After our sweltering walk in Barra Honda National Park, we got stuck in traffic. Google informed us there was a traffic accident a few km down the road that would cause us 6 min delay.  Sadly, Costa Rican traffic police are not so good at clearing the carriageways. The traffic banked up in both directions… it added at least an hour to our travel times. The photo shows some of the 6 km line of bumper to bumper traffic coming in as we departed the accident site. Alas, there were no side roads that we could have detoured round the crash. And when we got to where the accident was indicated, there was no sign of crashed cars, though there were 4 tow trucks, one of them parked in a way that blocked half of the road. Sigh. We were glad to get to Jaco, where we had a room in a beachfront hotel. We think we may have been the only residents when we arrived. A gentle plunge in the pool did wonders in cooling us down. We had a relaxed nocturnal swim in the pool to cool down though we were hard pressed to pick a difference in apparent temperature between in and out of the water.

Next morning we were up early for a quick trip up the road to Carara NP via the famous crocodile bridge. The crocodiles were lazing around on sandbanks or in the water below the bridge. Apparently some tour operators got in the habit of throwing chickens to the crocs. The crocs started to associate people with food … not a good idea. Eventually feeding the crocodiles was banned.

Carara National Park is one of Costa Rica’s more popular parks, being an easy day trip from San Jose. Luckily we are in the off-season so there were no crowds to contend with. Besides crocodiles this is a hot-spot for macaws, and has a lot of primary rain forest. Like most of the national parks we have visited it only has a few, relatively short, walking trails (and one is closed in the wet season, ie now, as it can be under several feet of water when the river floods). Despite the shortness of the trails, we spent about 6 h pottering along, spotting wildlife, trees and fungi, and generally enjoying the environment. By 2pm we’d had our fill, and headed for the car, arriving with the start of the afternoon rain. Brilliant timing – 2 minutes later and we would have got drenched.

Back to Jaco and a cooling swim. Alas there were now other guests – to be expected as it was a long weekend (next day was independence day).

We were up early and on the road by just after 7am. We didn’t get far. Crowds of people obviously getting organised for some procession or other festivities… lots of people in red-white-and-blue (Costa Rica’s flag colours) and traditional looking garb; school groups; bands; we spent a while mingling, but got going before whatever was about to happen happened. This is Costa Rica … the event may have been scheduled for noon. Who knows?

Heading south we stopped at Playa Hermosa (Hermosa beach) which is a popular surfing venue, and took some photos of surfers being pummelled by the pacific swells.  Actually there must be more to it. Some of the surfers just loitered out on the waves out beyond were we could see any obvious waves rising… and waited… and waited… clearly waiting for the perfect wave. Jill got chatting to an American lady on the shore, who, it transpires spends all day on the beach watching her boyfriend bobbing around waiting for the perfect wave. They have more patience than us. After about 30 minutes we headed off, aiming for Rainmaker reserve.

Rainmaker is a private reserve set on a sizeable chunk of near vertical rainforest, with tracks cut into precipitous valley walls, waterfalls, and hanging bridges. It turned out to be rather good. We found frogs hopping along the track, lots of verdant moss and ferns, waterfalls and cascades galore, hanging bridges that would surely be condemned as unsafe in Australia (all the more excitement for the visitor, perhaps) – all perfectly safe so long as you didn’t slip on the algae covered treads, slide through the rotted mesh sides …. Luckily we are agile and not acrophobic, so we had no problems. And they do make one sign a “at your own risk” form before they let you on the trails, so, no worries.

From Rainmaker we headed south to Quepos, a small coastal town that boasts a farmer’s market. We indulged ourselves by buying some Rambutans for Jill (about $2 per kg) and a huge avocado (about AU$1.50). The latter turned out to be less of a good deal. It had a HUGE seed with only a thin coat of flesh, so probably no more avocado than the smaller ones we are used to in OZ.

Next morning we were off early (6:30 am) to Manuel Antonio National Park. This is a bit of a pocket handkerchief sort of park encompassing a stretch of coast with rocky headlands and small beaches. It may be small, but it is close to San Jose so it is a popular destination for CR’s beach lovers. Even by just after 7 am the heat and humidity were building. Where the sun penetrated the canopy the shafts of light were visible as the light bounced from moisture drops in the air.

Toddling down the track we were delighted to see a sloth in clear view (a worker building new walkways pointed it out to us). We watched as it ponderously climbed a Cecropia tree, one of its favourite foods. Once at the top it chewed a few of the young tender leaves, in the process breaking off the top, and dropping it to the ground. Then it laboriously climbed down again. It really seemed like live in slow-motion.

Down at the beach we found what looked like a lookout tower, though we were mystified what could be seen from the top as it was surrounded by vegetation. But as we climbed it we realised its true function – this was a play-gym for capuchin monkeys. They were scurrying, jumping, bouncing all around. Fighting on the platforms, leaping from balconies to trees and vice versa.  Lots of fun.

Onwards round the Cathedral point loop trail we spied a Motmot, a gorgeous bird related to kingfishers, rollers and bee-eaters. Then there were racoons, howler monkeys, and nice forests.

Completing the loop, returned us to the main beach, now thronging with people. There were also more capuchin monkeys, some of whom took great efforts to confiscate food items from the beachgoers. Park rules state that food is not allowed in the park, so it is good that the monkeys work so diligently to find and remove such items. One monkey we saw managed to acquire a 250 g box of biscuits. It dropped it whilst working it open so we grabbed it and gave it to the rangers on the beach.,

From there we took another track, up, up, up (perspiration inducing) and down down, down to a lookout, then back and over the ridge to another. In Costa Rica they specialise in tracks that go up and down a lot. Contouring round hills seems to be out of their mindset. By the time we had returned Jill had spotted a further 3 sloths (causing huge traffic jams on the trails as she pointed them out to passing walkers).

That’s all for now. More later…

As usual there is a gallery of photos at https://photos.app.goo.gl/iiLzbTG9FwocjTY03