Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica - 160-162

Costa Rica will be the last country we visit and our first stop in Costa Rica will also be our last big trek of our 6 month adventure. This final trek was the jungle trek we have been waiting for since we started our adventure 5 1/2 months ago. It was a long and unguided 3-day trek through the jungle and we couldn't have chosen a better place to do it. Parque Nacional Corcovado is considered by some as the most biodiverse spot on earth, and of all the places we have visited so far we could see why.

With fully loaded backpacks, we began the trek from the north end of the park at Los Patos Ranger Station. We hiked 12 miles through the heart of Corcovado to the south end where we finished the day at a jungle lodge called La Sirena. This portion of the trek felt as though we were hiking through a zoo. After only hiking for 10 minutes we saw our first peccary (wild pig), later there were spider monkeys swinging through the trees everywhere, parrots and macaws squawking, and even an anteater walked right in front of us and began digging for ants, seemingly unaware of our presence. Just before finishing the hike, we watched a 6 foot long snake chase down a huge bullfrog, and while watching the snake and frog battle it out, a pack of 30 peccaries came out of nowhere and really scared us! Packs of these wild pigs can be aggressive and will tear skin off with their tusks.

We spent the night camping at La Sirena and the next day doing several long hikes around the lodge and saw more monkeys than we could count and many more jungle creatures. While hiking out on the last day, we finally saw our first Tapirs, (large jungle cow/rhino like animals), and finished the trek by hiking another 12 miles along pristine tropical beaches to the tiny town of Carate where we caught a taxi back to town.

Taking pictures in the jungle, especially animals high up in the trees, is extremely difficult and requires a speciality camera which we did not have so our pictures did not turn out so great. :( We also saw way more animals than we could take pictures of, which is why you'll all have to visit the park yourselves!

Very cool Strangler Tree. Strangler Trees start off as vines that grow around other trees until they completely take over the original tree. This Strangler has grown over another Strangler Tree.

Walking Palm

An anteater digging away at a tree stump to find some ants.

Peccaries crossing the trail. This group only had about 5 pigs, so they weren't as big of a threat as the huge group we encountered earlier.

Spider Monkeys are the most common out of the 4 monkey species found in the park. Their arms and legs are extra long, which makes them look creepy, but they seem to move through the treetops with more ease than other monkeys.

Toucan

An Agouti running across the trail. Agoutis look like large rats that hop around.

We found a Coati eating ripe bananas, so we decided to grab some for ourselves! Here he is patrolling his food waiting for us to leave.

The luxurious lodge! If you don't camp, you can stay in nice rooms and have people cook all your food for you.

On the look out for crocodiles while crossing a river on the hike out.

During high tide, the beach is impassable, so you have to time it correctly.

Beautiful beaches stretched all along the hike out. It was hot backpacking on the sand.