Costa Rica Trip IX and X.

1-30-19 OSA, COSTA RICA: We were up at 5 AM for breakfast at 5:30 before our boat trip to Corcovado National Park that left at 6 AM just before sunrise. There was more wave action today with surf and swells off shore that bounced us around as we sped west to the reserve. We were pleased to have naturalist Julian with us again. There were eight of us on both excursions, mostly the same people. After another wet landing, we dried our feet on the beach and changed from wet shoes, Crocs for me, to hiking shoes for our exploration.

Heading out before sunrise.

Captain Pinky and Naturalist Julian.

Wet landing on black gravel beach of basalt on process of becoming sand.

Entrance to the Park at the western end. The park is huge, 164 sq. miles, a lot of it is primary forest. You can only visit with a licensed guide, you can stay overnight, but only at a ranger station with a prior reservation. You may not bring in any food, but must eat at the cafeteria. All of which are appropriate restrictions.

The preserve is 164 sq. miles in area and is a significant part of the Osa peninsula. We started at the western end, a bare-bones ranger outpost along with about 100 other folks from different hotels or tours. We stopped almost immediately to watch a bunch of spider monkeys traveling through the treetops and then headed west paralleling the beach. This was the only level walking of the trip.

Roadside hawk.

Chestnut-backed antbird.

We had gone a short way when we saw the eastern end of a tapir browsing through the underbrush and headed west. A few steps later we saw a sloth high up a tree. There were birds including a bunch of macaws and a toucan, some shore birds at a pond near the beach, army ants, honey bees, termite nests, lizards and monkeys. We saw spider monkeys twice again, howler monkeys sleeping in trees, and a group of capuchin monkeys that we followed for a while, including a mother and child pair. The second sloth was also carrying a baby. Later we saw another tapir, sound asleep after a morning of grazing.

Scarlet Macaw above and below.

We watched the macaws for a while, there were about six or eight.

Black hawk diverted attention from the macaws for a moment.

Macaw using it's foot as a hand to eat an almond fruit.

Howler monkey observing us as we observed him. They have prehensile tails, here wrapped around the branch.

Sloth, its face is at the upper end. It can be hard to tell what's what on a sloth through the leaves.

An immature Little blue heron was one of several waders we saw at a lagoon near the beach.

Yellow-throated toucan above and below.

We could hardly walk 100 feet without stopping for something.

Spider monkey walking through the trees.

Capuchin monkey mom with baby.

Another sloth, you can see the three toes on her legs and a baby poking out between the left arm and leg.

Capuchin monkey with a white face.

Exhausted tapir getting a mud bath after a hard morning of grazing.

Great tinamou, another chicken sized bird.

Spider monkeys high up there.

There were no jaguars, pumas or any other smaller cats, no snakes, no squirrel monkeys, no peccaries although Julian smelled them and introduced us to the aroma of the peccaries, similar to a bunch of unwashed humans, long unwashed humans. There was lots of lush vegetation, tall trees, vines, shrubs, ground plants. Almost all the plants were done flowering and the animals were waiting for the fruits.

By about noon we were all tired and went to the Sirena Ranger Station where we hydrated, rested and lunched before heading back to the beach, the boat and another bumpy ride back to the hotel.

I took about 600 pix that morning, deleted 500 after reviewing and editing, and I guess everybody else did the same. Eight times 600 is almost 5000, times 10 or 12 groups would make some 50,000 pix for the day. Imagine it we still used film. Nobody took a single picture on the 1 km walk back to the beach.

The rest of the afternoon was for relaxation and napping. Then we had our last dinner.

1-31-19 ENROUTE SJO-EWR: We made our connections. Breakfast and an earthquake at Osa, boat ride to Draketown, if that tiny village has a name, SUV to DRK, little plane from DRK to SJO and big plane from SJO to EWR. It all went smoothly, including the walk from the domestic terminal to the international terminal with the carry-ons. We went through immigration and screening in half an hour because we had checked in and printed boarding passes the night before.

The earthquake, a 4.6-er. was located about 20 miles away to the north, 29 miles under the Pacific Ocean. We experienced a brief, small tremor and a loud grinding sound. There was no damage. Short Hills tonight.

Costa Rican terrain from the air. Almost everything is a mountain.