Now, that was FUN!

(Thursday-Saturday, 30 April – 2 May 2009)

I could keep doing hikes like this one over and over again. And would never get enough of it.

It was in the National Park of Corcovado, in Peninsula Osa, south pacific coast of Costa Rica. One of the most biologically diverse corners of the planet, apparently. Just beautiful. Just brilliant. (Mike, acting on your feedback here goes the Google map link: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=pt-PT&geocode=&q=corcovado+costa+rica&sll=8.55,-83.583333&sspn=0.010482,0.013733&ie=UTF8&ll=8.533491,-83.516693&spn=0.31915,0.700378&t=p&z=11)

It was supposed to be a 2 days hike, but furious tropical rain made it 3 days long. But first things first. You start in Puerto Jiménez (Punto Jiménez in the Google map) and you take a 2h pick-up ride in a very bumpy road by the coast to Carate, a very very small place, somewhere between Agua Buena and Madrigal in the Google map. Then it’s a 4km walk to the entry of the park in La Leona, and then 16km to Sirena, where you camp for the night (for these last locations it's better to see the map below instead).

These 20km are made walking on either the beach or a beautiful jungle trail just by it. The scenery is beautiful, and wild life passes by really close. I don’t know, it’s just magical. And I think the cloudy weather helped it too... I know one thing: if I’m told I’m about to leave this world and I’m aloud to see two landscapes one more time, Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one, and this is the other. I liked it that much.

I thought it would take just about 4 hours or so, but walking on the sand means you walk slow – and you want to go slow, to appreciate the view and try to spot the animals. Left Carate at 8am, and only arrived Sirena after 3pm…

Enough time for relax, shower and camping before night falls…

The next day I leave early, as the walk to La Palma (the first main village outside the park, already by the northeast shore of the peninsula – close to Pto. Escondido, in the Google map) is supposed to take the all day. And from there, I still need to take a bus back to Puerto Jiménez, where I’ve my big backpack…

I’m walking alone, and pass by two groups who are coming into the park, in the opposite direction, and an Irish couple, doing the same route as I am. We’d meet later on…

The walk is beautiful, deep into the jungle. After 15km of mostly flat trail, the last 5km before the Ranger station of Los Patos is uphill. And then it starts raining – the thunders had started hours ago and finally it starts pouring, after such a long threat. I smile. It’s somehow fun, and I’m happy I can use some of my rain gear. I brought it for that after all. I make a last video with my camera, under the rain. I’m still smiling.

I wouldn’t later on when I find out the camera got wet in that moment and lost some of the functions, including video recording. It would get even worse the next day when I drop it in the river and stops working all together. So much work protecting it with special rain bags, and then I drop it!! But no harm done: after less than 24h and some careful cleaning and drying in the hotel it’s back to its old new. Working at 100%. (here goes a very good customer review for Sony…)

But so, the rain keeps growing heavier and heavier. It doesn’t stop. It only gets worse. And so does the trail, which is now really muddy, with the rainwater coming downhill where the trail used to be. It’s really slippery. And you need to walk much slower because of that, but you still fall a couple of times.

Finally I get to the Ranger Station of Los Patos, soaked to the bones. Literally.

The station is abandoned. It looks like the scenary of an horror movie. No water running, most of the wooden building is empty, with some of the doors and windows missing or just wide open. A few random objects left behind, like old maps or batteries. Big (and I mean, really big) spiders have taken ownership of the place.

It keeps raining, as heavily as before. No point in waiting, so I decide to move ahead. It’s 1pm already, and I still have 13km ahead of me until La Palma – don’t want to be walking at night, right? Especially with this rain…

I walk the first 200 or 300 meters. Bad news. First, I was expecting a road, not another very small and sinuous trail – at least that’s what the map said. Second, the trail opens up in two, and there is no sign of which way to go. I try the right one, and it does indeed look like a trail. Steep, muddy, with a lot of water coming downhill, but a trail. I come back to check the second option, hoping it finishes a few meters ahead so that I can go safely through the first one, without second thoughts of whether I’m in the right track or not. But it doesn’t end. It looks as good as the first option, so I’ve no clue where to go.

I decide to go back to the ranger station and look for a more detailed map. There isn’t one. But I find the Irish couple I had overcome an hour ago or so. We’re all equally clueless, but decide to go together. If you want to get lost, better to be in a group, right? ;-)

And there we go, the 3 of us. With large black plastics over us that we found in the ranger station and used to make yet another layer of rain protection.

At the junction, we chose the trail to the right. Randomly and democratically. After quite some time walking, we see another trail joining ours. It looks like the other option we didn’t chose eventually got to the same point, so we’re relieved.

Not for long. We see a sign saying to keep ahead to Los Patos. We’re puzzled – hadn't we just left Los Patos?! Are we walking in circles? Is there a village called “Los Patos”, in addition to the ranger station? The Irish couple thinks there is, I’m quite sure there isn’t. But we don’t have a better option than keep walking ahead. If it is to go back to the same place, it’s the same thing, right?

We get to a river crossing. And then another. But these are not the river crossings I had seen yesterday and today, where the water was clear, the flow slow, and the depth only to your knees. Here the river is dark brown, as the rain is washing all the dirt downhill. The flow seems strong. It’s not clear how deep it is.

We think we chose the wrong path. It has to be. But then we also think how heavy rain can change the landscape in a place like this. This river might well have been a candid water flow a few hours ago, just like the ones we had crossed before, and this might well be the right track. So we choose to cross the first river. And then the second.

We do it carefully, of course. We chose a section which is not too narrow for the flow to be too strong, but not too wide either. We also avoid a section where the water flow is too slow, as it probably means it’s deeper there. We use sticks to keep measuring the depth. We cross with water slightly above our waist lines. The first river, easier, and then the second, a bit harder.

We’re relieved and excited. We keep walking. 15 minutes later we come across what seems to be a ranger station. I go and check – it is. It’s the NEW Los Patos station. They abandoned the old one because it meant the rangers used to be isolated because of the river more often. That explains why we kept seeing signs to Los Patos after we passed the first station! It all makes sense, and we know where we are. Good!

We ask about the trail to La Palma. It’s almost 3pm, and 13km more from here (not from the previous stations, as we thought…). They ask how deep the river was – waist level, we say. They strongly recommend us not to go further today: there is indeed a road to La Palma from here, but it’s quite bad (only for 4WDs…) and keeps following the river, crossing it over 20 times! So we’d need to repeat the exercise we had just done more than 20 times too!

We happily accept the piece of advice. They allow us to camp there, with no charge. They seem to be really nice and welcome some company. They offered us dinner (good – we didn’t have much food left, just biscuits and energy bars…). We play some cards. They tell us interesting stuff about the jungle animals, and tales of their several days long adventurous walks in the park. Very cool night. And it stopped raining. That’s good: if not, we’d need to stay here for longer, as the 4WDs cannot come up the river from La Palma nor can we walk our way down the river…

There are thunders all night long. But no rain.

We wake up at 6am and leave around 7am. The morning sky is cloudy, but the rangers say it won’t rain for a few good hours. Good, we just need 3 hours to get to La Palma, so it’s cool. The river is back to almost “normal”: small, clear, slow. We’re good to go.

As we are in our 5th or 6th river crossing, we see a 4WD coming with people – locals and tourists – up river. The driver is dropping them at the station and will come back shortly after. He promises us a (paid) lift to La Palma. Sweet.

20 minutes later the 4WD comes back. The Irish couple can’t go as they realise they left the camera at the station and need to go back. I jump in.

I’m not very talkative and apologise the driver: I’m trying to dry my camera that had dropped in the river shortly before and is not working at all. After 15 short minutes we get stuck in one of the river crossings. The jeep is not so heavily loaded now (just me and the driver) and the wheels just keep spinning in the river sand. We’re in the middle of it. The driver is experienced and gives up immediately. We need to leave the 4WD there walk all the way to La Palma, and come back with help.

So no lift, but no need to pay anything for the 500m lift either, so not much to complain aboyut… ;-) The driver starts running, and I’m too tired to follow. I keep walking. I see him come back in a lift by another 4WD later on. We smiles at me and says goodbye.

It’s almost 9.30am and I’m literally entering La Palma when he passes by me again, in the original 4WD (he managed to get it out) and the Irish couple in it (they managed to find the camera).

End of the journey. I'm dead tired. Wet to the bones from the river crossings. But really really really happy. These last days were one of the highlights of the trip thus far.

As I said about Semuc Champey in Guatemala, many weeks ago, this is the kind of experience that makes you want to travel.

When can I have another one, please? :-)

20km walk from Carate to Sirena, by the beach. These are the other 3 folks who got in the park that day with me (yeah, not crowded at all, which is good). They would return to Puerto Jiménez via the same route, so we only walked together the first day

When not on the beach, the Carate-Sirena trail gets a bit into the jungle, but you're always close enough to the sea to either see or hear it. Crabs everywhere in the tropical jungle - that's an interesting sight...

Wild life comes to you, really...

Trying to see crocodiles or sharks in Rio Sirena, in the morning of day 2. No luck - I guess the tide wasn't high enough

The Sirena - Los Patos trail gets deep into the jungle. The scenary is quite different from the one I got in the first day, by the sea. Walking alone makes it more exciting too... :-)

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Shit hits the fan when it starts raining. Heavily, and doesn't stop for hours. Right when the trail is no longer flat and the water starts flowing downhill. Sweet...

Taking some rest at the old deserted Ranger Station of Los Patos. Nice rain, right?

One of the river crossings between the old and the new Ranger Station of Los Patos

And another one. This picture was taken in the afternoon of day 2, shortly after we cross it...

...and this one is in the same spot, in the early morning of the following day. Strong tropical rain increases rivers' flows dramatically and very quickly in just a couple of hours

Forced camping in Los Patos...

River crossing in day 3, for the 13km hike between Los Patos and La Palma

Can you see the road (i.e., the wheel tracks covered in river water) from Los Patos to La Palma? The road keeps crossing the river (more than 20 times) for a few kilometres. The pick-up ended up stuck just after 3 or 4 crossings, a bit further ahead...