Last post from Rica!

Hello all!
I am typing here at my hostel in Manuel Antonio, which is between the Nicoya and Osa Peninsulas on the west side of Costa Rica. We got up here a few days ago from Puerto Jimenéz after a long bus day of about 10 hours after it was all said and done. But let me first tell you all about my experience in the Corcovado National Park.

Corcovado is know (worldly I think) as an excellent place to see animals in their wild habitats. It is one of the most pristine areas in Costa Rica and there are scores of critters roaming the park and regions around the park. You can camp in the park but you need to pay a fee for just about everything. We had a group and a guide to go with and were hoping to stay in the park for three days, so we got the entrance fees and camping fees all taken care of and then met up with our guide and the rest of the group and decided on food for the few nights we would be camping, and the consensus was pasta, high carbs and lots of energy for all the hiking we would be doing.
Our first day we woke at 420am and met up at the towns bakery which was open and pumping out the breads (this was odd because in other countries we had to wait until afternoon to purchase any bread items). We had a taxi there waiting for us and after picking up the rest of the group we were off to La Palma and then into the park entrance at Los Patos. We had to cross a river a few times and we were told that this entrance is only accessable in the dry season, other times the water is too high in the river to make the crossings by vehicle. So we drove to the entrance at Los Patos and had to pay the rangers at the station all the fees, and they OK`d our entrance, and permitted us to pass. And then we started a 23.8km treck to the station at La Sirena, in the middle of the park. We scoured the tree tops with our eyes, hoping to sight animals or bugs by ourselves and not rely on the guide to point everything out, but most of our looking just made our necks hurt as we tripped over our feet. But we still got to see lots of animals, cool spiders, butterflys, birds of the jungle and got to learn about some of the plants too! Kyle and I had a great time but we had packed waaay too much water, we each had 6 litres of water, more than enough for a few long hikes but we thought that there was no water at Sirena, but we were wrong, so we were a bit pack heavy but that was ok, the wildlife kept us distracted. After a few breaks and tons of looking for critters we finally arrived at Sirena and had a chance to put our bags down and relax for a bit. It took me about three days to stop sweating, it just stuck to us like the humidity, so thick it was a constant struggle to keep hydrated and by the end of the day we all stunk to high heaven.
The second day we stuck around the station, sticking to the local trails and looking for more critters, we saw more stuff, monkeys (all four kinds, Spider monkeys, White-faced Capuchins, Howler monkeys and Squirrel monkeys) Coatis (which look like racoons with long noses and tails that stick strait up), a few Tapirs, a few green and black poison frogs (which are not posionous at all), two Anteaters, lots of lizards, anoles and jesus christ lizards, Scarlet Macaws in the hundreds, a bare throated Tiger Heron, a Croc, tons of Bugs, Black Hawks, some toucans (Chestnut-mandibled?) lots of Pelicans at the beach and many smaller tweetier birds. All told we saw a bunch of stuff, and it was fun being in the jungle for a while, dispite the humidity. After all that hiking the second day we got to play a bit of soccer, two games to three goals, two on two. It was basically the most I have sweat in all my life, literally pouring with sweat, I think I was more wet that getting into a pool. But it was fun!
The third day, well rather third morning we woke up at midnight to do a bit of a night hike and try and catch a passing around a beach point, as we would be hiking along the beach for a bit, and needed to catch low tide that wasn´t in the middle of the day. We got the point but had to turn back after waves pounded us in the dark and we could not make it around the point safely. So we had to wait it out, all of us beat after hitting the trail hard for a few hours and hiking with packs in the sand is never easy, we were stepping at double time to try and make the lowtide crossing. Some of the group managed a few minutes of sleep before the sun poke out from the horizon and the waves finally ceased to crash at the point and we saddled up again with still soaked packs and timed the waves just right to make it around the point. What an adventure. We also had rested at a land-slide spot, and feeling the ground move after every wave was not the most secure feeling.. Anyway we finished the early morning hike on the beach and got picked up by the taxi man at the airport on the south end of the park. Apparently we all looked like bobblehead dolls in the back and the driver made lots of fun at us, and some one was tooting, hahaha.
So that was our trip to Corcovado, the pictures will not do it justice, but I tried. We had a wonderful time and now we are nearing the end of a terrific journey that started in Cancun. We will be flying home on the 8th enough time has been spent here to eat up enough money and it is time to be home again, for a while anyway. We had some fun, loved the ride and only brushed the corners of what we could have done with more time and more money.
Thanks for following, see ya soon!!