Corcovado National Park

Another long, exhausting, but fulfilling day.  Our travel agent had booked, at our request, this extension to our holiday in the Corcovado region, but hadn’t booked an actual trip into the park.  So I, with some trepidation, booked a day trip online knowing nothing except for some reviews.  I cavilled at committing to a private guide, which would have been an extra $50 each on what was already a pricy day out.

Our taxi, booked by the hotel, arrived on time to take us to the jetty in Puerto Jimenez.  We arrived quite early, and there were lots of people waiting for regular service boats to other towns and villages around the bay – maybe to Golfito. Eventually our guide arrived, and it transpired that we were his only clients.  So we got our private guide for free!  We shared a boat with another much larger group, comprising lots of youthful Americans.

Quite a long sea trip (1½ hours), out of the Golfo Dulce to the Pacific, including an early stop to see bottlenose dolphins, to reach Sirena where we had to clamber out of the back of the boat into the sea – a “wet” disembarkation.   Once on land we negotiated the entry into the National Park, including slightly perfunctory bag search for single use plastic/foods.  Then donned trainers, and Carlos got us on the trail.  Found it almost impossible to take useful photos with my camera – the combination of the poor lighting and the generally very distant subject means most of my photos are blurred.  But Carlos had a telescope, and a good quality cell phone, and took lots of photos and videos using the two together which have been subsequently sent via WhatsApp.

Carlos was great. He found us sloths (two and three toed), an anteater, birds, monkeys – though sadly not a squirrel monkey – coatis, agoutis, a caterpillar that looks a little like the hawk moth caterpillar.  No cats!   And last, but by no means least, a sleeping tapir.  I actually managed my own photo of this lady, but only her back end. Carlos found a way in to see her head, and took a photo for us.

By this time I was shattered.  We made our way to the ranger station, where lunch (rice, beans, chicken stew, mixed veggies) was provided.  I could only eat a few mouthfuls.  Seeing our exhaustion, Carlos offered, and we took him up on, to arrange a lift on the tractor back to the sea.

And then a return to Puerto Jimenez, stopping briefly to admire “booby island”, a small rocky outcrop off Punta Salsipuedes, with nesting brown boobies.

We gave Carlos a generous tip – he did well, and coped with us oldies with good nature and flexibility.

Once back at the hotel, we were grateful for our air-conditioned bedroom and time for recovery.

The main blip, of the back end of the tapir, is mine, and the slightly blurry photo of two sloths in extras is mine, but I’ve also added a few of Carlos’s photos.