After Hurricane Gamma whipped past Honduras leaving a trail of destruction, I decided to stop by Costa Rica for a week´s break before heading on to Honduras. Being such a last minute decision, I had absolutely no idea what I want to do in Costa Rica at all…the reception guy at my hostel couldn´t figure out how people would want to visit a country without knowing what they want to see or do. I was really clueless at that point. My answer came in the form of a very good travel companion, Ti. He saved me from being a “dumb traveler blonde” as I literally gate-crashed into his travel plans and joined him for an enriching journey into Costa Rica´s famous cloud forest reserves in Monteverde and lava-watching in La Fortuna.
There is a difference between CLOUD Forests and RAIN Forests…and it is not hard to tell why. In Monteverde´s Cloud Forest Reserve, we were practically walking in the clouds as they drift past us like lost souls…at one mirador viewpoint, we witnessed the speed of clouds brushing past the canopy top of the forests at an amazingly crazy speed! Monteverde is one of the few homes to the elusive but resplendent Quetzals. A rare breed of bird with a long tail measuring 1m, the quetzals are really hard to spot and if anyone managed to actually see one in the wild, you have to jump for joy like you just struck 10million dollars in lottery! One quirky thing about this vain bird is that it will tumble backwards from the branch and land on its back, protecting its beautiful tail if it gets startled. Of course, the dense vegetation and ever misty clouds prevented us from seeing anything or hearing any wildlife or even birds!!! The only bird we saw was a cousin of the turkey…the black Guan. One of the most amazing thing in this forest is the Strangler Fig Tree…it grows over a host tree with its roots extending over the tree trunk and slowly suffocating the host tree to its death over a period of 200-400 years. When the host tree eventually rots away, it leaves only the tangle of roots from the strangler fig tree on the outside, with a hollow inside. Cool tree indeed!
At the entrance of the reserve is a hummingbird gallery and I actually saw more birds just in that one spot compared to my 7 hours of fruitless search in the forest reserve! Hummingbirds are the cutest birds ever with its curiosity and motor wings…(they are at least more interesting than the black guan anyway). A raccoon looked at us slyly as it strolled past us heading in the direction of the trashbin…it is rather adorable actually, especially with that guilt-ridden face.
The next day, we headed to Santa Elena Rainforest Reserve and hired a guide for a better peek into wildlife and bird-watching after the disastrous day before. True to its name, it rained in the reserve consistently and raingear is a must. The guide was worth every dollar as we saw a family of Capuchin Monkeys within the first 10 minutes of entering the park! Some of them actually came real close to us and started getting hostile and hissing at us! The guide said if we ever ran into a group of Spider Monkeys, we better take our umbrella out for protection…these bastards have developed a habit of pooping on the heads of tourists! We saw a sleeping owl perched on top of a tree but the minute it sensed our presence, its eyes flew open and glared at us angrily as we observed it at a very close range from the power binoculars. A curious albeit hungry peccary started wandering into the compounds of the reception and poked its nose into everything that seems like a potential lunch.
Did you know that tomatoes are actually poisonous? The ones we eat are simply not poisonous enough to kill us or the toxins don´t react that way to our bodies as it does maybe to other insects or animals. There was a variety of small pea-size tomatoes we saw and our guide informed us that if we eat a whole bunch of them without knowing any better, it could cause us diarrhea to the point of death.
Part of the proceeds from the Twilight Tour goes to the Children´s Eternal Forest Reserve, a reserve owned privately by children from all over the world in its bid to save Mother Nature. Every time we hear a branch break, a hoot or movement above our heads, we waved our light sabers around wildly and finally I got a little motion sickness from all that waving when I saw nothing but ants, trees and leaves. At last, a palm-size bright red and black tarantula greeted us and a motmot bird slept on peacefully as our torches waved right in its direction. An insect called “long legs” (that looks like a spider but is not)gave me the creeps as its legs maneuvered its way inside its hideout. Salamanders hid deeper in its groove as we tried to get a better look. Finally, the finale came in the form of an Opposum just as we about to exit the park…it looks like a sloth but uglier…kinda like a slow-moving retarded Gremlin.
After our wildlife and bird-watching effort, we headed on to La Fortuna. The town is situated right next to Central America´s most active volcano, Volcan de Arenal. Not sure if my insurance covers it but we were determined to get as close as we could to the hot spewing lava that tumbles out of the mouth of the volcano ALL the time.
In the day, we decided to head for some fun in Rio Toro(bull), a class 3-4 river and we cleared 45 rapids within 2.5 hours! Tho´it is not the most exciting in Costa Rica, our team definitely had loads of fun as we tumbled into the water twice and got soaking wet! I thought I had lost my slippers for good but miraculously, my team members rescued it! Whoopee! With names like “Pina Colada”, “Surprise” and “Oh-my-god!”, these rapids definitely kick ass!
2 giant bright blue Morphos butterflies flew past the river when we were rafting and they were indeed elegant and beautiful… Egrets, herons and vultures surrounded us as we continued rafting… The bonus came during our lunch break when we actually saw a family of howler monkeys in the forest next to our lunch spot! It is hard to believe that the deep reverberating sound emitted actually comes from a medium size monkey rather than a huge gorilla-size one! There were 2 baby howler monkeys clinging on precariously to the branches waiting for their mothers to bring them to safety - away from where the human eyes can´t see. An army of leaf-cutting ants trooped to their destination carrying the angularly cut leaves on their back…quite a comical sight really. I definitely have seen more wildlife and birdlife than in the nature reserves! Haha….
Unfortunately, we were late for our Volcan de Arenal tour and did not have time to join in the hike up the volcano. It is forbidden to hike up the volcano but there is a trail that allows you to get close enough to feel the heat. From the viewing point, we only managed to watch lava rocks being hurtled out like a pyrotechnics show and rolling down its sides whenever the skirt of the clouds lifted barely enough for us to see. The entire volcano is shrouded in thick clouds and to be able to see it in its entirety requires a stroke of luck! There were lots of fireflies and I learned that only the female fireflies light up to attract the males. Seems that ladies have to do the job always! Keke…
My last night in Costa Rica is spent lounging in a decadent hot spring resort, sipping Mojitos, Alcoholic Banana concoctions and talking to our new rafting friends, Tiffany and Emmanuel. The four of us made a real whip-ass team down the river and it is really easy to have a great team spirit when engaging in river rafting. I was really sad I had to leave Costa Rica the next day but I was glad to have actually made this unplanned last minute stop and making such good friends along the way.
Honduras Next!
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