(text in ENG)
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| Drake Bay |
So, we arrived to Drake Bay, Corcovado. From the airport a taxi (i.e. SUV) took us to the village. The drive was about 20 minutes, but fun as the road goes through a river! Yes, Drake Bay village can be reached by car only in the dry season (in that time the river is low and can be crossed). But in the rainy season the village can be reached only by boat.
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| crossing the river to the village |
We arrived to the hotel where the owners, Jaime and Craig were waiting for us. They are a couple from the U.S who has moved to C.R. about 13 years ago. Their hotel (Casita Corcovado) is rather a house with two separate rooms (with shower and everything). Jaime took us around the village (about 15 minutes to walk around), showed us the restaurants, shops and generally we had a warm welcome.
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| with our hosts |
Just a few meters from the house is the "park" of the village, which is rather a small corner of lawn with some benches and some spectacular view to the bay!
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| the park of the village and view to the bay |
The beach all over, you just have to descend from the small hill where the houses are. The beach right in front was a bit sandy and full with sea grass, but we were recommended one in about 30 minutes walk from the village, so after a little rest, we headed to this beach (Cocolito beach). The trail to this beach goes through some remote houses, hotels, a hanging bridge over a river and of course: jungle. About 10 minutes walk from the last houses we have already bumped into a family of Capuchin monkeys! (These monkeys can be quite aggressive despite their cute black and white faces.)
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| the first monkeys we`d seen in C.R. |
It was interesting that generally in the whole country the local people are very conscious about the nature and animals. For them, not feeding, not touching wild animals, not taking flowers or anything else from the forests (not to mention not littering in the nature) are obvious and natural for them. (They are not even throwing away compostable trash like fruits` skin) in the forests, because they don`t want to "attract" wild animals to the people.) Thanks to that good education, we could experience the rare "real nature" and observe these animals in their real surroundings - just like in a documentary. Which reminds me that apparently many of these documentaries (like in National Geographic) are filmed in Costa Rica. This is because 25% of the country is protected jungle and because of the unique circumstances of Costa Rica (it has 12 microclimates, 5 different geographical zones, mountains and 2 seas) makes the flora and fauna extremely divert in a relatively small area. Actually, in this country, with the size of Denmark (or Island Kyushuu in Japan) you can find 890 species of birds, 200 mammals, 150 amphibians, 200 reptiles, 36000 insects and 10000 types of plants, trees, flowers, including 1500 species of orchids. This is 5% of the world biodiversity!
And this biodiversity is what we drove to Costa Rica, and to our first destination, Corcovado. Reading about the country, all guidebooks said Corcovado is the most "maniac" spot, mainly because of its remoteness and difficult access, this is the least "touristicated" part of the country. Which was true, seeing after Monteverde and Arenal areas.
As Corcovado is on sea level, the weather was beautiful (the air being 29 degrees, the sea 28), and we had sunny, shiny days for all 3 days of our stay.
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| the beach at the village |
The first day we just spent the day resting and enjoying the remoteness and nature. The next day we had a jungle tour to Sirena Station and before leaving, we had a diving in Cano Island reserved.
The jungle tour started at 6am, but Jaime was nice to prepare us breakfast even that early (her breakfasts were delicious and plenty!), so with full stomach we left from the beach by boat the the station. (Sirena Station can only be reached by boat from the ocean.) The boat ride took about 1.5 hours and the exciting thing was that for 1.5 hours we only saw jungle on the shore! The station is in the heart of the national park, so you can imagine the size of this forest. We arrived around 7.30 to the entrance of the park and started our tour.
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| the beach at Sirena Station - just like Paradise |
Despite being the most remote touristic place in Costa Rica, there were already 5-6 other groups, but our guide was smart enough to lead us to different trails so we wouldn`t bump into other groups. The tour took about 4 hours and we walked 5-6 kms all together. On the tour we saw 3 species of the 4 existing species of monkeys (capuchins, spider and squirrel monkeys).
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| spider monkey |
We couldn`t catch the howler monkeys, although we heard them: their unique voice can be heard in 4-5 kilometers! The other "big trophy" we were aiming at was the tapir (Baird`s Tapir) and we could see 2 of them. Unfortunately, only sleeping (as being noctural animals), but at least we could observe them closely.
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| tapir sleeping in the bushes |
We also saw snakes, many many birds, american crocodile, cayman, butterflies (even the beautiful blue morpho), frogs etc. We even saw a nest of a hummingbird (with 2 little eggs inside) - the hummingbird builds its nest of moss (I guess because there is no twig thin enough that would bend for such a small nest).
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| the nest of a hummingbird |
After the good walk in the hot weather (was hot even in the shades of the trees), we had a good lunch (sandwiches) on the beach and headed back to the boat. We arrived back to Drake Bay around 2pm. In the afternoon, again we just strolled around and relaxed in the hammock in front of our room, enjoying the bird chirps.
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| even our hotel was like in the middle of the jungle |
The next day we went for diving at Cano Island. The diving started a bit strange (we were told to be at the shop by 7.45 but finally left around 10 - why did they summon us so early, I`ll never know, as all the preparation was done by 8.30). The next bad luck was that the dive spot we were supposed to go, was already taken - apparently, you have to "reserve" the diving spots (there are 8 around Cano Island) beforehand. However, the guy before us just didn`t do it and all the system was mixed up by that. We had to go to our 2nd spot first, where there was supposed to be another group, so unfortunately the original group of 5 became 13 as we had to merge with the other group...
But it was nice that on the way to the dive spot we spotted a couple of dolphins and our captain were chasing them for a while, giving us a little dolphin watching service.
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| all we could catch of the dolphin for the photo... |
The first dive was OK, although the visibility was the best, even it was about 10 meters, which is not the best of the dive spots around the world. But even so, we could see white tipped sharks and big groups of fish. Unfortunately there is no coral reef around, so no colorful fishes or interesting little creatures among the rocks.
Between the two dives we were taken to the beach of Cano Island, which was (for me) the best part of the diving: the water is so transparent, I wouldn`t imagine it is the Pacific-ocean!
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| the beach of Cano Island |
There was a bit rock formation on the beach where you can climb and see pelicans and tons of crabs, a cool river flowing into the ocean and of course, just behind you there is the jungle (where we spotted a Jesus Christ lizard).
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| Jesus Christ Lizard |
Our second dive was quite fast, because I got nervous that everybody already sank, I didn`t catch the rope while descending and we got drifted away by the current pretty quickly. The visibility at this spot was about 2ms so there was no chance to find the others, so after about 10 minutes we ascended (good that we had dive watches). Fortunately, this happening didn`t turn out to be like to movie "Open Waters", the boat found us easily and took us to the beach until the others returned.
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| the jungle part of the beach |
This day was the 31st of December - we haven`t planned anything special, but as a New Year`s dinner, we tried Jaime`s recommendation restaurant, the "Gringo Curt`s". As the name says, the owner/waiter guy is also from the U.S and runs a small but delicious restaurant. They only have 3 types of food (fish tacos, veggie pasta (with fish if requested) and fish steamed in banana leaf), but the menu is a fish guidebook! Because the main ingredient (the fish) varies every day, depending on the day`s catch. We ordered the fish steamed in banana leaf (with mashed potatoes and vegetables) and it was really unfortunate that the portion was huge (the two of us ate one portion and got full), because I really wanted to try the fish tacos as well.
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| dinner at Gringo Curt`s |
It was a pity, we hadn`t tried it before, as we would have gone there to eat every single day. Not only the food, but the place itself was great: there is a screen on the counter showing pictures (great pictures) that Curt had taken in his hikes in Costa Rica and Curt can tell you great stories and recommendations regarding the surroundings.
So, this was our New Year`s in Costa Rica. At midnight Jaime, Craig and some other Americans had a small firework (as every other house in the village), but rather than watching a firework in a crowded city, it was much much better to stare at the millions of stars on the costarican sky...
The next day our plane left at 12, so we woke up early and took a hike to the jungle. Curt has told us the previous night that there is a long trail (of which a part we already took on the first day to Cocolito beach) that takes you over 22(!) beaches before arriving to the most beautiful beach (I forgot its name) in the Osa Peninsula.
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| one of the 22 beaches on the way |
However, as this hike took 2 hours only one way, we didn`t have that time, but we walked about 2 hours along this trail and it was really beautiful. Turned out, we might not needed the jungle tour as you can walk along these trails, find waterfalls just as easily around the village. We even encountered two families of capuchins on the way and saw a toucan as well.
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| jungle... |
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| ...flowers... |
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| ...plants... |
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| ...and animals... |
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| ...on the way. |
After arriving back to the hotel we took a quick shower and headed to the airport (again, across the river). The check-in took us about 2 minutes as there was 2 other couples/families leaving. (I wish every check in would be so easy!). Again, we had a nice flight back to San Jose with the small cessna of Nature Air.
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| our plane back to civilization |
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| bye-bye, Corcovado! |
From San Jose, we immediately left with a shuttle bus to Monteverde, but about this area, I`ll tell you about in my next letter...
More pictures from here! → Corcovado day 1
Corcovado jungle tour
Corcovado - Cano Island
Corcovado last day
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