February 20th, 1997 Thursday

I got up at 6:00 believe it or not - and without much effort. My sleeping habits seemed to have "straighten out" when I'm on vacation. For those who don't know my "normal" working schedule, I don't usually make it to work until 10:30. Fabio left to go back to San Jose today to spend more time with his family and relatives, so I was left alone here in the 12-unit complex. There was NOBODY living in the complex that week so I was alone on this hilltop for 2 nights. It was kinda spooky.

Anyway, I got up to get ready for my 7:30 bus to the Carara National Park, and there was no water for showering. No water at all! I skipped it since I just showered late last night, so I sprayed my cloths and my arms and legs with insect repellent before taking a slow hike down to the Punta Leona hotel. The hike took about 30 minutes (it took me 20 minutes in a test last night - up hill!), and on the way, I was greeted by a flock of yellow-billed Toucans and a troop of white-faced monkeys. I guess all the guides are right - there's a better chance to see wildlife in the early morning or late afternoon.

One Toucan was inserting his bill into a large hole in the tree, and shaking his head back and forth for some reason, making some rattling sound along the way. The monkeys were eating passion fruits, but soon they spotted me, they started throwing fruit at me and shaking tree branches in an effort to scare me away. It's a good thing they're not Howler Monkeys because they are known to pee and sling their shit at the people below. I snapped a few pictures while dodging the fruits, and I let them be after that. The bus didn't come til 7:40, and I got onto the bus along with 3 elderly French Canadian couples. Where did they all come from!?!!? I found out later that there's a direct chartered flight from Canada to Costa Rica every Saturday for only $600 Canadian $. It only took them 6 hours to fly down here while it took me 12 hours total travel time. I think I might consider flying up there to catch the charter flight next time.

We stopped by the first trail, which took about 1 hour to hike through. In the forest, I saw leaf cutter ants, more white-faced monkeys, ants that live in natural holes in the thorns of a tree and act as its protector, Scarlet Macaws, and some other birds. The Scarlet Macaw was hiding partially in a man-made nest, and our guide said poaching is a big problem around here. Our guide, Rigo, is pretty good for the most part, but he mistakenly thought he heard a Howler Monkey, which turned out to be another French Canadian ahead of us on the trail blowing his nose. Our guide concentrated on pointing out different trees and a lot of birds to us. After that trail, we drove to a roadside restaurant and had a "Typical Breakfast", which included fresh fruit, fresh orange juice, and a plate of Pinto and Scrambled Eggs and Ham.

The Tarcoles River was next to the restaurant so we walked across the river to look at its inhabitants - Caimans. The river is pretty dirty because all the water from the Center Valley (where San Jose is, and other big towns) all drain into this river. I'm surprised the Caimans can survive in this water since I saw more used tires in the river than Caimans. I saw about 5 Caimans, 4 of them fewer than 3 feet long, all basking in the sun. I saw a school of fish chasing what appeared to be a female fish in heat, but I couldn't identify the type of fish since I was more than 200 feet above. Rigo pointed out more birds to us and then we got onto the bus and went to the second trail, which is supposed to take about 2 hours to travel.

On this trial, I saw more white faced monkeys a lot of birds, same old shrimp/gobie/snail in the puddles, but nothing else interesting. I was rather disappointed by the trip and thought I could see a lot more just in the Punta Leona area. One very old couple just hiked ahead, not really listening to Rigo that they will probably scare any wild life away. The old man was insistent on keeping moving and not looking at trees. The second couple included an old woman whose voice was like a high-pitched crow, and which Rigo had to tell her to be quiet diplomatically several times. My annoyance of the third couple came from the guy who was trying to act like Mr. Macho and insisting on stomping on all the fallen leaves and rocks as loud as he could. I snickered when he almost tripped once by slipping on a big rock. Rigo told them to walk softly. The old man from the first couple was insistent on tugging at different vines to "see how strong they are" until Rigo told him to stop and that he might grab a Vine Snake instead. All 3 couples complained about the heat and humidity. I wondered if I should make a suggestion to the Costa Rican government to just send wildlife videos to the ill-mannered tourists and ask them for a sizable donation.

We didn't make it back out until 2:00, and the bus wasn't there. Rigo was dodging questions about the bus because we were supposed to be back at 12:30, but I suspect that the bus went off somewhere else and didn't make it back in time. Mr. Macho guy (3rd couple) started smoking. What a jerk. The smoke of course drifted toward my direction and destroyed all the humid jungle smell. When I got back to the condo, the water was back again so I took a shower and rinsed off the insect repellents before I hiked down to the beach to snorkel. I snorkeled for about an hour until it was too cold because the sun was going toward the horizon. I hiked backed up and enjoyed a very beautiful sunset. That's it for today.