In San José, I ate a breakfast of fresh papaya and spotted rooster while watching a hummingbird hover amongst the red heliconias. ("Gallo pinto" translates literally as "spotted rooster" and consists of rice and beans.)
We travelled by bus for 4 hours to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a village on the Caribbean coast, passing pineapple plantations on the way. I laid in a hammock for a while, trying to relax, but aware of the insects surrounding me.
While swimming in the warm sea at Puerto Viejo, two wild pigs appeared on the beach, causing havoc, and I couldn't help but think that some of the scenery looked a bit like that in Lost and perhaps they were actually wild boars.
The next day, a guided walk through the Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Gandola-Manzanillo, from Manzanillo to Monkey point, revealed sensitive plants whose leaves recoil when you touch them, breadfruit and alien-looking
noni,
cocoa plants, purple
locusts, leaf-cutter ants, pretty
spiders, viper snakes, distant sloths and monkeys, giant wasps and
millipedes,
red dart frogs, orange fungi that looked like giant poppers, trees that could be used as splints, twisted vines that looked like rope, lickable frogs to get you high, and plants that could be used as a blue dye. I was particularly impressed by
walking trees, which looked like a bundle of sticks tied up, but are actually trees that can move slightly.
A few more hours were spent in the sea after that and watching the vultures circle us. I remember eating mamones chinos (spikey red lychee type fruits), and plantain chips, where as earlier, in the Manzanillo Park, I watched people munching upon termites that crawled across tree trunks.
Photos on Flickr:
Manzanillo, Costa Rica.
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