Drake Bay

 

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After a bus to Palmar Norte, a shared taxi with our fellow “gringo’s” to Sierpe and then an hour boat out through the mangrove rivers to Bahia Drake: we arrived at our destination, on the edge of one of the most remote parts of Costa Rica, Corcovado National Park. Home to a staggering 2.5% of the world’s biodiversity. Quite a claim but this national park, created in 1975, in a country which already has some of the strictest conservation laws in the world (hunting wildlife results in a similar criminal sentence to murder 9 years) mean that Tapir, Squirrel & Howler monkeys, Coatis, Sloths & Toucans were all seen on our walk through the reserve.

 

As well as a tour into the park we also visited Cano Island on a snorkelling tour where we had the very fortunate experience of swimming with a huge school of Devil Rays who jumped out of the water as part of a seasonal mating ritual.

 

We stayed just outside of Drake Bay town in the home of Trista and Jairo who were lovely. Jairo is a guide and we met him on one of his two-day tours in the park at a ranger station. Trista, a North Carolina native, has lived in Drake for 5 years and has ambitious plans for community projects such as sustainable drinking water and schools. It was a lovely home on the edge of the jungle and we feel privileged to be able to travel and stay in people’s homes with them and get a small taste of their life.