Wandering Wickershams
But first a word from our sponsors
And, second, an alert to faithful readers. New material has been added for the to nicaragua page, covering the events of March 9 and 10.
Costa Rica
April 3 - April 6, 2006
last updated: April 9, 2006
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4-3 Yesterday we left Liberia and followed a secondary road down the Nicoya Peninsula. The traffic was light and we road about half the way with a young computer teacher who gave us some bike friendly road recommendations. The route we are on was suggested to us by a couple we met in Ometepe who drive. Long dirt or pot holed roads are very difficult for us, so we decided not to visit the beaches they suggested, but stopped on the main road in Nicoya, staying at a nice place with pool and great restaurant. Today we rode to the Pacific – Samara – 35 km of paved steep seaside hills. The beach looked univiting and the hotels and cabina expensive. After a couple of hours checking places out – we found a delightful spot, “Dos Aguas” with an extra large, cool room with a rock shower large enough for 4!! After a dip in the lovely pool, we met the 2 dogs, 2 cats and the pet monkey – who joined Art in the hamock after she helped us do the laundry!
The country here is hot and dry. Low vegetation sprinkled with palms and criss-crossed with arroyos sporting canyons full of huge trees. In these river canapies, I saw two troops of monkeys – 8 to 10 individuals in each. They were so close, only 10 feet from us as we watched them forage. It is rather startling and exciting for us to have this little pet monkey so close, interacting with the other household animals and people, too. We are enjoying the lush gardens, the sparkling pool and the shady hammocks . deciding we really aren’t beach people – and don’t think we’ll go chasing after another beach! Tomorrow, going back to Nicoya along the same steep 35+ km (mostly up) is ot exciting to us, at all!
4-4
This morning we snuck out of our wonderful B & B early and boarded a bus to Nicoyo. We shortened our 4.5 hour ride to 1 hour! The riding on this road down the Nicoyo Peniensula is ver, very pretty: cattle, fields of melons, and vistas of the Golfo de Nicoya. As Art gets off the bike to take a photo, above, several monkeys voice their disapproval of his proximity to their tree. The only negative was the 10km of rocky, dirt road. Terrible on our wheels, spokes, butts and hands that feel asleep. We stopped at the first hotel with pool about 1 km away from the ferry we will take tomorrow. Nice spot: vistas of the bay, 2 pools, good bar and the howler monkeys are serenading me as I write. Costa Rica is a beautiful country: clean, friendly – just terrible roads with pot holes, disappearing at times, becoming rocky and dirt. Well, we aren’t in any hurray – so, it just takes longer!
4-5 Took a large car ferry from Naranjo on the Nicoya Peninsula over to Puntarenas where we found a hotel and stashed Bici at a hotel as we prepared for the trip up to Monteverde/Santa Elena by local bus. The 3.5 hours bus trip was an experience – full chicken bus; all the windows down; hot and humid 90 degrees as we took off. Paved road for the first half and then 35km of very poor gravel and dirt surface with continuous clouds of dust blowing in. Our teeth shook, our eyes shook, and our kidneys wanted to be transplanted! This was by far the toughest, roughest, climb from sea level up to 1600 m and cloud forest. It slowly got cooler to the point Judee closed her window! The scenery went from parched dry fields to green jungle as the sun set across the mountains ....all in all a wild, tiring, but enjuoyable experience.
4-6
Up a very rough gravel/dirt/steep path/road for 7 km and into the parking lot and the reception, check in area to soon hook up with our guide, Jorge, a very knowledgeable (early thieriess, late twenties) biologist. The cloud forest gets 3m of rain per year. All the trees are covered with moss and ferns and feel wet to the touch. Today we are lucky: blue sky and sun light, normally only 2.5 hours of sun per day. We wander the trails while our guide explained the workings of the cloud forest eco system. How elevation, winds produce different levels of rail fall from 3m to 9m depending where on the slopes you are and which side of the continenetal divide you are: East (Caribbean) or west (Pacific). It is much drier and hotter as you approach the Pacific. We get all kinds of info on plants, bugs, insects and birds. A large orange tarantula lets us get up close and personal, touch its legs, before it scurries off the trail to his hiding hole. As we stand listening for the elusive Questzal bird, a pickery comes down the trail to rub up against our legs and snuffle us. She is being returned to the wild after growing up with a local farm family. For over an hour we chase up and down the trail whistleing and calling fro the Questzal and see fleeting glances of both a male and female as they fly by.
The jungle is absolutely lush, vines, ferns, moss, all kinds of bushes and trees totally block out the sun with only thin shafts able to break through. It is a many hued green cathedral alive with sounds of birds and monkeys. The trails are slick with mud or wet soil covered by tree clabs with metal esh that are walked onl. The footing was precarious at times as we worked our way back to park entrance 3 hours after our entrance. Birds seen: Quetzals, Waddles, Wrens, Woodpeckers, Warblers, Tanangiers and lots of different Hummingbirds (large, small, both sexes, with long, short, curved, and straight bills). After lunch we walked 300 yards down hill to the Salvatura Park where we bought tickets for the zipline canopy tour (12 lines). Judee was apprehensive as she shies away from exposed heights. I climbed the tower first, to clip into the first line, Judee chattering behind me. She watched as I was launched off the platform into the green forest canopy: zip down the cable, gaining speed, traveling right hand out behind me keeping me from spinning around and ready to break as I near the lower platform Next comes Judee. What a wonderful big smile lighting up her face. She is an adrenaline junkey and wants more! What a blast screaming down the mountainside out of the canopy into the bright sun light and across the huge, deep vally below and back into the dark forest and onto the platorm! Short and long lines, some fast, some slow but all breathtaking and fun. Just befoe the last three lines, we got to experince the Tarzan swing. I find I am first to climb the tall tower, clip into the rope, look down, second thoughts about my sanity and step off into nothing. I fall, I scram, the rope tightens and I do a monster swing out over the valley and back toward the tower – WOW! Scary, breathtaking and fun! That first step had me going. The rest of the group followed with scream and laughter. Judee thought better of it and decided this was not her cup of tea, so took pictures and cheered us on. What a great day of excitment, learning and adventure.
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