Animal Planet

Well hello civilization after several days on Animal Planet. 

For civilization read the rather grubby city of San Jose, capital of Costa Rica. But at least my hotel room has a TV so that I can watch American movies in Spanish.

I’m in San Jose simply for the logistics of changing buses to move on tomorrow to the mountains of the North. The bus system in Costa Rica certainly falls short of the one in Panama. It seems there is but one bus a day from San Jose to my next destination, tickets to this bus can only be bought at the bus station on the day of departure, the bus is at 8.40, but I need to be at the station buying tickets at 7.30 when the ticket office opens as, apparently, the tickets sell out very fast. Here’s a hot tip: what about having more than one bus a day to this popular destination?

So tonight San Jose is where I am. What can I say? Before coming here I met several Costa Ricans - or Ticos are they are called locally - from San Jose. They all adviced me to avoid the town as it’s dirty and dangerous. And yet here I am. Apart from the logistics of travel, it’s also always interesting to take at least a quick peek at the main city in any country. And this main city seems to consist of a main pedestrian shopping street full of stores selling cheap clothing, shoes and mobile devices, 

and a few small parks packed with people hanging out on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Most streets are deserted except for an occasional car or homeless person, and the main square is this:

Enough said and best move on. Fast.

I’ve been in Costa Rica for about four days now. Most of these spent on the Caribbean cost in the rather grubby little town of Puerto Viejo, where the main attraction is a pretty beach of black volcanic sand. 

Apart from that, Puerto Viejo is well placed for visiting several beautiful areas of the coast nearby. On the first full day I rented a bicycle and rolled 12km East along the cost to Manzanilla. The road was a lovely coastal road, through jungle inhabited by howling monkeys and along some rather lovely beaches.

But the real cherry on the top was visiting Cachuita national park the next day. This park is not very large, around 8km of rather stunning coastline, 

along which a very well trodden trail leads. The park is renowned for its wildlife - and it certainly delivered. So let’s hit the trail.

The first guys I ran into were some rather frisky raccoons. These highwaymen had designs on a plastic bag a fellow traveller had left unattended on a bench. The raccoon and the owner of the bag grabbed for it simultaneously and had a momentary tug of war. The raccoon finally had to concede defeat - but with rather bad grace and dirty backward glances.

Moments later I came across a family of monkeys hard at work tearing the bark off trees to find tasty bugs beneath. 

When a tour group suddenly walked up, the monkeys clearly felt their style was being cramped, and assumed a very impressive defensive position. It was at this pivotal moment in documenting wildlife that my camera informed me that my memory card was full. Aaaargh! I just had time to take out my mobile phone, to take a blurry shot of the double-headed monkey god act.

After this evasive action, the monkeys took higher ground and continued to feast.

There were also smaller animals to enjoy. Such as lizards

a row of little bats taking a nap on the trunk of a tree

and a boa in a tree digesting rather a large meal, if his bulging stomach was anything to go by.

Many signs along the path warned us not to feed the crocodiles - I wonder how often anyone tries? However no crocodiles in sigh this time, though I spent a moment stalking a bit of floating wood that I thought was the cleverly camoflaged nostril of a crocodile.

But the big star of this trek is the ever-loved sloth. The first sighting was only some 10 minutes along the track. This guy was sleeping - or possibly meditating in a thicket - at eye-level and only 3 metres from the path. However he coyly presented only his backside and a few long claws.

But the cherry on the top was waiting at the end of the trail, when I came across this happy fellow in a bare tree by the path.

I suddenly noticed that he had company. Sharing the same branch didn’t seem to bother the companions in the slightest.

I spent long moments talking sweet nothings to him up the tree (I was alone at the time, apart from the bird). When I finally left him, he let out several grunts of distress at my leaving (or so I’ve decided to interpret them).

No grunts of distress from me on leaving San Jose tomorrow. Once again, I’m heading for the hills.