Howling Monkeys and Sleepy Sloths

My last full day in Montezuma I went to the locally famous waterfall where you can jump off a 10 meter high rock next to the falls.  When first I saw it, I thought that looks more like 6 or 7 meters to me, but when I got to the top of the rock, I thought 'this looks more like 15 meters to me-

I left the Southern Nicoya peninsula and journeyed down the Pacific coast to the country's most famous national park, Manuel Antonio, or maybe its Antonio Manuel- I hate people with 2 first names.  As I heard it is very popular, i made sure to get there early to beat the crowd-

It is renowned for its beaches and wildlife, particularly monkeys-  4 different types- and sloths- 2 types.  Sloths evidently come in the 2 and 3 toed variety, with one being slightly more advanced in mathematics than the other (evidently a 'right brain', 'left brain' situation).  I did see some sloths in the trees and would post some photos, but they simply look like unmoving blobs in the trees (regardless of how many toes they have).  I did learn that their metabolism is so slow that they only descend to the ground to poop every 8 days or so.  Now that is slow digestion and I guess it takes weeks or maybe even months, if you are sloth, to figure out if you are constipated. 

Monkeys I both heard and saw-

 The howling monkey is really loud and well, has quite a howl.  Not sure what they are howling about, though perhaps the heat as it was a torrid day in the park today.

As I said, ,the park is also famous for its beaches, with one of them being perhaps the most famous in Costa Rica-

After hiking around the park, I longed to find a spot in the shade on the beach to cool off and get out of the blistering sun.  The beach was somewhat crowded, but then I found a nice isolated spot.  Just as I settled down and started to doze off, someone spotted a sloth in the tree above my head and a herd almost trampled me to get some photos-

So I moved down the beach and settled next to a couple that was eating their lunch.  But that drew monkeys and that again almost got me squashed in my little spot in paradise by the photographic crowd.

Still, it is quite a pretty place-

And you don't see these on every beach-

But I did have to stay almost incognito to avoid the blistering sun.  Doesn't everyone go to the beach dressed like this? 

Waterfalls and the Costa Rican Bataan Death March

From the Cloud Forest of Mondeverde-

I journeyed to the Pacific Coast and the Southern Nicoya Peninsula- for the 'beach' part of my trip (which seems appropriate for Costa Rica).   My guide book had indicated that the roads of So. Nicoya were some of the worst in CR, but it turned out that they had just paved the 60km road to Montezuma at the bottom of the peninsula.  I had to settle for this surprisingly smooth, if somewhat inauthentic, CR experience where , unusually all of  my teeth were still in place after my drive.

Montezuma- never knew the Aztecs made it this far south or were such beach bums- is a quintessential  'beach town' and surfing is big here.  Below, a couple of agile young pros getting ready to hit the 'board'-

I guess they hadn't heard of 'Car Park Surfing' which I have mastered and found far easier than the actual wet stuff.

When not goofing off as here, observed lots of Pelicans dive bombing for fish-

If deserted beaches are your thing, Montezuma could be for you-

But the surf is very strong- I got body slammed a few times swimming here-  and there many rip currents, so I realized it might be better sometimes just to do ' car park swimming'. 

If you are lucky, you may find an occasional piece of driftwood on these deserted beaches-

Amidst the natural driftwood,  you may occasionally find something useful like an old bumper or ballister washed up from parts unknown-

CR is a great place for waterfalls and there is beach a short 4 mile walk from Montezuma through the Sahara Desert where one falls into the sea-

Of course, waterfalls r us so (ala Victoria Falls) we had to dangle our feet near the edge-

Next to the ocean, which truly was like bath water in temperature, if not in temperment, the falls were delightfully refreshing, though that feeling did not last long on the scorching return. 

Some wildlife also couldn't be bothered to move far in the hot sun-

cloud forest and the legend of the golden toad

My next trip took me the Monteverde Cloud Forest which is quite high, windy, cool and near the continental divide.  How do I know part of it straddles the continental divide?  

Little gets by me on the hiking trail  

It famous for its birds and flora, though I saw few of the former.  But clouds and a forest I saw in abundance (again, not a lot gets by me on the trail).  

If roots are your thing, you could be happy here, though I would not wish to try and dig through them-

Sometimes I hear some Boston suburbs referred to as leafy but Monteverde knows leafy-

But I was quite disconcerted to read about the demise of the 'legendary golden toad', as explained to me on this sign explaining 'what is gone' (the golden toad as it turns out)-

I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of the Golden Toad or its legend until now. Not exactly sure what was legendary about it.  Maybe it was made of real gold?  But that would seem awfully heavy for a toad.  Maybe it just had (cheap) gold flecks?  So what is legendary about that?  I don't know and apparently most of humanity will never know now either. 

 According to the sign, there were thousands of this legendary toad hanging about the Cloud Forest in 1987 but by 1989 nary a single legendary toad could be found, gold plated or otherwise.  The reason according to the sign?  If you guessed climate change, you would be dead on.  The toad was an unwitting  and early victim of climate change (really fast in his case) (and no doubt the policies of the legendary Ronald Reagan).   The toad really took climate change on his golden chin apparently and now little is left of the legend but the above sign. 

Well, I mourned the toad for a few minutes, but had a ferry to catch and was worried that the line would be very long when I got there as the website indicated there were no available spaces except a few 'drive ups'  (my car is in white but the black car had preference)

But there was some nice vistas  as I descended to the Pacific Coast-

The pleasant ferry ride helped me recover some equilibrium after my despondency over the legendary toad's devastating and appalling quick ending.  

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Superman and Mega Tarzan

They have all sorts of lodging types in Costa Rica with many having a naturalistic theme.  I am all into the natural and all that, but found this hotel a little too primitive even for me-

I am not some oversized bee.


I finished my exploration of the heretofore unknown region of Arenal and headed by well maintained roads- with pot holes only every 20' or so- to the mountainous Monteverde Cloud Forest.  Along the way, I got stuck in a ditch in my trusty Jimmy Suzuki rental car on some remote dirt road in some hilly farm country-

Costa Rica meeting New Zealand along my drive-

 Using my well honed travel skills and having seen most every type of problem while traveling, I knew I would quickly find a solution in my expedition memory.  So.... I sat down by the side of the road and mindlessly waited until someone else came along.  After 15 minutes or so in this remote location, a poor local family passed by in a donkey cart that faintly resembled a new Toyota Highlander and, like the 18th century Royal Navy, I impressed all into service, including the 4 year old who I charged with driving the stick shift as the rest of us pushed Jimmy out of the ditch.

Monteverde is known for its poor roads, which is certainly saying something in Costa Rica. By leaving at the crack of dawn to make sure I got to my 3pm zip line appointment, I just covered the roughly 60 miles in time.  I had signed up for what was advertised as Latin America's longest zip line, including a Superman line, as well as a Tarzan swing and rappel down some cliff- whatever all that stuff was.

The long (and high) zip line over the cloud forest canopy was indeed fun and was probably about 600' off the ground on average-

But then I looked up and saw the Superman line which was a few hundred feet above that-

If you look close and blow u[ the picture, you can see the speck in the sky flying head first- superman style.  Well, that was all pretty unnerving- and you had plenty of time to ponder your sins while flying hundreds/thousands of feet over the canopy- but that was all nothing compared to the terror of the Tarzan swing-

Putting my usual thought into it aforehand, I had no idea what to expect, other than some vague notion that I would be joyfully swinging with Jane and assorted monkeys like Johnny Weismuller of original Tarzan fame.  But this looked nothing like the old Tarzan movies.  You walked out some long steel plank to some cage at the end where who knew what happened.

"

I walked out to the cage like some condemned man headed to the gallows, which is pretty much how I felt as I shuffled out there.  It was 150 ft in the air according to my helpful guide (did I actually pay for this?  What was I thinking, if anything?)   When I got there, they told me to hold onto some rope and then opened the cage door.  A conversation ensued as I looked down...

Me-  What happens now?

Guide- You jump.

But it looks like I will just fall?   Straight down as it were.  It looks a long way down...

Yep.  Free fall for a while and then the rope swings you.   Hopefully.

But----

Off you go!

Not sure how I didn't have a heart attack, but I am still blogging somehow.

With no street signs and then a plethora of private signs at every junction, it is pretty difficult trying to pick out your hotel sign as you motor  along-

I will say playing Superman and Tarzan for an afternoon was something of a blast.

hanging bridges and the jungle

I spent my 2nd day in CR heading deeper into the jungle where I found the natives had erected some rickety hanging bridges over some deep chasms-

I did manage to spot some sort of rare and exotic bird-

(looked like an overgrown robin to me, though bird watching is big here)

But to capture the fast moving Toucan, one had to have really good and quick photographic skills

I did see a few monkeys in their natural habitat, though not enough to fill a barrel-

The jungle is indeed dense and more than once I had to wield my machete to hack my way through-

At night, I came upon an undiscovered hot spring deep inside a cave-

I did stumble upon a big jungle water fall.  Ever since dangling my legs over Victoria Falls, I have had a penchant for swimming near falls-

It was well that I hiked around the volcano yesterday (not possible to climb- thank goodness as I would hate to have to undertake that).  But still a spectacular mountain-

Arenal

My first lodging was situated  quite close to the airport.  Initially, I wondered  why my host handed me a pair of ear plugs when he gave me my room key, but I discovered the reason at 4am the next morning when aircraft started flying about 100 ft over my room.  But that at least drowned out the noise of the guy coughing all night next door undoubtedly with the CoronaVirus.  How thin do the walls have to be before you can actually catch the virus? 

My first day took me from San Jose about 2 hours northwest to the famous Arenal Volcano.  Arenal, even if no longer visibly smoking, is indeed one impressive mountain, having an almost perfect conical shape.  I was lucky enough to see it entirely on a rare clear day-

Notice the scars from the most recent lava flows.  Being intrepid, you will see that I am standing right where the last lava flow stopped-

Of course, that was in 1992... It is truly amazing how fast the vegetation recovers and sprouts from the solidified rock.  I guess that is what 300+ inches of rain per year will do for you (this place being one of the rainiest places on earth). 

But being the explorer that I am, I ventured deep into relatively unknown and very inhospitable parts where creature comforts were pretty much unknown-

Of course, being into sustainability and naturalness in all things I did stay in an Eco Lodge in the jungle (just putting Eco in the name was enough for me).  I did wonder why it was so cheap, but
the cold showers and lack of actual internet receptivity, notwithstanding the 'free Wifi,' started to give some clue.   No more Ecos for me, though it did have some appeal-

street signs and sea turtles

I arrived at the San Jose Airport in Costa Rica and picked up my rental car.  The rental car was reasonably priced, but for some reason my driving record must have preceded me as the cost of the insurance doubled the price of the car.  This despite the fact that declined all insurance.  Not sure how the Costa Rican police discovered my penchant for speeding but there you go.  A huge insurance premium and a mere $3000 deposit and I was on my way. 

As a novel approach to navigation, there are no street signs in Costa Rica.  Perhaps they did away with them when they abolished the army.  Or perhaps their teenagers went on one of those sign vandalizing binges and wiped them all out.   Everyone apparently relies on Waze.  But what did people do before Waze and the internet?   Maybe they used Google Maps.  Or maybe they just went where the road took them and settled down in place. 

 In any case, my BnB was located less than 1km from the airport and.... I arrived about 1 hour later (after having passed the no name street maybe 5-6 times.  Waze in Spanish is not all that easy. 

But wildlife abounds in Costa Rica and I did manage to spot a sea turtle my first night-