Costa Rica part 2 (North East ~ Costa Rica)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that there is nothing cuter than a baby animal - in this case baby sloth and baby anteater.

Baby sloth being fed goats milk and carrot juice. 

A basket full of baby sloths.

A ‘Cuddle Puddle’ (collective noun coined by one of the staff) of 7 baby sloths.

Baby anteater being fed termites. 

These shots were taken at the Jaguar Rehabilitation Centre just outside of Cahuita. Lots of animals are hurt or orphaned as a result of being hit by cars, electrocuted whilst climbing power lines or attacked by locals.

They are very serious about rehabilitation up to and including physiotherapy on a Sloths arm after surgery to repair damage by electrocution. 

Other animals present included a crocodile, various owls, Toucans, deer, big cats, wild pigs etc…  There are a handful of permanent residents as they are to tame (pig and deer) or to cunning (i.e. a margay cat that found its way back, via multiple hen houses, after being released 20km away, Toucan (that knows where easy food is) to ever be released.

The only realistic way to get to Cahuita from Tortuguero is via boat though the 50 kms or so of canal's (some artificial some natural) that run parallel to the caribbean coast. Amazing scenery with the channel width varying from 30m to 5m plus lots of great wildlife.

Spoonbill

Spider monkey

Basilisk - the ones that run on water

Cahuita is a very laid back little town with a definite Caribbean feel to it a great beach and an adjoining national park. But if anything it is even hotter and more humid than Tortuguero - and that's saying something.

Walking through the national park we spotted raccoons, leaf cutter ants, coati, lots of snakes, lizards, squirrels,  sloths, 3 types of monkey (spider,  capuchin and howler) and unfortunately some really BIG spiders in huge (we are talking 2m -  3m wide webs).

Leaf cutter ants. 

Raccoons

Sloth 

Lizards

Snakes - think they weren't venomous. 

Just as we were about to leave the park we heard a loud scrunch scrunch scrunch sound and on investigating found it was a squirrel gnawing its way into a coconut.

Capuchin monkeys are the ones you see on TV and in the movies as they are really smart. If you are silly enough to leave your bag unattended then, if you are lucky, a capuchin will unzip it, steal your food and climb into the trees. If you are unlucky it will grab your bag climb into the trees, empty everything out of it and then eat your food.

Our next stop was Gerado de Dota which, as the crow flies ain't that far. But as a Costa Rican bus drives we had to overnight in San Jose. Buses in Costa Rica are cheap (one of the few things that are) but are really, really slow. This is because roads are overcrowded, narrow, windy - that and the fact that the bus will stop, on average, every three minutes (I know because I timed it) to pick up or drop off passengers - this results in an average speed of 25km/hour. On the plus side at least people don’t move their livestock or all their household possessions by bus as we have experienced in other countries.

Gerado de Dota is a tiny village spread over about 10 km down a steep windy valley and comprises of a school, a church, a shop, a cafe and multiple lodges - oh and it's at an elevation of about 2600m to 2900m.

Combine that elevation with low lying cloud and we were really cold (as in break out the long johns in the evening cold).

Did a nice hill walk with the hope of seeing Queztals (pretty parrots). Unsuccessful and it started raining halfway into a four walk - and by rain I mean torrential thunderstorm rain. However a seriously good mountain trout sandwich and lots of hummingbirds made up for the rain and no show by the Queztals.

Cloud forest and millennial oak above Gerado de Dota. 

Sierpe, our next stop, was back down at sea level so back to heat and humidity again -  woo hoo. We stuck round Sierpe a couple of nights so as to visit a nearby archeological site and do a night tour.

Just outside of Sierpe is the Finca 6 archeological site of pre-columbian artifacts. Most of the artifacts are pottery and carvings but odd and interesting stuff are the near perfect carved stone spheres. They range in size from a 100gms or so up to a few tonnes. As to why they were carved nobody knows but theories range from astrological to alien landing beacons.

Big spheres in original location buried by sediment

Excavated and relocated spheres.

The night tour was to see frogs and is run by a couple of guys who are passionate about frogs and the tour takes between 3 and 5 hours (depending on how long it takes for the frogs to be found). Great tour as we managed to see thirteen species of frogs including four poisonous species (the really, really brightly coloured ones). Unfortunately no photos as it rained the whole three hours. Rain varied from heavy to “I can't hear what he's saying because of the noise of the rain on my hat”. The trip started with a river (big river strong current and Croc warnings) in a dodgy canoe with one paddle then a walk up a gravel road and then we took some very muddy & slippery side trails into the forest with warnings about scorpions, spiders and Fer-de-lance (the really, really poisonous one) snakes.

From Sierpe we took a boat to Bahia Drake (literally translates as Drake Bay and named after Sir Francis Drake who landed and slept there) on the Osa Peninsula. The boat ride was basically down the river and turn left at the estuary surfing the waves through some rocky islands (with a few metres clearance either side of the boat)  and then a beach landing. Stayed at a very pleasant little place right on the beach and saw lots of Scarlet Macaws.

Scarlet Macaws eating rambutans.

Basically everything has to be brought into the Bay by boat or by a long 4wd only road so food choice us quite limited but there is one guy who has got a small Cafe that only serves 3 dishes all based on the one variety of fish he has sourced that day. The most popular dish is the sharing plate of beautifully cooked large slab of fish, mashed potato and stir fried veges, needless to say this was our choice for the two nights (Yellow finned tuna and Waahoo)  we were there.

From there our next stop is David in Panama.

Before we sign of a bit about the food in Costa Rica. The word that springs to mind is bland - locals are really not into spices and even in Cahuita with the Caribbean influences the food was what we would call lightly spiced.

The typical main meal of the the day is Costados which comprises of a serving of rice, beans and fried plantains, occasionally cheesy gloop and a piece of meat (chicken, fish etc…). Cheap and filling. The typical breakfast is Gallo Pinto which is yesterday's leftover rice and beans stir fried with some veg and served with a fried egg (and if you're a tourist a dollop of chilli sauce).

Our primary snack food of choice were empanades which are meat or cheese filled parcels made from cornmeal dough and deep fried and secondary was Nachos (nacho chips, refried beans, meat, sauce and lots of cheese).

When it came to meat for nachos, empanades, stews etc I don't think we were ever served mince - it was always a cheap cut of beef that had been slowly braised with vegetables,  tomato and a smidgen of seasoning and was very tasty. As in most countries head to the markets for cheap snacks and the central market in San Jose was pretty good especially the family run ice cream stall that only serves one flavour made to a secret recipe. It's been there for multiple generations and Josefinas queue up there every day.

Being bounded by oceans either side meant we ate a moderate amount of fish when near the coast and one thing that was done very well was ceviche - generous and zingy portions.