Parque Nacional Corcovado

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”

~Psalm 18:30

And so my adventure continues.  After leaving San Jose, I spent two week camping in the jungle.  I have since been back for a week but have been a little swamped with school work and so blogging has been put on the back burner, but I will try my best to recount the incredible adventure of Corcovado National Park.

On the way to the park we stopped at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Our Lady of the Angels Basilica) in Cartago.  There was spring outside the church with Holy Water, and many people were stopping to fill up water bottles or wash their feet in the sacred space.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a sip; God has poured his blessing on all of us!  Printed on the wall above the spring was Psalm 42:1 “As the deer longs for the flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.”  I really liked the cross (pictured below) outside the church.  I love how the top of the cross disappears into the clouds.  As if the suffering of Jesus has already been taken up into heaven, and with it mine as well, though the body stays rooted to the Earth.

We continued driving for most of the day and stopped at Cerro de la Muerte, or “Mountain of Death.”  It is the highest point in Costa Rica on the Inter-American Highway, and is in the Talamanca Mountain Range.  I could definitely feel the elevation hiking around at about 3000m.  We had lunch there and walked around looking for species to talk about.  We found a fiery-throated hummingbird and a bunch of plants, and then played a game called “Go Find a Salamander.”  When the title of your school activity has a name like that you know you are doing something right!  Afterwards we visited a pineapple plantation then finished our trip to the Pacific Coast.

Ananas comosus

We stayed the night in Sierpe, and in the morning took a boat tour through a mangrove forest.  This program is really cool in that all the learning is hands-on.  When we see a species, we learn about the species.  We learned all about different kinds of mangroves and how they are adapted to a high salt and low oxygen environment.

Pelliciera rhizophorae

Many mangroves are viviparous, meaning the seeds actually germinate while still on the tree.  This is so that the seedling becomes stronger and has a better chance at successfully becoming an adult tree.  It also allows the mother tree to feed the seedling without using the endosperm reserves in the seed, and therefore the seedling can remain on it’s own longer before finding a substrate in which to grow (some seeds can actually float in the water dormant for up to a year before making landfall and successfully growing).  Some mangroves have prop roots that are sent out from the trunk and actually suspend the tree in the air.  This allows for the roots to be exposed to the air for a longer period of time, and creates a wide branched support system for the tree, instead of a deep root system that would be useless in the highly hypoxic mud environment.  These roots also make a really great jungle gym, and climbing around all over the roots like a monkey was my favorite part of the day!

Rhizophera mangle

Once through the mangal, we continued across the ocean for a ways to a remote ranger station in Corcovado National Park.  Our camping spot for the rest of the week was essentially the picture of paradise.  Waves calmly breaking on a wide sandy beach lined with palm trees, conveniently shading our tents, and the edge of the rainforest waiting to be explored.  A flock of scarlet macaws greeted us (I didn’t know they actually existed in real life!), and spider monkeys dropped mango like fruits from a tree less than 10 meters away.

Ara macao

Ateles geoffroyi

Watching the sunset from my tent

While at Corcovado we hiked around quite a bit and found some crazy things to look at.  I went on a run one day, over roots and mud with monkeys following me through the trees.  I crossed rivers attempting to keep my feet dry, and I crossed rivers having given up on that fantasy.  I swung on a vine like Tarzan.  I played on the beach, and collected field data for a research project on palms.  I caught an anole, and learned more about the structure of plants than I thought possibly could have existed.  I got wet, and stayed wet, and jumped in the ocean just because I was already wet.  And I had a wonderful time!

Basiliscus basiliscus

Crocodylus acutus
This guy surprised us right in the middle of the trail!

Research!

Norops polylepsis

Costus laevis

My favorite day by far in Corcovado was the day we hiked to Playa Llorona through old growth lowland wet forest.  According to some famous botanist, this hike went through “the most beautiful forest in the world.”  We were told to spend the day hiking in whatever way was best to individually “experience the forest.”

I had been feeling a little flustered the night before, a tad homesick, and kind of annoyed at my present situation.  I woke up the morning of the hike feeling more dread than excitement (not usual for me I know, I think I was sick of wet boots and a backpack by then, I missed my family and friends and a way to communicate with them, and I was grumpy from simple exhaustion).  I crawled out of my tent and sat on the beach to do my devotional in not the best of moods, when I noticed a promise in the sky.  I took a deep breath, thanked God for the day, and got up ready and enthused for the hike ahead. 

I was not disappointed.  I think I am just beginning to recognize biodiversity as it’s own kind of beauty, and as I continue to learn and explore that appreciation will continue to grow.  In the mean time however, I loved walking though the woods, marveling at the trees, the flowers, maybe occasionally the spiders…  I lay down and watched a group of howler monkeys yell at us from the trees, and quickly got up when the ants found me.  I wandered with friends and sometimes alone, and thanked God for his glorious creation that he has made for us.

Ficus

And then I arrived at the beach!  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves here…

If you chased the crabs for long enough they got tired
and then you could pick them up!

We found a beautiful waterfall!
I danced under it, climbed behind it, and...

... of course jumped in front of it!

After everyone had left the waterfall area, I found a nice rock to sit on and pulled out my Bible.  I read aloud Psalm 119, to myself and to God.  It was so cool to praise God in the midst of his creation!  And exactly what I needed to hear at the time.  Verse 130 resonated with me, “the unfolding of your word gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”  In God’s Word my truth is found.

After a beautiful day at the beach I hiked back to camp with my friend and tent-mate Heather.  We shared a great discussion on the hike back and paused at a beach near camp to watch the tide come in.  I almost caught a moray eel, but got too scared to pick it up after I had stunned it with a rock.  Also I felt a little guilty about killing a fish after thanking God for the fish and all of creation, and felt better when it recovered and swam to freedom.  We made it back to camp right as the sun was setting.  Lucky for us the rain held off for the entire day, and my boots almost dried out.  Coincidence?  I think more was at play with the weather today.  God always provides, often in unexpected ways.  And it turned out to be a wonderful day.

Crossing the estuary back to camp

The following day we took a boat to Isla del Cano, an island off the south Pacific coast and a biological reserve.  We had a lecture on island ecology, and my professor drew the graphs in the sand (awesome).  On the way back we jumped out of the boat and went snorkeling.  The best part of snorkeling was that there were no ants!  (There are ants literally everywhere else in this country).

The most breathtaking event of my time in Corcovado involved whales.  Mama and baby humpback whales surfaced right next to our boat.  I can’t even describe the feeling it imparted, these massive creatures, gently breathing, so close.  All I can say is wow.

Megaptera novaeangliae

That night we went on a night hike on one of the trails near camp.  We were going to cross the estuary but a pair of bright green crocodile eyes convinced us otherwise…  We found snakes, sleeping birds, tree frogs, and so so so many spiders!  The next day it was time to leave Corcovado.  Our coati friend came to say goodbye.

Nasua narica