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Following our awesome time at Volcan Arenal, we parted company with Paul and Jodi, with whom we had been traveling. We were headed to the beaches of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica; namely, Montezuma and then Playa Grande. Jodi had to return to the States to work, while Paul still had some time left in Costa Rica. So we planned on meeting Paul later in the week at the beach town of Montezuma. So at 5:30am on the morning of December 14, we boarded our first bus of the day for the days worth of travel by buses, ferries, and taxi to the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, and the beaches of Montezuma.
After roughly 4 hours of walking along the beaches, we came to the beachside waterfall, which spilled into a tide pool at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. As the cool, fresh water of the falls mixed with the warmer, salt water of the Pacific, it made for a refreshing swim.
While we know the descriptions of our travels are always laced with superlatives, the beaches of Montezuma were truly the most beautiful we had ever seen. The sand was soft and fine, the beaches were long and very wide, the surf was warm with good waves, and the jungle came to the very edge of the beach. To top it all off, they were virtually deserted!
Another wide, long, and empty beach at Montezuma.
Paul and Kelly walk through the warm surf on our way back from seeing, and swimming, in the falls.
After three relaxing days in Montezuma, the three of us decided to head north to another Pacific beach, Playa Grande. The reason for doing so was to see the enormous, and endangered, Leatherback Turtles (the world's largest reptile) nesting and laying their eggs, as it was their nesting season and Playa Grande is one of their most important nesting sites. We were not to be disappointed, as our first night there we saw a nesting leatherback at about 11:00pm. Below is a photo of that event. By the way, the photo is tinted red because only red tinted flashlight are allowed on the beach. Normal flashlights, and white lights generally, can easily disorient and confuse the turtles, who rely on the white light of the moon for direction.
While it is difficult to tell, what you see above are the hind quarters of a Leatherback, with her rear fins clearing the sand around the nest she is laying. The white eggs she is laying can be made out in the bottom, center of the photo. With her rear fins, she digs an almost perfectly square hole, about 2 feet dip, lays about 100 or more eggs, buries the nest, doing her best to camouflage it, and then heads back out to sea.
A closer view of turtle tracks, all of which share a distinctive pattern made by the enormous body being slowly, but surely, propelled along the sand by the powerful front flippers.
A brilliant sunset at Playa Grande. This very evening we were lucky enough to see, and participate in, the relase of 62 Olive Ridley, and 3 Leatherback, newborn hatchlings. Seeing those little fellows, who realistically have very little chance of making it to adulthood, fight their way to the sea was a pretty moving experience.
By the way, thanks to Paul Montgomery who took most of the beautiful pictures that you see above. He was kind enough to send us the photos by express mail so that we could share them with you. Thank you also to Jodi Lamagna, whose camera Paul was using. Incidentally, on Paul's last day in Costa Rica he believed that Jodi's camera had been stolen from his locked hotel room. We worked with him feverishly trying to find his camera that we believed could have fallen out during our car ride to San Jose. As it turns out, the camera was in his pack, which was no larger than a large book bag, all along! What a knucklehead!
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Montezuma was a beautiful,
small, coastal community. At times seemingly overrun with travelers, we
were all there for good reason: the beautiful, long and wide beaches, the
wonderful waterfalls, and the pleasant, laid back atmosphere of the town.
On our first full day in Montezuma, we hiked inland to a pair of spectacular
waterfalls, each with a wonderfully refreshing swimming hole at its
base. This is the lower of the falls, while immediately above it
(though not visible in this photo) is the second falls. These falls were
roughly 70-80 feet tall. Later that day, we met up with Paul, who had seen
Jodi off at the San Jose airport earlier that day.
Our second full day, the three
of us (Kelly, Rich and Paul) headed for the varied beaches of Montezuma.
Our goal was a waterfall several miles down the coast that spilled into the
sea. We had a great time hiking there, along the varied beaches of the
coast, stopping every so often for a swim in the cool surf.
The next morning, from our
hotel room windows, we had a wonderful view of white faced, capuchin monkeys frolicking
and feeding in the trees outside our window. This close-up sighting made
our monkey viewing in Central America complete, as we had then seen all of the 3
principal monkeys: the Congo, or Black Howler Monkey; the free-swinging Spider
Monkey; and these White Faced Capuchin Monkeys. Kelly was quite pleased.
The following
morning we awoke at sunrise to walk the beach and see the many tracks left by
the turtles that had nested the prior night. It was quite an experience
seeing the enormous tracks of these creatures all along the beach. So enormous
are the tracks, that when we saw the first set, we quite honestly confused them
for truck tire tracks!
