18:50 Really great day today, not very
productive but got a lot of promotional work done for Lattitude Global
Volunteering. Seeming they gave me this
incredible opportunity to be positioned in such an beautiful place I of course
don’t mind exploring to find some great photo spots.
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| Perched Black Vulture (D.Philpot) |
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| A Baby Coati - How Cute! (D.Philpot) |
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| Sun Bursting Through My Favourite Stop (D.Philpot) |
I hiked from about 13:30 to 18:00 today
going through ‘the jungle’ in a North-East direction from the main El Comedor
lodge. I am glad that I have brushed up
on my Spanish a little now, asking for things in the kitchen and food related
words are always helpful.
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| Hike Start, Very Spiny Palms (D.Philpot) |
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| Gorgeous Green Butterfly (D.Philpot) |
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| Red Flowers For You Flower Folk (D.Philpot) |
On my wandering I found a great ‘vine
swing’ just like that of your typical children’s playground park, and another good swing which can be seen on this Video (#26). I also spotted a few birds and beasties but
nothing too incredible *cough… possible Ocelot… cough,* a small cat-like animal
ran away from me before I could even tell what type of animal it was though it
was not an Agouti or Deer, and there is not much between size wise of that
colour so who knows what I saw! However it was probably just a Coati (or maybe a wild pig!) but it doesn't count as I didn't see what it was. I did see this interesting looking spider though (Please forgive the budding marine biologist for not knowing exactly what it is just yet though);
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| A Crowned Spider (D.Philpot) |
I found my way to the beach with the
blister-causing “touch-me-not” tree and decided to continue round to the Nicoya
Peninsula tip to get a good view of Isla Cabo Blanco. I saw a few little streams dotted along the
huge bay of various grain-sized rocks from sand, pebbles, slabs, boulders and
sharp stuff, and so crossing this terrain in the blazing sun meant these
freshwater streams provided great cool off showers. In this bay I saw the great Osprey, as well
as Brown Pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds fishing close to the shoreline. Some of these birds flew close above my head! I took this video from father away: Video 30!
Upon nearing the island off the tip I
saw the Toyota-containing Shipwrecked boat clearly in the middle of the bay among a rocky ridge
area with big waves (a place to visit later perhaps?), and then I got some
close photos of the island which looks like a large bare rock covered in bird
poo with the relic of an old radio mast on its highest peak. Here I sat watching as huge waves of at least
25 feet that were exploding up the sheer vertical rock cliffs, that looked like they
pretty much surrounding the thing, and so I decided that maybe I won’t get to
go there as it looked barely accessible.
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| View Back To The Start Of The Bay (D.Philpot) |
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| Resting Birds (D.Philpot) |
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| Taking Flight (D.Philpot) |
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| Heron Shadow (D.Philpot) |
I returned on the long walk back from
the tip along the interesting beaches back to the so-called blister giving tree that meets the
‘trail’ and from here I continued around on the beaches instead towards the station
as I thought it would be more interesting than repeating myself. I saw flip flops and a few odd items here and
there that had drifted up onto the beach and it occurred to me more so that
what we do with our plastic is highly important, and provides an endless battle
even for a park that is protected from human access.
Upon reaching base, I grabbed a drink
and almost immediately took off on a walk alone up to the upper waterfall once
again. I, already dripping, was
accompanied only by some Army Ants (Video 33) and loud Howler Monkeys (Video 34) that roared high up in the canopy
some place out of sight at my guess fighting or declaring dominance as it was
more irregular than average and very loud opposed to normal loud howlers. I thought maybe my hike would end with me
offering up my snacks from my bag to trade with some monkeys, as in the movies.
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| Interesting Tidepool Species (D.Philpot) |
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| A Rockpool Moth? (D.Philpot) |
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| A Lone Tree (D.Philpot) |
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| Walking Back In The Sun (D.Philpot) |
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| Coastal Vegetation (D.Philpot) |
23:00 I managed to borrow someone’s
phone tonight. I walked 20 minutes out
the park to get somewhat steady signal and service before I checked my emails
and posted on Facebook for the first time in awhile. I eventually left a large rock on the road
that I dubbed ‘The internet rock’ as it seemed to be one of the only places I
could find that gave a relatively good constant signal.
I returned the phone, then I was told a
very odd account of a UFO in the sky on several different occasions by various
family members. A star was pointed out
to me, that I was told fell slowly down in the sky until it was “close to the
ocean” and so bright that you could see (from miles away at night) the surface
of the ocean. Then close to the ocean
the light moved left, back to the centre, right, back to the centre. Then moved up to the top/original place it
fell to, before turning bright red and shooting off before disappearing. My only guess was that a harrier jet from a nearby
aircraft carrier moved down, with underneath lights that I would imagine would
be bright enough to ‘light’ the ocean as described, then moved left, right and
then flew off putting on its afterburners, which are red. Anyway, although slightly spooked out it was
certainly time for bed, if I get abducted at least everyone will know from this
blog that I disappeared or became a vegetable whilst being a person that was
very happy with his life and grateful to all those that supported him :-)
