Costa Rican Jungles Teeming with Life

They are bright yellow ones, green ones, brown ones as well as red ones.  They come really tiny or even quite large.  The smaller they are the more poisonous they tend to be.  At first we had a hard time spotting even one, but with the help of the skilled eyes of our guide, we probably saw nearly 20 different snakes in the
course of a 4 hour hike through the National Reserve.  Yet snakes were not the only things I got to encounter.

We left Panama yesterday in an absolute torrential downpour.  The amount of water that came from the sky in an hour was enough to cause flooding of virtually every store and hostel along the street front.  We were glad to be leaving the islands, since in such weather there would have been no sunbathing or snorkeling and definitely no hikes to Wizard beach where the trail would most likely have resembled a brown tobogganing track.

A bumpy and wet boat ride brought us back to Almirante where we managed to haggle a taxi van ride to the border down to $5.  A couple other passengers were proud of themselves for having negotiated a $10 and $8 fare respectively.  We did not want to spoil their good mood so kept our mouth shut.

The border was a relatively simple affair comprised of lining up to one window and paying $3US for an exit stamp, then lining up to a second window to get the actual exit stamp followed by the crossing of a very rickety bridge, that to my great surprise was passable by large tour buses, and a lineup free stamping of passports on the Costa Rican side.  From there a relatively quick bus ride took us to the tiny coastal town of Cahuita.

Our initial plans were to go to Puerto Viejo, but upon finding out that this is primarily a large scale party town, we decided to opt for its quieter and smaller neighbor 18 km to the west.  Cahuita does not have much too offer, aside for the seemingly endless amount of cabinas and hotels.  We found a nice little place with a hammock on the front porch, checked in and strolled the unpaved streets of town all the way out to Playa Negra and then back.

Today, having woken up to another rain shower, I had to wait it out a bit before proceeding into the Parque National Cahuita (Julita stayed behind enjoying the comforts of our hammock). Local guides at the entrance charge $20US per person for a 3 hour tour.  At first I thought it would be worthwhile to have them around, but in the end balked at the cost and decided to proceed on my own. Within a few hundred meters I came across an elderly British couple intently looking up to the tops of a tree.  They had apparently seen a sloth there.  We couldn’t spot it again, but a small distance further they spotted a few iguanas and some more sloths, all at least 50m away from us and mere dots until I zoomed in on them with my camera.  Having come across someone with such keen eyes, I decided to stick close to them and was rewarded for the endeavor.  Shortly thereafter I managed to spot a mama sloth with its baby clinging to its stomach.

We eventually merged with a Canadian family who had an absolute love of all wildlife, whether it be bird, bug or mammal.  Together we found a couple bright yellow snakes, more monkeys and sloths and some interesting lizards.  However, just as we were about to turn back around, a ranger came along and asked us if we had seen the snakes, to which we answered in the affirmative.  He said that there were a few more from where he came from and upon us trying to question him as to their exact location, he decided to come and show us.  Over the next two hours he pointed out things that we would never has seen in our life – from vine snakes, to Jesus Christ iguanas. This little beachfront jungle walk proved to be the most rewarding 4 hours spent.  I think the highlight were all the snakes and the baby sloth.