Corcovado National Park with Anteaters, Crocodiles and Tapirs… then Quetzals and recollections 8 years on

Great few days hiking during the day and at night into one of the world´s best natural wildlife refuge situated in SW Costa Rica on the Peninsula De Osa.  Got back couple of days ago, tired, dishevelled and all my clothes, rucsac with everything smelling of damp, sweat, suncream, old food, insect repellant with sand and dirt mashed in for good measure.

The fun started with a party the previous Friday evening at the house where a succession of German college students have lived for several years. I enjoyed at long last being able to chat freely and easily in English and in the mass of young students found 5 blokes who were learning Spanish – political science. Their aims were to become a translator or entrepreneurs importing cheap Indonesian clothes, expensive cars or pharmaceuticals.  I learnt about the social and political situation such as the dislike by many of the Free Trade Agreement between Costa Rica and USA and the big differences in poverty levels between various Central American countries. For example 60% of people in bordering Nicaragua live in abject misery with the consequent risk of civil unrest high and flock to the affluent Costa Rica looking for work, such as our gardener – handyman at my host’s gated community. In general they are disliked for being dirty and thieves.

Apparently, Costa Rica is quite stable due to a large and generally contented middle class with all the shops, expensive gyms etc one sees in Britain.  However, behind the 3m wall around a very smart shopping mall Las Flores we visit, is the poorest shanty town in Costa Rica which you simply do not see from the highway. Inbetween such conversations, were 3 guys spewing up a few feet behing me into the bushes with a Chinese philosophy professor wobbling around in a chair trying to hit a bucket with the vomit whilst giggling incessantly. Fortunately, I don’t recall this bit!

On Saturday the 4 of us drove to Corcovado in Rocio´s Suzuki type jeep along the Dominical Pacific coast where roads were a mix of paved and dirt-stone. Some of the great beaches were being developed for tourism and affluent incomers looking yet again for paradise…so adverts on the highway such as  Óversized Home Sites With Mountain and Sea Views´or ´Distinctive Furniture for the Distinctive´. Many of the new buildings looked like they were out of a Roman film set with large entrance arches, elegant styled condominiums with white or ochre walls and red tiled roofs.  Interspersed were large monoculture coconut plantations and arable fields with fish ponds rearing camarones or shrimps. These vignettes of wealth were in sharp juxtaposition to the dark skinned man shuffling along the highway edge in very tattered clothes who looked thin and ragged picking litter or scavenging for food as did the stray dogs.

It took about 7 hours to drive about 300km with the last 60km along a mainly dirt road where there were temporary metal slatted single bridges across rivers, whilst concrete bridges were being built alongside and JCB´s worked to improve the surface to a smoother dirt stone.  It was slow going but the Guide Book said the access was much worse couple of years ago. We had good views opening up over Golfo Dulce Bay with forested hills all around, blending softly into muted shades of green, grey and blue between trees, clouds and sea.  It was much more humid and warm than in the higher elevated Central Valley and thus bedrooms were often stifling and confining in the typical cheaper lodge rooms we used in our base at Puerto Jimenez which had no opening windows and a door you have to keep closed from dusk due to the mossies. The Cabina On The Corner was clean with 4 beds, toilet and shower in our room for about 11 dollars per person night.The frontage had metal bars with doors locked at night so the place felt like a prison.

We were up at 5am to get a truck or Collectivo to Carate a small village on the coast at SE edge of Corcovado NP.  Took 2 hours to do about 21km along dirt roads, crossing small rivers and gears grinding to get up and around steep bends.  There were about 12 in the truck, half being workers who jumped out at different places along the route to presumably work on the cattle or other farms and remainder being 3 backpackers with ourselves. Rocio has walked into Corcovado a few times and has carried out research on otters for a month, so it was very useful to have her along as a guide.  We were going to walk in from Las Patos on the northern boundary but she had been told a week before that the roads were becoming impassable due to rains and the hike would therefore have to include an additional 12km along dirt roads before a gruelling 21km hike in 100% hunidity etc up hills and across a hot inner valley.

Thus, we decided to walk in and out along the coast from the southern end. This is still quite a trek along the soft beaches and tracks just inside the forest edge where thankfully we found shade as pounding soft sand with a backpack and 4 litres of water and food etc in the midday sun is hard going. The main safety issues were reading the tide timetables correctly and making sure one gets to headlands and rivers in time to get around at low to middle tide as they were impassable due to strong currents, crocodiles and bull headed sharks which are one of the 5 species to attack people. Otherwise, you have a long wait and end up walking in the dark which is not recommended due to snakes, pumas etc.

We made good time for getting around one of the rocky headlands and 2 streams were very shallow but the last one near out destination of Sirena Ranger Station was at mid to high tide.  We didn´t realise that the tides were higher or lower than normal due to moon cycle so although we tried to cross upriver where Rocio said it was only chest high, it was this high and higher on C. who is 6 foot just 10m from the bank. I was behind in shallower water and already up to my waist with the rucsac above my head. We still had about 40m of river to cross with possibility of crocs in the murky waters!  We abandoned this plan and returned to the sea shore edge where the tide was ripping through and back under a narrow 7 m wide gap.  C. went first and found a conveniently wedged stick in the middle which if he hung onto on the incoming tide he could just about keep his foothold and then go for it on the out tide.  We decided to go. I followed him and hung onto his shirt tails when in the middle and I grabbed K. He stopped and pondered whether best to go back. but I didn´t think standing in the middle of a tidal stream with crocs and possibly sharks was a terribly good idea, so I urged us all to go for it on the gentler and shallower out tide and it worked!  Later at the Station, one of the Rangers asked us what time we crossed the river and was not at all happy we had done so, as at that state it was downright dangerous and we were lucky not to have been swept off our feet into the river turmoil….don´t do it again!

We were lucky to see two tapirs on the beach which are normally shy of people. A male just snoozed under some coconut palms and a female was being checked by the rangers as she was thin and in poor condition due they think to a fight with either another tapir or a big cat attack as there were scars on her rump.  It was fascinating to see her close up as she comes right up to people but they can bite hard!  We saw other animals during the 4 days;  a collared anteater as a mix of soft greys, white and black moving slowly in a tree and white nosed coatis. On one occasion, there was a family of females and young in the undergrowth and later two males who live separate lives and were having a bit of a macho set to by showing each other their backsides and big balls but continued snuffling in the leaves for food as we walked close by. There was a white lipped peccary, three toed sloth and an emerald green and black frog which emits a poisonous skin substance which is only harmful if you have an open wound and surfers lick the stuff to get high and seek out nirvana on a surfboard.

The birds included very noisy and fantastically colourful scarlet macaws, chestnut backed antbird, chestnut mandibilled toucan, rufous tailed jaco, the rare solitary eagle, a great curassow strutting slowly about on the ground and two male woodpeckers boxing with each other up and down and around a tree. The antbirds seek out a type of ant which moves the entire colony each day en masse. I didn’t see this but was told you can hear the colony on the march eating other insects on the way which try and flee so the antbird picks off these fugitives. Rocio pointed out an old bare patch of dirt of the track made by a puma where I think they also urinate as a territory marker.  A puma with two old cubs had been seen fairly recently on the grassy lawn by Sirena Station.

We saw all four species of monkeys, white throated capuchin, mantled howler, spider and squirrel. I think it is the spider monkeys which are carnivores and will attack and eat young monkeys. All are fantastically agile as they use four limbs and tail to move along branches and jump between trees often in groups.  The howler monkeys do howl and make a loud racket when danger is near and we heard this in the early hours indicating a puma or other predator had been spotted. The defence mechanism of some monkey species is to pee and shit on your head or throw fruit, seeds etc so you don´t want to spend much time looking up when they are above. This is one way of telling if a puma is about.

Some of the trees had serpentine root systems up to 6m long with a mix of large domed verdant green canopies and others much smaller and spindly with sparse leaves.  The rivers and streams were dry with little water as the area was experiencing an unusually dry period which occurs about every 6 years, so we did not see the female neo tropical otter which often appeared when Rocio was doing her research last year. Due to bureaucracy she and the college have been unable to continue with such research and none is being carried out on otters. Thus, for example, it is unknown where animals go when many of the streams run dry and whether this increases competition for prey in those that retain water. The necessary permits took several months to be issued and then the wet season had started when access and river work is very difficult and partly because she is not Costa Rican.

The radio tracking Jaguar Project seemed the only project being allowed to go ahead due to years of dedicted work by one professor and the attraction of funding.  The availability of external funds means that this Park is one of the better patrolled areas and poaching is less than in many other protected reserves.  We saw some cameras on the paths but only on one side which was puzzling as two cameras are always used to note the unique coat makings on either flank but poachers take the cameras to prevent them being monitored.  Apparantely, all the successful cameras have been wafting with Calvin Klein No 1 perfume!

It was very disappointing to learn  a radio tracking research project on tapirs had been cancelled by the Authorities, very rightly so it seems, due to the appalling standards of the researchers.  Radio collars have been fitted but no one could be bothered to turn up for 6 months to track progress, monitor condition etc and the rangers were finding dead animals such as a youngster where the collar had not expanded with his growth. They know other individuals are dying but no one knows why and habitat, diet etc research could have been very useful in helping to understand what is happening.  It made Rocio and C very angry as apart from the ethics, it hinders future funding and securement of permits as well as damage to the scientific research community.

We met up with C, a professor of tropical biology who is Costa Rican but lives in Washington State and leads college trips to tropical forests in Belize etc. He was visiting Corcovado for the 3rd time and we had the opportunity to go out on night walks for 2 -3 hours which was great stuff. So, either with another 2 of the group or on my own, we traipsed behind C who carried a machete and 4 foot long walking type stick. C. seemed to know where to look for snakes and which ones to be particularly careful around and the advice if we met a herd of pecarries who do attack people was to climb a tree (as they cannot climb) unlike pumas where one in the past few years had a penchance for attacking soiltary hikers. Add in jaguars which can leap 9m in one bound and I never did found out what one was mean´t to do if these appeared except stand still, don´t run or scream and look big.  Apparantely, the jaguars here are smaller than their counterparts further away from the tropics eg in Brazil where they are much heavier, more likely to attack people and a different dish of the night altogther when a knife and balsa wood stick are laughable.  This smaller size around the tropics is typical for many species. I guess this is to do with body size, temperature and calorific needs etc.

It was a great experience being out in the jungle at night where absolutely no lights except couple of headtorches and in the occasional canopy gaps perhaps some moonlight.  We saw a rare reddy brown red brocket deer moving up a river bank and a cat eyed snake by the path edge which is not poisonous and later when re’crossing a small stream saw one being taken by a caiman. Ended up just 2 of us on a beach at low tide where we´d seen a large crocodile earlier in the day. There was a fantastic milky way of stars and red eyes of a crocodile in the water on the opposite bank which then moved upriver with the incoming tide like a slow motion crenellated log. Apparently, there is a low chance of a croc being at the top of the shore line in the mangroves at low tide and it wasn´t the turtle nesting season when jaguars come to the beaches for a tasty morsel. Thus we waltzed around the beach discussing stars, mythology and me explaining about the great Hamlet cigar or Guinness adverts, whereby it would make a fab ad for me to ponder the merits of beer or croc by going to the water´s edge for a cool can of cold Guinness. In between such discourse, we.saw loads of shore crabs with bright orange leg, purply carapace and 2 big orangey dots behing their real eyes to look fierce. there were lots of buterflies and insects whirling around especially around the torches so sometimes my head and face wer bombarded by large wings.

.I did take seriously the potential dangers. For example, Rocio was wary of the river banks at high tide and was ready to move if we couldn´t see it in the river anymore. I thought they had a good turn of speed on land and although a student said there was no problem as they are only fast in straight lines, I backed Rocio´s experience and if she looked edgy, I took heed!. This is the woman who on one morning walk to survey for otters spent 2 hours sitting on a rock in the middle of a stream shaking as peccaries were behind her and a puma in front – some guts to get out of that.

For several reasons such as my vague plans to stay on for a few days in the area and bad blisters on Rocio´s feet, us two ended up leaving Sirena by boat. 20 foot fast speedboats bring in day tourists and we manged to get a spare two places. Cost 25 dollars each but had an exhilarating 1.25 hour boat trip through and on top of waves north to Drake Bay.  There were 8 passengers and 2 staff, I could see no life jackets etc, so just sat down and trusted the guy in charge knew the waters well. He seemed good at judging engine speed and boat direction to get us through the breaking waves near the rocky beach where one crashed down onto the canopy over the wooden seats so we all got drenched and then to ride the swell.   I saw the 15 mile long coastline of Corcovado as just endless deeply forested hills and empty beaches and another 10 miles of steep cream and reddy cliffs and rocky islets with a scattering of houses to the lovely wide Drake Bay.  I thought of stopping there and getting a boat up river and then buses but due to various matters it was easiest to take the 70 dollar taxi ride and get us both back to PJ.  A violent storm broke out about 4pm with impressive thunder and lightning through the room. A van went around later with a loudhailer saying it was a tornado which seemed excessive but they get mini whirlwinds which take off roofs, so a hot sweaty night as no electric for the fan to work.

The other 3 left on Wednesday as K. was leaving CR the next day.  I hung around PJ for the morning pottering on the beach, looking at some small fishing boats, posh yachts and macaws and trying to find information about boats, buses etc.  I decided it was too much hassle to go back to Drake Bay as I´d arrive back in San Jose too late at 8pm. C. and others had talked about the real dangers in some parts where they will not go at all and have faced up to knife fights in other areas of the city. It was a good decision as the buses from the south arrived at a station I´ve never been to and could not find on my map, so in broken Spanish and some English various people helped me and I ended up taking a taxi. I had my doubts as it was not registered so I kept the window fully open and wits alert but the guy took me to the correct station and asked about buses for me. Rocio was very concerned I had done this and strongly advised I should only use registered red cab

I was annoyed to find a kayak trip planned for the afternoon was cancelled on my arrival at 2.30pm due to the potential stormy weather again.  Too late to book any other trips etc but I got a refund and the guide agreed to take me for more money to Matapalo Reserve which is secondary forest on the way to Carate.  This was a much visited place by tourists as easy walking and all 4 species of monkeys could be seen around the surfing – retreat community as well as various birds.  I saw species seen in Corcovado and nothing new but was shown how the native indians would attach the jaws of leaf cutter ants to one bit of an open wound, break off their bodies and attach another etc so by a series of ant heads a wound could be sewn together. These ants have underground nests about 2m deep and the cut leaves are used to ferment a food substance. I  decided against paying more money to be taken to feed the crocodiles in town as this trip was costing a lot and I disagreed with such practices.

XXXXXXXXXXXInstead chatted to a Swedish guy in the hostel about tides etc for his walk to Corcovado and had a meal with C who turned up ..sat on beach til 1m talking yet again about all sorts of things from metaphysics, religion, books..he is collecting material about tropical fauna and adventures for a travel journey type book he wants to write, travel, he´s been made redundant from his non permanent position at Uni due to the recession but permanent staff have gone west too which has been a real eye opener to the americans… absolutely great to talk and laugh with ease for  a few hours in my own language with someone who speaks english sufficiently fluently to understand subtleties of language and context.

Next day took the public bus north on the Trans American Highway for 6 hours into the 3300m high Cordilleras mountains.  Went through the central lowlands and vast acreages of intensive pineapple crops with the hills behind.  The bus driver stopped occasionally to buy bananas or other fruit from road side vendors.  2 young girls were sitting on logs eating half a coconut with a spoon next to a rusty old bike lying on the ground whilst their dad held out bananas.  A tour company in PJ had suggested and booked for me a night´s stay, dinner, breakfast and 2 tours for good price of 58 dolars at a small farm to look for the Resplendent Quetzal.

Complete contrast to the hot lowlands and had to put a blanket around my shoulders for the night walk and given a hot water bottle as it is cool if not cold!  Had a simple cabina to myself with bathroom, good food by a log burning stove and just me there so guided tours all to myself…great as one can be quiet and hopefully see some wildlife!  Did some walks on my own around the 4kn trail they´ve hacked out through the 43 ha farm where part is still grazed by some dairy cattle and other parts have not been cut down.  When the farmer arrived in about 1945 the Government insisted the oaks were cut down for charcoal production and if you did not comply you lost rights to the land.  This was reversed in about 1950.  Sounds a very hard life as several of his kids died and he worked from 2am with no shoes or coat in cold wet conditions.  Logging companies wouldn´t offer sufficient money so he stayed and seems he probably got through by working on the Trans American highway being built about 1km away.  Got enough money to buy 2 cows and sold blackberries.

The farm at 2650m was not at the highest elevations where there was fascinating low growth montane scrub forest which I´d love to go back to with someone knowledgeable…the forest on the farm was a mix of tall moss and lichen covered trees with long tails of epiphytes, scrub and grassland glades. Saw lots of hummingbirds whose colours are largely dependant on father structure and have a unique ability to hover and fly in any direction including backwards. The 330 species evolved with tropical flowers in the New World and as they can go into night time hibernation to save energy they can live in the highlands where other pollinators such as insects and bats are deterred by the cool temperatures.  Also watched a pair of Gray Breasted Wood wrens collect moss for the nest being built in ivy type vegetation above our heads.  The vegetation was familiar as we have wet oak woodlands.

On the 2 hour morning walk I watched about 12 quetzals both male and female, individually, in pairs or a small group of about 6.  Fabulous colours of metallic greens, crimson, blues, white with tufts on the head and spectacularly long tail feathers for the males.  They inhabit middle levels of mature wet montane forest but are also altitiudinal migrants. We saw them mainly on the forest edges and the farmer has planted some fruit trees to encourage their presence as well as the habitats providing other food such as small frogs, insects and snails.