Osa Peninsula

We arrived at Rolf & Juana's yesterday after 6 pm. They have wireless! I'm posting some pix from the Osa Peninsula area. The first is of me next to one of the stone spheres in the area. Check out this link for info on these mysterious pre-Columbian objects. I had thought I had taken a shot of the 2 meter ones we saw, but must not have. (Two meters is about a half foot taller than me.) The shot was done in the park in Sierpe while waiting for our boat to take us downriver to Punta Marenco south of Drake Bay.

The next shot is our approach to the landing area for Punta Marenco Lodge. Boats pull into the opening to the beach between the rocks. Returning from our trip to Corcovado Nat'l Park the next day, we had an interesting landing there--we almost capsized when a huge wave nearly caught us broadside. Fortunately el capitan brought the bow and gunned the throttle into the wave at the last split second so it didn't get us totally broadside. It is a very tricky place to land. Actually every place we landed on those Pacific beaches afforded an adrenaline rush. I'm not going into to details re the time over there. I'm sure Shar will say more.

We hiked down along the beach to Rio Claro on the first afternoon. The right (south) side of the river in the photo is all primary forest, which BTW is owned by Mel Gibson. Oscar, our guide whom had met us at the airport upon arriving in San Jose (and did not speak English), told us it was safe to swim in the river. I asked if him if there were crocodiles there (Hay cocodrillos aqui?). He answered that there were only caimans. We swam a little. Shar swam farther up the river than I did. When we got back to the lodge that evening the hostess told us about the 4 meter (about 13 ft.) crocodile there in the river.

We went to Corcovado the next day with a different guide, Everesto (born and raised in Drake Bay), and a delightful young Dutch couple who were staying at the lodge with us. The new (for us) species we saw were: a species of rocket frog, 3 great curassows, an anteater, a scarlet macaw, two king vultures, and two (very dangerous!) fer de lance snakes. One is shown here.

The next day we went to Cano Island which was about a one hour, 13 mile (rough) ride in a 22 ft. fiber glass boat with a 175 horse four stroke Suzuki. We were accompanied by Everesto, the Dutch couple, a young Swedish couple who arrived the day before, el capitan (who looked all of 16 years old) el capitan's girlfriend (15?), a woman (girlfriend's mom?) and a crew person. We snorkeled off the island--a lot of wonderful fish but not good conditions. After a picnic lunch on the beach, Shar & I chose to hike up into the interior of the island to view archaeological artifacts, while the rest of our party went back out for snorkeling. We saw more snakes, iguanas etc. but there are no mammals on the island. The forest was much quieter than on the mainland. After 45 minutes of walking alone on a trail through the forest we came upon two piles of artifacts about 10 meters apart. Each had a stone sphere about 18 inches in diameter, along with various metates (grinding stones), stone tools, pottery shards and other broken objects. Everesto had told us that he used to see a lot more artifacts there, but people walk off with them. The island is believed to have been a ceremonial site, and a trading center for the Diquis indigenous people. Everesto said people from as far as the Inca empire and from Mexico used to come there to trade. Tombs have been found on the island, but they have been plundered by folks looking for gold.

We left the following morning in a sluicing downpour. The trip across the bar at the mouth of the Rio Sierpe was exciting. We had the same young capitan as the day before. Shar was not impressed. ("Teen-aged boys don't think their gonna' die!") After we got through the breakers and into the calmer waters of the river he called out, "No problem, everything good!" I said to the Dutch couple who were positioned on either side of me (they always made me sit forward to weigh down the bow, and made Shar sit aft), "Yeah he's sayin' that now because a minute ago he wasn't so sure!"

We caught a single-engined Cessna in Palmer Sur to San Jose, and a bus to Puerto Viejo. There've been some changes here at Cabinas Tropical. Last night we heard my friends Junior, Rani, & Lenny play. It was great! Junior was playing the banjo I left him 2 years ago. He's strung & tuned it differently. They were totally acoustic--sounded fine!