2. From man-eating to lettuce eating to gentle giants

I took a day out of the sea and went on a trip to see a bit of the land, as I believe that is what every good adventurer should do on occasion. So off I went with Julio, the tour guide, and an American couple who’d also booked the day trip to Palo Verde National Park, a ‘dry forest’ who’s name literally translates as ‘green stick’ and is located along the Tempisque river. The main event of the day was a boat ride down the river to spot wildlife but to get there we had about an hour’s drive through the countryside which was interesting too.

We wove past the plantations of sugar cane, which is the principle crop in this region, followed by cantaloupe melons. Del Monte have a large plantation here. The Costa Rican population is just over 5 million people, which doesn’t include the up to half a million illegal workers who cross the boarder from Nicaragua to work in the plantations. Julio told me how it was really good that they did as they can work longer hours than legal workers (12 hours as opposed to 8 and less (or no) days off) and can be paid far less (around 50% maximum) than legal workers. He explained that they tend to come over for 6 months to work, are housed by the plantations in large dormitory type accommodation and all their food is provided. They can then return to Nicaragua and live for around a year on the salary they’ve been paid while in CR. He says the government sometimes talk about ‘dealing with’ the illegal workers but they never do, because the country needs that labour. It’s a ‘win-win’ for everyone, says Julio … dependent perhaps on your views on exploitation of low-paid workers in low quality conditions. Del Monte declare a commitment to high-labour standards in their melon and banana plantations here. I’m sure the Nicaraguans would agree.

We also passed by what looked liked fields of cacti in neat rows, which I learnt are actually dragon fruit fields. These aren’t currently ‘in fruit’ yet although the massive mango trees everywhere are positively drooping with ripe fruits as it is currently mango season here. What an excellent time to have come for a visit - I have a mango smoothie most days! The other thing we passed was what appeared to be a couple of large curved plates of solar panels, which is in fact a space radar. Julio told me that NASA own it but a quick bit of googling has revealed that it’s privately owned by a company that collaborates with the international space community. They are radaring space to track debris and satellites and are apparently crucial for collision avoidance. If only they’d known about that in Armageddon; that film could have had a totally different ending. We saw several wind farms dotted about and one of the country’s volcanoes on the horizon - a reminder that over 98% of the Costa Rica’s energy is generated from renewable sources, mostly hydropower - capitalising on the rain fall and raging rivers then geothermal and wind with a little biomass and solar thrown in. Less that 2% of their energy is made from fossil fuels, which are used only as back ups when needed.

Once we arrived to the river, we clambered into a boat and off we went. We saw all sorts of excellent things, mostly not close enough, or willing to sit nice a still enough, for a photo. We saw birds - herons, storks, green kingfisher and something that looked like a toucan but had a name I couldn’t quite understand. There was a little lizard, named the ‘Jesus Christ lizard’ - because he is the one who can run across the surface of the water. We saw howler monkeys and white-faced capuchin monkeys. They didn’t appear to be as murderous as the macaques, who are not my friends, but I kept a careful eye on them in case and was ready to leap from my seat and take cover if needed. Quite terrifyingly, we also saw many crocodiles lounging on the muddy banks or swimming along with just their eyes above the water line.

It would have been been significantly less terrifying if the crazy-loon guides hadn’t decided to hang raw chicken over the side of the boat on a long stick to tempt the giant man-eating crocodiles closer. Despite strict rules in the park prohibiting feeding the animals, obviously. When they bate creatures under the sea, the animals learn to expect food from the humans and can become quite aggressive when they approach and then don’t get it. I hope that all works out ok for the river users.

After narrowly surviving the river boat ‘cruise’, we headed for a celebratory lunch of local Costa Rican food: rice, chicken, veggie stew, tortillas, refried beans and salad. After that, we were ‘invited’ - the type where you don’t get a choice - to watch a pottery demonstration. A very smiley but largely incomprehensible man talked us through how he makes and shapes clay (on a wheel he spun by hand), showed us photos of the kiln in his house and then, I imagine, judging by his actions, how he polishes and decorates it all. He had a range of finished products on display for us to peruse. I bought a clay crocodile, which almost certainly won’t make it back to the UK in one piece!

Our final stop was ‘Iguana Park’, which it turned out was not a farm or sanctuary or anything like the name suggests but is in fact a local park, in the village of Filadelfia, where an absolutely massive community of wild iguanas reside. They spend most of their time sitting up in the trees catching some sun. But when unsuspecting tourists arrive brandishing lettuce, they will rush down and follow you about, slightly threateningly, waiting for their delicious salad leaves. We saw almost entirely green iguanas and only one little black one. Presumably because the black ones are the ones the locals think are tasty and will eat in stews, soups and fried. They apparently are white meat … and taste a bit like chicken or frog. Julio assumed I know what frog tasted like. The locals don’t really call them iguanas - they have a slang name that roughly translates to ‘chicken of the trees’.

To recover from my land-based day of man-eating animal encounters, I returned to the safety of the water to swim amongst the sharks, sting rays and massive oceanic manta rays. This was my trip to Catalinas Island, which is the dive site I came here for and another to tick off in my to-do of 100 dives. The visibility was still a little cloudy but plenty good enough to see the huge oceanic mantas flying by, with their wing span of around 6-7m. We also saw some schools of fish, a big fever of mobula rays (they look like little manta ray) cruising by over head and little shivers of sharks mostly lying on the sand having their naps or sometimes cruising round and circling to investigate the noisy intruders to their home! Although my eyes could see everything, my camera could not and struggled to focus on wide scenes through the plankton in the water. Our guide for this trip was Michael, the co-owner of the dive shop. He has over 7000 dives here and is one of those salty sea dogs of the water who can read the sea, the currents, the fish and know where to go to see the best things in the best conditions

What was meant to be final day’s diving (Thursday) was back to some local sites and plenty of lovely critters Again with Michael so we saw so much more and had some brilliant dives, avoiding mostly the lower visibility. More lovely puffers, moray eels, an octopus, sea horse and an odd anemone!

 I was meant to have today (Friday) as a rest day but when I was asked if I wanted to add on another day diving, which would be guided again by a Michael, I accidentally said yes. Diving is very restful anyway. Mostly. But the reduced ‘rest’ and added cost of more diving was worth every single penny. Today, we have had the most epic mega dives. The most incredibly excellent dives with some absolute wonders of deep. On our first dive, the visibility was so much clearer, the water warmer and an abundance of fish out to play. We saw a lovely curious octopus, lots of reef sharks and rays, two types of turtle and a big lobster who was poked quite far out of his hole. On our surface interval on the boat, where we ate fresh sliced pineapple and drank iced tea (gross - but you can’t have everything!) we hung over the edge of the boat and watched from the surface as a huge oceanic manta ray swooped about and then a whale shark cruised by. A WHALE SHARK! The one on everybody’s bucket list, the ultimate sea dweller, the biggest fish in the sea. The one I spent time at many destinations trying to spot prior to finally getting lucky in Indonesia. Then there was one unexpectedly here in Costa Rica!

After than surface intervals, off we went on our final dive of the day (and of my trip for me) … again, so many fish, reef sharks resting and patrolling the sand and another turtle. There was a huge sting ray who flapped by …. Then there were a load more of them he brought along. They swam up and around and over us, so close over our bubbles. You just stay still and watch as they pass, almost touching you. A nasty green thermocline blew in totally unannounced and plunged us into a very cold 6° temperature drop, a bit like having a bucket of cold water thrown over you on a hot day. It also arrived with quite some force so we all had to grab rocks and hold on for a moment or two as it passed. Off we went in pursuit of more rays when a mega shadow with a tail passed by a little way into the blue. The whale shark came by to see us below the surface in her world! Oh goodness, the absolute treat. Those giants have a relaxed cruising speed of ‘faster than your average human can reasonably ever hope to swim’ …. So we took off after it kicking hard, burning through air (for other normal breathers) and calories to get back alongside briefly. Not quite close enough (or calm enough) for an in-focus photo but you can see her there! She didn’t hang around long, turned and gave us a look then ambled off into the blue. I was so excitedly overwhelmed that I had a cry into my mask and filled my nose bit up with snot. Michael the sea-dog dive guide has seen whale sharks on the surface here but in 7000 dives here, this was his second whale shark siting under water!

During our safety stop, where we mainly all just hung at 5m depth off-gassing, grinning at each other, a little devil ray came to play swimming around, towards and into us really playfully. Needless to say, the surface stop was around 10 minutes rather than the standard 3! What. A. Day. Of. Diving - dives of a life time today, really.

We were back on land by 12.30pm so there was plenty of time for excitable debriefing then time to rest and read by the pool this afternoon! Important off-gassing activities! I’ve finished off the day by packing up all my stuff ready to move! Tomorrow, I head inland towards La Fortuna, in to the rainforest.