Punta Leona
We left San Jose in the afternoon on Thursday, February 25th. This happened to be the day with the most rain we had seen all trip! My Tico family said it is unusual for that much rain this early in the year, and that it could be a problem for farmers/crops. Anyway, I was pretty glad I brought my U of A umbrella with me.
On the Pacific side of Costa Rica lays Punta Leona, a beautiful beach teeming with life. Because of its popularity, the Costa Rican government recently constructed another major highway that is more direct to the Pacific Coast. Unfortunately, we didn't get to use the new road because of a landslide that impeded our route. Instead, we took the longer, original way, which was fine with me. Our coordinators showed the movie "What Happens In Vegas" on the bus, but I didn't watch much...there was so much to see from the bus windows! We drove by banana plantations, through small towns, up mountains, and got pretty deep into the rain forest. We crossed a bridge over el Río Tarcoles which is known for crocodiles. I saw two! One was resting on the river shore and the other was half in, half out of the water. They were huge.
The American crocodile. Not my picture, but you get the idea!
The resort we stayed at was very nice. We spent two nights in cabinas (basically hotel rooms built in clusters of four). That afternoon we went to the beach and chilled. The waves were way less violent than those of Puerto Viejo. It was a nice difference because you could easily float and relax in the water without worrying about drowning. There were multitudes of pelicans, too! I am starting to inherit the name "bird man" or something because I am always trying to get a better look at a bird or point them out to people who don't equally share my very cool interest.
The brown pelican (max wingspan = 90 inches just fyi)
Brad and I found a coconut that had drifted ashore and we used some rocks as a chisel and hammer to crack it open. We got it open after about 5 minutes only to discover it was rotten. It smelled real bad. The restaurant we ate dinner at was phenomenal. I ate the most food yet that night. John and I walked around that night and we grabbed a beer at the resort's bar. Walking back, we saw an armadillo cross the road! I was not expecting to see an armadillo, and yes, I know what you're thinking. You didn't really see one (the alcohol, the darkness, I'm crazy, etc.), but it was 100% armadillo. A nine-banded armadillo, in fact. I did my research :)
We all danced later that night. One of the coordinator assistants brought his iHome and we took turns dancing inside a circle...pretty entertaining. The next morning after another deliciously fulfilling breakfast, we hit the beach again in quest of La Playa Blanca. It was a 30-40 minute walk from the cabinas, and we had to cross over some rocks to get there.
It has this dead-like appearance because we're in the dry season. Here's the same coastline (from a slightly different angle) in the rainy season:
Que diferente, no?
The waves were slightly larger, so it was fun bodysurfing them into the shore. One level of the shore was filled with tiny, sharp rocks/shells that don't hurt to walk on but hurt to slide on...we all found that out the hard way. Later, KJ and I played some soccer on the beach, too, with 5 local guys in high school. It was a lot of fun because we were past our ankles in water trying to juggle the ball which made it more challenging. We took the local trolley back to the cabinas for lunch and went swimming in one of the resort pools for the rest of the afternoon. We heard that there was a disco-tech later that night, so we all had fun dancing again.
Being the bird fanatic that I am :), I signed up for a bird tour the next morning at 6 am. Brad and Mary tagged along, and the tour was great. We saw many groups of Macaws flying around, some woodpeckers, hummingbirds, and other neat birds. Our guide couldn't have been older than any of us, but he knew his stuff. He also showed us a plant that collapses in on itself when it is touched. It's called Mimosa Pudica, or the Sensitive Plant. Pretty cool! I found a video of it online if you want to check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0LFBM3hOLs&feature=related
All the ones we touched collapsed immediately and much faster, but I kind of like the slower ones in the video more.
Side notes
-At breakfast we ate under giant, raised ramadas. There were coatimundi (no, that's the English word, haha. It's pizote in Spanish, and they are basically raccoon-like creatures with longer tails and longer noses. No one in our group had ever seen them before coming to Costa Rica and everyone was skeptical when I said they are found in Arizona) roaming around the forest floor. At one point I could count 9 pizotes looking for handouts from the guests.
-More exciting were the monkeys. They came early in the morning, swooping in from the trees onto the ramada rafters. When guests left, they would leap onto the restaurant tables to collect leftovers and quickly return to the rafters before the waiters to stop them. One desperate monkey even swung off with a glass cup of sugar packets!
-It does get more exciting. At 4 am that morning, some animals started a fight over something on the roof of one of the cabinas. The girls in the cabina woke up startled and the squabble continued for an hour. Not thinking it could get any worse, it did. The animals fell through the roof onto the girls' beds! Turned out they were mapaches (raccoons). The girls were terrified and it took 20 minutes for them to get one of the mapaches out of the room. It even returned to the roof to admire its work:
The new highway had been cleared for us to use for the ride home. I saw two toucans from the bus, too!
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Excellent wildlife sightings, beautiful beaches, delicious meals, and I'll leave you with a few pictures of plant life that I took.
Funny Bird, the Pelican.... It's beak can hold more than it's Belly Can!! ...hehe :)
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