Costa Rica 2018

As happened most days in Costa Rica, we were awakened at dawn around 530am, by the howls of the howler monkeys, but this time they sounded very close...

Even though they are loud enough to be heard from up to 3 miles away, this time they sounded like they were next door.  So we headed out onto Cabo Matapalo Road to see if we could spot them, they are not as easy to see as the Capuchins, that's for sure...

And sure enough, there they are, this one using its prehensile tail for grip...howlers are mostly black...

And seemingly as curious about us as we are about them...

though perhaps a bit more fearful...probably a good thing...

unfortunately they weren't howling any more by the time we saw them, but we did see a brief glimpse of a baby howler here on the back of its parent..



So now we'd seen 3 of the 4 species of Costa Rican monkeys...capuchins, spider, and howlers.....the more elusive squirrel monkeys had yet to make an appearance.

We head back to Tucan Terra...

and we have visitors, looking for their breakfast....

The kitchen at Tucan Terra is open-air, and we knew not to leave any food lying around..those are two lighters - used to light the stove.  Cory feeds them some pieces of banana, which is one of Cory's favourite breakfast foods too...

Something happened...they left quickly....

So we headed to the sea to enjoy our coffee and watch the waves....

as well as some of the flowers on the property...

After coffee, we decide to do some exploring in our SUV...a drive back along Cabo Matapalo Road, to the main road, and then to Carate, a long beach on the western side of the Osa Peninsula.

And more small rivers to cross...

Further along, we come up to another vehicle stopped in the middle of the road....to let a family of coatis cross....coatis are Costa Rica's version of a  raccoon....and like our raccoons they are plentiful and can be pesky....one walked along a water pipe near our home and stuck his nose through the netting our of bedroom.....we were concerned he would actually come into the bedroom, but he had a sniff and moved on...maybe it was my socks on the floor...

And then a bit further along, we spot a group of squirrel monkeys, the last of the 4 kinds of monkeys native to Costa Rica - we've now seen all 4!

The squirrel monkey is light brown and smaller than the other monkeys we've seen, and they don't have a prehensile tail, as you can see her this squirrel monkey is not gripping with his tail...

They seemed willing to pose for us for a few minutes, and then they moved on...and so did we..

on to Carate....this is a wild beach,  adjacent to Corcovado National Park, not much development at all and except for a small pulperia (kind of a Costa Rican convenience store).....and certainly one with big waves, so a big smile on Cory's face...

Time to head back towards Tucan Terra....where we encounter some caballeros...

and a caracara..

before heading to Martina's bar...the only bar for miles around and a legend in Cabo Matapalo...quite the place isn't it?...a bar, a few tables and chairs, a roof, some funky decor, and there you have it...a legend!

even a funky bathroom...

no, definitely not gold-plated taps....brass maybe...

and a saintly reminder about Costa Rica's different septic system...yep TP into the trash can....in some places they had no lids...

but the mango juice is tasty and cold and same goes for a Costa Rican Imperial...Pura Vida!

so Martina's Bar is a great place to hang-out....and in a nearby tree, right above our car....a sloth, the third one we've seen...

a bit blurry but there's its face...

back to sleep...

 After lunch, it's back to Tucan Terra to enjoy the waves once again, though this time the tide is in, and the waves are hitting hard....

really hard...

REALLY REALLY HARD!!!

And that was the rather damp end to our last full day in the Osa Peninsula, the next day we headed back north, to a small town called Ojochal (pronounced O-HO-CHAL), where we'd rented another home - this one called Fiesta del Rio - for another 4 days.

Our last night at Tucan Terra was spent just like the others, dark by 6pm, and being off the electrical grid, most lighting was by candlelight.  But we found the candles also attracted bugs so we were content just to sit in the dark for a while, listening to the jungle's night sounds - those cicadas can be loud - and watching the fireflies.  And talking about what we had seen and done each day, and what we had planned for the next.  And with those howler monkeys making sure everyone was awake by 5am, it was early bed times for us.

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