We are looking forward to the warmth and to a country that is unknown to us. In Zurich, our Edelweiss plane is first de-iced and then it's off to Costa Rica for eight weeks.
We spend the first two weeks a few kilometres south of Puerto Viejo directly on the Caribbean Sea in a simply furnished wooden house on stilts, which is situated in a jungle-like, beautifully maintained park. There is no big hustle and bustle here, most tourists stay further up north or on the Pacific coast.
Of course, the morning walks along the coast are not to be missed:
Just a stone's throw away from us is the Manzanillo release station for great green macaws where the aim is to raise as many young as possible to save the parrot species from extinction.
There is a guided tour every day at 15:00, where you can watch the birds from a platform as they fly out of the jungle to the station for feeding. There is plenty of time to observe and of course photograph the beautiful colourful macaws.
A little further south, we visit the Refugio Nacional Gandoza-Manzanillo. The walk leads past many dream beaches where you can refresh yourself at any time. It is worth wearing high walking shoes because the path is often quite muddy and it is sometimes steep up and down. However, most people walk with flip-flops....
In the north, the Cahuita National Park awaits us, where we undertake a 9-kilometre hike. Here, too, there are many beaches and opportunities to take a dip in the waves. The well-maintained path leads flat along the coast and is mostly in the shade of the trees.
We are here to spot as many animals as possible, which we do quite well.
The sloths are extremely difficult to get in front of the lens because they are often hidden at the top of the trees.
The raccoons are not irritated by the people and search the beach for something to eat.
The howler monkeys wake us up every morning. Here we can take some photos of them. It's easy to see why the animals are called Mono Congo.
You have to be careful of the capuchin monkeys...as soon as you sit down, they come and try to steal something so they can exchange it for food.
We visit the park a second time and take one of the guides who are waiting for customers in front of the entrance. We want Mike to spot sloths for us in the hope of getting some good photos. We stopped counting at 20 animals...
Mike of course knows where to find which animals and we enjoy iguanas, a yellow viper, small bats and much more.
The Jaguar Rescue Centre cares for animals that need help. These are mainly injured animals, young animals without a mother or abandoned (wild) pets such as monkeys or parrots.
You can only visit the centre on a one and a half hour tour. Animals are shown (unfortunately all of them in cages, because this is required by the state), which for various reasons can no longer be released into the wild. The story of each animal is told, which is very interesting but takes a little long towards the end.
There are also two wild cats, but they are nocturnal and therefore hardly ever come out of their shelter.
Now we are looking forward to further experiences during a three-week tour of Costa Rica.
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