EricHolsinger.com

Today we took a tour to Palo Verde National Park in Costa Rica. I’m not sure what I expected, but when we talked to the agent from Swiss Travel, she did tell us the trip would be a bus ride to a river ride, with a Costa Rican lunch. I think we were expecting the National Park to be more green. But as we are discovering, the Pacific side of Costa Rica has two seasons: rainy or dry. We are visiting during the dry season.

We took a bus down the Pan-American Highway, or Costa Rica’s Highway 1, to an entrance to the National Park where we could get on the river boats. The entrance was tucked in behind a little village on some back streets. Someone from the tour commented that you never know where you’ll find the entrance to a National Park.

Our guide, Ronald, was very entertaining on the ride down. He gave us a very PR-like history of Costa Rica, when they disbanded their army, how they spend their money, why corruption lead to the Pan-American Highway being in such poor condition, etc. It was very interesting even though it seemed designed to explain away the apparently low housing quality around us. It’s not as bad as the housing we saw in Jamaica, but many people on the tour were commenting about how the people were living in … squalid … conditions. I didn’t think it looked as bad as they were making it sound, but the homes are small and the yards are little more than dirt. Of course the entire countryside is little more than scrub and dirt and parts of the Southwestern United States look very much like this landscape. But the homes are larger and everyone has at least one car in the US. Here in Costa Rica, many people seem to rely on the bus system.

We rode this boat downriver with Moises, aka “eagle eyes”, piloting the boat and Ronald helping to describe the wildlife and the ecosystem. It wasn’t too difficult to spot most of the wildlife. I have been birdwatching for many years, and I can easily spot a heron or anhinga. Once you see an iguana or two in a tree or along the river, you can find them quickly, too. And the crocodiles make themselves known, even if you don’t see them basking, you’re bound to notice them sliding into the water if you are at least looking around – which not everyone was doing. But that doesn’t mean Moises was called “eagle eyes” for nothing.

Moises was able to spot Yellow Crowned Night Herons and Black Crowned Night Herons roosting in branches, partially obscured by the thick foliage. He spotted the lazy Howler Monkeys and he shouted for us to look at the quick moving White Faced Capucin Monkeys. He saw the line of Long Nosed Bats roosting in a pattern like snake on the trunk of an overhanging tree. He spotted a Collared Forest Falcon in the brush behind a troop of Howler Monkeys, and a Black Hawk stalking the grass along the bank.

The most remarkable thing he noticed, though, was a sound. He recognized a seemingly random noise as a frog croaking in distress. He turned the boat around and drifted toward some overhanging trees. As we got closer, a green heron flew up out of the brush with a frog hanging out of both sides of it’s beak. We never would have seen that without his experience.

We asked Ronald to translate a question about how many times Moises had been down the river. He said he has been doing it for 16 years, every day of the week. Now that is experience!

We had a little incident where my wife’s hat blew off into the river. A 3 meter crocodile had just submerged in the area and we had written off the hat. But, the hat floated, bill side up. So, Moises turned the boat around and Ronald leaned out of the boat to retrieve her hat. She said she is never going to wash it because it has a little bit of Costa Rica in it.

Our list of animals seen is: Howler Monkeys, White Faced Capucin Monkeys, Green Iguanas, Black Iguanas, Crocodiles, Jesus Christ Lizard (Basilisk Lizard), Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, Tiger Heron, Mangrove Swallows, Yellow Crowned Night Herons, Black Crowned Night Herons, Boat billed Herons, Social Flycatcher, Cattle Egrets, Ringed Kingfisher, Blue winged Teals, Black Vultures, Wood Storks, Collard Forest Falcon, Black Hawk and Long Nosed Bats.

Lunch was served back on shore at the park entrance. We had grilled chicken with a local sauce, rice and beans, and some cabbage salad with watermelon as a desert. It was really good.

We also learned about Pura Vida, today. Apparently the phrase Pura Vida is used as a kind of greeting/positive saying to mean “life is good”. My understanding is that you would greet someone with Pura Vida and then ask how they are doing, instead of Buenos Dias or something else. And you can respond with Pura Vida, too. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say it, but it’s spelled out on all of the touristy stuff.

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