OSA

Doggie at the camp

huge bug

lizard that walks on water

Group picture

Our beds in our tent

waterfall I jumped off of

Sunday, June 1, was spent traveling to the OSA Peninsula. The roads were gravel and dirt, which makes it take us longer to get to where we are going. We went through a huge palm tree plantation (that's what it looked like). They were in perfect lines for miles. They were doing a lot of roadwork the majority of our drive and had to wait sometimes to cross one-lane bridges that were very tiny. We were almost to where we were going to get onto boats to get to the peninsula when we found out the bridge was washed out, completely gone. We had to go back a little way and found a tiny bridge to cross. We had to get off the bus for safety reasons and the bus bottomed out and the guys had to push the bus. Lucky us, the bridge was by a bar and some drunk Ticos came out to help with the situation...haha. If Ronaldo were driving (our regular driver with the Mercedes Benz bus) we would have gotten over it with no problem.
We took two boats and a boat with our luggage down the Sierpe River to get to our final location. There was a very pretty scenery but it was raining some of the time. Interesting fact: Costa Ricans don't like having docks because that makes it public property under law so there aren't many docks around which makes it harder for us because we have to get wet to get out of the boat. There weren't any docks, which kept the protected areas even more protected because it restricted who could come to the areas.
We took taxicabs up the hill to get to our eco-camp, Drake Bay Wilderness Camp, where we were staying for the weekend. It was a short ride up hill. The camp was very muddy, but we had a lot of fun. We lived in tents that had real beds in them, but the beds didn't have box springs so the mattresses went through the boards and it was quite uncomfortable and hard to find a good position to sleep in.
Monday we walked down the hill to the beach where we got back on the boats. They took us to another part of the peninsula that was protected, Corcovada National Park. We did some eco-tourism there: two nature walks. We had to leave he location as we left it. At this park I saw the most animals. I saw Scarlet McCaws, jaguar footprints, howler monkey, bugs, crabs, agouti (I think, brown, cat-sized rodent), and tapir footprints (one of the largest mammals in Costa Rica).
My guide through the forest didn't ware shoes. He did everything barefoot and it looked painful, but he said it hurt for him to ware shoes. I got to wade through a "river" where there was a half eaten otter floating. I have a picture, but it's disgusting.
There was fresh water everywhere and I got to swim in it in two different places. Our guide opened a coconut for us and that is when I fell in love with fresh coconuts. It tastes completely different from the coconut flavoring.
Tuesday it was raining and we thought that our trip to the island, Isla Del Cano, would have to be canceled. It wasn't and we got to snorkel in the coral reef and we swam at the beach. I saw beautiful fish while snorkeling. My favorite was a blue one that was iridescent. I opened my first coconut on this beach all by myself. It took me about fifteen minutes. I had to break open the outer shell by hitting it against a rock and then had to peel back that layer. When I got to the coconut I had to take a rock and hit it around it in a circle and finally it cracked open. It was very delicious. On the boat ride home we stopped and watched the dolphins jumping in the water.
A little more about the eco-camp: I overheard that the owner started building it last August and we were his first visitors. Everything was open, there weren't many walls and I don't think their were any windows. Our showers drained into the forest, which I don't think was very eco-friendly because there are chemicals in our shampoos and soaps that are not gentle to the rivers that flow into the ocean.
Wednesday we returned to San Jose. It pretty much took the whole day.