We all slept wonderfully to the orchestrated sounds of the jungle (cicadas and “mysterious pling-pling creatures”) and woke up to beautiful blue skies, the pounding of the surf and the distant hoots of the howler monkeys. It was funny to lie in bed and listen to the alpha male give his distinctive roars. For such a non-threatening monkey, he has a very scary sound (think King Kong).
After a quick hike to the lodge for a wonderful breakfast we decided to take the beach, waterfall, and tide pool hike. Immediately after leaving our cabin and heading toward the beach we came upon an anteater busy smacking around a log with his hind-quarters facing us. Less than 10 feet away he didn’t seem bothered by us at all. He was quite cute and had a graceful, economical way of moving despite his odd appearance. We watched him continue to nose around and then scamper around some trees.
Our next spotting was a Turkey-like bird (oops! Forgot to look that one up). The trail down to the beach was steep with slick red clay-like mud overlaid by big jungle leaves – in other words, very slippery. A few sharp rocks were thrown in for good measure. However, we all made it down the hill intact and the trail opened suddenly onto a vast sand beach. It was spectacular and we were completely alone as far as we could see in either direction.
We were greeted by a coati nosing around at the juncture between the sand and the jungle. Well, not so much “greeted” as “ignored by”. A bit further we spotted a second coati nosing around. Another hundred yards was the lagoon which marked the turn-off for the creek/waterfall hike. We hiked in and up the creek (the creek “was” the trail) and just a few minutes in we spotted several peccaries (wild pigs) crossing the stream ahead of us. The have a reputation for being very fast and shy, so we consider ourselves lucky to have spotted them (Natalie gets credit for pointing them out – she was often the first to spot animals, with those bright eyes of hers).
The creek trail up the waterfalls was not challenging and we all enjoyed the cool water on our feet. Access to the waterfall involved a short scamper up some rocks and then voila, a small knee deep pond with a 70 ft waterfall! Surprisingly, the water felt very cold but we all forced ourselves to stand in it for the photo op. But it was still an incredible feeling to get pounded by a natural waterfall.
We made our way back down the creek trail to the beach where we were shocked and a bit disappointed to find two other people on the beach! We decided to hang back a bit and let them get a nice distance ahead of us and then we pretended we were all alone again. We then headed down to the tide pools, which the lodge staff had referred to as nature’s hot tubs. They weren’t kidding. These tide pools were huge and the water warm, warmed by the sun. We took a soak in a few of them and it was delightful. It was getting time for lunch so we headed back up the beach and back up the breathtaking (literally) hike to the lodge restaurant. The fifteen minute hike down translates to a 3thrty miute hike back up! Lunch was a potato quiche-like pancake accompanied by a fresh salad. Every meal, lunch and dinner at El Remanso was unique, interesting and delicious.
We then decided we would take a short hike around the lodge property to check out some different waterfalls. This short hike turned out to take us over two hours due to a wrong turn. The hike was beautiful and somewhat strenuous – it was either going up or down on slick leaf-covered ground. We did get to two beautiful waterfalls (both short) and got to hike for awhile in the cool creeks, always a welcome relief for hot feet. At one waterfall, Natalie and I were posing for a picture we both spied a white-faced capuchin monkey in the trees behind Chris – he snapped a shot of us in an open-mouthed excitement over the monkey. We watched these two flit around and fade into the jungle before heading off to find the second waterfall. Walking up through the stream a short ways we found it. Much smaller than the rest but still refreshing to see and soak in. At this point we decided to take a more adventurous route back to the lodge, but after 10 minutes it felt like the trail was not leading us in the right direction. Instead of continuing farther and farther into the unknown we made the decision to turn around and backtrack our way home. Twenty yards from the trailhead we encountered two more (possible the same as before) white-faced capuchin monkeys. This time they were much less pleased to see us. In fact they were quite perturbed. One of them came to within 15 feet of us flashing his fierce teeth and shrieking. This was definitely too close for comfort, especially since none of us was completely sure that this beast was not going to bite one of us. Finally we made a dash for the road, shrieking monkey chasing us overhead. While we were looking back at the little demon, Gerardo, the resort guide, came up to help us out. He explained that the capuchins, aside from being territorial, interpret the showing of teeth a sign of aggression, and they match that aggression with aggression of their own (lesson being: don’t smile at monkeys!).
Because two grueling hikes in one day didn’t seem to be enough we arranged for a night hike before dinner (in Costa Rica, sunset is early and dinner is late). Gerardo decided to take us down to the beach in hopes of spotting a sea turtle. So back down the hill we headed, but this time in complete darkness. This hike as short on wildlife. Neither the sloth, nor the sea turtles, nor the jaguarondi decided to show themselves. We did see several types of frog, a huge crab and heard many (many!) stories about poisonous snakes. Natalie never tired of hearing them, and Gerardo seemed to have an endless supply. This was after we were warned to watch every step we took, because we were more likely to step on a poisonous snakes in the evening. It was a fascinating thing to be in the middle of the remotest of rainforests illuminated only by our flashlights, hiking in our tevas, expecting to get bitten by a pit viper or a super poisonous fleur du lance at any moment. This was no Club Med vacation! Somehow we survived the deadly critters and the arduous hike back up the hill. Dinner was waiting and it was an amazing roasted chicken dish. After dinner there was one thing to do. And that was sleep. And sleep we did.
See More Photos of this day’s adventures!
The Next Day: Costa Rica: Exploring the Osa Rainforest – Part 2
The Whole Trip: Costa Rica: The Summary