Day 3: “Camino de Costa Rica”

Breakfast cooked by Juancho at the "Las Brisas" School. No power, everything still out from the huge storm on Thursday.

Entering Tribal Land... You have to be guided by a tribal member, since it's dense, dense forrest and a HIGH risk of getting lost. Lots of small indigenous communities spread through the mountains.

Trail is pretty sketchy the entire.... Up, up up, and then down, down, down... MUD everywhere... And 80% humidity

On the trail in the Indigenous Reserve

Just some quick fast food in the forest.... This was kind of like mammon chino, you opened them up and sucked off some gooey stuff around the seed.

If your guide is carrying a machete, he's probably going to have to use it at some point to clear the trail. 

Beautiful river on the way to Tsiobata (Indigenous Reserve)

Primary forest on the Reserve

Lunch with my guides in Tsiobata, Native Reserve

Traditional buildings in Tsiobata, built by the community.

Wire basket transport back to the other side of the river and then uphill for 5km, back to town, crossing over the Pacuare River.

End of the hardest day. I've never been more drenched with sweat in my entire life. Sweat is dripping off my body. Every square inch of clothing is soaked. AND IT WASN'T EVEN HOT, it's the humidity.

Coke Zero at the end of a LONG day

Beautiful view back "in town" at Paso Vents, lovely cottage on the hill...

 

Day 2: “Camino de Costa Rica”

Delicious “Gallo pinto“, which is a Costa Rica national dish. It’s beans and rice, and a few herbs mixed together. It’s typically a breakfast meal. This one came with some cheese, a slice of ham, fried egg, and a tostada like thing.

En route on day 2. With Jairo Fallas, my guide.

View back to the Caribbean Ocean

Looking back for our last view at the Caribbean ocean before we leave it behind

Blue Morpho butterfly with it's wings closed.  Inside it is a beautiful blue color.

Bullet ant

Frog, brown. OK I know it has a real name, I can’t think of it right now.

Day 2, the trail starts to get a little muddy

The mud starts here on day two

Loaded chicken and everything quesadilla for lunch

Our accommodations for the evening on day two, the public school at Las Brisas. We set up tents and basically camp inside the school. The power was out, so we read some and went to bed like at 8 o’clock. Fortunately, there was enough water left in the tanks to shower and do normal stuff.

My accommodations for Day 2. Yes, it’s a tent inside of a school room, up in the mountains, where we were at. The power was out as well, so no lights or anything, but we had some water still left in the tanks.

Ok, the shower at the school in Las Brisas, was, well, a little basic. The whole massive spiderweb and the gigantic spiders outside the shower made sure you didn’t waste any time. But, a cold water shower after you’ve been sweating all day is pretty dang amazing, regardless of how humble it may be!

These spiders at the Las Brisas School were HUGE. About the size of your palm. And there were plenty of them… Being tall, definitely has some disadvantages, one of the biggest one is that you’re always running into spiderwebs. Freaky when you look up and the spider is BIG

Each of these spiders is about the size of the palm of your hand, they are not your little, run-of-the-mill spiders, these are huge.

Christian church in Las Brisas. You’ll notice the Jesus Christ image at the top, and then the king vulture, and the jaguar, which are sacred to the indigenous tribes here.