We woke up leisurely on our last day with no plans. It was quite lovely. Had breakfast and yucked around with the restaurant staff for a while as usual. Wherever we have stayed, meeting the folks that work at each place has been the highlight. We practice our Spanish, they teach us slang, they love playing with Lucas, we swap stories about our lives. I can't get enough of it. As the morning unfolded, we decided to hike to a beach that everyone raves about called San Josesito. We were told it would take about 1 1/2 hours to which Lucas promptly responded, "I can totally do that. I hiked for 5 hours yesterday. I could probably hike for 6 hours. Or even 8." We arranged for a boat to pick us up at the beach at 3:30pm knowing that we (Lucas) would never make the round trip walking and off we went.
The trail hugs the coast as it winds through the jungle. As I've mentioned before, it's just one beautiful beach after another. Seriously, it's a jungle paradise.
Lucas made fun along the way - over little bridges, finding vines and pretending they are telephones to call imaginary friends to meet us at the beach and the best find of all - a sprouting coconut that he (or at times, Matt) carried the whole way! And I say the "whole way" because what might be a 1 1/2 hour hike for most, was 2 hours and 40 minutes for us in the hot, hot, sweaty mid-day!
I am still figuring out the communities in this area. It is a vast, dense jungle and yet as we hike along we come across settlements - a soccer field, a tent camp hotel, private houses. I especially love this sign that says to get info on tours in the area, find Cristian in the pink house!
About 15 minutes before getting to San Josesito, we came to the Rio Claro. At low tide, you can cross the river at the beach by wading up to your knees to get across. The cool water feels devine. At high tide, you need to pay this guy $2 for a canoe ride across the river. He also overs boat rides up the river to a beautiful water fall and swimming hole and then you just simply float back down the river when you're done. We wish we had had time to do this. Instead, we took off our sneakers and crossed at low tide.
Along the way we saw a pair of Scarlett Macaws and the ever-present and never-ceasing-to-be-amazing ficus trees with their huge buttress roots. It's hard to believe these trees are the very same ones growing in pots in my house!
We reached our destination with a little over an hour left to swim and play. The sand was so hot, we just frolicked in the water and had a snack in the shade of a fig tree. Captain Hans picked us up, yet another beautiful soul with a true love for life. So fun to chat with him, learn a bit of his story, laugh, speak Spanish and hear him say, as they all do, "LuCAAAAS!"
Not sure how little Lukey Lou mustered the energy, but he came with me on a 1 1/2 hour night hike 2 hours after we got home. We romped around in the jungle near the hotel with our guide, Jose, looking for critters. We had on rubber boots so we could walk the stream and to protect us from snakes...an ever-present risk here. We saw: 3 kinds of frogs - one no bigger than a dime and another called a pepper frog or a chicken eater frog that was the size of a cantaloupe; 5 different kinds of spiders from the smallest I've ever seen to wolf spiders to something that is an arachnid but not technically a spider that looks like something dreamed up for an Aliens movie; a leaf cutter ant nest the size of my living room (a quick aside...these ants have been one of the coolest critters we have encountered here. If you don't know what they are, look them up. They are incredible.); tiny scorpion; cockroaches (of course); an a bird (can't remember it's actual name) but is referred to as a nectar stealer because it sucks nectar from flowers but doesn't go in like a bee or butterfly but rather pokes a hold in the side of the flower therefore able to steal the nectar without aiding in pollination. It was fun.
It was with mixed feelings that we loaded up our suitcases into the boat the following morning. We were all three of us captivated by the beauty, wildness and remoteness of the Osa. We also felt a mutual fondness with the folks at the hotel. It's wonderful to keep making connections with folks and then also hard to leave just as it's getting comfortable and able to go to a deeper level. Costa Rica has captured my heart. This is a place I already know that I will come back to again and again.
Off to the mountains...
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