January 9 and 10th, 2011

Note: This post contains large pictures, you may need to use your scroll bar to get the entire image into view.

I am woken up by a strange noise, like someone smacking their lips very loudly.  In Canada we have houseflies, in Costa Rica they have house geckos. They serve as a haphazard alarm clock. It is 6AM and I take a quick walk around the grounds to add a few more birds to my list…Lineated woodpecker, Prothonatary warbler, Cinnamon hummingbird...I get back as Bruce is preparing to leave. He is taking me to Curu wildlife refuge, which is located about 20 minutes away. Curú contains Costa Rica’s first private National Wildlife Refuge and is an example of a successful sustainable development program. The area contains a total of 1,496 hectares, including deciduous and semi-deciduous tropical forests, mangroves, beaches, marine habitats, pastures, and plantations. A total of 1,100 hectares are protected forest (75%).

We arrive at the gate to Curu, which is tended by a friendly young Tico. The dirt road through the park winds it’s way through open grassland, with large palms and gigantic hardwood trees, many of which are at least twice the size of the largest white pines we get in New Brunswick. The only way to describe Curu is that it looks and feels just like you’re in Jurassic park, a real lost world. Once the road begins to near the ocean, palm and mangrove trees dominate. The forest floor is littered with coconuts, which cover the ground like the leaves we rake off our lawns in the fall. The road into Curu...

Hermit crabs are nearly as abundant, and they scurry throughout the undergrowth. They are well respected residents at Curu...

We get to the second gate, at the center of Curu and I get out to slide the high tech Bamboo gate aside. The house that the family lives in is built underneath a grove of palm trees with scattered buildings surrounding it. I get out to gaze around at the tropical paradise around me. Something catches my eye…I look down and watch as a spider monkey climbs onto the back of the truck and sits on the cab. I am completely dumbstruck. I ask Bruce if “it’s” friendly…he smiles. The monkey then reaches out a hand and grabs my own.  My mind is officially blown. “Nina” is her name…she is a spider monkey who now calls Curu home after getting too big for the family who kept her as a pet. She jumps down from the truck, keeping my hand in a firm but friendly grasp. She begins to walk me around the grounds…she stands on two feet and the likeness to a young child is uncanny. She climbs up onto the kayak rack, displaying the use of her prehensile tail, which functions as a fifth limb. I inspect her hands…they are exactly like an elongated human hand, but without a thumb, which her species lost some time in evolutionary history. Her feet are almost mirror images of our hands. Her palms look much the same as ours, and I compare my fingerprints to hers. I notice that her hands are better manicured then my own and make a mental note to trim my fingernails when I get home. After spending 15 minutes with Nina I feel it is time to make the next move, I am ignorant of spider monkey etiquette and want to take things slow. I reach out for her tail, which responds by curling around my finger. I gently unwrap it and admire the amazing appendage. The underside of her tail looks like a thick, long finger, with many segments like that seen at each finger joint. A closer look reveals an intricate pattern. The tail, which is so much like an additional limb, also has fingerprints, or should I say “tailprints”. This makes me very jealous as I contemplate the tasks I could perform with such an accessory.  Nina continues to hold my hand with both her tail and her four long fingers as Bruce goes over the plan for the day.

We carry the kayaks through a narrow corridor of palm trees, which opens up to a long beach surrounded on both sides by steep hills. There is no one on the beach, except the thousands of crabs throwing sand out of their burrows and a few sunbathing iguanas...

The bay is full of brown pelicans and magnificent frigate birds, they are packed in by the hundreds, all diving and swooping to catch the masses of sardines that have come into the shallows…We launch our kayaks directly into the swirling mass. The frigates soar within feet of my head, reminding me of pterodactyls, with their huge angular wingspans and relatively small bodies. They swoop down and snag fish from the surface with impressive agility, never wetting a feather. The pelicans have a different tactic, they plunge head first into the shallow water, dozens at a time, bobbing to the surface to snap down their catch before taking off for seconds. I am struck by the memory of a limerick I heard when I was young, and it echoes in my head for the rest of the day…

A peculiar bird is a pelican

For his beak can hold more then his belly can

He can hold in his beak

Enough food for a week

I’ll be damned if I know how the hell he can

We paddle our way through crystal clear water. Flocks of birds fly against the steep backdrop of tropical forest, which bounces the many sounds across the bay. It is like being in a giant amphitheater set in the Cretaceous period.  Bruce and I work on some paddling skills, and open-water rescues. I flip my kayak and find myself in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life, it’s much warmer then the Atlantic I am familiar with. As a bob up and down in the waves I hope that the sharks have had a good meal, and try to look as distasteful as possible. Once safely back in my kayak, Bruce leads me to a small beach at a point of land called Quesaera. It looks just like a poster I once saw; palm trees leaning over powder white sand and turquoise water, with a caption underneath reading “The poor long for riches, The rich long for heaven, but the wise desire tranquility”.  This is the beach where we will be setting up our base camp for the multi-day expeditions. From here we do day trips to the surrounding Tortuga islands, named after the sea turtles that lay eggs upon their beaches. Stingrays, moray eels, flying fish and giant Manta rays also guard the islands. We finish the day’s paddle and head back for home.

January 10th

Today Bruce has some administrative work to do, which gives me the day to explore my new home, after all, you know i'm not much for administration. Bruce tells me about a great hiking trail along the southern shore of Ballena Bay, where Tambor is located. I pack my stuff up and head off... The first part of the trail winds through a small fishing village. The tiny houses are made from whatever materials either washed up on shore or were salvaged from less fortunate structures. Chickens, dogs and cats roam the area. Despite the look of hardships, the people greet me with a smile and kindness rarely encountered in more "developed" areas.  These people appear to have very little, but when you live in paradise you don’t need much else.  The trail then becomes narrower and follows through the coastal tropical forest...

The trail periodically moves onto the beach, which is a mix of ancient looking rock and small sandy beaches…The rocks are covered with hundreds of Sally Lightfoot crabs.  I never thought of crabs as an agile creature, but these crabs are amazingly nimble. They scurry over the rocks like mice, and can even jump from rock to rock. I saw one clear a six foot gap between two boulders…

After hiking for an hour, I stop to take a rest under the shade of a large tree. It is the height of the day and the temperature reaches 32 degrees. It is unusually quiet in the forest and I take notice of this right away. Something falls from canopy and lands next to me, then another…I look up and watch as an entire troop of Howler monkeys moves through the tree tops overhead...I can make out adults from the youngsters, females from males. Some are mothers carrying infants, others are young trouble makers. If it wasn’t for the falling fruit they discarded as they passed I may have never noticed their presence. They pause overtop and a large male gazes down with an intimidating stare…

Delighted by my monkey experience, I turn and head for home…I walk a slower pace on my return route and keep quiet. I see much more in the way of wildlife and learn an important rule on how to get the most out of a tropical adventure. My stealth even produces a glimpse of more ominous residents…

I get back to the beach just as the sun is tucking away behind the hills. I take advantage of the warm light to get better acquainted with some of the North American winter migrants who call the beach at Tambor home. Whimbrels and Willets are medium sized shorebirds which leave their feeding grounds along the east and west coasts of Canada and the US to winter in the warm tropical waters of countries like Costa Rica. Smart birds! Here is a sleeping Willet...

And a foraging Whimbrel!

I will try to keep the posts regular. I havn’t had a whole lot of time to take photos or write and I have fallen behind a bit, as it is currently the 12th.  Tomorrow we start our first tour…We are bringing some newlyweds out on a day trip in Curu. We leave at 8AM, spend the day kayaking, snorkelling, and bird watching, than have lunch on Quesera beach (think tranquility). Bruce bought a bottle of wine to celebrate.  Cheers!