3rd e-mail
Hi everyone, thanks for all the wonderful emails and good vibes. I will start my narrative from where I left off, one week ago in Puntarenas. From there I returned to the Tarcol Lodge in Tarcoles for the next 4 days. During this time, I followed pretty much the same routine as my first stint here. On wednesday I went to nearby Carara National Park. One of the prime birding areas in CR. I took a taxi there and arrived at 5:45am at the North entrance. I birded here for 5.5 hours and saw tons of great birds. Stupidly I forgot my water bottle at my cabina, so I was without water for the whole morning. I then taxied to the main entrance, where thankfully they had some water, and birded for a few more hours. Due to the fact that it was mid-day I didnt see as many birds her but did see a few troupes of leafcutter ants, which was pretty neat, as well as a couple white faced capuchin monkeys. The downside of the day was thatit cost me $30, not including my cabin($6). On thursday morning I walked up the beach to the mouth of Rio Tarcoles. Parts of the estuary are filled with trash, one area wasperhaps 2 acres of solid garbage. Rather sad. By the time I was walking back it was very hot so I took off my shoes and walked in the surf til I reached the path to the road. By friday morning I was again running out of money and I had the choice of taking the mangrove tour offered at the lodge or going to Carara again. I ended up taking the tour($20), which really was a foolish decision as I would have seen way more birds at Carara. The tour was neat though, we saw lots of crocodiles, including one baby swimming alongside the boat, Iguanas, and of course birds. On Staurday I caught a ride most the way to Puntarenas with one of the taxi drivers, Oscar, who was going to nearby Palmares. As we pulled into the junction where we would part ways a well timed bus drove by and Oscar hailed it for me and easy as you please I was in Puntarenas with no money in my pocket. SO I went ot the bank and got out $200. From Puntarenas I was going to Liberia, a few hours north and from there Rincon de la Vieja National Park. After te bank I returned to the bus station and found out that there was a Bus to Liberia in 30 mins. As it was only mid-day I took it and at around 3:30 I was in Liberia. At my hotel I found out that they offfered transport to Rincon at 7am for $40 for 1 person, $20 for two or more and that there was no where near the park to get food. As there were no supermarkets open before 7am(obviously) and the expensiveness of transportation I decided to not go to Rincon but to Santa Rosa NP on the north coast instead. So on sunday, I bought some food and caught a 11:00 bus that dropped me off at the entrance to the park. Here I payed my fee($6 for entrance plus $4 for two nights camping) and waited to catch a ride into the park. Once at the campground, a large semi-park-like area with ancient fig trees (looked a bit like a tropical version of lakeside park) I set up camp and set about exploring. This area is not rainforest but dry tropical forest of which only 2% of the original forest in Central america remains. On monday morning my first challenge was finding a clean toilet, the first one...had a frog in it, a quite large one at that. The next few were disgustingly dirty, CR may have a lot of parks, but sometimes they are not very well maintained. After breakfast, dry granola with banana, I walked 4km down the road to a trail called, for some reason, Sendero Los Platos (duck trail), maybe it was because of overhanging branches and vines and the epiphytic cacti that grow on some of the trees. There certainly wasnt any resmbling a duck here. The last part of the trail follows the rigde of a large forested canyon. On the other side there were numerous trees covered in purple flowers. Very scenic. i spent the rest of the day lounging about and walking a couple more of the trail. This morning I birded for a few hours, the packed up and caught a ride out of the poark with a ranger. I rode in the back of his pickup, a rather bumpy ride. From the entrance to the park I caught a bus to Liberia where I transfered to Canas, 1.5 hrs south. On the bus I met a couple of ameriacans who were also getting osfff in canas. As we both had the intent of catching a bus to Tilaran in the foothills near Lkae Arenal, we strategized together as to how to get a bus there. After walking to the wrong bus stop I looked in my guidebook which conveniently had a map of the town. We found the bus teminal on the map and we contemplated whether or not to get a taxi there, only a few blocks, but we all had large bags, aand they didnt feel like walking with there. Fortunately a taxi showed up and one of the americans asked it how much it would cost to go to Tilaran, only $14, split 3 ways, you got a deal. Rightnow I am in Tilaran and