off before breakfast armed with camera and binoculars. Birds flit from tree to tree and their song fills the air accompanied by the occasional call of howler monkeys. These are the second loudest mammals in the world after the blue whale. I arrive in a clearing and hear scurrying in the undergrowth. Suddenly a large family of peccaries appear, including tiny piglets. They look at me and I look at them. After a minute or so they settle and continue foraging.

I continue on my walk, the sun glistens on the dew and scarlet macaws squabble in a distant tree.

The hotel has an organic garden and the majority of the vegetables and herbs used in the kitchen come from here. There are also around 100 chickens.

The path leads me back along a trail behind the beach. I see land crabs, mangrove crabs and basilisk lizards scooting across the backwaters as I disturb them.

After breakfast, I decide to kayak across the bay and snorkel at the far side by the pier, where I am told there are loads of fish. There is a bit of a problem finding me fins that fit. The hotel obviously thinks only men and children snorkel. There are no medium sized ones. We eventually find a pair that sort of stay on so I put them in the kayak and set off down the bay. The coastline looks beautiful from the water. There are no clouds and it is hot though still only 09.30. I enjoy paddling across the bay which is probably a kilometre wide. On reaching the pier I beach the kayak and don mask and fins. The water is warm and clear. There is no coral but an abundance of large fish. I even see some juvenile tuna, maybe 18 inches long. The beach by the hotel is stony but this end is fine sand with a few pebbles so it is easy to drag the kayak back into the sea.

The food here is excellent with an abundance of fresh seafood. I opt to eat in the bar which is a bit of a mistake as service is somewhat relaxed (though the beer comes quickly enough). I have ceviche followed by mahi mahi. Both are delicious. Then it is time for bird-watching. I am joined by another lady and Gerardo is our guide. He is a scientist working at Cativo and is a fount of knowledge. He spots birds where I can only see leaves. It is extremely pleasant to now be having a much more personal experience. My one complaint about the g-adventures tour is that there were too many people on the guided walks. Two people is way better! The birds are, as ever, horrendously difficult to photograph.

As soon as it is dark we head off with Gerardo again to spot night creatures. This is such a different world, particularly as five minutes into the walk it started raining. Not to be deterred, we donned ponchos and carried on. The rain worked in our favour as it brought the amphibians out and we saw the beautiful red-eyed tree frog.

We saw so much – cane toads, bull frogs, scorpions, bats that fold leaves and roost underneath them. We even saw a porcupine high up in a tree and caught a glimpse of a kinkajou – related to raccoons but looks like a large bush baby. Unfortunately, as it was raining so heavily, I could not take many photos. My camera is not even slightly waterproof. However, it was a thoroughly enjoyable walk despite the tropical downpour.

I booked the taxi early thinking that it may take some time with traffic to reach the airport. Although the roads were busy (even at 05.30) we made good time and it only took 25 minutes. I was apprehensive about the travel arrangements for this part of the trip as I have no e-tickets – just the itinerary and flight numbers. I need not have worried. The airline I am flying with is Sansa. The have a brand new fleet of Cessna Caravans and a spanking new hub next to the International Airport. I realised last night that the size of my suitcase might be a problem. Thanks Trailfinders for not mentioning, anywhere in your information, the baggage restrictions. Fortunately this was not a problem either. I just had to pay $8 excess baggage. Yes you read it right. Just $8!!

There was a little shop and cafe bar once I’d cleared security and ALL seats in the lounge had USB charging docks. Impressive. I would definitely recommend Sansa if you are ever flying around in Costa Rica.

My flight is to Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula. From there I will be driven to the dock to take a boat across the bay to my hotel – Playa Cativo. It is a beautiful day and the views from the plane are brilliant and it is easy to see the diverse terrain of the country.

We had a very unstable take-off at San Jose. It was very windy and the plane was buffeted for a few minutes. Never a totally pleasant experience. It was just under a one hour flight to Puerto Jimenez. This time we had a very smooth landing. As I stepped off the plane the heat and humidity blasted me. I was greeted by Paola from Playa Cativo Hotel. We took a short car ride and then walked to the pier to board the little boat that would take me across the beautiful bay to Playa Cativo. The jetty was rustic to say the least and somehow I had to climb aboard with rucksack and camera and nothing much to hold onto. The skipper could not help because he was holding the boat to the jetty and blocking my entrance!

The boat trip took about an hour but we did have to stop en route as we spotted a couple of dolphins. They were close to the boat but never surfaced for long enough to take a good picture. I then caught my first glimpse of the hotel. An ideallic setting, immaculate grounds backed by lush rain forest.

We moored up to a rickety makeshift boarding platform and then I was escorted across the stony shoreline to the hotel. My room was not ready so I was given a drink and fruit while I waited. It turns out that the fruit was a bad idea. It contained mango which has only ever given me a problem once before. This time my throat started burning and tickling. I had an uncontrollable coughing fit for quarter of an hour. What I needed was my anti-histamines which were in my suitcase that I did not have. I was offered copious glasses of water and eventually the tickling subsided. I have decided not to eat mango for the rest of my stay here. When I had recovered I had time to take a few pictures of the beautiful grounds.

I was shown to my room which is large and open on three sides. At night mesh shutters are drawn across but during the day it feels like you are just on a balcony with a wonderful breeze. All the sounds of the forest envelop you.

After lunch I had a lazy afternoon. I strolled through the forest along the back of the beach and went for a swim to cool off. The sea here is very warm, more like a warm bath so I am not sure it helped that much. On my way back I spotted an agouti in the foliage.

It was then time for a pre-dinner G&T to watch the sunset.

This morning is the end of the g-adventures tour so we must return to San Jose. Fortunately we do not need to leave until 11.30 so a lazy morning by the pool which has given me time to write up my blog for the past two days. It’s very easy to fall behind once rum punch enters the picture!

Our route back followed much of the same road that we had travelled from Monteverde. We drove through large oil palm plantations and back over the crocodile bridge. From the coast road, we caught a glimpse of the long stretch of beach front at Puntarenas.

When we were on the coffee tour Deinor bought a fluffy toy sloth, which was to be a prize in a quiz to raise funds for the Planeterra Project. The coffee co-operative that we visited was one of their projects. Planeterra is a non-profit organization committed to helping local communities earn an income from tourism. To enter the quiz we needed to make voluntary donations to Planeterra. The questions were all about Costa Rica and we all scored well so it turns out we had been paying attention when we were told things.

Deinor had timed our departure so that we would get back to San Jose before the 16.00 school pick up rush hour, which indeed we did. We checked back into the Radisson which is a good ‘end and start trip’ hotel. We had time to shower then met in the bar for farewell drinks before heading off to a local restaurant. Deinor led the way – it was not quite as close as he had suggested but not too far. The walk turned out to be fairly hazardous as several metal manhole covers on our route had been stolen to sell as scrap metal. Large 2ft square holes dotted the side walk and people stood in front of each hole to protect anyone not paying attention from falling down them! The walk was less than scenic and we appeared to be walking through an industrial area before suddenly encountering fairy lights and an attractive family run restaurant.

The food was excellent. I ordered a steak on Deinor’s recommendation and it was a good choice.

Bob thought it was only fair that Deinor did a quiz too. He posed challenging questions like ‘Who was the only person writing a blog?’, ‘Who had a limp?’ and ‘Who had spotted a hundred plus birds and could identify them all?’

It was then back to the hotel to share a nightcap, hug each other and say our farewells. Tomorrow everyone else goes home, but I continue solo down to the Osa Peninsula with an early 05.30 taxi to the airport.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the group tour, so many experiences and the company was great. I think that we were very lucky that all our group bonded so well. I am sure that is not always the case.