Last weekend was our second excursion here in Costa Rica. We travelled to the Osa Peninsula on the southern Pacific side, which is one of the most pristine and isolated areas of this country. We embarked on Thursday with a six-hour bus ride to the town of Chirripe, which bordered the Chirripe River. Once we arrived we loaded all of our things onto two small boats and took a 75-minute ride down the river and into the Pacific Ocean, where we found the small village of Drake. Once we landed on the beach we waited as two small jeeps took turns bringing us up to our ¨hotel¨. While waiting we entertained ourselves with some rousing games of toss the coconut and by watching stray dogs attempt to mate. These jeeps and boats were very uncomfortable, which is a shame because they were our transportation for the whole weekend. The hotel was more like an upscale campground in the middle of the rainforest. There was a series of wood platforms which held one or two tents and a small bathroom and that was were we stayed. Next to the platforms there was a nice covered pavilion overlooking the ocean with a sitting area, a bar, bathrooms and a kitchen. It was here that we ate meals and hung out in the evenings. We settled in on the first day by four o’clock, so we decided to take a 20-minute walk down to the beach. On our way back we ran into some white-faced monkeys along the path who were very interested in us. While watching them I decided to throw a small rock near them to see how they would react, surprisingly, one monkey tried to catch it. After that, we noticed them coming down from the treetops closer to us, so I picked up another rock and held it out on my hand towards the monkey. The next part is the coolest experience I have had here on this trip so far. The monkey reached out and TOOK the rock from my hand. It was so exciting for me to interact with a wild animal like that, they are so smart! I think he was pretty disappointed that the rock wasn’t a fruit. That night we had a lot of fun relaxing on the pavilion as we played darts and lots of euchre. The following morning we all woke up in a pool of our own sweat as the sun was blaring into our tent. This area of Costa Rica is VERY hot and VERY humid, something we had to get used to. We ate breakfast and set out on a 20-minute boat ride to visit Corcovado National Park. This park, according to our tour guide Leo, is the nicest and prettiest park in CR. We took two tours through the rainforest where we saw a few howler monkeys, scarlet macaws (beautiful parrots), and LOTS of leaf cutter ants. While playing in a waterfall during one of the tours I was stung on the hand by some kind of insect, which wasn’t a good feeling. We spent about four hours there before returning to our camp. The next day was a lot of fun as we took a 40-minute boat ride to a small island 10 miles off the coast. It is called Caño Island and no one lives there except for park rangers. There we relaxed on the beach, ate coconuts and went on a beautiful snorkeling trip. I saw lots of cool fish, coral and a white tip shark. I received my first Costa Rican sunburn, even though I applied sunscreen multiple times. The next morning we left early to return to San Jose. On the way all 34 of us stopped and ate at McDonalds, which was a nice treat. Despite the rough living conditions, this weekend was a TON of fun, pictures to come.
Pura Vida, Mateo.
No comments:
Post a Comment