We exited Monteverde and headed on the bus for
Liberia, Costa Rica´s main northern town and centre for the cattle-ranching
Guanacaste region. As I explained
before, this was a slow journey. Still,
we started early, so arrived in good time in Liberia to be diddled by both a
taxi driver and a hotel. We asked for
the hostel we wanted – to be told it had changed its name – so we were dropped
off at said different hostel. Asked
Hotel manager about name change, who confirmed it, and then tried to flog us a
rather expensive room – although we managed to negotiate a slightly cheaper one
without air-con. I thought it was iffy
at the time, and so it was – on our first reccie of the town centre, there was
our original choice, where it should have been.
Eh well – you live and learn – although its hard to get out of that sort
of situation, as you can´t exactly call the taxi-driver a liar…
Anyway – we found Liberia to be a really nice
town. Its friendly and not too big, it
is a town in its own right, and not one formulated around tourism, and for the
first time in Costa Rica – it still has some of its original colonial
architecture, which seems to be have been swept aside in most of the country to
be replaced by amorphous block-work buildings.
The Coati at the Ranger´s station, in two minds as to whether I´m a tasty grub or not...
Our only adventure here was to take a tour to the
Volcan Rincon de la Vieja National Park.
This is an active volcano surrounded by rainforest 20km to the north-east of
the town. A new geo-thermal power station is being constructed at its foot - a great way to generate electricity in central america (until the volcano blows, of course...). We got there early, and negotiated our way around the rather tame
Coati near the ranger station (what is it with tame animals at National
Parks? There´ll be a Jaguar at the next
one wanting its tummy tickled…).
In the morning
we walked around a trail that brought us round numerous bubbling mud pools and
eggy-smelling vapour clouds issuing from the multi-coloured rocks, covered in
mineral salts. The forest here was much
different from that we´d encountered elsewhere – darker and more forbidding,
and seemingly dominated by strangler vines – ficuses that wrap around a host
tree, before eventually out-competing and killing it, leaving a hollow tree with
a knot-work trunk, with the rotting remains of its host spilling out…. Paths were covered in twisting, thick roots, undergrowth
sometimes dominated by vicious spiky succulents – and what with the volcanic
vents, surrounded by barren rocks, the experience really did seem like
something out of a fairy-tale, or maybe some dark fantasy novel. We also saw another Coati foraging for grubs
and insects, and had a good near view of a red-furred Agouti (rodent-like
critters, about the size of a small dog).
Steaming pools of scalding water abound.
The forest also contained a fantastic waterfall, full
of water – a definite place for water-nymphs.
In the afternoon, I dragged Rachel up the mountain slope to visit two
more big waterfalls – they were only supposed to be 5km away, but after two
hours, we´d only got half way, so I think their distance measuring was a bit
off! – we turned back, needing to catch our taxi. The forest we walked through was again dark,
and rather quiet – Rachel surprised me by taking off her shoes and wading
across a fiercely flowing stream without coaxing (obviously good practice was
had at Mastatal!). Shortly afterward the
path passed a deep pool (probably 15ft), which was totally clear to the bottom –
with trees growing right out of it – obviously seasonal, and utterly
magical. Once we turned back, we saw
Capuchins, and then surprised a group of spider monkeys – the first we´d seen
in the wild – we were suddenly surrounded by guttural howls and screams in the
canopy – quite unworldly and nearly frightening – the large males swung
gracefully through the canopy, making full use of their prehensile tails, quite
unlike the branch jumps of Capuchins and Howlers. They weren´t happy to see us – so we moved on.
Here be water spirits...
We made good time back to our pick up – where we were
attacked by horrible little biting flies – swarms of ´em – we quickly decided
to find our driver and get out! The
large blue and white magpie-jays, with their dashing crests laughed at us as
we left.It was funny – the forest here
had a distinct primevality to it – a presence, or a memory that Rachel found
unpleasant – forest with a dark undercurrent. I found it fascinating and quite other-wordly – this is the sort of
place where story and myth originate.
What if the roots come alive?
