• Day 030: Monday January 30th

 

Butterfly In The Lab (D.Philpot)

Gold-Rimmed Moth (D.Philpot)

10:45 The Shell-O-Rama has been completed and I am packing now ready to hike round the tip to the Cabuya side of the park with the German guy just for the one night.  It is about a 7 hour sensible walk, and you need water just to give you some bearings on that.  The majority of the few tourists who wander into the park with one half empty bottle of water and expect to simply walk round to the other sides as if there is a giant sign-posted road that connects the two halves is unbelievable.  Packing now makes me excited also for the Osa Peninsula mission now planned for February.

20:50 I gave an early goodbye to Hartwick today after snorkelling, where there was more tidal action than normal, less fish and a Jewel Moray to be seen, where you get an odd feeling knowing that upon return the nice people you meet will be gone or some others will be on the way.

The German and I walked towards the tip of the peninsula where we saw a gigantic container ship that was behind, though appeared longer than, Isla Cabo Blanco which looked crazy and surreal but cool to watch at the same time. We also spotted a large flock of Brown Pelicans flying in formation as seen in Video 53.

This walk consists of about a 5-7 km beach walk then a roughly 4000 meter hike through a really hilly part of the forest that at many moments slopes steeply up, and many moments slopes steeply down but very rarely is flat at all (and with a backpack was a workout!).  At some point when we caught our breath, we spotted a Great Currasow (bird) and made my first visit to the great, massive, Panama Tree (which I later climbed up, see Videos #54 and #56.  I am still absolutely baffled that these wasps here fly away or past me rather than towards me as I normally experience back in the UK.

Huge Panama Tree (D.Philpot)

Indiana Jones On A Tree (D.Philpot)

Cabuya is very different in design, structure and feel.  The kitchen has meshed windows so there seems to be more mosquitos and insects about, there is a TV, radio, internet(!), more park guards and activity as well as the boat and the ATV’s/Quad Bikes on top of being the centre for volunteers helping out at the park.  I plan to make the most of this one night here (on this occasion).  I went with the German guy to the local town which was small but quite pleasant and had the feeling of a very tight-knit close community.  I heard a lady that sounded like one of the cooks in San Miguel whilst in an internet café which was strange.  The park administrator gave us a life back to the park which was nice of him and then we spent the evening at the ‘Volunteer House’ talking about our nearing expedition to the Osa Peninsula and Corcovado National Park.