As usual, we were up not long after six, the only difference today was that we wanted an early breakfast so we could get out and on the road. After another delicious local breakfast on the open-air terrace, we left the hotel at around 07.30.
Our aim for the day was to go on a wild-life tour on the Osa Peninsular. This peninsular in the south-west of Costa Rica is home to the Corcovado National Park, one the only areas of pristine primary rain-forest left in the country. (Primary in so much that it has never been cut down and regenerated). The park is notoriously difficult to visit as there are no roads, so the only way to visit and stay at one of the jungle lodges is to fly or go by boat. This makes it very expensive, so we decided to do the next best thing and go and visit the mangrove swamps on the northern edge of the Park. This is possible to arrange by driving down to the river-front village of Sierpe and hiring a small boat and guide to show you the wildlife.
The journey south was easy with virtually no traffic on the road until we go to Palma Norde when the route 34 joins the route 2, which is the Pan American Highway. To the north it goes back to San Jose and to the south the Panamanian border. We managed to miss the turn-off for Sierpe here and drove about 15km down towards Panama. We eventually realised we were wrong and turned around and returned to Palma Norde where we found the road to Sierpe. This road wound around coconut plantations and small villages until we reached the rather touristy village of Sierpe.
The village is the jumping-off point not only for tours around the mangroves, but also for boats heading out the Drake Bay (Drake pronounced Drakay), the start point for visits to the jungle lodges. Drake Bay is named after Sir Francis who landed there on one of his world tours!
The scene at the cafe which serves as the transport hub can only be described as chaotic. We had arrived about 10 minutes late for our tour following our unintended detour. We were rather worried the tour might have departed. Our fears were entirely groundless as there tourist milling around everywhere. Some had just arrived from Drake Bay, others were clearly waiting for buses to move them elsewhere, and a few, like us were waiting for a local tour!
Eventually after about an hour, a guide named David appeared and loaded us along with 6 Americans and 2 Dutch people onto a small boat and we headed out. Under the jetty, trapped by the tide was a very large American Crocodile, we walked straight over the top of it!
Our first foray tooks us just slightly down river to look at different mangroves and have it explained to us just how important they are to the eco-system. We next started to head up river. For the next two-and-a-half hours we slowly puttered our way along a water-hyacinth choked waterway with mangrove and jungle lining the banks. During the trip we say caiman, three types of monkey, Capuchin, Squirrel and Howler, squirrels a Two-toed Sloth and lots of birds. There were at least three sorts of Heron, a couple of different Hawks, Scarlet Macaws and a variety of smaller birds too.
Needless to say, we took lots of photographs, some of which may contain recognisable images of animals or birds!
Once we arrive back at Sierpe, we decided not to eat at the touristy restaurants and drove back to Palma Norde where we found a delightful place on the mainroad and each had a plateful of local rice and chicken/seafood. It was a bit noisy, partly from the trucks on the Pan American Highway, but more so from the unseen hoarde of Vultures in the trees across the road.
After a brief stop for some bread for dinner at a supermarket, we headed back to Ojochal for a shower and relax. Later at around sunset, we headed for the pool and watched the sun set whilst floating around in the pool. It was a most long drawn-out and spectacular sun set.
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