Hiking Osa: PART3: Sharks and crocs

dani hiking south ©Philipp

We had a comfortabe night at the river camp. Some rainy clouds hit us during the night, but we could rest and the pain because of the wasps was gone at the next morning. We wouldnt make it during hightide to next and biggest river, this was our estimation. So we took it really easy in the morning, had even a breakfast and didnt start hiking before 9am. The marsh was similar to that one from the day before. Endless, hot and heavy. Still so wonderful that there are pipa palms along the way.
We got to the river during high tide. I was a little bit infront of Philipp and checked the situation. And this was a little shock. I saw the first crocodil swimming around as soon as I got there. Ok, it wasnt THAT big, but big enough for me. The current got much stronger before the river entered the sea and above the rapids were the crocs. Okay, what about the sea. This was probably the most scary thing. Lots, and I really mean many, of sharks showed their fins in the little delta. And those were occasionally very big. I would guess that this place was crowded from sharks from 1-4 meters. And they were right beyond the river entrance to the sea. So, if the current would have dragged you out, you were seafood. Philipp was astonished too and we were thinking about how to cross it. Building a raft perhaps? But the current was probably to strong. We decided to wait for the very low tide and watch the situation then. There werent any palms for shade and we decided to get back without the stuff to some palm trees with pipas.
The hours past by again and we returned in the afternoon. The level was much lower, the river much smaller. So we decided to cross in the crocodil area. One of us was watching, and the other one passed it really quickly.
The next Ranger camp was just some few kms away. But as soon as we got there a ranger rushed out of his cabin telling us that this past hike was forbidden etc etc etc. He wanted to call even the police. Haha. I got really pissed and told him about this corrupt ranger up north, the pictures and the lack of information. He calmed down and we had a pleasent stay at the camp. There we met 2 young from woman from CA who were hiking on some different trails than us. 3 Canadians stayed there too and we had some funny dice games in the night. We shared our last bottle of rum too--- with cold coke.
We were hiking farther south at the next day, to the exit of the park. Carate was the destinations name. We met some people but the hike was still great. Lots of animals. Aras, monkeys, snakes, etc. The highlight was a Jagurundi, a similar cat to that I had encountered some days before up north in Monteverde.
What a great feeling when we got to Carate and to its little plan strip. Only a little pulperia (grocery store) is there. We were waiting for a collector taxi to get to the big town of Pt. Jimenez. This was another tuff 2 hour ride on the back of a pickup truck. And it started to rain heavy. But even a bad ride has an end, and we got to the town where the bus back to San Jose would leave at the next morning. A cheap hotel, new dry clothes from one of the cheap stores, and we were ready to go out for dinner. Oh, we were hungry, had everything in a Mexican restaurant. Starter, meal, desert, beers and cocktails. Mjamh...
The bus ride took 10 hours at the next day. Still, we were exhausted, but it was worth it. What a trip!

Hiking Osa, PART II: The long hike

Photo: Coast of Osa, before we started to hike.

We landed on the beach some kms south of Drake. The landing was difficult because the surge was strong. Anyway, right after the landing a gringo looking lady from the lodge greeted us in german. Once again, we spoke german somewhere in the middle of no- where. We told her quickly that we wanted to hike south through the Concorvado National Park.
Already the first impressions were impressive. A small trail led to the entrance of the park, on the way we met the first Aras (those red parrots which can be also found on pirate ships), cut down coconuts (called pipas if they have more juice) and just enjoyed the wildlife and scenery. Along beaches, sometimes through the beautiful rainforest, but already worth the two days of getting there. We passed a biological station, lonely beachhuts and very few locals. All those fruits attracted us, including bananas (were not really ready yet) and carabolas (Star fruits, oh they taste great). Our slow pace forced us to stay somewhere to sleep, we knew that we wouldnt make it to the first station (were you can camp) of the national park since we had made to many stops to enjoy. Suddenly we came to a big property which was very cultivated and well kept. And a gringo family with some tico workers was playing soccer there ( see photo album). They told us, stay here and play soccer with us. We were thankful and agreed. After some converstations we found out that they are looking for science teachers, since they are doing homeschooling. This is perhaps an option for the summer of 2007?
We left right after sunrise at the following day to reach the first ranger station in the park. The hike wasnt too long but you always needed to be very careful with the poisonous snake. I usually used a long stick to check the ground and low plants infront of me. Finally we got to the station and guess what, there were two friendly hikers (no more than that) from germany. Then we had a chat with the indian park ranger of the camp. He was really rude, didnt give us informations, but told us: "Guys you cant go south because you need to pass really big rivers and they have too much water right now. A budy of mine can bring you 20km south with his boat for JUST 140 bucks". He spoke spanish, but what should we said except HAHAHAHA. We didnt believe this guy at all, so we stored our bags at the station and continued to go south to check the first river (7km away) for its waterlevel. We also didnt trust him because the family were we had stayed before told us that we would need to watch the tides very very well, but no more. The 7km hike was nice, mostly through the rainforest but already without the luggage a little exhausting. Fallen down trees and little creeks were responsible for that. We finally got to the beach passed Arc rock (see photos) and got to the first "dangerous river" during low tide. Hohoho. The water didnt even reach our knees when we passed it. The ranger had teased us for sure.
We got back to the ranger station very late, and left it again very early in the morning before everybody was awake. It took us almost three hours to get back. You hardly make more than 2km/h on foot there with heavy bags, since the forest is dense and you always get stuck and at the beach you sink into the sand shadow doesnt exist. Anway, it was high tide when we reached the river----- and everything was flooded. I saw already the first fin of a shark and we decided clearly NOT to swim or pass. Time passed and passed and we were hanging out in the shade waiting for the low tide, watched wildlife (all kinds of birds, hunting fish etc.) and decided finally to do some fishing (but those pufferfish (globefish= Kugelfische) dont taste well). Beautiful coconutpalmtrees were on the other side of the river, so I decided to pass the river (see photos). This was a very quick swim. Soon after a refreshing drink we crossed the river with the stuff above our head. We involved also a basic carry system based on wooden sticks. Philipp had a hard time with that because he is smaller than me.
Our long march continued and we were hiking, hiking and hiking. It was hot, we didnt meet any people, didnt see even foot print. It was like one of the famous lonely islands. Some Pipa breaks on the way even encouraged this association. The goal was to pass the second river before the high tide would come again.
We were lucky, the second river was like a little rill. We made our second camp in the wilderness right next to the river. I ckecked the are for some pipas found some but ran directly into a wasp nest too. No comments about that, but it hurted. A beach fire, a nice sunset and some coconutjuice with rum made the pain forget and we could relax and enjoy days images again.
Part 3 is coming up!

Hiking Osa, PART I: Getting there

Photo©Philipp

Duration of the trip including transport: 7 days;
Hiking: 4 days;

Not much time is left in Costa Rica. A good reason to have more adventures. The trip to the Osa Peninsula (Corcovado National Park) was certainly the highlight and an extremely beautiful experience.
It started with an excursion from the volcanologia class to Quepos which is found at the Pazific coast, pretty far in the south. A Tsunami warning, related to an earthquake (8), delayed everything because it was unsafe to go to the beach according to the radio. Fortunately, the Tsunami never hit the coast and we could continue several hours later. Searching for nice Olivin cristals was the primary goal. The day ended with a wonderful view from a restaurant where we enjoyed some beers.
Quepos is pretty far in the south at the pazific coast. Osa is a little peninsula in the very southwest of Costa Rica, close to the border of Panama and is the country´s highlight regarding animals. It has the second highest mamal diversity in the world!
However, it wasn´t easy to get there. It took us 2 days. First, we had to go east to San Isidro. A bad bus connection made us stay there for a while although we had left at 5 in the morning. Not too bad because we could do some important shopping, like buying useful machetes for coconuts. We also met some Austrian, guys who were having breakfast there.
We could finally get a bus south to Palmar Norte in the afternoon, but we drove directely into the monsum. We grabbed a taxi to Sierpe from Palmar Norte. There, we spent another night. Sierpe is located north of the biggest mangrove forest of Central America. The idea was to continue from this town to Drake by boat. We very lucky and found a boat at the next day which brought us south, down the river, along the coast to Drake. High waves and a good captain made this trip kind of save but definitely really exciting. We landed a little farther south east of Drake at a lodge, to which the boat belonged too.
The story continues.........