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It was another short half-hour flight to the
private landing strip at La Fortuna near the Arenal volcano. We rented a
4-wheel drive car for a week and drove north for about 3 and a half
hours to the Hacienda Los Inocentes, a charming old farm, now a hotel
with swimming pool, pet macaws and horses to ride. The hacienda has
beautifully polished old wood floors and our bedroom was on the first
floor, looking onto the wide balcony that surrounded the building. On
our first evening, I found a small frog in the bathroom. I decided to
leave it there as it was rather sweet, but the next time I entered the
bathroom, it was in the loo and I was obliged to flush it down, never to
be seen again! But that wasn´t the end of our adventures with frogs. We
slept with the window to the balcony open and, the following night, a
weight landing on Flemming’s ear woke him – and me – up. He flicked the
object off with his hand, only to find another dear little frog!
Every morning at breakfast time, the hotel staff also fed the birds and
we would see numerous Montezuma oropendula (with long yellow tail –
resembling a pendulum - and chestnut body) and white-throated
magpie-jays (blue body, long white-tipped tail and long curled crest)
fight over the papaya. Occasionally a number of collared aracari (small
toucans) would follow to pick up the left-overs. Somehow the flocks of
green parrots that flew past the hacienda weren´t interested in the food
the staff put out.
The surrounding trees were always full of Montezuma oropendula. The
males bowed their heads while making a strange noise, a bit like a bell,
to attract the females.
On our first day at the hacienda, we went for a (muddy) walk in their
extensive grounds and spotted spider monkeys, and white-ringed
flycatchers.
The next day we drove southwest to Santa Rosa national park where we
walked amongst strange trees, with a reddish colour, and peeling bark,
called either Naked Indian or Sunburnt Tourist (take your pick!). Not
much wildlife to be seen there apart from a solitary woodpecker. We
moved on to the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Bahía Junquillal –
where we enjoyed a swim from a superb beach and saw plenty of wild life:
pelicans, ibis, eagles, kingfisher, parrots, frigates, crabs,
cormorants, great egrets, sandpipers and an iguana.
After three nights at the Hacienda, we decided it was time to move on.
It was pretty rainy there, whereas it was drier on the coast. We headed
for Bahia Salinas, where we stayed the night at the Ecoplaya Beach
Resort in a beautiful bay with the mountains of Nicaragua on the other
side. We went for more walks on the long beach in front of the hotel and
enjoyed the spectacle of hundreds of pelicans diving in the water for
fish.
The next day we drove south on the Interamericana highway – full of
potholes – to Cañas. We lunched on the best ceviche yet at a restaurant
by the Corobicí river, run by a Swiss German woman and her Costa Rican
husband. We’d intended to make a gentle river rafting trip on the
Corobicí, but they told us the river was too dry. They took us to the
nearby Rio Tenorio instead and in just a short 2-hour trip we saw an
incredible amount of wild life: about 50 iguanas (male and female),
storks, howler monkeys, kingfishers, crocodile, herons, otters, ospreys
and Jesus Christ lizards, so called because they can run across the
water.
On our return to the restaurant, the Swiss woman recommended that we
stay at the Hacienda La Pacífica, set well back from the Interamericana
highway in a wood. There was more wild life in our bathroom: in addition
to a tiny frog on the wall, I felt something touch the top of my foot
while showering. I shook it off and looked down to see a little black
scorpion! It was lucky I hadn’t stepped on it. We dined in the cosy
hotel dining room where we enjoyed the best food and wine that we´d had
in Costa Rica, and at very reasonable cost. Altogether “une bonne
adresse” as they say in Michelin guides. We even had direct, fast
Internet access from our room – almost unheard of in mid-range hotels –
and what’s more, it was free!
The next morning we left the Interamericana highway at Cañas and headed
for the hills on bumpy dirt track roads, destination Santa Elena (near
Monteverde). In spite of seeing more tourists here than the whole time
we’d been in Costa Rica, there was only one other person staying at the
Vista Verde lodge – a young American woman living in Australia called
Cecilia. The reason we opted to stay at the lodge can be guessed from
its name. In fine weather there is an awesome view of the (active)
Arenal Volcano and lake – and we were extremely lucky to see it all in
the clear. This was still the tail end of the wet season and other
travellers we’d met all said the volcano was shrouded in cloud during
their whole stay, so we timed it just right.
After lunch, we went on a very steep and rather precarious jungle walk
beneath the lodge to a waterfall. And that evening, together with
Cecilia, we went on a guided jungle walk by torchlight If it hadn’t been
for the guide, we probably wouldn’t have spotted much apart from a few
agoutis (large rodents that we’d already seen in Guatemala) and the
ubiquitous leaf-cutting ants, but he found for us a coati (raccoon-like
creature), a tarantula, a sloth high up in the trees, a sleeping bird (I
forget the species), and a small brown snake on the branch of a tree,
which he assured us was not poisonous.
The night before, Cecilia had woken herself up a few times to look out
of the window. She was rewarded with plenty of action from the Arenal
volcano which was performing well and nicely in the clear. Encouraged by
Cecilia's luck, Flemming woke up a few times that night to check out the
view. There was more cloud surrounding the volcano than the previous
night but we could still see some red sparks from lava flow.
The next morning we drove on to La Fortuna, where we’d left the plane a
week earlier. On the way we were accosted by several coatis, those
raccoon-like creatures. The first time we saw one, we stopped the car
and opened the door to get out and take a photo. The coati started
trying to climb into the car and I had to shoo it away! The cheeky
animals are as bad as touts! Some drivers supposedly stop to feed them
so they have learnt to 'ambush' the cars.
We stayed at the Hotel Los Lagos, dangerously near the Arenal volcano in
the case of a major eruption. There was no such luck although Flemming
did get a good close-up view of the red lava spewing out of it that
night. I have to admit that sleep was my priority, so I missed the
spectacle.
PS. Sorry for the missing photos. They got
stolen in Guayaquil, Ecuador. |
One of Hacienda los Inocentes' Macaws
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