Author: Maggie Page 29 of 36

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.

Today I decide to spend a lazy morning by the pool. It was really nice to relax and not need to go anywhere. The pool is pretty , built into a courtyard with lots trees for shade.

At 13.15 we met at reception and were driven to the marina in Quepos. We had maybe half an hour’s wait before we were taken to the boat. The boat was not too large with only about 30 guests on board. Some of the boats going out were very big and could take several hundred people. Really pleased that is not what Deinor booked for us. Drinks and a meal were provided and we set off down the coast.

We were very lucky because we saw three humpback whales. They were pretty close and we think it was a mother and two babies. We didn’t see their tails but did see them spouting and gracefully swimming on the surface. I did not have my camera on me and was not prepared to miss watching the whales to go and get it. You will just have to take my word for it that we saw them!

We moored up for snorkelling, swimming and using the water slide. It is Costa Rican law that you have to wear a life jacket to snorkel. Horrible… I headed off to the snorkelling area but the visibility was dreadful so I went back to the boat, ditched the gear and enjoyed a pleasant swim.

We then had mahi mahi, rice and vegetables. The fish was quite excellent. As we headed back, hundreds of frigate birds circled above us as they came home to roost.

We sat and watched the sunset before heading back into the marina.

When we entered the marina we saw Sea Shepherd moored up. She is a huge boat and out in Costa Rica to help patrol against illegal fishing.

Today we visited Manuel Antonio National Park. The park is very rich in flora and fauna but unfortunately also attracts a vast number of visitors. In order to preserve the habitat the public is only allowed access to a small area – just 1-2% of the park. Before entry your bags are searched to ensure you have no drugs, alcohol or small snacks that could be fed to the monkeys. We followed our guide into the park. The initial path was well made with wide areas for viewing. The guide had a scope which he set up when he spotted something. If you looked through the scope it made it much easier to then view the creature through your own binoculars as you knew what you were looking for and where it was hiding. We mainly saw reptiles and their camouflage was incredible.

We were also lucky enough to see several more three-toed sloths though they were high up and hard to photograph.

The tour took a couple of hours and we were then free to walk along more trails or spend time on the reserves two beautiful beaches. It was very hot so the beach and sea were much more appealing. As we approached the beach we encountered some very cheeky and cute capuchin monkeys

There are two beaches in the nature reserve. Both were beautiful but the first one was smaller and a little busy.

The second beach we came to was gorgeous. The sea was calm but large waves broke along the shoreline. They were extremely good fun to body surf in but it has taken days to remove all the fine sand from nails and clothing!! The undertow is extremely strong and you are warned not to swim out too far due to rip tides.

We stayed on the beach for a couple of hours then headed into town for lunch. We found a bar opposite the public beach where we sat and watched the world go by. I had some excellent bruschetta and two really good G&Ts.

We caught the local bus back to the hotel, which is high on the cliff top above the town. The buses run every 20 minutes and are very cheap at about 70p!

It was then time for another rum punch party. Duncan kindly went to the supermarket and bought more rum and juice, Deinor brought down a huge bowl of homemade guacamole and tacos and a good time was had by all.