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Costa Rica 2004/2005

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Two weeks to Costa Rica: Holiday-journal

Christmas holiday of 2004-2005, my boyfriend Timo and I (Lucie) went to Costa Rica. A lot of tourists travel around in this country, but we didn't. We mainly staid in Delfin Amor Eco Lodge for two weeks (www.delfinamor.com). From here we did some tours to the Rio Claro, Ajuitas, Caño Island en Corcovado. This is all at the Peninsula the Osa or around there. And we went to Panama for four days.

The reason for this trip.
My friend Simone worked in this 'park'. She was tour-manager with the dolfin-tours. She talked about the animals, their characteristic features and their habits. I hadn’t seen her in a long time (webcams don’t do anyone justice) and it would be so wonderful to escape from all the Christmas-fuss and visit her, the dolphins and the lovely warm climate! It became our first trip outside of Europe.

We already bought our Martinair-flying-tickets on the internet in June. The costs for our stay in Delfin Amor and the domestic trip (flight, taxi, boat) from San Jose to the park are already paid for too. In between we paid for the trip to Panama, so the costs afterwards are just the tours we participated in and the meals and drinks.

Saturday the 25th of December

We fly with Martinair via Miami to San Jose. This flight leaves at 13.40h so we have a delightful day-flight. Moreover we won’t have a jetlag when we arrive. At check-in we get a green form; it’s a visa-obligation release form. This must be filled out at the air plain and handed over at the Miami customs-office. We heard some rough stories about the customs-office in Miami, and it makes us feel slightly intimidated. But everybody is very friendly! Fortunately we don’t have to take the luggage to the next plain ourselves; this is all in the hands of the airport. As soon as the smaller plain that will bring us to San Jose, wants to start flying, one passenger gets an allergic reaction. She starts hyperventilating and the plain waits. When she has been examined by a doctor, she can take place in her seat again.
Meanwhile it is getting kind of late, so I fall asleep and I miss the ascending of the plain. I don’t mind at all because I get airsick rather quick. During the flight I wake up and in the distance I see some lightening. Fortunately we only fly through some mild clouds and turbulence stays minimal.

At San Jose customs-office we are clearly in the wrong line. It takes forever to get to our luggage. We are the last ones to get in the luggage-room and a man is guarding our suitcases! Yes, the suitcases are ours, and yes we would like a taxi. I booked a room in Hotel Pacande in Alajuela (www.hotelpacande.com). We are guided to an orange taxi and the airport-guy explains to the driver where we are going. Unfortunately he doesn’t speak English and we don’t speak Spanish so it just stays with smiling and a well-meaning ‘Gracias’.

Alajuela is a little town next to the airport, so we don’t have to go all the way downtown San Jose. Also we have to be at the near airport Tobias Bolaños (also known as Pavas Airport) the next morning at 8 o’clock. This is where our domestic flight to Drake Bay takes off.
The Hotel Pacande is not ridiculously luxurious, but the room is large, clean and neat. The people speak English and it is not that expensive: $ 35 for a double room including breakfast and the taxi-ride from San Jose.

Sunday the 26th of December.

There’s no such thing as a second Christmas-day here in Costa Rica. It’s just an ordinary Sunday and just making up a second day of celebration is typical Dutch, I presume.
I wake up without my alarm-clock, from weird bird-noises, sunlight and a light tense feeling. Today I will be flying in a real small air plain... will my stomach behave itself?
After a shower and breakfast we leave with a driver in a car from the hotel. It is about a 15 minutes drive and it costs $ 13. We are much to early, because I misunderstood the English-speaking young man. Not a 40 minute drive, but 14.... ah.
The airport has lovely airconditioning and we can already check-in our luggage, to walk around and look at the little plains. We fly with Nature-Air. This flight has been arranged by Delfin Amor.
There is a strong wind and I didn’t realise that until we got into the plain; the wings are moving already, and we aren’t even flying yet! It was a tolerable flight, along the shore. I’m nauseous but still it is beautiful to see the blue see, the beaches and palms. Despite the wind, our landing is pretty quiet. Once we get out, we notice that the runway is made of gravel! My stomach get’s back at ease: we got through the worst, the rest will be easy.
The taxi that takes us to the beach is an orange cross-country vehicle, with a luggage-rack on top. We feel like true world-travellers on the way. This ride takes us over the smallest roads. It has just been raining, so every pot-hole has become a puddle. We ride through small creeks, and even a little river! Alongside abysses and over bridges that are barely wider than a car-tire. It is exiting and delightful.

The cab pulls over at a beach and when someone yells ‘delfin amor!’ we know that we got to get out. Three staff-members of Delfin Amor are waiting for us, so shoes off, roll-up the legs of my pants, dip my feet in the warm water and into the boat. Eduardo does the talking and welcomes us; they bring us across the bay to the park-beach. Amazingly I don’t have any sea-sickness, as long as the boat is moving. The amount of impressions along the way is overwhelming. The scents, the noises, the plants, the sea (that really IS very blue), the palm-trees... everything is like in a dream.

At the beach Beverly is waiting for us. She is a hostess at Delfin Amor. She takes us to the central building in the park; the restaurant. It is a building without outside-walls; the roof is supported by poles and rafters. Everything is very open and natural. This is where you get breakfast, lunch and diner. All vegetarian and fish, but occasionally chicken is on the menu.

Beverly tells us about the trail to the north that leads to the nearest village Ajuitas (this is where Francis Drake has set his first foot on land) an hour away. The southern trail leads to the river Rio Claro. This is a tourist spot because of the clear sweet water and a beautiful waterfall. This is also approximately an hour walk.
We get a tour around the park. There are 6 cabins for tourists. These are provided with toilets and showers. For camping there is a separate room with showers and toilets, next to the laundry-room. First thing we notice is that everything is really clean. Then there’s the cabins of the staff and a relax-place, called the Harmony Room. This is the coolest spot at the park because of the beach-breeze that is there almost every day.
Our tent may be put up at the camp spot near the beach, but that is rather far from the bathrooms. So Eduardo finds us a spot in the ‘garden’. This is next to the staff-cabins. Feels nice and safe; we’ll do that.
In no time our little iglo-tent is upright and meanwhile we notice that there really is a totally different temperature here than we were used to. Man, is that sweaty, or what!
Finally we can put our suitcases in the tent and put our shorts on. And then it is time for lunch. Every meal is great -one way or another, everything tastes better over here- but lunch is exceptionally good. In Holland we are used to eat some sandwiches at work, but here we get a complete 3-course meal at noon too! First soup or salad, then a delicious main course (pasta, quiche, fish, potato-vegetablemix etc.) and finally desert.
At lunch we are sitting with the Coffey-family. These people are extremely pleasant and funny; we hang out a lot with them until their departure at New-Years-Eve.
I’m really looking forward to seeing Simone, but I keep this lunch in mind as the moment when I realised that it would be very cool here without her as well.
Simone had to work that day; her dolphin-tour is over at 3pm. When she arrives at the beach it all seems very unreal. I’m here in a tropical climate with palm-trees above me, Timo next to me and Simone right before me. And I’m not dreaming!

During diner it suddenly starts to rain very heavily. This is very unusual for this season. The
wet season (this is called winter or green season) is somewhat longer than usual. We are being warned that even the best tents are not really rainproof, with this amount of water. One of the staff-members had put a big piece of plastic near our tent; ah, that was meant for these occasions! We cover our tent in the dark, while getting soaked to our underwear.
Warm rain is not that bad. After every diner some documentaries from the BBC and National Geographic are shown, where the surroundings of Delfin Amor and the owner Sierra are main subjects. After the films we are tired and satisfied, so we go to our tent. Usually it isn’t even 8.30 yet...

Monday the 27th of December

Our first tour is planned for today! We’re going snorkelling near Caño Island, together with the Coffey family, our guide Roy and two gentlemen who stay on the boat during our snorkel-adventure. The weather is not that great; it’s raining and as we sail to the island, we see a waterspout! The oceanwater is extremely clear and we see beautiful coral, every fish-species that is only seen in aquaria in Holland, a sea-turtle and even a baby-shark!
The rain makes swarms of baby-jellyfish swim at the water surface. They are so small you can hardly see them, but they sting everywhere. It feels like little needle-pricks; very irritating.
Once we’re on the boat to the beach (lunch!) I get some homeopathic remedy against insect-bites, itches and stings from Elena Coffey. It is called Apis Mel and it works within 10 minutes. That’s a relief! At the beach we have an hour off. While Roy prepares lunch (salad, sandwiches, eggs, cookies, fresh fruit and juices..) we can do whatever we want. Timo goes hiking and I just relax at the beach. There’s an ancient Indian burial ground at the highest point of the island, and there are some legends about the round spheric stones found here.
After lunch we go back snorkelling. The sun has come out and the jellyfish stay away. It slowly gets high tide so we see fewer fish, but on the way back to Delfin Amor, we get a glimpse of a dolphin swimming in the slipstream of the boat.

Tuesday the 28th of December

Today Timo and I walk to the Rio Claro. We heard that it’s te most beautiful spot around here. There’s a really clear river running into the sea, and there are boats for rent ($ 4pp) to row up the river and see a waterfall. We’re going to do that!
The journey there is an adventure itself. We walk south, with the beach always right beside us. Along the way we see te most beautiful plants, birds, butterflies and hundreds of lizards. Timo even spots a snake between the leaves! The leaf-cutting-ants are hard to take pictures from, but the small streams with mini-waterfalls are very photogenic.
A hike like this is pretty warm and at the Rio Claro we can have a nice swim in cool, sweet water! We await the return of a little boat, so we can go up the river.
We row in surroundings that seem like fairytales. We see two little waterfalls and we row until the rocks in the water stop us from going any further. On the way back we see a couple of boats tied up next to a small waterfall. There’s people coming climbing off the rocks. We wait for a while and when the boats are gone, we climb up ourselves. WOW!! A magnificent waterfall crashes into a little pool. Pictures!!! Lovely cooled off, we start our hike back. It’s raining a little bit, but that’s quite fresh.

At diner the table setting is different every night. People are coming and going every day, so there’s something to talk about all the time. Most of the guests are from the US, Canada or Great Britain. It’s nice to be able to talk English a lot; that would be very different with Spanish speaking guests. The moon is almost full, and that makes pretty pictures when we play with the shutter-time a little bit...

Wednesday 29th of December.

Today, I’m doing NOTHING! After breakfast, I take my book and discman into the harmony room and relax. My sandals have fabric soles (don’t ever take these with you) and these are wet for 3 days already. This makes my feet get weak and painful. Jerry is the technical guy from the park. He hears about my wet sandals and shows me where I can put them by the generator to dry. Wonderful to be wearing dry shoes again!
By noon we take the plastic off the tent; it’s a beautiful day.
Timo goes snorkelling around the rocks at the beach in the afternoon. I just stay in the Harmony room and do nothing. I just take my time to listen to the bugs and birds, to look at the plants (without leaving my hammock) and enjoy....

If we’re in our tent at 9 in the evening, something starts smelling awful! It’s an undescribable bad penetrating smell. We can hardly breath normally. It could be anything: rotten fruit that has fallen from a tree and burst open? Some tropical plant that blossoms at night to attract moths? After a while I really can’t stand it anymore and I leave the tent to have a look around. There’s no plant, there’s no fruit, so I knock on the door of the staff-cabin across. Their TV is still on, so I assume someone is awake. In my best Spanish:
‘Quel odeur, a qui?’ (I don’t know what I’ve just said). But German understands me and tells me that it’s an animal. Ah, then it will probably be a skunk... The smell lasts all night, but after a while it gets bearable, and we fall asleep eventually.

Thursday the 30th of December

Ajuitas is on our program for today! This hike is easy to do without a guide; just follow the path to the north, along the beach. Doesn’t seem so hard, but at one time we take the wrong path by staying to close to the beach. It’s a beautiful walk. I see my first hanging-bridge and I have to cross it!! At this side of the bay are even more tourist-parks. We want to be back before lunch (remember: gréat lunches!!) so we just walk to the supermarket to buy some water and cigarettes for one of our fellow-guests who is taking a dolphin-tour today.
And we have the afternoon off again. I install myself in the harmony-room with my camera: I want to take pictures of hummingbirds. But the bright blue-ones are hard to find between all the green and purple of the bush. Then there’s a red one coming. I take pictures of it ant they are quite nice!
After diner we say goodbye to the Coffey family. They leave early the next morning. That’s a shame because they are the nicest people we’ve met so far. But maybe there’ll be more fun guests later! We go to bed early (8pm) because we have to leave early tomorrow!

Friday the 31st of December (NewYearsEve)

At 6.30 our boat leaves for Corcovado National Park. There’s a lot of people coming so our group is divided in two. Roy is going to be our guide. The other guide Manuel has got a telescope with him, to see the animals closer. And it is possible to take digital photo’s through it! We see a baby-porcupine in a tree, we see a group of spider-monkeys high above us and at that point our batteries die. We put the camera away and enjoy the surroundings. Most of the time the batteries reload themselves for a little bit after a while, and I’m hoping to see the sloth that lives somewhere around here. I want to take pictures!
And as I hoped: when the sloth’s there, our camera works again. And also the next waterfall can be photographed. It’s beautiful. We have a lot of fun with Andrew and Laura from London. They are super-funny.
That night there’s a NewYears-Party. I go to sleep first, to be woken at 23.00. It’s so special to celebrate new year in our summer clothes on the beach. There’s so much amazing fireworks! Real professional stuff; that’s rare in Holland.

Saturday the first of January 2005

The first day of the new year starts great: we’re going see some dolphins! Finally we can see Simone in her work-environment. We’re going with a lot of people so there are two boats, who talk through radio-contact.

I don’t want to be stung again by the baby-jellyfish so I wear a long sleeve shirt and long legged pants all day. Also in the water.
We sail a long way from the shore, even past Caño Island. And there we see a small group of roughtooth dolphins. They’re shaped a little different than the average dolphin: their head is more pointy than the bump-head the most dolphins have. They’re kind of rare in the rest of the world, but not in this bay.
These dolphins aren’t really in the mood to play, so we bob for a while and still I get nauseous. I’ve taken every precaution there is: medication, special wrist-bands, earplug in my left ear... it just doesn’t work. But then the boat starts going again, and it all gets better.
We go along and through radio-contact we hear about a group of nearly 200 bottle-nose dolphins! These are the flipper-dolphins. We go over there and éverywhere you look, there’s fins sticking out of the water! We try to take pictures of the jumping dolphins but because of the half-second-delay in our camera, we miss it every time.
Timo is on top of the boat now, to make better pictures. It’s all so incredible! When the boat stops, the dolphins form a circle of 10 to 20 metres around the boat. We can go into the water! The advice is to slowly descend into the water, without splashing. And humming or singing might attract the dolphins because of their curiosity.
When I get into the water, I see one dolphin swimming right under me. Very deep, very far away. That’s the only one I see under water. If you look at the surface, you can see fins forming a bigger circle; nearly 100 metres away.
The sound the dolphins make is incredible. It sounds like a twitter-song that keeps getting new melodies. Above the water, the sound might be just as special: everybody is making noises through their snorkel. High singing, clicking-noises, humming; it all sounds great!
This is a very special day.
I kept my clothes on all day, and that’s the only reason I haven’t been burnt alive by the sun! Nearly everyone returns quite red, I’ve only burnt my wrists, where the shirt didn’t cover the skin...

Sunday the 2nd of January

Simone has visa for Costa Rica that expire every three months. That is when it has to be renewed by leaving the country for 72 hours. Easiest is to leave for Panama, which is closest, and we can travel with her this time!
Early in the morning we take the boat to Sierpe. The river that goes here is long, wide and turns a lot. That’s why the captain decides to take a shortcut and go through the mangroves. WOW this is great!
In Sierpe we take a taxi to Palmar Norte, and there we take the bus to the Panamese border. It’s somewhat more than an hour to get to the Costa Rican customs. We make sure to leave the country at noon, and remember to be here again at the same time at the 4th.
We cross another time-zone. It’s an hour late in Panama.
We take a bus -that stops éverywhere- to the city David. Simone knows a hotel with reasonable prices and airconditioning. We’ll need that; there’s no fresh see-breeze over here, and we notice the heat a lot better. The hotel is nice and close to shops, there’s a bank nearby, a restaurant just next to it, and an internetcafé.
Simone and I go shopping (the shops are open at sunday) and Timo enjoys 3 hours of internet for only $ 1.
That evening we have diner in the restaurant next to the hotel and we chat a long time.
I realise that an air-bed is not that bad after all: I have to fight for my own sheets over here, but I have my own sleeping bag in Delfin Amor.

Monday the 3rd of January

First we go to the bank and exchange our traveller cheques to Dollars. Then Simone has a question for a doctor, so we find a clinic where the doctors speak English.
That afternoon Simone and I go shopping again (clothes are só cheap here, compared to Holland!) and Timo goes back to the internet café.

Tuesday the 4th of January

David is a nice city, but there’s more to explore in Panama. We’re leaving for the (nearest) volcano! The area around the volcano is National Park, so the journey alone will probably be worth it. The bus takes us to Volcan; a little town with a mega-supermarket. We walk into the office of the local guide, and he informs us about trips to the volcano and the national park around it. These are all day-trips, and we only got a few hours!
This is not what we came for, we want to go higher up the mountain! The highest town (according to our map) is Cerro Punta. That’s where we’re going. Along the way we see beautiful nature; first tropical, than subtropical, than green hills with grey rocks, finally almost European green trees! The volcano is wrapped in damp. Just like everything around actually. These are the real cloud-forests, and this is a cloud-village!
We rent a little house, near a pretty rough river. It’s chilly if you’re up this high, and we haven’t really got any thick clothing with us. We cook our own diner and go to sleep late.

Wednesday the 5th of January

This morning we wake early. Juice is frozen in the fridge, so we melt it near our toast. The shower is hot-cold-hot-cold and I can’t wait to be back in Delfin Amor, where everything is just right. We take an early bus to the border, but forgot the time-difference we’re much to early. Oh well, we just might do some more shopping (grin). Then some new stamps in our passport and into our bus that leaves for home.
The boat ride to Sierpe has been extremely quiet. The ride back isn’t. At the point where the river meets the ocean there can be extremely high waves when the tide is high or low. And that is the case. The waves are hugh! Well, the captain has certain ways to beat the waves with his little boat. He sails in sort of an 8-shape, to go ‘around’ the waves. Great! Happy to be unharmed at Delfin Amors beach.

Thursday the 6th of January.

Today it’s hot. Too hot is my opinion. Taking a cold shower helps to wake up and cool down. In the morning Timo and I climb around on the rocks at the beach. Large crabs live here. We get back around lunchtime. After another shower I am less warm for a couple of hours. I go hang around in the harmony room, take a swim in the ocean, sleep for a couple of hours, take a shower, go to diner, waist my day in a lovely way.

Friday the 7th of January

Warm again. Timo is taking a dolphin tour. I decided not to go. That’s a shame because it was so cool the other day. But I remember how awful I felt at sea; I keep telling myself that seeing the dolphins one time is really quite enough. And who knows how rough the waves might be today? That’s why I wave Simone and Timo (and the rest of the guests) goodbye and walk to the beach to do nothing. This is such a great vacation!
Around 3 in the afternoon the dolphin tour returns. Timo says little about the tour; it was fun, but he missed me. I’m happy with this story; it was a good choice not to go. During diner I hear a complete different version: they have seen nearly 700 dolphins! Mostly mothers with little babies and they were very playful and happy. And the sea was very calm. And the dolphins were everywhere, jumping out of the water so high! Suddenly (while being very jealous) I realise that Timo has tried to spare me, by giving me a boring report of this day. How sweet!
The evenings are longer for us; we stay awake a little while after diner. It’s really nice to see people who didn’t know each other before (and even live on another continent) share the same humour and anticipate in a lot of ways.

Saturday the 8th of January

Simone has the day off and it is our last day here! First she sleeps late, but then we can hang out together. I take my place in the harmony room and have fun doing nothing. Never knew that I could have so much fun and spend so much time doing nothing!
In the afternoon we walk to a couple of beaches along the shore. The waves are very high here, and it is so beautiful! But I don’t like the big waves that much and after I get slapped down real hard, I rather stay on the beach. Simone and Timo are having fun: over the wave, under the wave, over the wave.... nice.
Diner is lovely, and Simone and I are all dressed up for tonight! This is our last diner in Delfin Amor, so it has to be a little special.
We linger at the table after dinner and say goodbye to the guests who go to bed. Talking a little melancholic until I almost fall asleep sitting upright.
We put our alarmclock at somewhat before 6 and go to sleep. Our last night in a tent on an airbed!

Sunday the 9th of January

Our boat leaves at 8.30. Everything has to be packed by then. We leave the tent to Simone; it’s my sisters old tent and she doesn’t want it back. That takes a little weight out of our suitcases! After breakfast Simone’s dolphintour goes just a little earlier than ours.
Saying goodbye sucks. Who knows how long it might take before we see each other again? We pay the cheque and Eduardo takes us to the boat. This is where our vacation in Delfin Amor ends. The boatride back is just as magnificent but less new. The orange cross-country truck is ready again, and we know how rough the ride is going to be. The little air plain takes off and I remember how nauseous I get in little air plains.

Bye Costa Rica!!
Bye Simone!!!
See you soon.....