Osa Peninsula

We were promised wonders here and we weren’t disappointed. In fact, in terms of the accommodation at Pirate Cove we were expecting much more basic than we had. We’d braced ourselves for no aircon and were pleasantly surprised to have some AND a ceiling fan. We got good home cooked meals every day and we couldn’t fault their cocktail making skills. 

The outlook was spectacular, both from our room and the common areas. The staff were lovely, and when it came to skippering a boat and getting us off and on the shore for each of our adventures, they pulled off some pretty fancy manoeuvres. From our arrival to our departure all the comings and goings included boat rides, and beach launches and landings. One particular launch from Corcovado NP was pretty hair raising, but managed by Chilo and Ever with great skill.

The vista from our balcony

Sunset on the beach at Pirate Cove

This post covers most of our time in Drake Bay, except our last adventure which warrants its own post. On our first night we went on a night walk with Tracie the Bug Lady and her offsider(maybe partner?) Gianfranco. The atmosphere was set by the approach - catch a taxi to a particular point, then get out and walk through a bit of a course in the dark with slightly unclear directions, over some interesting terrain and with some of our torches failing. It was fitting. Tracie was a real character. Both were very knowledgeable and found some amazing things for us to see, so in the last hour when it absolutely poured with rain and we were soaked to the bone, we were still very happy to stop every time they found a new treat to show us.

       

 Red eyed green tree frog - our first with its eyes open!

       

Name TBA

      

Common Mussarana 

On our first day while Margaret did a reccy on the Sirena Station trail in Corcovado NP, I went diving at Caño Island. The diving was great - although we might have seen even more if we’d gone a little slower. But I can’t complain - there were turtles, octopuses, lobsters, scads of fish, a seahorse, tons of eels including gardens of them on the seabed. We had a lovely surface interval on Caño Island itself, which is beautiful.

         

Tropical spotted dolphins checking us out on the way to Corcovado NP

        

This way to Sirena Station 

        

There is an old airstrip leading to Sirena Station - this plane missed it by a bit 

Meanwhile Margaret saw a ton of stuff in Corcovado NP, which is to be expected of an environment that contains 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity. Her find to swoon over was the scarlet macaw, but she was also graced with her first spider monkeys in the wild and a concentration of Kevins (Coati mundis), among a load of other birds and critters.

              

Margaret with a small portion of one of the many amazing trees in Corcovado NP 

        

A concentration of Kevins

        

  Tapir tracks on the beach    

 Anteater and baby 

We both went back to Corcovado the next day with our fervent hope to see a tapir, although with expectations tempered. Still, they say if you’re going to see one, here is the place. And our guide Hairo went to great lengths to find one for us - alas to no avail. But we did see our first ant eater, with a (big) baby no less, on top of plenty of other things so we certainly didn’t come back disappointed.   

                 

Zebra grasshopper - before shot (nymph)

      

The after shot of the grass hopper - this is what it looks like as an adult

      

A beautiful Roadside Hawk  

      

Preening Spoonbill

      

 Toucan

And this was the day we had the hair raising boat boarding for the trip home, which I didn’t get photos of  because the focus was on getting on the boat with selves and gear intact. Some photos below of boarding for the trip back to Sierpe at the end of our 
stay, which was much more tame.

 

 The dive boat picking up some divers and snorkellers for an on water transfer to another dive boat 

 

Catching the water taxi back to Sierpe