Where's Andrew

QUEPOS, SAN JOSE & TURRIALBA, COSTA RICA - JUN 13 - 18
I left Montezuma on the noon bus to the ferry at Paquera. It was a lot later than I had planned but the heavy rain that morning had delayed me. I was hoping I could get all the way to Quepos before dark which is just after 6:00PM down here. By the time I caught the ferry and got a bus in Puntarenas to Quepos it was already 4:00PM and I should arrive in Quepos in the dark around 8:00PM. At least Quepos was the final destination for the bus so there would be no confusion as to where to get off.



Main Trail at Manuel Antonio

 Quepos is near the Pacific coast and is a tourist destination because of its close proximity to Manuel Antonio National Park. Manuel Antonio was the first national park in CR. It is small peninsula on the coast with some beautiful beaches and some nice trails. It is one of the most visited tourist sites in all of CR but supposed to be worth the visit. I get a room at Wide Mouth Frog Backpackers for $25US; it has a pool and is one of the nicer places I've stayed. The next morning, I catch a 20 minute morning bus to Manuel Antonio. The main trail at the park entrance is more like a dirt road and there are lots of park visitors.


Beach at Manuel  Antonio

 Since the park is small, I decide to hike all the trails. There is a small trail the veers off to the east just after I enter the park. I come across a White Tail Deer feeding just off the trail. I've seen lots of deer back home in BC but it's quite rare to see deer in CR. Once I get back to the main trail, I come across a bunch of tourist looking up into the trees and there is a Three-Toed Sloth quite high up hanging upside down looking at us. The temperature is around 31 or 32C and it is very humid so when I get to the beach I decide to go for a swim. The first beach I come to is packed with hundreds of people but there is another just a couple hundred metres on the other side of the peninsula and it's almost deserted and I stay there for about and hour.



Manuel  Antonio

 I then continue my hike around the park and soon come to a place near the beach where there is a large troop of Capuchin Monkeys. Capuchin's are the rarest of the 5 species of monkeys in CR and I was hoping to get to see them while in the park. These monkeys are quite small but very unique because of their white faces. They are very used to being around people and the come right down from the trees along the trail which makes for excellent photos. You are not supposed to feed the monkeys but I suspect that these guys get fed all the time. My camera battery runs out as I take photos of the Capuchins so I hope I don't run into anything else really good because I can't take more photos.



Capuchin Monkey

 The only thing I come across is some colourful land crabs. I've seen land crabs along the Caribbean coast during my entire trip. They have been blue in colour with one pincher much larger than the other. It would not be unusual to see these crabs 200 or 300 metres from the ocean. Along roads, I would see many squashed crabs run over by cars. These crabs get quite large (10 - 15cm) and move quite fast. They dig holes in the ground were they live and don't usually come out until the late afternoon. Well, these crabs were quite different, I found them about 500m away from the ocean at about 300 hundred feet of elevation. The tops of the shells are dark purple almost black that lightens along the edges and is a very bright purple along the bottom of the shell. The legs and claws are almost a fire engine red colour with a little more orange mixed in. I wished I could have taken a photo. Hopefully I'll come across these guys again. Although there were throngs of people as my guide book warned, I really enjoyed the day in Manuel Antonio.

The next day I'm conflicted where to go. Puerto Jiminez on the Peninsula de Osa sounded very interesting. It's in the SW corner of CR and is one of the least visited areas of the country and has one of the best parks for wildlife. I was really hoping to meet up with someone heading that way but unfortunately I didn't and when I found out that it would take me 2 days to get there from Quepos, I decide to make a new plan. So, I'm off to San Jose and then on to Turrialba the next day to go river rafting.

I get to San Jose late in the afternoon and book a room at Costa Rica Backpackers. It's Friday night and there is a bar right beside the hostel. The music is just blasting until 2:00AM and I don't fall asleep until sometime after that. The next morning I feel exhausted, not just physically but mentally as well. I've only had a couple of days when I'm not doing something and I decide I need a day off. I just lounge around the pool, work a bit on my blog and go to a movie. Of course the bar keeps me up late again but that's OK. Out of all the capital cities, I like San Jose the best. It's clean and does not have anywhere near the same safety concerns as the other capital cities I have visited.



I sleep in a bit the next morning and catch the noon bus to Turrialba. It's only a 2.5 hour trip so I'm there before 3:00PM. I get a room at the Hotel Interamericano which is known as a good place to book rafting trips. Louis, the manager, calls every rafting company in town but Monday's are the slowest day of the week for tours and only 1 raft is going and it is full but I booked a trip for $75US on Tuesday. So I guess I will have another down day as there is not much to do here other than rafting. I spend a very leisurely day reading and exploring the town. I go to bed early to catch up on the sleep because of the noisy bar in San Jose. 
Tuesday morning I'm picked up by the rafting company. We are on our way to the Rio Pacuare and it takes a little over an hour to get there. The Pacuare is supposed to be the best rafting river in CR and it is one of the few large rivers in CR not dammed and the government has been trying to get approval to build a dam for the last 20 years.

Local indigenous communities and the people around Turrialba have so far stopped the approval process but the fight continues. I hope it never happens because the river and surrounding valley is stunning. Within 10 minutes of arriving, we are on the river. There is me, a couple from Spain, our river guide and a young local guy training to be a guide. We also have a guy in a kayak with us who is there as a safety backup and to take professional photographs with a very nice looking SLR camera with a huge lens. The trip down the river last about 4.5 hours including a 45 minute break for lunch.

There are many rapids with very short intervals between. Most of the rapids are class 3 with a half dozen class 4 rapids. I'm in front with the guy from Spain and I had forgot how good a work out rafting can be. The setting in the tropical forest with steep hills on both sides is awesome. Other than some rough cabins used by the rafting companies during 2 day trips and a couple of homes of the local indigenous people, we see almost no other signs of civilization until the end of the trip. There are some amazing waterfalls and some interesting hand powered cables cars along the way.

The cable cars are used by the native Indians to access some of the homes along the river. We have lunch right next to one of these remote homes. Four children play next to us long side the river as we have lunch. There is plenty of leftovers and the kids know the drill and quickly move in the finish off these leftovers. I can't help but wonder if they go to school? And if they do, how do they get there? The kids are from about age 4 to 12 with the 2 youngest being girls and they are all so cute. There's one good photo from the professional photographer of the youngest (yes, I paid the extra $20US for a disk with the photos). The rafting is a blast and I almost get thrown out when we plunge into 1 real big hole at the bottom of one of the largest rapids and our guide loses his paddle when he almost gets flipped of the back of the boat when we go over a large standing wave on another rapid. It's tons of fun and I'm so glad I went. I'll be looking for other rivers to raft once I get to South America.




The Youngest of the Native Kids

 Well the next day I'm off to the Caribbean coast town of Puerto Viejo and then I'm off to Bocas del Toro in Panama. I need to figure out a date for heading to Panama. There is no road through southern Panama known as the Darien Gap, so my options are to fly or to catch a boat. There was supposed to be a new car ferry doing weekly trips between Colon Panama and Cartegena Columbia. The trip would be only 12 hours and would cost $99US. It was supposed to start in May but a couple days before the first scheduled sailing, it was postponed and there is still no word on when it will be rescheduled. Most of the other options are 40 to 60 foot sailboats that take between 4 - 5 days to get there but stop for a couple days in the San Blas Islands. Cost is around $500 but includes all meals, snorkelling and fishing. The air option actually would cost less and is a short 1 hour flight but I am sure everyone that knows me can guess which method of getting to Columbia that I plan to use. Either way, I need to book ahead to get my spot reserved.

Bye for now.