7th e-mail
Hello everybody,Hmmm...Im trying to remember when I sent my last email. I think I remember, if not than I may miss a day in this report. Oh well. My last day in Guapiles I went to Las Cusingas which is a private reserve. I took a taxi early in the morning to the turn off and walked the 4 km to the reserve. I couldnt find it on the way there but the road ended so I retraced my steps and was directed to it by a local(it turned out that there was no sign. I saw lots of birds along the road but by the time i got to the reserve it was 10:30 and it was very quiet, pretty though. The following morning I took the Bus to Puerto Limon then down the Carribean coast to Cahuita, a small town that atracts a lot of tourists. Here I spent Christmas eve. At the local store I found some organic Carob cookies! Most cookies and sweets are of very poor quality ie. white flour, white sugar, but these were the real deal and I ate a whole bag in one night and the folowing morning while walking ion Cahuita NP. The walk in the park didnt live up to its conotations; it was very wet and on my first attempt at exploring I had to turn back as it was raining too much. A fine way to start Christmas morning. About an hour after I got back to my room the rain turned to a light drizzle and I went out again. THis time I was able to walk for a couple hours before it set into a heavy rain again. The walk back wasnt particularly pleasant. There were a few birds about which made up for the precipitation. In the early afternoon I caught the bus to Manzanillo, further south, via Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. In Manzanillo I called mi familia which turned out to be a real feat. I had bought a phone card in Guapiles but it didnt have a access number so I couldnt even call the help and information number written on the card. I felt a bit ripped off. So I bought a couple 1000colones cards($2 a piece) and tried again. THe line was very fickle and it would suddenly go "busy" on 5 out of six attempts at calling. I finally got through and it turned out that each card was only 10 mins. So I talked to my mom and sister then went and bought 3 more cards and called again. I got to talk to all my immediate family but didnt get to wish the others mewrry Christmas(sory Bong, Grandad, Tom) and I got cut off in the middle of talking to my sister willo. Sorry family for talking about you all in 3rd person, for the benifit of the other peoples on my email list. The next morning I walked and birded the Gandoca Manzanillo NP. Here I saw lots of birds and lots of poison arrow frogs as well. Most of them were all red, i think they are called Strawberyy P.-A. frogs. I also saw one that was black with yellow markings. Very cool. As I was walking along the trail I felt something move underneath my foot. I looked down and nearly skipped a diastole(or is it an astole). It was a five foot black snake, at least an inch thick! I spent the next half hour loking at the ground and walking very gingerly. The next morning I caught the bus to Limon. I arrived at around 1. From there I wanted to take the bus to Paraiso and then to Orosi. There are two roads from limon to San Jose. One goes south via Turrialba and Paraiso, the other through Gaupiles and Braulio Carillo NP. Unfortunately the busses only go the northern route, through Guapiles. So I had to take hte bus to San Jose, then to Cartago, then to Orosi(via Paraiso). Fortunately all the buses coincide nicely. When I arrived in San Jose I quickly caught a taxi to the corect station adn the bus left right after I boarded. It was the same in Cartago. I disembarked the bus, walked tro the correct bus stationa nd again the bus left as soon as I got on. I arrived in Orosi at around 5:30 and went to the hostel where I got a bunk in a dorm for $6. The next moring I tried hitching to Tapanti NP, my reason for vcoming to this area. After waiting 20 mins I got a ride half way with a friendly local. From htere a pirate taxi ($4) drove me to Tapanti. The man at the hostel had told me that it is possible to stay at the ranger station at the entrance to the park but that Id need to bring my own food. SO I mhad bought provisions for a couple days. HOwever, at the ranger station the ranger told me that it isnt possible to stay the nihgt there(I think you need to have a reservation, then you can) but that there was a place down hte raod called "Finca Los Maestros" that had cheap rooms. I left my big pack and my fod at the ranger station and birded the park for a few hours. htere were lots of birds, despite the rain. Fun fact: Tapanti recieves the most rain of anywhere in CR, up to 7 metres a year! I then went to Finca Los Maestros but there was no one home. I waited 3 hours, fortunately there were a few birds here including a Collared Trogon, a high elevation bird I had been hoping to dsee here. Nobody showed up so i walked down the road to the Kiri Lodge, where I got a room for $25, the most I have spent on a room here in CR. Que malo. Along the road I found a Blue wined warbler, a north american species that is quite rare ijn CR. The next morning ibirded fora bit around the lodge before the restaurant opened at 7:00. I had breakfast then went to tapanti, which is about 1 km from the lodge. I saw 68 species this day, my second best day here. needless to say, I was fairly pleased,not the leas because I saw two species that are quite tough to find; Sharpbill, which is very difficult to find, and Blue-hoodeed Euphonia, a bird that is decreasing due to poachers capturing them adn selling them as caged birds. They are very good looking birds. After five hours in the park I returned to the Finca, this time the owners were home( a very nice woman named Mireja and her husband(I think) who i never met. I retrieved my stuff and set up camp at hte finca before returning to the park for a couple hours. I ate a very good dinner of rice, noodles with meat and a gravy of sorts and a fish filet, that was rather salty, but good nonethe less. This morning I set off walking at 6:00 and birded til 1:30, a solid 7.5 hours! I saw lots more birds including long-tailed Silky flycatcher and Sooty-faced Finch, which was my 300 "lifer"(new species) in CR. I have now seen about 340 species in total. After a very good lunch I bade Mireja and Finca Los Maestros goodby and hitched to Orosi where I am now, at the same hostel. While waiting for a ride i< realized that I had forgotten to return the key to my room to Mireja so I ran back p the road to do so. The funny thing is that I also forgot to return the key of the hostelwhen I stayed there a few nighjts ago. Oh well, both keys are now safe and warm at home. And thas my life this past wek, please, email me and tell me about your lives too.Mink and Dad, I hope youlike your new hairstyles! Mink, it makes you look older! Haha.Willo, email me whenever you find someplace or some thing you want to do here in CR or in Panama, Id like to know we have some soprt of plan before you get here. I know what I want to do here (you can probably guess) but Id like to know , if you find any thing in particular that you want o do here. Formulate a plan and Im sure Id be happy to go along with it. To everybody else, happy living, lying and leaping. I hope I didnt forget anything important. Gump