“WHAT WAS THAT!” I sit bolt upright in my bed. “THERE IT IS AGAIN!” Then I remember: Howler Monkeys. And they are right overhead. It’s 5 AM and the Howlers are calling to let other bands know where they are and establish their territory. (Hear the Howler Monkeys to the left) Their calls can be heard for miles and are quite impressive when this close. We were told about the Howlers, but hearing about their calls and actually hearing them are quite different. This calling would happen every morning between 5 and 6 AM and again just before dark in the evening. But on successive days, the band moved further and further away. Their calls were never again as impressive as they were as we awoke on this first morning in the Costa Rican jungle!
With the Howler alarm clock, I was up by 6 AM and made my way to the bathroom to avoid the later crowd. Coffee wouldn’t be ready for a while yet, so I strolled on the beach heading south toward a fresh water stream that ran into the bay at its far southern edge. It was low tide, so I was able to explore up stream with little difficulty. The area was quite pretty in the early morning light. The bay actually faces northeast. Sunrise was over the southeastern edge of the bay.
Sunrise comes quickly in the tropics. It’s not like here with long periods of early dawn light, followed by a changing array of colors until the sun bursts over the horizon. Tropical sunrises are quicker and more muted. Never-the-less, the sunrise was beautiful on this morning and on every morning of our stay.
Coffee was a little late, so I sat and talked with the few paddlers who were up and waiting as I was. That was usually Matthew and sometimes Jason. Louis from the support crew typically joined us too. Coffee soon arrived and was excellent as always. Costa Ricans do not serve half-and-half to those of us who don’t want our coffee straight. They serve hot, whole milk. It’s wonderful and every bit as flavorful as half-and –half. Each day Louis would place packaged sweet cakes on the table along with the coffee. These seemed so out of context here. I can best describe them as “Costa Rican Ho-Ho’s”. They were a yellow cake with white frosting wrapped inside and chocolate drizzled on top. Very artificial, but I always had at least one anyway.
Slowly folks would emerge from their tents or wander in from the beach. Then there would be the sounds of bathroom doors opening and closing and showers running as background noise in the otherwise quiet campground. Breakfast was at 8:30 AM. It was usually Pinto Gallo (beans and rice), plantains, eggs, sometimes meat, fresh fruit and juice. Very healthy and very good!
At 9:30 AM we headed for the beach and our boats. Today we would paddle around Isla Tolinga, with a stop at a beach on Isla Tortuga and some snorkeling. Lisa and I fitted ourselves into a nineteen foot Eddyline Whisper double kayak. She took the front seat, I took the rear. As the rudder blade was bent slightly to the right, I elected to leave it shipped and not use it. Jason also switched boats, as his boat from the previous day had leaked into a watertight compartment, waterlogging the boat, compromising its stability and slowing him down considerably. This day, he chose an Echo without a rudder.
Unlike yesterday, there was little wind. We paddled out of the bay toward the island. Soon we were adjacent to a massive stone monolith, pierced by a large opening about twenty feet wide, through which the Pacific easily passed. One of the guides was first to paddle through with Lisa and me right behind. It was great fun, with a surge from behind giving a fast ride through the sea gate. We turned the Eddyline around quickly to take pictures as our group followed through the opening. A pesky powered tour boat decided to come through too. It was a tight squeeze, and the pilot had trouble controlling the powerboat in the swell. He decided to throw his engine into reverse and gun it. Tarra was directly behind him at the time. He filled her cockpit with water and nearly hit her with the spinning propeller before noticing her and shutting down his engine. I don’t know if the incident scared her or not. At the time she yelled and then simply continued paddling.
We continued our paddle around Tolinga, a lovely island with towering cliffs all around. We reached the beach at Isla Tortuga before noon, having paddled a little over four miles.
This beach is a tourist destination. There were many pangas (open powerboats) and a few luxury yachts. The biggest party boat was a powered catamaran called Calypso. It carried twenty or thirty partiers. There were even umbrella and beach chair rentals! We deposited ourselves at the far western end of the beach, which we had pretty much to ourselves. While our paddling group swam, sunned and beach combed, Cris and crew set up tables and prepared a mid-morning snack..
Lisa and I are old compared to the rest of our paddling group. We don’t have the opportunity to spend much time around young adults. It’s either our kids, who are as old as or older than most of the other paddlers here, or our grand kids. That’s why it was nice for us to have time to talk to and learn about the lives of Cheryl and Tarra. They are really fine young people whose lives are already so different from what Lisa and I have experienced. And it didn’t hurt that they spent much of their time on the water and around camp wearing their brief, but quite decent bathing attire!
After relaxing, snacking, swimming, strolling, and taking photographs, Captain (one of the crew) gathered some coconuts and forced the husks off using the boat anchor. Soon we were passing around fresh coconut meat. Delicious! After our snack, those of us who were interested boarded our chase boat and motored to a large rock about a mile off the Isla Tortuga beach to snorkel. I’m not an enthusiastic snorkeler, but this was nice water to snorkel in because it was so warm. The water was somewhat cloudy from suspended sediment. There was a strong current running close to and around the rock. As I paddled about, I saw a few, very colorful fish, but not in any great numbers and without much diversity. Because I’m not a strong swimmer, I decided to stay near the boat, as many fish like to congregate in the boat’s shadow. Getting back in the boat was an “interesting” task. Cris had brought two lengths of wood he found in camp. He used these and a length of webbing to make a makeshift ladder. The problem was that the steps floated so that it was hard to get a foot onto a step. When I finally climbed out I had an earful of water, a problem that persisted for days.
Back at the beach, lunch was soon ready. We feasted on pasta salad, Tuna, pita bread and fresh fruit. After eating, we spent more time relaxing, walking the beach, and swimming.
At about 3 PM, we got back in our boats for the trip back to our campsite at Cruru, a distance of some 2.7 miles. We covered the distance in about 45 minutes in conditions that were much milder than yesterday’s. Then it was clean-up, Happy Hour and dinner, before a rousing game of dominos with Matthew, Jason and Chris. We spent a lot of time talking into the evening before turning in, tired but relaxed.
