…And It Wasn’t Even the Scariest Thing We Saw!
After coming up empty during ten days trekking puma in Patagonia a year ago (see our trip report here) …I was delighted to see puma in the wild on the remote Osa peninsula in Costa Rica! And it wasn’t even one of the top three SCARIEST things we saw while trekking in the Corcovado National Park, at San Pedrillo Station!
First, a note about what wasn't scary at all…planning this trip! I plan a lot of our trips and many times I use trusted travel advisors. For this trip I relied on the experts at Active Travels, a membership travel consultancy. As a milestone birthday trip for my daughter, I wanted to offer her 4 or 5 potential destinations, and Active Travels presented a list of options based on her interests…wildlife/nature, or food/city culture. Despite Costa Rica not being a “new” destination for her (see our trip reports here) she chose warm and wildlife, over a city trip. Active Travels took care of all the details, including all transfers and small plane flights to the remote Drake Bay on the Osa. After two nights in the capital city of San Jose, we settled in for 5 nights at Aguilla de Osa, a remote, all inclusive ecolodge perched above the Pacific Ocean.
At Aguilla De Osa, everything is all included, congregate meals in an open air dining room with wildlife and Pacific views and daily wildlife excursions with expert guides. We booked a flight and never had to think about another detail! We had a choice of 3 lovely options for each meal, and several excursions to explore this wild area on foot, by boat or even in kayaks. Being freed from the logistics, my daughter and I had time to unwind, and reconnect!
A small group prepares to hike at San Pedrillo Station
The first scary thing was having to cross an outlet of the tidal river to get to the trail. We rolled up our pants, and waded through following our guide, Gabriel, without a thought. Didn’t feel scary at all!
We happily followed guide, Gabriel, never thinking about what might be IN the water!
It wasn’t until we returned from our hike after crossing back in hip deep water that we spotted a fifteen foot crocodile floating in the ocean just yards away from where we just crossed!
Another scary thing that happened was with the cutest, not the scary looking animals! Capuchin monkeys are so much fun to watch! It’s a bit of a strain on the neck as you look up into the trees to watch them move and feed on fruit up in the canopy. But they are so playful, fun and social! I didn’t expect them to be dangerous!
Mother and baby monkey moving through the tress
Photo Credit Ian Porteous
While watching one monkey frolic through the canopy, as he moved on, a huge palm frond fell from the tree, landing on the trail, nearly hitting our group on our heads!
Photo Credit Ian Porteous
If you haven’t seen a whole palm frond, they are much heavier than they look and have a hard spine! Thankfully, all of us jumped back and no one was hurt!
A collection of capuchin, howler and squirrel monkeys at Corcovado NP
Photo credits Ian Porteous
The scariest thing that happened, was actually with one of the silliest looking animals, a pecary. A pig like mammal that lives in the park, they mostly forage for insects and other tasty morsels in the ground. They move through the forest in groups that can be as large as hundreds of individuals. They are one of the rarest animals in the Costa Rica and we were so grateful to spot them on our hike. Early in our walk, we watched them moving through the woods, and while at first they seemed quite docile, Gabriel explained, they can be dangerous. As a large group, if threatened, they can take down much larger animals! Later in our walk, a little behind schedule because we had stopped for so many amazing wildlife sightings, we were hustling quickly on the trail, trying to get back to the boat to return us to the lodge for lunch.
Unfortunately, the pecary interpreted our speed as a threat, and suddenly started making clicking sounds to gather themselves, amassing as groups of 4-8, gathering until there were more than 50 pecary on the trail in front of us, moving towards us quite menacingly!
Thankfully, like most of the great guides, Gabriel knew exactly what to do, and told the group to back up a bit, and he took a step towards them with his spotting scope tripod held high, he made a loud yell, and the pecary scattered into the woods, clicking with alarm. Much to Gabriel’s chagrin, none of us had our video running during our hasty retreat and we failed to capture his brave vanquishing of the peccary! It’s the only time I’ve had any animal on any of our safaris threaten us on foot and it did get the adrenaline pumping! (There have been several times when elephants have blocked or challenged our safari vehicles in Africa though!) My daughter and I reminded each other of our long standing family travel motto …
It’s not and adventure until peril is involved!
Fortunately, we were never in any REAL danger, and in good hands with professional guides and a comfortable ecolodge with top notch hospitality and thanks to our travel advisors, nothing to worry about except soaking up the full sensory experience of this biodiverse and beautiful remote spot!
See below for more of our wildlife sightings during this trip Much thanks to fellow traveler, Ian Porteous, for his generosity with his photos. Jeff, my regular photographer and travel compadre, was not with me on this trip and I’m grateful someone captured the “closeups” of the animals at a distance. All the other photos and vidoes are my own, or my daughters.
