Another early morning alarm… 5:30 comes early no matter when you go to bed. But, we hurried with breakfast and getting ready and got out the door by 6am to drive an hour to Carara National Park in Puntarenas Province just north of Jaco on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. This National Park is home to a transitional forest – part rainforest, part dry forest – and therefore has a bunch of flora and fauna, some indigenous to only this part of Costa Rica. It also includes the famous Crocodile Bridge. During the dry season the park is open 7am-4pm, wet season hours are 8am-4pm.
We recommend arriving right at opening time to have the best chance at seeing animals, and to beat any crowds that come later. You can book guided tours in advance through sites like getyourguide but we heard a tip that you can hire a guide onsite for a group rate. The guy at the entrance gate said he’d do a tour for $100. We declined, figuring we’d go hike and see what we could see on our own. But as I was checking us in at the office (showing the National Park passes we purchased online), Superman talked to a guide sitting nearby and he jumped at the chance to give us a guided tour, all of us for $50. Done. He told us to go on a short loop hike and he would meet us at 8am at the trailhead.
On the hike we saw some beautiful flowers, amazing mangrove and fig trees, a giant centipede, and a massive and (thankfully) dead spider.
We met Antonio who was guiding 2 women from Germany, and we went back along the loop and saw a poison frog! Antonio said we were “lucky lucky” because it’s the dry season and usually they are deep in the forest near water, not on the dry leaves. He says you can touch them with your hands, no problem… But later when a mosquito goes by your eye, or you eat something and put your fingers in your mouth, then you have big trouble. We didn’t touch it, but we did love seeing it!
He also found a lizard sunning itself on a rock in the middle of a creek and a bat hanging from the crevice of a tree.
We also looked at a big bird up high in a tree that has a red head and neck like a turkey but Antonio says they taste terrible. He says there’s another type that stays on the ground with white heads that are good to eat.
After a quick bathroom break (and Nixi Ray jumping over a big iguana who hissed at her and she said “That was scary!” Dad says, “Why did you do that?!” And she said “I wanted to see what it would do!”) we got in the car and followed Antonio a kilometer down the main highway to a hidden trailhead. He says that during the rainy season this trail is sometimes covered in a meter or a meter and a half of water. But now it’s dry.
We encountered another bird in a tree and Antonio said “Oh, it’s an ugly bird. We don’t need to see.” It was another turkey-ish bird. He’s funny and makes us laugh but he’s not meaning to.
Antonio pointed out a Guanacaste tree, the National Tree of Costa Rica. He says it’s a giant relative of the mimosa plants– the sensitive ones that close when touched. It’s a slow growing tree with really hard wood and is used for decorative bowls and carvings, very expensive.
We also passed by Guatamala’s National Tree which grows super fast and are huge trees, but Antonio estimated this one was only about 70 years old. They have such soft wood that you can pull it apart with your hands.
Part of the trail smelled sickly sweet — Antonio says that a puma came through early this morning and marked it’s territory. The smell is the musk it sprays. We smelled it 3 times on the trail but didn’t encounter the puma. Kinda glad, kinda would have been cool.
Antonio made sure that he was always in the front of our group and was vigilant at looking out for spiders, snakes, or anything else that could be dangerous. He told us adamently that when finding a guide “always ask to see official guide license! Other guys buy a scope and bring lots of people, but they don’t know what they’re doing.” He says they take people for a one hour walk, point out a couple of things, and then are gone. He also said to especially NOT do a night tour in Carara. The official guides won’t do them. He said “Frogs come out t night by water, but snakes eat frongs. A viper bites you, you not going to live. Guide will leave you. Daytime with a licensed guide if you get bitten, we will call an ambulance and get you help and you will get healthy.” Sounds like wise advice.
We passed by an amazing tropical flower in full bloom called a Pelican Flower. Antonio: “Stinking ugly flowers! If you walk between five or ten flowers you get a stomache ache! Ugh!” Pretty stinky… It’s pollinated by flies. (Side note, it’s awesome to hear English spoken by these Spanish speakers…. Stomache is always pronounced “stum-atch”)
We came to a grove of banana trees and immediately saw white faced cappuchin monkeys, a whole family of them. They were up in the top of the banana trees picking bugs off of the leaves and eating them. We loved seeing them doing natural behaviors and paying no attention to us. As Antonio said “They don’t come down to the ground and bother people like the Mafia in Manuel Antonio Park. More natural here.”
As we continued on the trail we saw two deer ahead of us — they walked right across the trail! Beautiful animals. Antonio said “Nineteen years ago, one of those was my lunch! I was an illegal hunter here. Now, no more. I guide.” Wow, what a story!
We passed by a tree with it’s trunk completely covered in needle-like spikes. Antonio warned us not to touch the poisonous tree. He said if you touch it, it feels like fire. A few meters later there was another one off the trail that had caution tape around it… The one we passed that was right next to the trail? No warning signs at all.
We were scanning all the trees hoping to see spider monkeys. We didn’t find them, but we did find two Howler monkeys sleeping. We couldn’t see their faces. Antonio shook a short tree next to us and the monkeys woke up and looked right at us. Amazing view!
On the way back to the trailhead we saw a giant bird on top of a tall broken tree with it’s wings spread wide open — a HUGE wingspan. We thought Antonio was setting up the scope for us to get a zoomed in view of it, but instead when we looked through we were rewarded with a macaw poking its head out of its nest in a hole in the side of the tree trunk! Another macaw came flying out and down to a lower tree, let out a couple of sqwuaks, and then flew back up to the nest. Incredible!! They pair for life and return to the same nesting area every year. So cool to see in real life – no great pictures, but fantastic memories!
We thanked Antonio for the amazing tour and gave him $60 US (people here don’t expect tips and never ask… We tip for exceptional service. Antonio worked hard and made it a great tour!)
Next stop was the Crocodile Bridge – park on the North side and walk on the West side of the bridge. The bridge is currently under construction and they estimate it will be another year before it’s completed. The government has been scaring away the crocs so if workers fall they have a chance at survival. There were only 3 crocodiles visible in the river and on the shore and island… Usually there are 20-30. The most obnoxious “predators” here are the guys trying to sell crocodile tooth necklaces. They asked us probably 10 times.
A company is building a skywalk out over the river and has built an incredibly huge souvenir shop complete with a mini chocolate factory. There was live marimba music, samples of chocolate, and tons of Costa Rican souvenirs at decent prices. I got the cutest Nativity here for $14, plus we got some passion fruit chocolate. Yummm!
We had packed our lunch today, but found delicious fruit smoothies across the street – we got pineapple and passion fruit to share, plus some Costa Rican vanilla cookies which were more like thick fudge. It felt nice to sit in the shade for a little bit. (The other souvenir shop next to the bridge was a little shack with no price tags on anything… The kids asked the price of a couple of stuffed sloths and they were over $35 each. No thanks.)
We went back to the main entrance of Carara National Park and did the longer loop hike to enjoy more of the forest. Figured we might as well see what we could see since we had paid for the day. Most of the walk we just enjoyed the sounds of birds, seeing a few bugs and butterflies, and seeing the greenery.
But we came across the same line of ants we had passed with our guide this morning… they weren’t carrying anything then. Now, it looked like a moving green river! Every ant was carrying a little cut piece of leaf. We followed them back to the source of the leaves and saw a continuous stream of ants climbing up a fig tree, and back down with a leaf. They were actually so fun to watch.
Spud and Littlest Girl both spotted agoutis in the underbrush too! We also smelled a weird pig smell and said “Smells like bacon” and then saw two peccaries running up a hill! They had been bathing in a little mud hole not too long before. When we passed that, it really stank like a pigpen. Pretty lucky to see them!
We stopped at the Jaco sign on the way back to the condo and Superman got a “Churchill” to share from a guy with a little cart — shaved ice with pineapple syrup, some type of powdery flavoring that tasted like vanilla cake mix (update: I found out that a true Churchill includes a scoop of powdered milk. That’s all it is. Funny!), a scoop of canned fruit cocktail, vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk on top. It was actually so delicious.
We swam a little to cool off, enjoyed the sunset from the patio, and got burritoes from a nearby restaurant. Overall today we hiked/walked about 9 or 10 miles. Nothing too strenuous, but a lot of steps! Everyone was ready for sleep early!
