Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Saturday 28th January

Tame Toucan

On the Forest Skyway

Costa Rica is a small country – half the size of Scotland with 4.5 million population.  It is reputed to have 5% of the plant and animal species of the world – attributed to its position between the Americas and its volcanoes and jungle.  It is also supposed to have 850 species of bird – but we only saw three.  Amazingly they disbanded their armed forces in the 60s and used the money to build more schools and libraries etc.  They have free education, including universities, and free health care.

We took a trip to the Forest Sky Walk and Pura Vida Gardens.  Pura Vida- literally ‘pure life’ is a greeting used by the residents – can mean hello, goodbye or anything in between apparently.  The skywalk took us on a series of suspended cable bridges (up to 330 ft long and 126 ft. high)  across the jungle canopy  - it was fascinating and the guide gave us a comprehensive commentary on the trees and plants – we discovered that nuts from the massive wild cashew trees are poisonous and contain cyanide – and even the cultivated ones have to be boiled and treated before they are edible – won’t taste the same to me now!  We saw lots of leaf-cutter ants, one hummingbird and someone said they saw a Macaw (national bird of Costa Rica) but we only heard it – apparently you have to get there at dawn to see birds and monkeys.  We did see large crocodiles though  - on the river bank – National Geographic did a survey and estimated there are 25 in every kilometre of the river!  The gardens were 1500 feet up the hill and gave superb views over the surrounding jungle – they are privately owned and have been planted with all sorts of exotic and indigenous plants – very impressive.  We had lunch there – very tasty fish with black beans and plantains and were entertained by a tame toucan who seemed to delight in singing to us and having his photo taken.

We would love to go back and visit more of the country – lots of it is designated as national park – and there are several impressive volcanoes – it had a good feeling about it (i.e. didn’t seem to have to have armed police on every corner and not too many locals trying to part us from our money).

We are at sea again tomorrow – heading north for Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on Monday.