For someone coming from a country that takes at least
5 days of hard driving to get across, it was a fun
albeit dusty and hot experience to say Adios to the
Carribbean and Hola to the Pacific in one day. We
arrived in the afternoon in Quepos and revisited the
friendly, family-run hotel of Mar y Luna in time to
take cooling showers and head out to dinner.
The next days we went into Manuel Antonio national
park. While eating lunch at one of the picnic tables,
Brandi spotted some of the nearly extinct squirrel
monkeys and we followed them through the trails for a
while. It was exciting to see the pretty creatures,
but sad to think that next time we come back here they
might be gone. We had that thought a few times on this
trip, about endangered animals, places that have not
yet been "discovered," and people who have not yet
gotten used to tourists.
After a couple of nights in Quepos, we took the bumpy
and dusty road to Uvita, checked into a great little
hostel there and immediately headed for the magical
waterfall that we had experienced our last trip
here... ahhh such bliss to rinse off the dust in the
fresh and flowing river water. As night fell and the
birds and frogs and crickets began their nightly
chorus, we walked home in the gathering dusk along
with a few locals down the road. A couple of
birdwatchers were checking out a bird high up in the
tree, and let me borrow their binoculars to take a
look. Just at that moment, across the field of vision
flashed two red-blue-yellow blurs: a pair of macaws!
And were they putting on a display, chasing each other
playfully across the road and into the trees, even
flying low enough for some us to to have to duck to
avoid getting batted by a wing. Apparently, they've
come up from the big reserve farther south and hang
out fairly often in the area, but it was the first
time we had seen these beautiful birds in the wild.
The next day, we walked over to Ballena National Park
to try our hand at snorkeling. We went far out onto a
spit of sand, and didn't pay too much attention when
the waves on either side began to lap closer and
closer to each other. By the time we had gathered our
gear and started heading back, the waves were vying
for the middle ground and we began to wonder if we
were going to make it. Faster than we could have
expected, the waves were splashing at our ankles, then
calves, then knees as we slogged through sand that was
starting to remind us of the mudpit trail to Punta
Mona. Fortunately, we made it back across and were
rewarded by a group of locals who had watched our
progress and gave us fresh cuts of coconut from the
trees right off the beach. We made it back from the
long hot walk home in time to collapse on our beds for
a nap before another trip to the waterfall that
evening.
The capstone of the trip was the final day's activity:
a snorkeling and whale-watching trip back out at
Ballena. It was our friends' first time out
snorkeling, and we all had fun discovering the myriad
of fish varieties and colors. Many of the fish were
new to us as well, including a dark-blue fish with
electric light-blue spots alongside its body.
Fortunately, we only observed and didn't feel the
touch of the huge jellyfish we saw just as we
clambered into the boat for the whale-watching part of
the tour.
"Ballena" in Spanish means "whale," and not for
nothing is this park named after the giant creatures.
We had headed far west and a bit south with no
sightings and had started to head back in when our
guide excitedly pointed out to the far distance.
There, we saw a blowing spurt of water and a curving
tail of a humpback whale makes its ponderous arc
through the water. WOW. Quickly the guide reminded us
not to all rush to the same side of the boat at the
same time. We had done this earlier at the mere sight
of flying fish skimming across the top of the waves,
he must have been really worried to think what we
might do when we saw a whale! Saying we had to wait 15
minutes for the mammal to resurface for air, we
relaxed and had some watermelon, all eyes scanning the
horizons for another sighting. Suddenly, not 30 feet
from the boat, water came spurting out the blowhole,
then the fin surfaced, followed by the gigantic
tail..it was so close! We got one more sighting before
she went down for good..what an awe-inspiring sight.
It was sad and hard to pack up for the final time
before heading out on the early morning bus for San
Jose. In the middle of it all I had a scare because I
thought I left my mouthguard in Quepos, but then Steve
found it (fortunately securely wrapped in plastic) in
the garbage, and as anyone who has ever stayed in
Central America knows, there is some dirty stuff in
those cans. Thank you Steve! But the magic of Uvita
saw us all the way out: while waiting for the bus the
next morning, the scarlet macaws made one last
appearance...even flying down onto the guardrail to
sit in line with the customers. Saying farewell to
those wild and colorful birds felt like saying
farewell to our similarly wild and colorful Central
America experience.
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