We landed in San Jose from Mexico City, spent an entertaining day in the capital shopping for wellies and cheap rucksacks, then enjoyed a wonderful nine hour bus journey through the cloud forest to the far south west and the crown jewel of the Osa Peninsula, Corcovado National Park.
Costa Rica is known for its well established national park system and relatively proactive attempts to conserve its environment, so the nation has long been on my wish list. It’s also one of the few countries in the world without an army, though I don’t think this a good thing as everyone in authority seemed to have a Little Hitler complex and think themselves terribly important. Costa Rica is now home to ever-growing numbers of Baby Boomer-retirees from Gringolandia, so prices are increasingly steep.
Day one: little did we know what we'd let ourselves in for!
We had arranged a four-day trek through the wilds of Corcovado with a chap called Ballardo, who styles himself as the Jaguarman (ahem). He turned out to have a habit of seriously underestimating time and distance, but he successfully guided us safely through the park without any problems so money well spent. In theory you can go in alone but I wasn’t confident in my ability to navigate us safely.
On the trail of the Jaguar: Corcovado NP
Corcovado was famously described by National Geographic as “the most biodiverse place on the planet”, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. After a day sorting out permits and getting into the park via collectivo, four-wheel drive and short yomp, on our first full day we walked for 20km through primary rainforest (the largest unlogged tract in the entire Pacific Americas), passing just one other group of walkers coming the other way!
Over the next few days we saw a huge variety of wildlife, including all four monkey species (squirrel and capuchins particularly cute), endless scarlet macaws, morpho butterflies, parrots, toucans, endangered tapir, coati, tayra, crocodile, Jesus Christ lizard (plus a zillion other reptiles), and one fleur-de-lance snake – the most aggressive of its species in the world!
Toxic rainforest crabs in their zillions
An absolutely wonderful experience, despite the dead turtle wrapped in plastic on the beach and the encroaching farmland on all sides of the park.
Never has beer tasted so good
One of the highlights of our entire trip!