Here we go again off the beaten path. Costa Rica has so many different spaces and critters to explore that the choices are difficult. There are the famous stops to check out the sea turtles in Tortuguero and Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the Caribbean Coast, La Selva the world famous rain forest experimental station, Monte Verde's Quaker Swiss cheese and cloud forest, and all the volcanos surrounding the Capital City of San Jose. We wont visit these stops except for a couple of days in San Jose on this trip. Instead we have chosen 3 stops, 2 in the same national park for this adventure. The folks at My Costa Rica put this itinerary together for us so we will be on our own rather than with a group like we did for Java and Bali a little over a year ago.
http://www.mycostaricalink.com/hotels/off-the-beaten-path/
Main road in San Gerardo de Dota
The first stop will be Cerro de la Muerte, "Hill of Death" and the village of San Gerardo de Dota (pronounced San Herardo) straight south about 80 kilometers from San Jose and the former capital Cartoga high the Talamanca mountains. This place is smack on the famous Pan American Highway that traverses Costa Rica from its northwest border with Nicaragua to its south west border with Panama. The Pan American Highway in this part of Costa Rica is a windy steep 2 lane road filled with pot holes that reminds me of the highway in the US that crosses Sonora Pass in the California Sierras. San Gerardo de Dota is home to the Resplendent Quetzal.
We will abandon the warmer clothes we have brought along for the mountains before leaving San Gerardo de Dota because we will be limited to 25 lbs. baggage each from here until we return to San Jose.
Map of boat trip from Sierpe to Drake's Bay and beyond. We will visit Isla de Cano 12 miles off shore.
The second stop will be down the south side of the Cordillera de Talamanca through the city if San Isidro to Sierpe, Drake's Bay and the Corcovado Adventure Tent Camp on the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Coast line is now running west to east along the Osa Peninsula and the Corcovado National Park. These are pretty fancy tents with hammocks, mosquito nets and resident monkeys. The tent camp has all 4 Costa Rican primates in the near by forest.
To get to the camp we need to transfer to a small boat for a hour plus ride down the coast. We will be in one of the only intact coastal rain forests remaining on the Pacific Coast of the tropical Americas that has not been clear cut. This is one of only two places in the world where we can find the beautiful Scarlet Macaws feeding above our heads in Palms and Cecropia trees.
La Luna Lodge
When we leave La Luna we will go by 4 wheel drive taxi to San Jimenez and the small airport to fly back to San Jose.
I will post a few more times with details about the places we'll be visiting. I will try to add web sites for your curiosity and investigation. For starters here is the web site for the Cecropia Tree and Azteca Ants. Cercropia trees are also a favorite hang out for sloths.
http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/ants/ANTPLANTS/CECROPIA/Cecropia.html
