Costa Rica
Corcovado National Park
In January 2019, I walked for three days through the Corcovado rainforest in Costa Rica from Finca La Tarde to La Leona (28 miles plus side trips)
A guide is required to hike inside the park boundaries (2019). Logistics were taken care of by the agency in Puerto Jimenez, including the bookings/meals at Finca La Tarde and the Sirena Ranger Station
Strangler Fig, twists around the host tree from top to bottom, starts with a bird dropping a seed on a high branch
Finca La Tarde is outside park boundaries, so night hiking is permitted in the area
Giant cockroach
The second day was a full day walk through the primary rainforest from the farm to the Sirena Ranger Station
A group of spider monkeys in the middle of the forest not accustomed to humans mimicked the sound of a puma to scare us away. The jaguar and puma are the alpha predators in the Corcovado forest
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Our guide Gerson had a hunting telescope, the optics were far superior to a zoom camera and could bring out the colors in the birds. We saw toucans, macaws, owls, hummingbirds and more. He seemed to specialize in finding birds by hearing their songs
The Sirena River is known for its population of crocodiles and bull-sharks. The crocs were active with the tide/food coming into the riverhead
Rio Claro is typically croc-free, but they were still on our minds as the rivers are separated by only one mile. Tomer pointed out a stingray as we crossed the waist deep river
The final day was along the Pacific, a mixture of beach and forest walking to the La Leona Ranger Station
The walk was exposed to the sun with tropical humidity. The longer and more remote beach walk from San Pedrillo to Sirena is officially closed to hikers (2019)
Tapir taking an afternoon nap in the shade. During the night hours they can eat 50kg of food
We saw many mammals on the coastal walk including the anteater. Corcovado is a unique place, one of my favorite guided hikes
Resources: OsaWild