Manuel Antonio National Park
Three Toed Sloth in Manuel Antonio National Park
Mantled Howler Monkey in Punta Blanka Absolute National Park
September 17, 2013
Today Kalliope is at
the marina in Quepos, Costa Rica and we enjoy walking in nearby Manuel Antonio
National Park. The density of wildlife
is remarkable considering the press of human visitors. All guests enter on foot and there are many
guided groups. We take our cues from
some of the guides. When they spot
insects, birds, reptiles or mammals, we point our camera accordingly. This is a small jungle and beach park and we cover
most of the trails. The section that
gets the heaviest use is a narrow isthmus with nice swim beaches on each
side. When we arrive here we are
surprised to find lots of animals and soon it is clear they are drawn by the
food people bring in. No one appears to
feed the animals, but raccoons get into the trash and monkeys pilfer apples
from beach blankets. Raccoons also raid
packs and purses for food. I sit down to
eat an apple at a picnic table and three white faced monkeys descend from the
tree above. They are not too aggressive
but when one comes within two meters I stomp my foot and he retreats up the
tree a bit. When I look west, a raccoon
climbs up on the east end of my bench and a helpful tourist chases him away.
We finally get to
spend time with mantled howler monkeys and white-faced monkeys. Yea!
Hump back whale lounging in Ballenas Bay near Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Deb in Rincon de la Vieja National Park, Costa Rica
August 9, 2013
Well Deb, the activities
director, is back from New York and she wants to visit the highlands to see
what the ‘other half’ of Costa Rica looks like.
We rent a car and take a day trip to the volcano park called Rincon de
la Vieja. We have a nice hike but don’t
see any monkeys and the trail to the volcano is closed. Significantly the road
to the volcano passes a large and apparently complete geothermal electric power
generation station. We did not discover
how much power is generated here. This
park is close to Playa Hermosa and Kalliope so we return there for the night.
The next day we drive
to a place called Monteverde. It is a
reserve originated by Americans who left what they considered a militaristic
country in 1948 for Costa Rica where there is no military. They are Society of Friends, also known as
Quakers and are now dairy farmers. Well,
one second generation Quaker is the part time naturalist who guides our morning
nature walk. When I ask him if the
number of Friends is growing, diminishing or what he thinks a minute and says:
“It is hard to say because we may have 50 people at the Sunday morning meeting
but if you ask them afterwards if they are Friends, most of them will say no.”
In Monteverde we see mostly insects, mollusks reptiles and plants of every description
Monteverde is simply
an upland area set aside to preserve the biodiversity and protect the water
sources for downstream farming and ranching.
A concession in the reserve provides upscale dormitory rooms, meals,
guided nature walks and souvenirs. We
opt for room and board and tour. We see
birds, frogs, snails, waterfalls, stick bugs and orchids on our short guided walk
through the Jungle. We see no monkeys. After a longer walk on our own, we head out
toward the next attraction, the Arenal Volcano.
It is a short distance away but to get there we drive around Lake
Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica.
This is not a short drive and we arrive the next day. The area around the lake is cattle country,
fairly open with wide vistas and forested mountains in the background. Lake Arenal provides hydro power to San Jose
but hundreds of large wind generators are more visible evidence of renewable
energy generation for Costa Rica. These
line the ridge south of the lake and apparently take advantage of the strong
‘winter’ winds that make Lake Arenal a Mecca for windsurfers and kite
boarders. Winds are light during our
visit. We spend about three nights in
this area staying in lodges near the parks.
Dear Debbie: July 22, 2013
Hope you are enjoying
NY? It was early to bed last night and
up before dawn this morning. I load the
tender with laundry, etc and paddle to shore.
At the picnic table where I leave the tender, I meet an Ecuadorian man
who would like to sell us an excursion, etc. and meet a firefighter from Mesa,
AZ who just retired and moved into a nice house on the hill overlooking Bahia
Culebra. We chat a few minutes and
exchange phone numbers to get together later.
I drop the laundry
off at the “LavenDaria” in Playa Hermosa and grab a box of juice next
door.
Then I start the hike over the
hill to pueblo Panama where I heard there is a seamstress. She is the sister of Jesus, the shave ice man
at Playa Panama. When I asked Jesus last
week if there is a tailor in Sardinal where he lives he said: “Yes, but there
is one closer. Anna is my sister and
lives in pueblo Panama.” Well, to make a
long story medium, I walk up to the convenience store at the bus turnaround in
Panama and the lady at the cash register speaks English but if she knows Anna she
won’t tell me. As I walk along what I
think is the right road, a guy with a machete in his hand stops to ask me for a
buck. “Sorry, no.” I ask a lady burning trash in the street
about Anna and she says to go a hundred yards further, turn left and ask the
lady: “Donde vive Anna.” I think I will
either find Anna or her next door neighbor.
No, I find the other lady in Panama who speaks English. She sends me back to the convenience store
and 300 yards the other direction where I find a rather suspicious Anna on her
front porch. I think word of my quest
got there ahead of me. I explain from
the sidewalk that my pants are too big.
She invites me to the porch and I show her the slacks. She ponders a while, introduces me to her
brother or maybe husband and I tell her I found Jesus at the beach and Jesus
sent me to her. A ha! She promptly
measures me, drags the sewing machine table to the front porch and does the
work right there on the spot. Then we
start to talk price. I think the price
went up three times during this conversation, but $12 still does not seem so
bad for taking in three slacks.
When I return to the
convenience store the bus is there but the driver is asleep in a hammock hung
from the posts of the bus shelter. All
of the usual loonies and the guy with the machete are gone. After consulting my schedule, I find the bus
will leave in 40 minutes. I don’t want
to walk to Playa Hermosa, so I go to the other store in pueblo Panama, buy
another juice and plop down in the chair out front where I enjoy the breeze and
watch the chickens, dogs and children of the neighborhood while I wait for the
bus. This excursion is mostly to help me
get acquainted with some Ticos.
Back at Playa Hermosa
I walk the very pleasant promenade through the trees between the sand of the
beach on one side and the mixed homes, restaurants and hotels on the other. Friendly people try to sell me fishing trips,
ceramic bowls, volcano trips and massages.
When I turn them down, they smile, wish me a good day and move on. No one offers to rent a sail board, the one
thing that might have emptied my pocket.
I toss my pack with
the skinny pants into the kayak and decide to paddle to the rocks at the end of
the beach. The tide is high, the surf is
low and water clarity is so-so. I see a
few fish but no starfish, eels or urchins.
I know you would love to snorkel here.
Most of the boats in this bay seem to have two or three resident
pelicans but your scarf fluttering from the forestay has kept them off Kalliope
so far. I wonder if they take it for a
bigger badder bird. The boat is a mess,
the heat is oppressive and I am not having any fun. Don’t you wish you were here? I miss you something awful. Come home soon.
Dear Debbie: July
21, 2013
Kalliope and I move
from Playa Panama to Playa Hermosa today, ostensibly to be closer to a laundry,
but the real reason was an excuse to go sailing. So, I take seven and one half hours to go
three quarters of a mile. Call it the
long way home. Along the way I see a
pair of pan tropic spotted dolphins performing a water ballet and a manta ray
practicing his double back flip. A
school of mackerel jumps out of the water as if that is the best way to get
somewhere, but they are not coordinated like the dolphins. I spend an hour waiting for wind (drifting)
at the entrance to the Papagayo Marina.
If it makes them nervous, they didn’t mention it. Later I spend a pleasant hour studying the
crowded bay to get the perfect spot to anchor.
By now, I am almost used to pulling the shift lever back when I want to
go forward, an unintended consequence of the transmission rebuild.
Playa Hermosa feels a
bit like a fishbowl after Playa Panama.
The hills are steeper and the bay is smaller. There is more development on the hills and I
am a little self conscious taking my shower in the cockpit after my evening
swim. It feels like every one of those
condo windows is a pair of eyes staring right at me. Makes me consider wearing swim trunks next
time.
Returning the clean
laundry to the cabinets, I am convinced that we have reached the tipping point
and now have more stuff on board than a 37 foot boat can hold. Speaking of whining, a solitary mosquito
nearly bleeds me dry in the night. If
you were here, it would have bitten you and I would be safe. Come home soon
Love, Gregg
Yes two letters to Deb are included intentionally.
