After a short stop on the coast at Quepos, where we visited another son of the family we had stayed with in Nicoya, and went on a boat tour of the bay around Manuelo Antonio National Park (Manta rays! Dolphins!) we headed on down south to Corcovado National Park. It was a VERY long bus trip from Quepos to Puerto Jimenez, especially since we had to stop over 6 hours in the infinitely boring and dull town of San Isidro (although I will say they have a very nice public library). While we were there, all the water in town stopped working so it was not possible to flush the toilets or wash your hands. Yum.
We arrived late at night in Puerto Jimenez and stumbled to our hotel room, which turned out to be the best hotel of the trip (Cabinas Jimenez). The next day we met out tour guide for the next five days, Luis. He turned out to be an excellent guide and extremely knowledgeable about not only the biological but also the historical and political aspects of the park. He has been during his life both a hunter and a goldminer, and he always carries his machete and greets locals with, "pura vida!" which is an old greeting Costa Ricans use and sort of means, "have a wonderful day filled with energy!" The corporations have jumped on this one so you see PURA VIDA being used to advertise everything from beer to condiminiums.
Corcovado was just brimming with wildlife. We saw snakes, squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, white-faced boars, tapirs, tons of different spiders including a tarantula, basilisks (the lizards that run across the surface of water), geckos, and birds, birds, birds...and anteaters (I love their feet!)
These scary-looking spiders had the nasty habit of stringing their giant webs right across the trails, so you really had to pay attention while hiking. They actually have gold-colored patches on their body and legs and a death's-head looking pattern on their abdomens (only the females: the males are very small and red). Here is a picture for reference:
Golden spider
This tiny tree snake (about actual size here) was still sleeping in a tree that had fallen the night before, so I got to draw him. They are highly poisonous snakes, our guide had been bitten by one the previous year and had to spend a week in the hospital.
The agoutis are really cool little animals that look like a rabbit with a rattish face. They sort of lollop around.
Agouti in Wikipedia
The anteaters are about the size of a large cat and look like they're wearing overalls. They hang around in the trees and lick up termites like mad.
To see more drawings and read about our trip, just click the links below.
