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. :)