Osa Adventures

Sarah: Our adventures down on the Osa Peninsula with Matthew and Cassie were…well, adventurous. These pictures can't do it justice. And remember that you can click on the picture to enlarge it if you want an even closer look at anything. :) The week started last Monday, when we got up early to drive all the way down to a small town called Puerto Jimenez. The actual drive took 7 hours, though the day was much longer with stops to eat and to look at birds. We arrived mid-afternoon with both our headlights out and a flat tire, so we took a bit of time to fix up our car. There aren’t many trips we take that go without a few car problems, and we were glad these were easily remedied.

Early Tuesday morning we got up and were driven to the beginning of a long day. The driver couldn’t take us very far, and dropped us off right alongside a river. It was a beautiful morning as we started off, crossing the river back and forth a number of times. We were told it was going to be a muddy hike, and that was a correct statement. 10 minutes into the hike we had mud almost up to our knees - which definitely made the hiking go a lot slower! Finally after 4 hours of hiking, 10 kilometers later, we arrived at the first ranger station. At this point, we paid our park entrance fees for the next few days, and took a short break for some tortillas and peanut butter before starting our hike through Corcovado National Park – one of the most wild, diverse areas in the world. We were already tired from the first 10 kilometers, and had another 17 to go! From this point on, we were hiking through the forest, transecting the park until we reached the ranger station located on the ocean, on the opposite side of the peninsula.

Overall, our hike on Tuesday took 12 hours, we hiked 27 kilometers (about 17 miles), crossed about 40 streams or rivers, saw lots of monkeys and lizards and frogs and peccaries (pig-like animals) and agoutis (larger rodents, with a rat-like face and moves like a rabbit) and toucans and scarlet macaws, and did plenty of bird watching. We arrived at La Sirena ranger station along the beach a little after 6 pm, JUST in time for dinner – which was a good thing because we were almost completely delirious! Had we arrived a few minutes later, the doors would have been closed and we would have had to eat a few more tortillas and peanut butter. As it was, we enjoyed a really good meal of rice, beans, meat, veggies, and fruit juice (the food MIGHT have tasted so good because of the fact that we had only eaten tortillas and peanut butter...). We were completely exhausted, had lots of sore muscles, a number of blisters, and had sweat through our clothes, so after a nice cold shower, we fell asleep quickly.

The next day we enjoyed a relaxing morning, nursing our wounds and sitting on the porch of the ranger station before hiking around on the trails close by. We headed along the beach to the river mouth, and saw 2 crocodiles and a bull shark swimming around. As we hiked around a bit, we saw all 4 monkeys within a matter of a couple hours and also a number of agoutis hopping around in the forest. After dinner we went out in the dark and walked a short walk to the beach, and ended up seeing a tapir feeding in the brush. Those animals look like dwarfed elephants or rhinos, and can weigh up to 800 pounds. Needless to say, it was impressive to see one walking around a short distance from us.

On Thursday we got up early to begin our final hike. Instead of going back the way we came, we hiked all the way along the beach about 15 kilometers. It was a beautiful hike, though we had to be careful to cross over rocks and walk along the beach when the tides were high! And although it was a much shorter hike than the first day, we weren’t completely recovered and it felt long and tiring in the sand. We were thrilled to arrive at our place to stay that night, which at that point looked like paradise! We stayed in tent cabins right along the beach, complete with hammocks and views to see both the sunrise and the sunset along the water.

Our adventures ended on Friday, when we walked the mile out of the beach (we had only been at places only accessible by boat), and met up with our taxi driver in a small town who would drive us the 2 hours back to our car. Turns out our taxi was a truck with a couple of benches in the back, which would have held a total of 8 people comfortably. It was also the public transportation for the people who lived along the road, so at one point we had 20 people in the back (or hanging off the side of the truck). We picked up our car and drove the 7 hours back to QERC, and were glad to sleep in our own beds that night. Cassie and Matthew and David and I LOVED the adventure.

After such a great couple of weeks with Cassie and Matthew, we drove them back into San Jose on Saturday and said our goodbyes. At that point, we also picked up Jenna, David’s younger sister. She had been in Guatemala for the past two weeks, serving at an orphanage, and is ending her time here with us in Costa Rica for a few days before heading back to Washington. We are glad to have her with us, and we all enjoyed a relaxing day hanging around QERC today. :)

New Adventures

Sarah: I don’t have a ton of time to write but I thought I’d give a quick update anyway. I finished up my time working in the city for LASP this semester a couple weeks ago, and said goodbye to my Nicaraguan host family. I was actually sad to say goodbye and give them my house keys, even though I only stayed with them two nights a week. They were a good family, and I hope to be able to visit them when I am in the city in the future. I will continue my work for LASP next semester, but will have a different set up – I will be able to do the same work, but from QERC, so I won’t have to be in the city each week. Instead, I’ll spend about a day at the office every couple weeks or so, just to touch base. As much as I enjoyed being in the city, we’ll be busy enough with our own semester program at QERC, and I’ll be glad to be able to do the work for LASP from home.

Last week our friends Cassie and Matthew arrived in Costa Rica. We worked with them as Naturalists at Mission Springs Outdoor Education when we lived in California a couple years ago, and they are good friends of ours. The first couple days with them were a whirlwind of traveling and birding. They took a night flight here, and as soon as they got in early in the morning we headed up to La Selva Biological Research Station. Matthew is extremely into birding, much like David, so the two of them have been birding every chance they get. Cassie is like me – she enjoys the birds (especially the colorful tropical ones we have here), but isn’t into keeping bird lists and trying to find every possible species for every area we visit in the country (which is what our husbands do). Besides the birds at La Selva, the highlights for me were the poison dart frogs – both the blue-jeans frog and the black and green frog – and…a kinkajou! We were on a night hike and heard some rustling in the trees, and were able to locate it climbing up high. It looks a bit like an oversized squirrel that looks a bit like a cat.

After La Selva we headed over to Arenal Volcano. We first spent a bit of time in the hot springs, and then saw a great show put on by the volcano as it spit a lot of volcanic rocks out at night, looking like bright red lava flowing down the sides. After some more birding the next morning, we headed back through San Jose for some grocery shopping, and then on to QERC. One incredible thing I need to point out is that by the time we got to QERC, so only a couple days into Cassie and Matthew’s trip, David had already seen 20 new birds. This in itself is pretty exciting (more so for the birders who read this blog), since David had been to both La Selva and Arenal on numerous occasions. However, even more impressive is that by the time we reached QERC, Matthew had totaled about 130 new species! It just goes to show what can happen when two dedicated birders get together…

Our time at QERC has been both relaxing and productive. We’ve spent about 3 total days here so far and hiked on a number of trails. We’ve also seen some good looks at the quetzal, collected plants in the forest for the native demonstration at QERC, planted those plants, played games, visiting the local bakery, and of course more birding. We are now getting ready for the final leg of our trip. We will drive all the way south to a small town, stay overnight, and then the next morning get up and hike 12 ½ miles through Corcovado National Park, down on the Osa Peninsula. We’ll stay at a ranger’s station a couple nights, and then hike all the way back out a couple days later. It’s the most adventurous thing David and I have done since being in Costa Rica, and we’re pretty excited about it. Because Matthew is such a birder, and both Matthew and Cassie are extreme nature lovers and hikers, we are excited to experience this sort of adventure with the two of them.