Corcovado

We hiked into the Sirena station, a distance of 23 kilometres. We saw a bunch of blue Morpho butterflies, as well as basilisks.

After Lars and I sat by the Rio Claro discussing ideas for a while, we returned along the trail, where we saw a mother and baby tapir cross the trail. The mother was larger than I expected, about 4 feet tall at the shoulder. The baby was about 2 feet at the shoulder, and speckled/striped like a fawn, probably for camouflage. On another hike on that trail we saw a fer-de-lance curled up on a buttress.

Matt showed us a swimming hole on the Rio Claro. It was 9 feet deep in the centre, and had a ledge overhanging it that most of us jumped off. Later, Matt explained that there was usually a caiman who lived down under the ledge, but it was very unlikely to attack. The next day, Lars, Allegra, Ellen, and I swam there again after taking our stream samples.

We saw a troop of squirrel monkeys, leaping around in the trees. One mother had a baby clinging to her. They seemed smaller than the ones I remember from the Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo. After seeing spider monkeys the day before, I have now seen all four species of monkey in Costa Rica.

Playa Oscura – 4/2/2014

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Crescent moon spreads silver gleam

O’er breaking waves and sandy shore

As crashing water moans and roars,

Splits sand and sea by frothy seam.

A path leads out ‘cross darkened deep

Broken by undulating swells

A faerie path across the fells

To realms one visits but in sleep.

Our searching gaze sheds pools of light

Crabs scuttle and hermits freeze

While unseen eyes look out from trees

Elusive denizens of the night.

Cheshire grin peers out from clouds

He’s seen ages come and go

Tides continue ceaseless flow

When all man builds lies in shrouds.

Driftwood logs reach for the sky

Skeletons of leviathons long gone

As time marches, progresses on

All too must pass and be passed by.

The ocean mocks our sense of time

Our scrambling toward a futile end

Of life and love or art or friend

Mean nothing more than this small rhyme.