Corcovado National Park

It was so worth waking up at 5 to get ready and meet our tour company (Bellina Tours) in town for 6am. After getting suitably sun creamed and deet-sprayed, we were introduced to Carlos, our guide. He
informed us there was nobody else booked on the tour, so a private tour felt very fitting for Rach’s birthday!

We caught a bumpy but pleasant 90 minute speedboat around to the San Pedrillo Ranger Station, during which we saw a black and yellow poisonous sea snake and Dolphin pod. Corcovado National Park is one of the largest parks in Costa Rica, is impassible by car other than 4x4, and hosts an impressive 3% of biodiversity on this side of the planet (far more than the UK, Canada, and the US combined!). You’re not permitted entry without a certified guide either.

We were absolutely treated to see and learn about so many animals during the hike. We’d only been off the boat 10 minutes and there was a gorgeous Tapir (a relative of the rhino/horse) foraging in the roughage, and not one bit bothered by us!

Carlos’ telescope was excellent to see tree life up close, starting with two Macaw Parrots. These sweet birds mate for life (hence we’ve often seen them flying around in pairs) and if one dies, they tend to stay alone thereafter. They live 60-80 years in wild, but the oldest recorded was 120 years!

We also saw a Tree Turkey, Dolce Anos (neck lizard), Baby Tiger Heron (these are carnivorous and feed on baby crocodiles, crabs, fish, and even other birds - more vicious than our meek UK herons!), Howler Monkeys (the one that threw poo at Rach in Cahuita, though known as “the laziest monkies of Costa Rica”). There was also a Crab-eating Black Hawk, Baby Boa Constrictor (learning that there are 147 snake species in snake in Costa Rica, 24 of which are poisonous), a raccoon-like Coati darting through the trees above before coming down to forage, spiders, crabs, and finally a lurking crocodile! The huge roots of the cahuita tree were super impressive, as was the dense jungle (though this was only secondary, hence the number of fruit trees and wildlife).

After a much needed lunch of rice, pastas, fruits, etc, we returned via speedboat and were straight in the pool at the apartment to cool off and relax after all the excitement! There was a short rain shower, then we nipped to the shop for ingredients for a fresh “picky bits” tea. A very fun evening was spent playing various games - thankfully the apartment below had vacated earlier that day, as they likely wouldn’t have enjoyed our singing to 90’s hits and Rummie/quiz disputes!Baca lagi