On a Monkey Mission

6.2.11

I'm on a mission to find a monkey.  I am supposed to be able to see them from the front porch area of the hostel, but the monkeys have been hiding from me.  I've heard the dominant male howl a few times, but have yet to see hide nor tail of a mono.

So today, I have every intention of going out and finding one.  I have been told some of the local monkey hangouts and so plan on visiting them all.

I am in Montezuma, Costa Rica (I have been since late Tuesday and probably will stay here until Sunday).

Today my whole body is sore and it hurts to move.  Yesterday, my first full day here, I fell/slid something like 10 feet down the side of a steep hill.  We (myself and my San Jose-> Montezuma bus mates) were hiking to the cascades (waterfalls) just outside of town.

It had rained hard for hours and so everything was muddy and slippery.  We ended up taking the harder path to the falls.  This path took us up this treacherous hill.  I fell coming down right before reaching the waterfall.  I had been using the too sparse limbs and roots to hold onto and attempt to lower myself slowly.  I was holding onto the trunk of a tree with both hands while I searched for a stable spot to place my foot.  My feet slid out from under me and I was unable to hold onto the trunk.  I slid until I managed to unintentionally catch a tree limb with my elbow.  My very first thought was, "Have I cracked my ribs?" It felt like my side banged on a rock as I fell. 

I was so shaken and scared that I couldn't move for  couple of minutes.  I had absolutely no strength left. 

I managed to make it down the rest of the way without incident.  I washed myself off in one of the pools and sat down on a rock to recover. 

I was really lucky.  What if I had hit my head?  What if I hadn't caught that slim tree trunk?  There was little strong enough to catch me.

We didn't stay at the waterfall for terribly long.  I didn't even get in the water.  By that point, I didn't want to.  I was dirty and my clothes were muddy.  I had lost a button on my khakis and had earned a number of deep scratches and bruises. 

And so now, even as I sit here and write, my body hurts.  I feel like I'm being adventurous doing anything that requires movement today.

I later found out that we had only visited the first of 3 waterfalls.  I was rather disappointed by this news, but I'm not about to go back and try again after what happened, especially not alone.  (My bus buddies all left today). 

Finding a monkey is the extent of what I can do.  And now I'm off.

~~~~~

I went back and tried again, only to be disappointed for a second time.  I spent 45 minutes walking uphill trying to take the road path to the waterfalls, but had absolutely no luck in finding them.  I assumed all I had to do was walk along the road and there would be signs.  And actually, I first started walking along that particular road because I was told that monkeys swing in the trees over your head.  Not today.  And once I was up the first two outstandingly, excessively steep hills, I kind of figured I may as well go ahead and go to the waterfalls.  It was only 2 kilometers away after all. 

I walked at least 2 kilometers and likely closer to 3 and I saw no waterfalls.  I walked a few hundred meters beyond the point when I stopped hearing the rushing water and finally decided that it didn't look like the waterfalls were the way I was walking.  I looked for them again on my way back down the hills, but I never did see anything that resembled a pathway to the waterfalls.  But perhaps I am blind.

I did finally see my first "natural" monkey though.  But the whole thing was a bit on the disappointing side.  I only saw a couple of monkeys from quite some distance.  I couldn't get a decent picture without using full zoom, and even then I don't think the pictures I took were particularly good.  The whole experience wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  And I only saw them for a few short minutes, and then I moved to see if I could get closer and never saw them again.  But I can now say that I've seen a monkey "in real life," so I suppose I can't complain too much.

And I can hope that I will see more of them later. 

The Worst Travel Day of My Life

Out of all of the travel days, yesrterday has to be the worst.  I've had bad travel days - 24 hours on a single train between Istanbul and Bucharest - that wasn't fun.  But this was the worst.

The only redeeming factor of the whole day was that I met 3 people to share the misery with.  Without them, I really have no idea what I would have done.

The day wasn't supposed to be horrible.  I had my flight from Bocas del Toro, Panama to San Jose, Costa Rica.  I walked to the airport in 10 minutes!  When I arrived at the airport, I was told that I needed to produce a piece of paper printed with my US return itinerary.  It never occurred to me that I would need my itinerary, so I didn't have it.  The stress began.  I didn't have time to return to the hostel and even if I did, I am not sure they could have helped me.  The airline check in guy said I would have to wait, but I could use a different airline's computer.

Apparently, Costa Rica has become particularly concerned about people arriving in Costa Rica and staying.  After a nail-biting 20 minutes, I was finally allowed to use the computer (the same one they use to check people in with!).   I found my itinerary, they printed it, and the crisis was averted.  Smallish hiccup, but it didn't help that some old bag kept asking me questions and yapping her squashed face off about how this is new and they should have signs and blah blah blah blah...

I arrived in San Jose early - there are 2 buses a day going to Montezuma, 1 at 6.00am and the other at 2.00pm.  The plane arrived in San Jose somewhere around 9.00am.  I took a taxi to the Coca Cola bus station (where the bus was leaving from) and walked around for a bit.  I stopped at a cafe for breakfast, went to the grocery store for some food fuel for the journey, had lunch, and then went back to the bus station.

I arrived back at the station around 1pm expecting the bus to leave in an hour.  When I arrived, there was a sign saying that there was a problem with the ferry (from Puntarenas to Paquete) and that the bus would leave 2 hours late.  Great.

It was then that I met 3 other people (2 from Canada and 1 from Nigeria) who were also going to Montezuma.  At least I wasn't alone.

After 2 hours of waiting, we boarded the bus.  Eight hours later (to make a long, excruciating story shorter), we arrived in Montezuma.  I do want to mention that the "directo" bus required us to get off the bus at the ferry port, ride the ferry independently, find the bus again on the other side, then switch to a different bus in a small town called Cobano.  That's not very direct if you ask me.

So around 12.30, the four of us straggled into the hostel I had booked for myself (fortunately people were still up and about).  Thus ends the horrible, no good, very bad travel day (in as short of a post as I can muster).

Isla Bastimentos, Part III

Red Frog Beach

Today, like my other days here, I hopped off to the beach in the morning where I stayed until late in the afternoon (about 4pm I suppose).

I decided yesterday that I was going to hike to the beach in the other direction (west this time I think).  I was enjoying "my spot" so much that I failed to set out on my adventure at a reasonable time.  Since the sun sets early (in Panama, around 6.30 I think), 4pm really was too late to start an adventure.  I was not interested in struggling through the jungle at night without light.

The trail.

I still managed to see the next beach over, Wizard Beach, but I was only able to stay a few minutes.  The beach was very nice and I wish I could have spent more time there, but of course there's nothing I can do about that now.

This hike west was a bit harder than the hike east I went on yesterday.  My flip flops really weren't cut out for the short steep inclines, but I managed.

Along the way, I saw a number of red frogs.  The jungle is
rather dark, even at 4pm, so I had a bit of trouble
photographing them.

When I was very near Wizard Beach (the hike from the hostel to Wizard Beach is something like 45 minutes) I heard a sound and thought someone was going to meet me on the trail.  I was nervous until a cow stepped forward and surprised me.  I didn't know there were any cows on the island.

In fact, there was a whole heard of cows that had come to the ocean to drink.  I snapped a number of photographs, but the cows were skittish and retreated if I stepped forward.

I walked past the cows to arrive at Wizard Beach around 5 pm, too late to do anything other than sit on my towel a few minutes and watch the waves. When I arrived, there were a couple of small groups of people, but they soon left via water taxi and I had the beach to myself for a few minutes before I had to leave.

Tomorrow, the 31st, I fly back to San Jose and then take the bus to Montezuma.  Originally I was going to go to Quepos and visit Manuel Antonio National Park, but I decided that was too difficult.  And besides, I want to see monkeys and Montezuma has monkeys.  The only difference is that at Manuel Antonio I have to pay $10 entrance fee and in Montezuma I don't!

I love this picture!  It's such a juxtaposition with the cow at the
beach and the tiny islands in the background complete with
palm trees!

Heard of Cows

Wizard Beach on Isla Bastimentos