Ups. I have kept you waiting quite a long time…but now it is happening: I’ll tell you what exactly happened in Corcovado!
In my Very Quickly News I already have pronounced it: I may visit the National Park Corcovado, one of the most beautiful places in Costa Rica – at least so I was told. It’s not only one of the most beautiful but also most expansive places – therefore I had not thought that this adventure could become true. In this park you can only enter with a guide – and if you are going by yourself the cost are $650 for three days. Are they nuts?
No no no, not even for the most beautiful place in the WORLD I would pay so much money for THREE days!
I asked the lady of Surco Tours if it would be possible to join another group or other single travelers – because the more people share a guide the more affordable the thing becomes.
On Saturday, August 19, I received from her a letter, yea, not a letter but an email, that two other solo travelers would like to go there! Not for three, but at least for two days, more precisely from Tuesday, 22nd, to Wednesday, August 23rd.
And the cost? They are now $ 250. This includes an overnight stay in the jungle camp plus dinner and the guide for two days – or more advantageously spoken, his help to find the way through the jungle and telling all the information about everything that is interesting 😉
Still, it’s not cheap cheap…but… it is supposedly the most beautiful place in Costa Rica…and therfore…
…YES!!!
Well, the park is a bit more south than San Gerardo. And the tour into the jungle starts at Tuesday at 5 am. So I need to go there on Monday. But that’s fine, as I have to change busses there and we could use this time to buy the new washing machine for mis padres!
After finding every ATM machine in San Isidro (why? you should read this!) I fall exhausted into my bus to Puerto Jiménez.
I have the jackpot seat! First row with open view outside. In two respects nice: firstly, I can enjoy the landscape. And secondly, I’m not so bad here… because here in Costa Rica, because of the windy roads, I always get out of the bus being street-sick. I have never been see-sick. But here I am regularly street sick. Yikes. Yuck. I have never needed a vomit bag but only thanks to the greatest concentration and breathing-devotion.
This time I enjoy my trip and I arrive Puerto Jiménez at 4 pm. I have booked a room in the Cabinas the Corner. Really simple. Really basic. But enough. I would go back there any time. Actually I will go back there in two days when I return form the jungle as it by then will be too late to catch a bus and therefore need to stay another night in Puerto Jiménez.
My little room. And my luggage for six days. SIX! Even towels are included! Meanwhile I can live really modest… 🙂
Beside me just one other guest sleeps here in the hotel. Uh, hostel. Lukas. We are having dinner together and discover two similarities. Firstly, we both come from Frankfurt / Main, and secondly, that we will make the two-day tour in the park together :-).
Tuesday, August 22nd 2017 – 20 kilometer (12.4 miles) through the jungle
Just after 5 am, we meet our tourguide José and the third participant of our expedition, Alex from Spain.
Yawn. Have not slept well. It was soooo hot in my little room. The alarm at 4:15 am was not very welcomed by me, even being an early riser…But the anticipation for the national park lets my eyes pop up.
Off we go! We share a taxi to Carate.
I appreciate that we have a four-wheel drive – so we can “swim” the numerous rivers in our motor vehicle.
Once arrived in Carate we go further by foot. On my back a backpack with 3 1/2 liters of water, lunch for today, breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (dinner in the hostel tonight is included in our package), towel, suncream, mosquito repellent, toothbrush and paste, a sleeping shirt and changing clothes in case we come into the rain. (The care of getting wet of the rain was by the way unfounded. After just one kilometer walk everything is wet. At 30°C air temperature and over 90% humidity you can only steam …).
We are accompanied by many parrots. They are soo pretty!
We walk four kilometers, then we reach the ranger station La Leona, the park entrance. Now we enter the real jungle.
Sixteen kilometers and the perspective of seeing many animals lie ahead. Oh, and some waters. Sometimes in the form of rivers, creeks or simply sludge puddles. The first eight kilometers we still try to stay dry. But at some point this is no longer possible. So: bring shoes where you can run well and which can get wet – like sports shoes. Hiking boots are absolutely not necessary!
Bring also sun protection – for about half of the distance you walk in the blazing sun on the beach in the sand.
It’s by the way the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen!
The most beautiful and – besides us there is no one here.
No one is here except us.
Nobody? Ahem. THAT is not quite true … there are traces in the sand … big feet! Who are they from?
Well?
A tapir runs along the beach! A TAPIR! We are enchanted!
Only a short time later we meet an ant-eater. There he hangs right next to us in the tree nibbling ants …
…but he feels disturbed. Why? Because there is another ant-eater coming.
And the good Lord will not share his ant feast. So we get witnesses of a ant-eater fight!
Only a little later the intruder is defeated.
The champion looks around grimly and discovers – four tourists armed with cameras…
Contentious the champ aims for the tourists. They flee as quickly as they could in the deep sand. Ant-eater decides for Lukas and pursues him, bad-tempered – and fast.
Oh no. The distance decreases. Then the ant-eater starts to jump. Both arms, with a very impressive middle claw, streched forward, ready to kill…
Lukas is lucky. The ant-eater stumbles over a root and falls, the claw sinking, just a few centimeters behind Lukas’ leg into the sand.
Lukas can escape the angry beast.
And José tells us, that ant-eaters indeed can kill a dog in between seconds. They slash open the throat…
Please note: Looking cute doesn’t mean being cute. (I guess there are men outside who have realized that phenomenon when nearing their wife with the wrong chocolate on the wrong day…)
Back in the forest we hear a bird chirping fiercly. José tells us to stop and to listen the bird. It whistles fiercly, really fiercly. Our guide tells us to step back. And the chirping stops immediately. One step forward and it starts again. Another step forward and the whisteling reminds of a car alarm.
Then we have sight of the birdie: it’s a colibri that flatters excited infront of us, obviously he wants us to escape. The brave little chap tries to protect his wife and children as their house is located just a few meters next to us…
Of course you can find monkeys here. In Costa Rica there are four different monkeys: howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys and squirrel monkeys. And all four of them live in Corcovado and we could watch all of them again and again!
Taking pictures of the monkeys… 😉
With my camera, my borrowed camera (I actually don’t own one) it’s not fun to take pictures of those funny animals – after pushing the button the camera needs a while to actually take the picture and the monkey jumps out of the frame… So: if you want to see monkeys, then google monkeys. I decided to only watch them and save the pictures in my head…
I also couldn’t take nice pictures of the many geckos, lizards, komodo dragons, the bigest and most beautiful butterflies I have ever seen, colourful birds and brightly coloured (poison) frog and snake.
After lunch we have to hurry. High tide is coming and we still need to walk a bit at the beach.
Us, the team! Great team and José from Surco Tours is a great guide!
Ay, the high tide is coming. We need to climb the rocks. We should be careful as there will be no ambulance be able to come…
And then we meet my favourite animals in Costa Rica: Pizotes. In German those cute animals are called : Weißrüssel-Nasenbär…in English: white nosed coatie
Pizote toddles closer. CUTE!
On the ground…
…or on a tree. Always CUTE!
Eventually we are approaching the dusk and thus our shelter for tonight. We only need to cross a small river…
“You’re joking!” I say.
“Nope.” grins José.
“What is it what is swimming there?!?” I ask.
“Crocodile.” informs me José.
“You’re joking!” I say.
“Nope.” grins José.
“Monkey busines! We can’t wade through a river in which a crocodile is splashing around!” I say doubting.
“Oh, they are fine. They will cause no harm.” thinks our guide, “Besides, the water is too deep for wading…”
Then the crocodile lifts its head and I can see that José was not lying. There IS a crocodile in the river. And I do not mean a baby gator but a real big and tall specimen.
Suddenly we see another animal in the river.
It’s a tapir! They are so cute! Right after the Pizotes my favourites!
The crocodile makes no effort to nibble on the tapir so I have the hope that it has already eaten dinner and we throw ourselves into the floods. We have to carry the backpack over our heads. At the deepest point, the water reaches my breast.
Everybody survives and I can not believe that I shared the river with a crocodile.
“Sometimes sharks also swim here,” says José, “so you should be careful, and always walk with shoes on, because of the stingrays!”
Aha.
Then we walk into the sunset …
…and arrive our shelter for tonight: the Sirena Ranger Station:
If you find bad reviews online – they are not true! Everything is incredibly clean and great! The only thing that could disturb some: there are no single rooms but only two dormitories with about 15 – 20 bunk beds. And there are no walls, just a roof. So you are helplessly surrendered to the sounds of your fellow human beings as well as the jungle. It did not bother me and the bed (including mosquito net) was wonderfully comfortable!
And supper? Wonderful! Vegan and vegetarian dishes as well as meat and dessert. Fresh and, above all, deliciously prepared and all you can eat. After the 20 kilometer march with only a cereal bar for lunch it’s like a dream! But to avoid any disappointments: please do not imagine a giant buffet – we are still in a hostel in the jungle! But e.g. the food on the Mount Chirripó reminds more of a prison cafeteria … And here in the jungle the food also delights one eyes…
However, at eight o’clock the current and thus also the light is turned off. Bedtime.
From two o’clock clock on all kind of alarms ring, since different people make different tours – we unfortunately, march back today. I would rather have stayed one day and one more night here and I would recommend that to everyone! Firstly, it is exhausting to walk again twenty kilometers (even if I’m in good shape). But secondly and more important: we are now deep in the jungle and I would have liked to spend a day here in the primary forest!
Wednesday, August 23rd, again 20 kilometeres through the jungle
At 5 am our alarm clock rings. I have a cereal bar for breakfast. To buy breakfast here is really expansive – and you are not allowed to bring unpacked food as then the monkeys and other animals would join you at night to grab your food…
We have to slip in our wet, cold and sandy shoes and I only have one word for this situation: nasty! Then we get going.
I am tired. So tired. And somehow my throat is so rough. And my nose is itching. And the sun, the sun is even heavier than yesterday. Phew. Do I suffer of a sunstroke?
Again we are lucky and see so many animals! That’s a little distracting. But I really don’t feel well. And then the rain comes. Indeed! Yesterday there was no rain! We were so lucky – as if it rains you will see less animals.
But today it is pouring cats and dogs (I am happy, that there are not REALLY falling cats and dogs from the sky – I would not enjoy walking on their damaged bodies…). In the beginning I really enjoy the cool wet as I really had the feeling of flatlining under the burden of the sun. But when we are completely soaked in the car on our way back to Puerto Jiménez my rough throat turns in to a sore throat.
Back in our hostel Lukas and I had reserved two beds in the dormitory. Firstly, because it is cooler – bigger room and more windows than in my little room from the previous day – and secondly, Lukas had the whole dormitory alone for himself the last time. So why spend more money on a hot little room? Right.
Misfortune today: in the dormitory every single bed is occupied. And I’m completely done. I want peace. Sleep. I crawl into my bed. On the left and right, backpackers enjoy their lives talking and laughing. I’d like to throw them out. Or force them to sleep. But since it is only half past seven I have the feeling that this would not be fair…
But I am so exhausted, I can sleep anyway! And I sleep until an alarm rings at 4 am. Shoot. It’s my alarm clock.
My bus to Uvita departs at 5. And the hotelowner, an old little lady (by the way: she only speaks Spanish and seems a bit rude, but if you actually understand what she is saying you sense how lovely she is!) told me to be at the busterminal at 4.30 am at the latest to get a ticket. Well then. Yawn. I still have a sore throat. Hmm. I guess it will disappear somehow. I can relax at the beach of Uvita.
Uvita is, more or less, on the way back to San Gerardo, and should have a really nice beach. I don’t think I am going ahead with my actually plan: hike to the Unvitas waterfalls. But who knows.
Thursday, August 24th – Uvita. The famous beach with the whale tail.
From Puerto Jiménez to Palmar Norte by bus and by bus from Palmar Norte to Uvita. First: Being street-sick. Then: Being on the famous whale tail beach.
About half past ten I reach my hotel. The El Toboso Bed & Breakfast. Very nice! Everything is made of wood, there is a really nice guest kitchen where you can cook and a really very good breakfast is included. The beach can be reached in just five minutes by walking – and there I now stumble.
I throw myself in the sand and fall asleep immediately.
When I wake up dark clouds are flying around in the sky and the wind is more cold than warm. And that my throat doesn’t like. So I swing back into the hotel, place myself in a hammock and … sleep. Construction noise, playing children and chatting people – I am too tired to care. I sleep for nearly five hours.
Whew. NOW my throat really hurts. I drug myself to the supermarket and buy dinner: potatoe-chips and gummy bears. Then back into the hammock and later on to bed. I have such a boo-boo sore throat, it hurts so much, I nearly can’t stand it. And all the liquid my body produces, forces its way out of my body through my nose.
Shit. In the kitchen I find some water and salt – so I am gargeling through the night.
The next day I feel better. Not great, but better. Anyway, I decide not to stay in Uvita but going home – even if I don’t feel like travelling in a bus for six hours…but I also don’t feel for more adventure so it’s better to just go home to San Gerardo. Back there my sore throat transforms to croakiness and ends up in aphonia…
How one can live without a voice and what I did for my last days in Costa Rica you can read here 🙂
By the way: Do I think Corcovado is the most beautiful place in Costa Rica?
That’s difficult to answer – I haven’t been to the north of the country where it should be really nice as well. And moreover beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I guess one who loves the mountains and the forest should go to San Gerardo and its Cerro Chirripó. For one who loves the animals and beautiful beaches Corcovado is a MUST SEE. Only the jungles plant kingdom isn’t that nice, I think for that you should go and see Cloudebrigde.
And between Manuel Antonio and Corcovado for sure Corcovado comes out as winner! Corcovado is nature pure – thererfore more strenous to hike and you never know which and how many animals you are going to see. Manuel Antonio’s trails are really well “prepared” and you will find a LOT of tourists…allthough the animals live in freedom I had the feeling of being in a zoo as they are so used to be photographed all day long… But if you want to combine your jungle experience with a vacation by the sea for swimming and/or surfing Manuel Antonio wins. In Corcovado it was forbidden to go into the water: too many risks wait there in form of sharks, crocodiles, drifts and rocks.
Have you ever been to Costa Rica? I would love to hear what was your favourite place and your best experience 🙂
Schokolade ???!!
Und der Weißrüssel-Nasenbär erinnert mich and den Kragenbär ❤️
Viele liebe Grüße
G ?
❤️Kragenbär❤️❤️ – es kann nur EINEN geben…wir geht’s ihr denn?