Time to Travel: Southern Costa Rica – a wildlife wonderland!

Costa Rica has a reputation as being THE place to see a huge variety of animals, so we arrived with very high expectations: Mic especially was hoping to spot an elusive tapir and the sloths we failed to find in the Amazon. With this in mind, friends of ours who live in San José recommended we visit Cocorvado National Park on Península de Osa in the south of the country. However, this proved easier said than done – getting to the isolated park is quite complicated, especially when the wet-reason rains make the remote region’s many rivers impassable. Additionally, the park only allows a certain number of visitors in per month, so securing a spot is not easy. Despite this, and although we decided to visit the park on quite short notice, thanks to a lot of hard research work and great fast-talking skills on the part of our friends (1000x thank you!), the day after we arrived in Costa Rica we were sitting in a speed boat bumping our way along the Pacific Coast towards the park. The trip to the park was an adventure in itself - we went by speed boat along the winding, mangrove-lined Río Sierpe, then out through the mouth of the estuary and along the wild, rocky, coastline to the little outpost town of Bahia Drake, where we spent the night in a lovely hostel with our own balcony, surrounded by prolific jungle plants.

Sampling the first of what turned out to be a quite a few rums with our friends on our way to the park :)

Winding our way through the mangroves on the Sierpe River

The wild Pacific coastline on the way to Drake Bay

The view from our balcony in Drake Bay

After a night of catching up on news and sampling ample amounts of tasty rum with our friends, the early morning boat ride up the coast to the Sirena Ranger Station was always going to be tough – but just how tough we had no idea! The wind was blowing, the clouds were rolling in and the waves were becoming increasingly choppy at 6.30am as we waded into the breaking surf to board the little speed boat bobbing on the beach in Bahia Drake. After we managed to scramble in and sit down without getting totally soaked by the swell we thought we had survived the worst of it – until a particularly large wave broke over the bow of the boat, drenching us completely in a mixture of salt and sand. Dripping and quickly making sure all our electronic equipment was stowed safely in plastic bags, we got ready for a rough ride. And rough it was! The swell was seemingly enormous, blocking out the horizon, and the tiny boat had to keep up a stiff pace to avoid being swamped – which meant that we were constantly launching at high speed off the crests of the waves and then slamming down hard into the troughs. It was virtually impossible to remain on our seats – with every wave we were thrown into the air, where we hung for agonizing seconds with our hearts in our mouths, and upon each landing gravity returned us to the hard benches with bone-rattling results. L After almost two hours of this treatment, we arrived in Sirena with bruised behinds and aching backs, but within 10 minutes of getting off the boat we had spotted our first Spider Monkeys, and the discomfort of the ride was quickly forgotten. We spent the next two days following our wonderfully informative guide (Nayor) through the dripping rainforest, being treated to an absolutely amazing variety of plant and animal life. Apart from the animals that had been at the top of our list – tapirs – we also repeatedly spotted all four monkey species present in the park (Howler, Spider, Capuchin and Squirrel Monkeys), as well as Coatis (a type of raccoon), Peccaries (small wild pigs) and Iguanas, as well as a huge array of birds and insects. Every corner we turned revealed more wildlife, and the best part was, the animals were completely oblivious to our presence! The tapirs continued their afternoon naps as we snapped excited pictures of them, a troop of Spider Monkeys swung their way across the river we were swimming in, a herd of Peccaries filed past us as we stood spell-bound in their midst and a band of Coatis glared at us reproachfully as we tiptoed through their foraging grounds. We felt like we had stumbled into a wildlife wonderland – we never went more than 10 minutes without seeing something amazing J The two days we spent in the isolated park flew past in a colourful rush of feathers and fur, and before we knew it we were bouncing back towards civilisation – although this time thankfully over much calmer waters.

Towering fig trees in the primary rainforest of the Corcovado National Park

Interesting spider with a perfect web

Iguana #1

Iguana #2 - a Juvenile lurking in the flowers, waiting for unsuspecting insects to buzz by

A Golden Orb Spider - beautiful!!

A Stink Beetle - pretty, although stinky :P

Palm trees that know how to protect themselves! If you get poked by one of these, you are likely to get a bad infection due to the fungus that they are home to...

Howler monkey

This little guy really knows how to camouflage himself - he can change colour like a chameleon

Spider monkey crossing the Río Claro via a conveniently located tree

Our beautiful swimming spot on the Río Claro

Enormous grasshopper - about 15cm long!

One of the many impressive Strangler Figs we saw on our hikes

Iguana #3 - guarding his favorite drift-wood sunbathing spot

Iguana #4 - a bit of a poser :P

Plane landing on the short grassy runway in front of the Sirena Ranger Station

The remnants of a leaf - the fleshy parts have biodegraded, leaving only the transparent skeleton

The mouth of the Río Sirena - we saw Bull Sharks here -they like to swim upriver during high tide to hunt for fat fish :)

Sleepy tapir

Snoring away - don't let us disturb you :P

Picnic dinner on the beach at sunset - perfect!

Dawn hike - surprised a male Coati out for an early moring hunt

Early morning on the beach - Black Vultures stretching their wings and getting ready to face the day

Scarlet Macaws flapping away, screeching indignantly at us having disturbed them at such an ungodly hour

A tiny little possum seeking refuge on the fragile end of a palm frond in an attempt to escape from a hunting Coati

Beautifully fragile Beach Hibiscus - the only bloom for one day, starting off bright yellow in the mornings...

...and turning red before they wilt and fall in the evening-

Mangrove Black Hawk keeping a sharp eye out for early morning prey

More lovely plant life..

Amazingly colourful fungi

An Owl Butterfly - the 'eyes' on its wings are used to trick predators into thinking they are much larger and therefore unsuitable as prey :)

Caracara

A whole group of foraging Coati

Looking for insects and fallen fruit

A troop of Spider Monkeys on the move - this is a large female treating herself to a mid-swing snack

Spider Monkey swinging from vine to vine. Warning - if you stand as close as we did to take this picture, you may very well get peed on :P

A herd of little wild pigs called Peccaries - they can't see that well, so they walked within a meter of us without really knowing we were there

This baby smelt us and stopped for a good look while the others were hurrying onward

One of the many colourful birds we spotted - can't remember the name of this one though..

A very busy woodpecker

One of the many pieces of interesting-looking drift wood on the beaches in the park

But the wildlife spectacle was not yet over! After picking up our friends’ car, we headed off to the much smaller and more crowded (but also wonderfully beautiful) Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. Strolling along the easy beach-side trails, we were able to see several sloths doing what sloths do best - just hangin’ around. J We also spotted a Caiman, lots of Common Raccoons, more cheeky Capuchin Monkeys, lots of lizards and some deer – all in less than two hours! As we were finally sitting in the car heading to the capital San José, happy and very sleepy, we had to agree – Costa Rica is THE place to see wildlife!