Tuesday, Feb 17: Hike to Playa Llorona

Today was a “free day.” “Free Day” means we aren’t doing anything academic, but they usually plan some sort of vigorous activity for us. Today was a 14K hike round trip to Playa Llorona. Playa Llorona can only be accessed by this single path from San Pedrillo, so even less people go there. They wanted the hike to be the destination and really enjoy the forest. Corcovado is a very healthy forest, and there’s not many places like it. Luke and I hiked together. At the beginning of the path we saw monkeys and coatis. We couldn’t see the monkeys very well though, so I was highly disappointed. We were able to get fairly close to the coatis. They’re so cute, I just want to cuddle with them. I don’t think they’d like that very much though.

The forest was so beautiful. The trees are huge, and you can hear lots of birds. We didn’t really see much after the monkeys and coatis. The path was quite the hike, very hilly and steep. I definitely enjoyed it none the less. It took us two and a half hours to reach Playa Llorona. It was so beautiful. The beach was huge! There were so many shells. Since it was low tide we were able to hike to a waterfall at the end of the beach. It can only be accessed during low tide because you have to walk through the tide pools, it sucked. So rocky and difficult. Sarah fell and dropped her camera in the water. We saw a bright yellow puffer fish stranded in one of the tide pools, natural selection at its finest. The waterfall was pretty cool, but we didn’t stay long because we wanted to leave plenty of time to hike back before it got dark. It was funny to watch Pablo hide from the sun in his rain boots and a sarong. Such a funny guy. Whitest Costa Rican ever.

The hike back was rough. My legs felt like jello. Sarah and I were dragging, but Luke was kicking our asses. My hands were so swollen. Toward the end of the hike we saw some white-faced capuchins, so that made me really happy. I finally saw monkeys! Finally made it back around 4. I was so dehydrated, even after drinking 4 liters of water. Since most people weren’t back I took a really long shower, it was amazing. My whole body got burned, even after several applications of spf 50. My feet got burned badly also. Those tan lines are going to stick with me for a while. We didn’t have a night lecture, so everyone went to bed right after dinner, around 6:30.