Costa Rica Day 13—Trouble in the Lowlands

Hi, it’s Zoe! Today was a very eventful day. As soon as we woke up and prepared for breakfast, we were informed by our guide Héctor that we would have to evacuate the Caño Negro camp. There is a large tropical storm coming from the Caribbean side, and with the water surrounding the area and the lack on mountains to protect us in the northern lowlands, there is too much risk of severe flooding. So, we were told to pack our things, and load the bus promptly at 8 am, which was in about 40 minutes upon hearing this news. The current plan is to stay in a hostel in the Manuel Antonio area until Monday, when we will hopefully return to Caño negro to finish up the projects we started and go on a boat ride along the river before head to Monte Verde. Although we were sad to leave camp Caño Negro, we were all feeling rather positive about getting to warm showers and air conditioning :) Our guide Héctor made sure our ~6 hour drive wasn’t too mind-numbing by explaining Costa Rica’s complicated relationship with pineapple plantations, and telling us about hydroelectric damns and how Costa Rica gets 98% of its energy from renewable sources. We also stopped to see a cool geographic phenomenon, where we were somehow rolling backwards up a hill despite the bus engine being off. Héctor explained this as magnetism, though I’m still not entirely sure how that worked. Once we arrived at our hostel, we had a delicious dinner and refreshing fruit smoothies. We then walked around town a bit, passing many stalls full of jewelry, shirts, stuffed animals, and other souvenirs. The coolest thing we saw, though, was monkeys (white-faced capuchins) walking all over the power lines right above us! After taking many pictures, we walked back through the rain to our hotel to have dinner and have some free time before bed. We’re all hopeful to see many animals—especially sloths, which we haven’t seen yet—when we walk through the Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow! 

¡Pura Vida!

Zoe