The Most Biologically Diverse Place on Earth: Part II, by Sam

The hanging bridge on the way to the beach.

The Drake Bay Backpackers Hostel is part of the Corcovado Foundation which does biodiversity education projects and tours throughout the Osa Peninsula. We were greeted first by two friendly dogs, one named Bambi, the other named Vienticinco (25.)

The hostel has a vegetable (with almost ready to pick eggplants!) and herb garden, lots of hammocks, and even a volleyball court. We stayed in the dorm area with comfortable bunkbeds and mosquito nets. After we got settled in, we headed to check out the beach. To get there, you have to walk down several dirt roads to the airport where you actually walk down the runway to a trail! The trail includes a hanging bridge over a river that looked like a caiman would be living there. We couldn't go out very far into the sea because there was a steep incline and the waves were huge and forceful. After splashing in the waves, Dad and I took a walk to the end of the beach and back and we saw beautiful scenery with rainforest on one side and the ocean on the other. We also saw a squished iguana with its head ripped off. Later, we had dinner at a local soda (which is the Costa Rican name for a small cafe/restaurant serving traditional food like gallo pinto.) To get there, we had to walk across a log that was placed across the river. While waiting for our food, we all played tag and Maeve was running across the log and slipped causing her to fall in the river! It was not deep. After dinner, we headed back for an early night to bed because we had an early start the next morning.

All aboard the boat to Corcovado!

We ate gallo pinto and toast at 5am at the hostel before heading down to the beach where a boat was waiting to take us to Corcovado National Park. The boat was pretty simple but fast with a canvas roof to protect us from the sun. There were about 15 of us in the boat. About 10 minutes into the journey, we navigated through a series of rocks (with pelican, tern, and frigate bird roosts) to get to an eco-lodge to pick up other passengers. Then, it was off for about a one hour ride along the coast. There were huge swells and it was bumpy and fun.

My first sighting of a tapir in the wild!!

We arrived at the park at high tide. It was a wet landing which means we had to get out into the shallow water, first removing our hiking boots and socks. Maeve got wet again when a wave came in and splashed her all over. All the passengers headed to a nearby stream to clean off our feet, get our shoes on and prepare for the hike. We had a really nice and informative guide who grew up in Drake Bay. We explored the hiking trails and among the highlights:

• one Tapir (the largest land mammal in Central America)
• one Fer-de-lance (the most poisonous snake in Costa Rica)

  

  Can you spot the tamandua?

• five Scarlet Macaws (near the ranger station)
• one Crocodile (lazing in the river)
• all four species of monkeys (Howler, Spider, White-faced Capuchins and even endangered and rarely seen Squirrel monkeys
• a grunting wild turkey (called a Great Curassow)
• an anteater (actually called a Tamandua and it was foraging for termites high up in a tree!)
• incredibly interesting and super tall trees (including my favourite, the strangler fig)



Dad's good friend, the hermit crab.

•  and much, much, more!!

After about three hours of hiking, we returned to the trail head to have a vegetarian lunch and wait for the tide to come back in. The beach and the nearby forest were teeming with hundreds, maybe even thousands of hermit crabs of all sizes. We loved watching them and picking them up. Dad decided they are his favourite animal. Our guide told us that one of the main problems threatening hermit crabs is people, especially in Manuel Antonio Parks, take the shells away for souvenirs. The hermit crabs rely on those shells for their homes.

One of the endangered squirrel monkeys.

To leave the bay, we faced another challenge - the waves! They were little at first but then there were really enormous swells that felt like they were going to break on us. Once, we were on the brink of a wave and it felt like we might tip over but we quickly got back to calmer water. Our captain was very skilled. On the way back, we spotted a large rock island that looked like a shark fin. But, we didn't see any sharks.