You arrive at Palmar Sur after a 30 minute flight from San Jose. A 20 minute bus ride deposits you at Sierpe, a sleepy town on the river. A 90 minute boat ride, first along the river through mangrove swamps, and latterly over the sea, sees you eventually crashed ashore in heavy surf. Your gear is taken off the boat for you, and you have a 10 minute tractor ride (the “limo”) to the lodge itself.
We had been booked into two bungalows, numbers 7 and 8, about 50 yards apart. Having received the reception briefing (always carry a torch at night, stay on the trail etc.) we thought that worried kids might not enjoy the trip across to see Mummy and Daddy during the night, so decided all to bunk together and were given a larger bungalow with 4 huge double beds, draped in mosquito netting. This decision proved quite wise I think – this place is basically right in the middle of the jungle and there are come pretty crazy sounds, crashes, hoots and so on, going off all through the night. We saw several potentially lethal snakes here with the closest antivenom an hour distant.
Even while being shown to our rooms, we saw monkeys,
toucans, coati,
and passed too many tarantula holes to mention. Jemima and I checked these holes with our torches each night on the way to supper, but had no luck unfortunately [we saw plenty of Costa Rican nightjars though – just like on Hindhead Common, these guys sit on the path like bats and fly up and a few yards away when disturbed; this leads to the myth that if you follow a nightjar into the forest, you will get lost].
We did 3 guided trips here; one walking safari into the neighbouring National Park;
a snorkelling trip to Cano Island; and then a boat ride to Sirena Reserve deep in the middle of the Park on Mima’s birthday. First, Cano Island. Over to Jemima.
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