Saturday, Feb 14: Sierpe Mangroves and Corcovado

Today after breakfast we got on to boats and headed out into the mangroves. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. The group was split amongst three boats. The mangroves were pretty cool, we saw birds, bats, raccoons, crabs, and two boas. After a couple hours of looking at plants and animals, we got to climb on the mangrove roots, which was pretty cool. They are so strong, just like branches and trunks. We basically went from the roots into the water swimming, which was really fun. The silt at the bottom was really fine, and was kind of like quick sand. If you tried to walk along the bank your leg sank up to your knee. We had some major mud fights. Then some how swimming led to climbing up the trees and jumping into the water. I was too scared, and it wasn’t even that high.
After some jumping we headed back to the hotel for lunch, then loaded up the boats with all our stuff to Corcovado. Corcovado National Park is in the southwest corner of the country, in the Osa Penninsula. It can only be accessed by boat, and getting there is expensive, so most tourists don’t go there. We had about an hour boat ride in the same tiny fiberglass boats down the river and out into the pacific. It was a beautiful afternoon. When we arrived at the beach, it looked like paradise. It was like vacation. The part of park we’re staying in is called San Pedrillo, the northernmost part of the park. Behind the beach was a small grassy clearing where the ranger station is, and that’s where we set up camp. After basically throwing our stuff on the grass we went right into the water. It was so warm and wonderful. Very rocky. We swam for a few hours before dinner. We hired cook staff to come with us and cook every meal for us while in Corcovado, which was awesome. After dinner we had a snake lecture. Basically Moncho (one of the TA’s) showed us pictures of everything we shouldn’t go near, which is pretty much any snake. And yes students have been bitten before, right in the camping area actually. He was in the hospital for 10 days. Everyone was so paranoid after that. And Pablo (another TA) was actually bitten on the last program.