Manuel was visiting one of his MSc students at the Lodge who has been researching frogs and so offered me a lift as he thought it would be an interesting, quiet and safe place for me to stay for a few days. Interesting chats about the poor standard of teaching and level of student expectation in the Institute and Costa Rica generally, the low quality of research including the international and national flagship jaguar and tapir projects previously mentioned for Corcovado and his Master students expect him to do most of the publication reading for research etc. As with the La Tirimbina visit, I much appreciated this trip and company and have good memories 8 years on.
We went north around the beautiful forested mountains and valleys of Braulio Carrillo National Park to enter the low lying river plains and series of lagoons running to the Border. This area or Zona Norte does not have many roads and so is cut off from the rest of the country with independent farmers and mainly Nicaraguan refugees. The road is dirt for about 30km from the last main town of Pital with vast intensive pineapple plantations. I recall this landscape in subsequent years on eating del monte pineapple chunks! This area is part of the national Biological Corridor for amongst other fauna, the endangered Green Macaw, but seems an interesting situation where much of the area has lost its forest and considerable farm chemicals must be going into the ground and rivers. The Government wants to create a new National Park in these lowlands but there is controversy about moving out a village and likely resentment leading to difficulties in protecting the remaining forest or poaching etc.
The Lodge owner inherited the land from his dad who was planning to clear the forest for cattle but the road conditions were too poor. Eco tourism took off about 15 years ago and they considered this was equally if not more profitable in the longer run. This Lodge does not seem to be on the US itinerary so most visitors are European especially Germans. The road has been improved in the last few months by adding dredged gravel from the nearby Rio San Carlos as when it rains which is often, the red clay soil immobilises 4WD vehicles to the axles and above. Thus, the one a day bus now comes to within 1km walk from the Lodge instead of 1.5 hour walk. The road beyond the Lodge just does a circle back to the last hamlet where the police have no car or boat so just seem to sit under a tree all day. On this road during a visit to one of the Hides I met a bloke on a horse holding a long rope around a calf. My spanish did not allow a long conversation except to reply I was not married and although he was single I did not fancy peasant life so graciously refused the offer to get up on the horse and start a new life in CR.
There was some uncertainty on payment as it seemed at some places I had been fortunate to be given more favourable rates but I was never clear about such matters, so occasionally it was awkward and in basic Spanish! Anyway here, I paid tourist rates and had a very nice 2 bed ensuite room with hammock on a verandah. I recall the delights of dreamily reading in a hammock in gorgeous weather – so warm when compared to most Northern English days! The poster picture was somewhat marred by the drilling works all day at the next cabina and on the day I was the only guest, service standards did drop! The Lodge dredged some of the swamps to make more open water lagoons and provide canoes for the guests and planted fruit and other trees around the Lodge to attract various birds such as Black Cheeked Woodpeckers with an adult feeding a youngster and the Chestnut Mandebilled and Rainbow Billed Toucans. These were great, noisy characters with really colourful beaks taking chunks out of the hung squishy, rotting bananas.
I went on a river trip with a German family and saw Crocodiles, Little Blue and Tri Coloured Herons, Egret, Green Ibis, Green Macaws etc. The waters were muddy and slow with some forest with most of the land cleared for cattle. There were remains of a plane in mid river apparantely shot down by either the Sandinistas or Contras in Nicaragua and the pilot knew the Rio San Carlos was safer than the San Juan as there were only crocodiles and no sharks or sword fish and less chance of being fired at again. Apparently, they all survived.
We stopped at the confluence with the Rio San Juan and Nicaraguan Border at the last CR village for the standard tourist walk along the main pavement, seeing the police station who stop or check about 100 people a day from Nicaragua presumably by boat. There were school children playing a chess or backgammon type game on a board with bottle tops and the captain gave these good humoured kids a lift in the motorised lancha back across the river. I’d wondered why trainers were tied to overhead wires and it seems this indicates the house etc below hands out marijuana. I didn’t go another organised Lodge event as I disliked the idea of feeding caimans in the lagoons with chickens so they’d come out for the tourists. But is this different to many other practices incl UK ..?
The only other guest was a Hungarian wildlife photographer G who had been there for 6 or more months supervising and building 3 high quality observation hides as part of a business venture with the Lodge. Due to having to bring in most of the concrete and timber building materials etc along roads where access was often very difficult and general manana work approach, it was taking many months to build the hides. Two were tower hides looking out across a small lagoon surrounded by forest and the other in secondary forest and grassland with the third built into the hillside. The former had wooden ladders nearby with fruit and perches and the latter had cow skulls for the vultures to attract birds for photographing. He was one of 3 partners specialising in wildlife tours and photography in Hungary, Costa Rica and the Pantanal with some fab photos. One partner by the age of 23 had won a category in the prestigious annual BBC wildlife photography event and visited 120 countries! Not a bad CV!
I was allowed to use the Hides with G or on my own at nil cost which was kind as when completely finished the charge will be 250 euros a day. In one of the hides the plush office type swivel chairs were already in place, so chill out time or as much as one can do when its hot, sweaty and almost windless. There will be electric supply installed too, so thought a fridge for beer and a hammock would add a nice touch. I saw a Turtle, Caimans, Toucans, family of young Coatis, green Basilisk Lizard or Jesus Christ lizard as they scoot across the water at fast speed on their hind legs..Gray Necked Wood Rail, and Montezuma Oropendola which has an orange tipped bill and pinkish facial skin flaps.
On the larger 2nd lagoon G did all the canoe paddling for the 1st trip which meant I sat in the front relaxing like the english lady abroad and contributing no effort, but I did help to to shuffle on the haunches the canoe across a fallen tree and watched Monkeys, Great Kiskadees, similar yellow and grey coloured Flycatchers with a nest and fledglings and bats coming out of a dead tree stump with a falcon zooming out of nowhere to take a bat off the water. I did feel we had disturbed them and caused the bats to fly but we were very quiet so perhaps not.
I got a free lift on Sunday with the owner who was visiting from San Jose, back south to La Tirimbina on the northern apex of the Braulio Carrillo NP. The Director kindly offered to have me as a guest at the Costa Rican rate rather than the foreigner, saving I think about 15 dollars a day.
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