Costa Rica......continues to deliver the goods!!!

We've spent the past several days working our way south from Quepos/Manuel Antonio Park to explore the wonderful Osa Peninsula.  Home of the Corcovado National Park, National Geographic describes this place as "the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity".   From what we saw anchored in our base of operations, Bahia Drake (pronounced "Drah-kay"), we'd be the first to agree!

Our stay at Bahia Drake proved to be one of our favorites.  The bay is remote from any major population centers, and is home to several "eco-lodge" resorts catering to folks from all over the world who come to explore the park.  As we are here in "low" (read "RAINIEST") season, the lodges are nearly deserted, and along with other cruising boats Espiritu and Swift Current, we feel as though we have the bay to ourselves.




There's a beautiful trail that wraps around the entire peninsula and park.  Better traveled in the "dry"  (read "not as rainy") season, we nonetheless spent a few hours hiking the jungle.  Cindi and I came upon a troop of white faced capuchin monkeys, sitting in a mango tree enjoying lunch.  

 

Cindi was sure she saw this guy extending a little middle monkey digit.....time to move on!!!

After about ten minutes of hanging with the little guys, a couple of them started acting a bit aggressively, and we figured it was time to move on before things got ugly!!

 

The jungle itself is surreal, it is so GREEN!!!  Receiving over 220" of rain annually, this peninsula is the wettest spot in Costa Rica.....and that says a lot!  (For perspective, Seattle receives 37" per year!!) 

Typically, we have an afternoon rain, with dramatic lightning storm.  The rain can be intense.  We're started collecting rain water in our tanks, using soft dive weights to create a dam to divert the water into the deck fillers.  The other day we got 30 gallons in less than 10 minutes!!!

These pangas strap empty barrels to their sides so that they don't sink from rain!!

Scarlet macaws are a common sight in the trees around the bay.

Isla Cano, about 15 miles west of Bahia Drake, is a biologic reserve, famous for it's abundant marine life.  We've been looking forward to scuba diving on the island for some time, and planned to head out to the island with Bravo.  However, there's no good anchorage at the island, the best dive sites can be hard to identify, and the more we asked around, the better it sounded to hire a dive guide and a small panga to run us out there.  

So together with the Swift Current and Espiritu crews and our fantastic dive master Kike (pronounced "Kee-kay"), we headed out to Cano for two exceptional dives.  While the visibility was only so-so, at around 35-40 feet, the quantity and diversity of fish species was great.  

On our second dive, we had the magical experience and good luck to be joined by 3 giant manta rays.  These beautiful fish with their 15 foot wing spans swam around us, gliding gracefully through our bubble streams as we watched in awe.  Kike said we were indeed lucky, as the mantas are only at Cano for around 3 months each year before heading to the open sea, and he said they'd be gone in the next day or two.  Wow, what an amazing dive!!!

 

Jungle living agrees with Cindi!!!!

Employee parking lot in a surf town.....this was behind a little street restaurant in Manuel Antonio.

We're now in Puerto Jimenez in the Golfo Dulce.  The former gold mining town is now a hub for backpackers and biologists exploring Corcovado.  We'll explore the shores of the Golfo Dulce for a few days, before heading into Golfito, the capitol of the region, where we'll get ready to leave Central America and sail to Ecuador.