Entering Monkeyland

Post date: Jun 30, 2010 10:38:55 PM

Tying up loose ends like emails, motorcycle maintenance, and trip planning at the hotel in Liberia was nice. My second night there was only $5 or $6, but the room looked like a jail cell. Good enough for me.

More than one person had recommended Playa del Coco (Coco Beach), and since I found a flyer for a “Hostel Congos” in Playa Hermosa, the beach just up from Playa del Coco, I decided to head there for the day and night, then see about this other hostel in a national park with jungle adventures at its doorstep. Hostel Congos is 50 meters from the Pacific Ocean.

Settling in to camp in the backyard of the hostel for $7, the natives of the land welcomed me. First was the hoarse sound of some animal in the front yard. I went to investigate, thinking it was a disgruntled pig, but then I heard the sound above me. I looked in the mango tree but saw nothing. I asked the staff, a young man who grew up in the house, what it was. He said, “Congos!” Looking back up, I saw a dark shape and immediately recognized it as a monkey! My first wild monkey! I was elated. Camping with monkeys can’t ever be bad, can it? Back at my picnic table, cooking Crab and Beef Ramen noodles, I was amazed to find a green and brown inch worms stretching themselves out. There was one every six inches, and I could decipher no method to their movements. Then I spotted what looked like a cross between a gray squirrel and a lemur in the neighbor’s tree. Softly approaching for a better look, I then saw its friend chase it down and back up the tree, much like squirrels. Awfully big eyes and hands for squirrels though.

It only got better. The beach was almost empty. This is the rainy season, so most places I go are deserted. Business picks up in July, the staff said. I nodded off atop a mammoth, weathered, fallen tree on the beach. Then I strolled down a ways and found this civilization of crabs. They would come out of their little sand burrows once the coast was clear, and then they would begin waving their claws in a motion similar to a magician introducing his assistant, or a matador spreading the red flag for the bull. It was very dramatic and quite funny. I think they were trying to show off their one big claw, which was half of their whole body, which was the size of a quarter.

Behind the crab colony were more crabs of another species. They were in a mangrove-type wetland of brackish freshwater. These crabs were much, much bigger, bluish bodied with red legs and white claws. I saw on a log for twenty minutes watching them slowing pull themselves out of the water onto logs. The biggest one of the group approached me slowly then clacked into another crab emerging onto the beach from the same point as the big crab.

I played with a rotten fish I’d never seen before on the beach. It had a beak to cut coral. I’d never seen such a mouth .

The hostel worker, “Sayjel?,” recommended that I visit this hill when I told him I was going to go for a spin on my motorcycle. Upon entering the fence on the hill he recommended, I met a gatekeeper with whom I spoke in very rough Spanish to learn that a trail from the gate leads to the beach below, and that I could take my motorcycle down it, but not a car. My thought was first, “Cool!” And then I remembered that the last two times I went offroad ended in disaster. The first time, my first day in Mexico, the battery died. The second time I wasn’t even trying to go offroad, but a Nicaraguan had other ideas. The trail was littered with ruts, ditches, potholes, and rock chunks. I just knew I was going to twist an ankle.

Seyjel was right about the view. It was breathtaking. Jungle covered mountain/hills descended directly to the water. Forested islands dotted the coastline. Hills like that stretched as far as the eye could see inland.

What really excited me, though, were the bugs. I saw a fluorescent green spider with bristly legs, lots of fat black, orange and yellow grasshoppers too big to be climbing blades of grass, brown and yellow baby praying mantises, and more butterflies than I knew existed.

Made it down to the beach only to find that it was literally a beach, not a road by the beach, that I ended in, so back up I went. Up is easier than down. It was a good test drive offroad, which I’d never really done before. I felt a little more confident in my bike.

Upon my arrival back at the hostel, I was welcomed by a gigantic toad in the middle of the street. I came within inches of petting its chin.

I was on the beach jogging before 7am. Did some martial arts exercises and stretches, attempted a few handstands, then took a dip in the ocean. This is the way to start a day! Ah, Costa Rica…

Off I went to some hostel in the Costa Rican interior that claimed to have access to jungle adventures. Here is the part of the journey where I feel like a tourist, not a student of culture and geography or an adventurer. All was smooth until the road went NOT-smooth. We’re talking 30-45 degree inclines, tight curves, and nothing but fist-sized rocks and shin-deep potholes for 20 miles up and over the mountains. Clearly I made it (I’m writing this from the hostel), but I actually said to myself, “This is crazy,” and I never tell myself that. I stopped half a dozen times to make sure I was on the road to Monteverde since there were virtually no signs, and it seemed impossible to me that this would be a road that would make a national map. I quiver at the thought of the Transamazonica highway through Brazil. At least will be flat, right? After Mexico City and this road up the mountain, I believe I’ve earned my black belt in motorcycle handling. Oh, and try doing that with a loaded bike, which teeters precariously without the help of rocks. Good to know that engine has no trouble hauling 700 pounds uphill. After an hour in first and second gear going up or down and being punched left and right without warning by road tyrants, I was nauseous and overjoyed. Monteverde is a cute, touristy mountain village you never would have thought lied at the end of such a road. Funny thing is that it appears I took the back road in. The road leaving town on the other side is paved! Maybe that’s why I got so many smiles on the way up here.

Tonight I’m going on a guided night walk through a forest preserve, and tomorrow I’m going on another guided trek through the jungle to see other animals. I chose these over canopy ziplining, the Don Juan coffee tour, a cheese tour!, a butterfly exhibit, waterfall tours, and more. I’m sitting here waiting. A cloud is literally drifting through the hostel’s open air kitchen. One part of the ride up here, I saw what looked like the sky had caved in; a rain cloud hovered around one peak way, way below the rest of the clouds. It was weird, and I think magic was at play. There may be wizards in the area. Dragons, too, for that matter. I will keep both eyes wide open and my knifehand, palm strike, and spin kick ready. After this trip, I think I will have earned enough experience points to jump a level or two. Maybe there’s an artifact to be had, and treasure enough to build the castle I’ve always wanted.