Costa Rica seems to be the destination that just keeps on giving. We went for our early morning pre-hike walk this morning and headed towards Playa Grande (north of Playa Negro). When we were walking on the beach we saw a big cat print. Our guide today suggested the only cat big enough to make it was a Jaguar which if it is this is probably as close as i want to get to one. The prints were quite fresh. I should have got a complete set to show someone.
We thought this was a sloth – it wasn’t
Our hike today was booked through this little cabana on the beach. The guy i booked it with would turn out to be named Jordy. He was our guide today and he spoke only a little English (still more than my Spanish). So after a bit of miming and paying the other half of the tour (USD $30 yesterday and $30 today) we headed off in someones Hyundai Getz for the Cahuita National Park.
We were a little dubious about the quality of the guide and tour, however once we were in the national park and saw our first sloth (literally 5m in the park), Jordy became really excited and animated and Stu and i had the best time. What was supposed to be a 2.5 hour tour went for almost 4. In all we spotted 15 adult sloths, 5 of which had babies. We also saw some amazing lizards, a hawk/eagle and finally a side of the Caribbean that looked like the Caribbean. Stu and I even got to swim in the safe beach on the way back to town.
This is what i thought the Caribbean would look like.
Can you spot the lizard
The sloth below is about 11 months old. A ranger came past and told us that last week it had been with it’s mum and she had left it to fend for itself (they stay with mum for about a year) and that she would have been one of the sloths we saw near Punta Cahuita.
There was an exploratory oil well drilled in 1910 which is still there. There be oil!
This sloth was the one we spotted yesterday only more active today.
So many more photos – too many to post.
davstuholidays 