Nito was leading David's group back, and I had planned to catch up to them at some point after leaving 30 mins behind. It didn't take long, I reached them at the Rio Claro as the French photographer they had in tow had been busy taking photos of ants.
Soon after the river crossing, we heard monkeys going absolutely bananas in the trees. Sorry for that pun. Nito said there was likely a puma around, and we could tell he was itching to go after it. We were just as eager to see a big cat as he was, so we ditched our packs on the trail and headed into the woods. But pumas are very good at hiding, and our search came up empty. We pressed on.
Nito had been hearing poison arrow frogs making their cricket-like chirping sounds, and finally found one right along the trail. The little guy was small, but apparently can pack a big death punch, if ingested.
I had gotten into that "look down at the trail and keep walking" mode, but luckily Nito snapped me out of it and pointed out another animal on my list, an anteater.
He was a bit smaller and furrier than I had imagined, and was posing nicely for pictures up in a tree. A huge group of coati was also moving through, nearly ten of them in all.
High above in the trees we could see a group of scarlet macaws crying out to one another.
Not a bad spot for wildlife viewing.
Eventually the trail dumped us onto the beach and up to the section you needed to cross at low tide to avoid getting pinned at the cliffs by the pounding ocean. It was about an hour to high tide, which made getting across a little more exciting compared to the hike in. We timed our runs through the water to avoid getting splattered by waves. Some of us were better at playing chicken than others. At the Rio Madrigal we stopped for an extended rest and a bite to eat. It was a really nice spot where I was able to sit with my feet massaged in the rapids while looking over the Pacific.
Eventually we made it to La Leona, and then hiked the last stretch of beach to Carate and the colectivo stop. What had taken me 4.5 hours to do the first time had taken us 8 hours today. I wasn't complaining, I wouldn't have anything else to do other than sit and wait for my ride. Beth bought us all Cokes, definitely a great refresher after the long hike. It could only have been better had it been Dr. Pepper.
I said goodbye to the group and took the colectivo back to Puerto Jimenez. There I checked into a nice little hostel run by a little woman who should be everyone's favorite Costa Rican grandma.
And then there was the shower.
It was glorious; hot water, soap, everything I had been missing for the past four days. My hair finally lost the nitty-gritty-ness and came out like a Westminster show dog. Best shower ever.
I had dinner at a soda, where the lady working was watching me scarf everything down and was generous enough to keep bringing out little side dishes. Back in my room I met a few European girls who were about to head into Corcovado, so I shared my wisdom before drifting off to sleep. In a real bed, no less.
No comments:
Post a Comment