Saturday, January 30, 2010 -- RIO BARTOLA AND AQUAS FRESCAS

All six of us ate breakfast at 6:30 am in preparation for our jungle hikes. Yaro had notified the boat. It was supposed to come for us at 7:30 but got in at 8:10 . . . Nica time at work. Before the panga was in view, Yaro got a call to ask how many of us were boarding. When the panga did come into view, it was so loaded that the water was only five inches or so below the sides. I expressed concern, but Yaro assured me that the boat could not take on more passengers than there were seats—no mention of the passengers’ weight or numerous heavy packages and bundles.

German couple, English couple, and Jess at far end

We six managed to squeeze aboard. With six more passengers aboard I thought for sure that we would end up in the news as capsized drowning victims. I took the first available seat so that I would not have to pick my way over baggage and bodies for any longer than necessary.

The boat pulled away from the dock v-e-r-y slowly, listing heavily to the left, and placing me hip to hip with the man next to me. I was sure that the water was now only inches from entering the boat, so set my mind to what action I would take if the boat started to sink. The captain and ticket-taker assessed the passengers and asked several, including a large man in front of me, to change seats to the other side of the boat. We still listed but not as severely. The man now in front of me had a beautiful rust-colored rooster in a box resembling an old-fashioned wooden sewing machine case. A man got on and sat behind me with three chickens in cloth bags.

We got off an hour later in El Castillo, a tidy little river town hunkered on the shore of the river (here foamy rapids) below its namesake, a 17th century Spanish fortress, and shaded by mango, coconut, orange, and almond trees. It’s main street was paved, and it also had concrete/stone paths up the hillside and up to the fortress.

Exiting the boat, we found ourselves in a small town square, our tour service building at the back and a restaurant named Borders Café up on the right edge. We were greeted by our two guides. My guide was a young woman named Sayla, who had a good reputation as a birder and naturalist. The other five met their guide, too, a man named Orlando. We all chose high rubber boots in our size from a collection presented by the guides. Jess and Gabby could not find their size so had to go to another location to get a pair. I had been wearing my requisite two pair of socks so put on the boots, but the guides told us that we’d be cooler if we waited until our destinations, so I took them off again.

We all got into the guide boat, a smaller panga-shaped boat but with no roof, the better for wildlife viewing. Dutifully we put on our PFDs but were told that we could take them off as soon as we were out of sight of the guards—camo-clad men with rifles slung over their shoulders who checked passports along the river. Our captain negotiated the rapids—called Devil’s Rapids by the locals—and we were soon on a protected part of the river with Costa Rica on the right and Nicaragua on the left.

Sayla and I were dropped off at the mouth of the Río Bartola, quite a few soldiers were at the dock. Sayla gave them my passport number and then we donned our boots and started our walk through the jungle. The trail was up and down and mostly dry but with some deeply muddy patches. It is hard to look up in the jungle as one must watch one’s feet, but we saw white-faced monkeys, spider monkeys, red and dark blue poison dart frogs, leaf frogs, bullet ants, and leaf cutter ants, among other things. I love the leaf-cutter ants. These ants travelled a 3-inch wide trail made by their soldiers. Sayla told me that the leaf-cutter trails could be a kilometer long. Sayla explained all the lush wildlife, pointing out the medicinal values of several species of plants and showing me ojo del venados (eye of the deer) seedpods that were hanging over the path. I really wanted a seedpod because these seeds are beautiful and make wonderful jewelry, but of course I would not pick one in the reserve. 

Sayla also pointed out cecropia, cedar, cieba and almond trees, the latter the tallest three trees in the jungle, and explained that the cedar sheds its bark to get rid of unwanted vines—sure enough, its trunk was clean, whereas the trunks of others were laden with vines and bromeliads etc. These cedar trees (Cedrela odorata ) are used to make dugout canoes and essential oils. One of the vines we saw was called monkey stairs or monkey ladder because it looked like a hanging stairway to the canopy. There was also a water-containing vine that one could tap into if lost in the jungle. We saw strangler figs, walking palms, ferns, lady’s lips flowers, all sorts of philodendron, and many other wonderful jungle plants.

It was the dry season and the wrong time of day, but we managed also to see a Variable Seedeater, Common Toady Flycatcher, Yellow Warbler, and a Slaty-tailed Trogan.

Sayla and I took about two and a half hours to walk a large loop, returning to the dock along the edge of the Río Bartola. We had planned an hour’s wait here for the other group, but not half an hour after we got back they appeared. Turned out that their hike was not as long as they had expected. They had seen all that we had, but also saw some large iguanas along the river.

We motored back to El Castillo and Nena Lodge, Sayla’s home, which was right next door to her sister’s house. Underneath a stilted house at the landing site was a beautiful dugout canoe that Sayla had made. Most of the group decided to walk back to Borders Café on the square—which turned out to be run by Sayla’s brother. She had a lot of relatives in the area. We had passed her parents large finca (farm/ranch) on the way to Río Bartola. 

Two of Shayla's neices bring home river fish

Jess and I, however, chose to eat lunch and wait for the 3:30 boat at another restaurant. I wanted to try the camarones—huge river shrimp. Jess confessed that she had eaten them for lunch the previous day at Borders Café. So the two of us stopped at Comedor Vanessa, its dining area on a porch over the rapids, and feasted on giant river shrimp, claws and all. Sayla told us that they can sometimes weigh a pound apiece, but the ones we had were about the size of a Snickers bar. 

When we got back about 4 pm, Jess and Suzan went for a swim, Yaro promising them that caiman didn’t molest humans and providing them with two tubes connected to the dock on long lengths of rope.

After Jess’s swim, we hiked up past the wash house and pig pen, past the lodge’s extensive back gardens, through the cattle pasture, and up the trail behind the lodge to the top of a hill where we had some wonderful bird sightings: Mourning Warbler, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Passerini’s Tanager (both male and female, left), Eastern Wood Peewee, Black-striped Sparrow, Blue Gray Tanager. When I saw the female Passerini’s Tanager, I began to have my doubts as to whether or not I’d seen a Grey-headed Tanager earlier, as the two are somewhat similar in color and both have grey heads. The female Passerini is olivey yellow with a grey head and black tail, nothing at all like her mate who is coal black with a brilliant red back and rump.

When we returned to Jaguar, a band of black howler monkeys were in the trees near the cabin setting up a ruckus. I took pictures of them but the shots were difficult as the monkeys were black and I had to aim into the canopy and into the bright sun. Below is my best photo, taken from a chair beside our bed and through a gap in the thatch.

Note the baby looking down between its mother's hands

Showered and in clean dry clothes after our return, we snacked on cheese and crackers, had a beer before dinner, and watched the birds, monkeys, and wildlife from our balcony. The day before, Jess had discovered a family of river otters frolicking at the edge of a nearby island in the river. We also kept an eye on a Great Kiskadee that had a nest in the bromeliads on the river snag. For dinner, we had ordered our beautiful river fish again, but this time (the 5th fish dinner in a row and third at Sábalos Lodge for me), the fish had a fishy taste and was not very good.

After dinner we ducked under our mosquito net at 8:30 to read before sleep.