Parque Nacional Corcovado to Playa Santa Teresa and Montezuma

Oh no I have been lazy with the writing, too much to explore, no internet or only dusty old computers that require firece punching before the letters appear and generally too much heat and humidity, tapping on a keyboard is way too much action! How can I quickly summarise all the things that happened... it feels like I have been away for a month or more already. I also feel like my life back home is so distant. I almost feel embarrassed when people here ask me what I do. Academia is so abstract and remote to what people do in their lifes that it makes me think what the hell I have been doing whilst all this beauty is out here. So I find all sorts of ways to distract them and steer away from that work related question. After all, I am unemployed now and living wherever I am staying at the minute, that sounds way better than saying I do academic research in political science.

Ok, so the travels. After Bahia Drake, which really was so lovely with Martina looking after us, visiting the culture centre she set up, I went on with Reini to Puerto Jimenez. We accidentally checked in with an unfriendly whitch, but we only realised later. Anyway, we went on this hike through Corcovado national park, which has been the highlight on my trip so far. It was also THE place I wanted to see in Costa Rica, because it has the highest biodiversity on the planet. We took a guide, who was fantastic, because he grew up in the Djungle himself. On the way we met another two French girls with their guide, who knew ours, and we all instantly got on well. It was a lovely grouip, great spirit, lots of animal spying. I was on a competition with the guide and the others to see who spots more animals (has to be a new species every time and it has to be special, white butterfliues or boring black birds don´t count!). It was funny, because William, our guide, thought Pelicans should not count as they are "common". Must be like when we see a pigeon opr sea gull. They had a pictures of a seal on their phone and got all excited about it, it had got lost in the cold streams that somehow ended up in Costa Rics. So special for them, and I was like yeah, we got hundreds of them man, all different sorts. Haha. Well yes so we walked for 8 hours there and I don´t know how many back. Slept over at the ranger station under a moskito net. Great place. In the middle of the national park. The walk led along the beach into the Djungle and back out and in, so beautiful, paradies on earth, nothing manmade. We saw Tapirs (actually, I had no clue what they were before, they are massive! Like a mixture of a humongeous pig and a hippo with a long nose), 38 wild bores that crossed our path (little scary, when I took pictures of them my red light of the camera reflected in their eyes and made them look all teh more evil), parrots of course, four types of monkeys (capuchin monkeys, like in pirates of the caribbean, howler monkeys, some small ones and spider monkeys), a tribe of coatis (Nasenbaeren), a massive rat that really looked more like a large rodent, a sloth, a white vulture with prey in his mouth (some baby animal as I saw through the binoculars :(( ), a snake (bit small, not even poisenous), and loads of colourful birds, lizards, iguanas, butterflies (proper nice big colourful ones) and probably loads more that I forgot to mention. I also got a natural tattoo of a sun from William made from a fruit in the forest, which juice is first invisible but then turns ink blue on teh skin after 20 minutes and stays on for a week (I accidentally got a big drop on my big toe which now looks like a big dirty stain for one week). The Costa Ricans used to use this to make their war paint on teh bodies and faces. You could play all sorts of tricks with it as well. Should have brought some with me!

After Corcovado I went to Playa Santa Teresa. It was such a journey, 8 hours to San Jose first, but I missed my bus to Santa Teresa by 10 minutes, even though I ran with all my stuff through some supposedly dodgy area. Then I was told I could take a different bus to the ferry and catch up with the bus I missed. I just managed to do that! Then in Playa Santa Teresa I was shocked by the amount of US Americans and Argentinians, and even more so by the fact that most places are owned by them and they don´t employ locals because they have to pay them social insurance and stuff. No good. The hostel was a bit like the coffee palace in Melbourne, if anyone knows that place. Full of smoking and drinking, hammocks, music and surfers. Went to a beach party in a great location, actually the beach there is very beautiful, just too many people. Met some nice Costa Rican there as well after all, and then went to Montezuma. I love it here. People are so friendly and it is really cute and colourful. I also met up with the French girl I met in Uvita, so I am all happy :). I just hang out in hammocks at my hostel´s gardens overlooking the rocks and the see, palm trees all around me an lizards and sunshine. I LOVE it.

Uvita to Bahia Drake

I can´t believe how much I have seen already in less than a week! I didn´t find it difficult to adjust to the 34 degrees over here, but the humidity is tough, though I won´t complain hehehe. It is wonderful, I am really enjoying myself now after a first couple of days of feeling a bit lonely. I´ve met so many nice people already. From San Jose I went down to Uvita where there is a protected coastal reef and national park. The beach there is pristine, nothing man made to be seen, with lush mountains in the back, white sand, lots of birds (I saw a Tucan!) and big wave and strong currents. It was a great feeling to be bathing in the pacific for the first time.

Then I was lucky to meet a friendly couple who gave me a lift down to Sierpe from where I took a boat over to Bahia Drake (apparently some old pirate port). The boat ride started out with a picturesque trip through mangrove forest which I very much enjoyed, until the moment when we were told to put on life jackets.. that raised my suspicion. Then I was told to put away my camera, which I just managed in time before the river hit the open sea and the waves and thus the boat went all over the place. We hid behind a rock with our small boat and then waited for the right moment to speed out over the waves. I shit my pants! I thought all my stuff is on this boat if we go under. The young girl next to me was all chilled and so I had to try really hard to pretend not to be scared, but I am not so sure how successful that was latching onto the bench praying to get past that point! She even told me she goes on this boat with the waves three times as high in winter, I don´t know how the hell she does it, she must be crazy! But then young people have no fear do they. They don´t start picturing all the possible scenarios.

Anyway, Bahia Drake was totally worth that boat ride. It is lovely, and the woman who runs my hostel is from my home town! I am staying in a tent but with a proper bed and fan and light, pretty luxurious compared to my previous camping in Uvita in my own ultra-light mini tent which almost gave me claustrophobia. Yesterday I went with another guy for a hike across the hill down from beach to beach, into the forest a bit, over a hanging bridge, all the way to rio claro, a river that is normally bright blue but because it had been raining heavily with thunder it was all brown (that night I woke up by a massive thunder that sounded like next door accompanied by a loud dog yowl and then the dog speed jumped into my tent and hid under my bed. Poor thing. Woke up to him licking his arse in the morning.) We did a little canoe trip up the river, with the shore rocky and steep with trees high up. The guide told us there was a crocodile which we couldn´t see until it got up, and I couldn´t believe I had not seen it, it was so massive! Slightly scary, after all we were just on a canoe. Then AFTER that incident we left the boat and went SWIMMING in the SAME river. Nice. With brown water so you can´t see anything. Well I´m still alive, the crocodile obviously didn´t like me. On the way back we had to rush as it was getting dark, had a short panic attack when we lost our path for a moment, and then were very relieved as we got back to the hostel.
It feels a bit as if you were on an island here with the mountain in the middle and all the beaches at the side. Bahia Drake is tiny, the centre is a dirt track with two "supermarkets" and a few bars.

Central America - A new trip begins!

It has been a while since I have been writing about my travels, as you can see from my ancient travel archive on here. I hope to be able to post some insights on here during my trip through Central America, starting the day after tomorrow - and I hope you enjoy them :).