One place in Costa Rica that got our hiking hopes high was National Park Chirripo (renamed to Cheery-Po in in honour of my old boy). This park is home to Cerro Chirripo, the second largest peak in Central America. The usual approach to reach the summit is to hike from base town San Gerado de Rivas 16km uphill to a refugio offering basic accommodation in the mountains for the first night. Then on the second day, climb a further 5km up to the summit, before descending the entire way back down again to town. It is described as a difficult hike due to the constant climb on the first day, but offers the chance to spot quetzales, other wildlife and on a clear day you can view both the Pacific and the Caribbean from the top.
It took 3 buses and a lot of waiting around to get to San Gerado but we arrived by 8pm with the statutory trekking food of nuts and cereal bars and some fruit given to us by a kind lady at the bus station. Although each of the 5 pieces of round unidentifiable purple fruit looked like they had exploded and were covered in fruit flies, I felt it rude to turn the offer down, so I gratefully accepted the bag and carried them all the way to our hostel, where I then had to chuck them away the next day as I couldn’t’ face eating them.
With a population of only 350 people, the town was minute. We booked into Roca Dura Café (Hard Rock Café!) which was the hub of the town and consisted of restaurant, hostel and local bar. The place was cool and built into a boulder making our room look like something from the Flintstones. The only problem was it was so buggy. There were bugs and moths and flying things everywhere! I guess that is the jungle for you and although classed as the highlands, we had a heck of a lot of tropical forest and cloud forest to get through before we hit anything resembling highlands. So I made sure that night that I was fully cocooned in my sleeping bag with only my nose pocking out and a hand holding my bug swatter, just in case I was attacked in the night by a big buzzy thing.
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| Our crazy cave room. Not much space but very unique. |
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| One of the many amazing insects that were everywhere |
We were aware this area was popular for hiking and in order to book ourselves into the mountain accommodation we had to get up early and register at the ranger station in town the day before we set off. This meant having to be at the station at 6:30am, when it opened, to beat the crowds, so we thought. As it turns out, it’s even more popular than that and the barman recommended getting there by 5am as people queue outside to wait for it to open!
So we woke at 4:30am and armed with blankets and a cereal bar tried to find the station in the dark. Already waiting there was a German fella that we had happened to meet previously on a bus in Boquete, Panama which was very coincidental and shortly after us, a French girl turned up. Apart from that, no one else appeared, but we had done the right thing as it may have been busy (or maybe the barman was having us on?!)
After successfully getting tickets for the next day, we set about trying to find gas for our stove and bought a few last minute supplies, before having some breakfast and bird watching for a while on the hostel terrace as it was still not even 10am. Later that afternoon we visited a private estate in the area called Cloudbridge that was set up by a couple of people in response to the deforestation in the area. Well-marked trails wound their way through the forest, passing by some stunning waterfalls and natural pools.
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| Lunch by some stunning waterfalls and natural pools |
Although it was only meant to be a small walk to loosen up for the big hike, the lure of more tropical and exotic wildlife kept us going deeper into the forest and 6 hours later we found ourselves walking back to our hostel, with my feet aching, Tim’s knee twisted and head giving him grief after knocking it on a tree. Not the best position to be in before the start of a mega hard 2 day hike!
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| Hiking hard in the jungle |
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| I can't stop taking photos of butterflies |
A few beers sorted us out back at the bar and that’s where we also met Joey and his Dad. Originally from Nashville, Joey was over here in Costa Rica for 3 months and his Dad was visiting. They were starting the hike tomorrow too, so we all arranged to hire a lift to take us to the start of the trail in the morning, which was 1.5km from town and pretty boring as we’d walked it once already that day. Knowing it was going to be a long hard day, we all agreed on the arranged pickup for 5:15am!
Being my sister’s birthday, I was so pleased I managed to finally get through to her just before we set out the following morning. Her suggestion of heading back home and having pints in the sun at the Charterhouse was far more appealing than what we were about to do. Unfortunately our conversation was cut short as our lift turned up but I hope you had a great bday sis. X
It wasn’t long before the sun was up and the birds were chirping. The shafts of light cast over the forests and mountains was magical and the freshness of the cool morning air made the uphill grind totally manageable.
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| Morning light over Chirripo National Park |
There was a lot of wildlife around at this early hour and we even caught a glimpse of a baby pretzal in the trees, alongside a number of other birds including emerald green toucanettes – which as you can probably guess are like small toucans. The climb took us up through the dry tropical forest and into the realms of the cloud forest but we were blessed with beautiful sunny weather and the canopy protected us from the strengthening sun.
By about 10am however we were reaching a level where the trees were starting to thin and the terrain was changing to that more typical of the Paramo – the grassy shrubland of glacier carved valleys with rocky outcrops and big boulders dotted around that the glaciers left in their wake millions of years ago. This lack of shade made climbing hot and hard and our backpacks were heavy with bedding, cold weather clothes for the night, a gas stove and food to keep us going. Some pre-made cheese rolls motivated us temporarily but the climb did take its toll on us. We found solace in counting lizards and by the time we reached the refugio we had counted 46 lizards and I had photographed nearly all of them!
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| The jungle then made way for the Paramo and the grassy, dusty higher plains |
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| And with the Paramo came the lizards! |
We arrived at the refugio about 3pm and we were the first normal people to check in. By normal I mean we weren’t any of the crazy people we had seen overtake us throughout the course of the morning, hiking to the summit and back in a day! We checked in, dumped our stuff and had a cup of tea! Before long, Joey and his Dad arrived and they were soon followed by the German guy and French girl who had decided to hike together.
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| Reaching the mountain refuge by 3pm in dire need of tea or beer |
We chatted for a while before using the last of the light to capture some more wildlife, with Tim managing to take some astounding photos of a hummingbird.
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| Shot of the holiday here by Timbo! |
We continued our group bonding later that evening all choosing to eat our various dinners together. We were the only ones who had decided to bring a stove to heat up some mac and cheese. The German guy and Nellie the French girl had brought salads and sandwich bits. Joey and his Dad had brought some packets of tuna to share but that was about it. Raiding of the free food shelf helped our cause. We managed to find some refried beans to go with our dinner and Joey made a concoction of oats with some tomato and red pepper soup, to which he then added his tuna and some other people’s left over avocado and tomato, topped it with some refried beans and heated it on our stove. I’m often the first to experiment with mixing foods, but even this was too much for me to try!
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| Macaroni Cheese power! |
Then came the point in the evening where we all did the whole group photo bit and this is where I managed to annihilate snappy cam number 3 of the trip, by stupidly trying to rest it on a really narrow bar to get a group photo using the self-timer. Turns out they don’t fare so well being dropped over a meter onto a concrete floor. By some turn of fate however, even though I totally smashed the front of it and it now doesn’t have a shutter, it still takes photos!
Me and Tim spent the last hour of our evening trying to piece it back together but gave up when they turned the lights out at 8pm so we headed to bed for our 2:45am get up to make it to the summit for sunrise!
With the exception of Joey’s Dad, we all chose to get up at this unearthly hour and hike up to the summit together. It took us just over 2 hours to hike the 5km. The first part was fairly easy going but the last 1.5km was a scrabble up vertical rocks and boulders. Joey rocketed ahead and was the first to the summit just as light was appearing. Me and Tim were about 20 minutes behind. The sight of the summit was the most relieving feeling, especially seeing as though we had ben trudging disorientated for the last 2 hours in the dark with head-torches to guide us and we didn’t think we’d quite make it for sunrise.
About 5 minutes before the sun appeared the other 2 also reached the top. It was so bitterly cold and I was wearing everything I had managed to carry in my pack. We also made a coffee at the top which may sound very civilised but was near impossible in the biting wind with fingers refusing to work! What a feeling though, standing there on top of the world it seemed, shouting for the sun to appear and warm us all up, sharing coffee with friends. It was an epic moment and when the sun finally rose, it threw such an awesome light onto everything.
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| A 2:45am get up got us to the top of Chirripo for sunrise |
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| We were way above the cloudline. It was beautiful. |
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| Dicking around on Central America's 2nd highest peak |
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| Stunning views from all around |
Unfortunately the end of the lizards marked the start of the bugs and being underneath the canopy of the forest with only a pair of shorts and little top on wasn’t the best outfit for the job. However, not wanting to stop and faff, we kept going until we reached the pre-agreed spot for lunch that had a few benches and where a pretzel had been sighted the previous day. Within 5 minutes of getting to the lunch spot, I saw a long brown snake slither into the undergrowth at the side of the path, a toucanette fall of his branch, crashing through the layers of the lower canopy before finally emerging looking a bit startled and to top it all off, the most resplendent pretzel we have seen to date, swooping through the trees, fully fledged with emerald green feathers, a super long flouncy tail and striking red chest. Unfortunately we didn’t see him land, and he was too quick to capture but it was a privilege to see such a rare and exotic bird fly past us like that just the same.
We waited for an hour for him to reappear but had no luck so continued the march back down to town. Downhill is far better than uphill, apart from when it’s all downhill! There was just so much downhill. It was never-ending. I found a technique of leaning back slightly with a tight core and just letting my legs wobble me down but even this method of coping soon wore off. It was really tough and with every turn of the path all I could see was identical trees on an identically winding path. The thought of a shower was good, the thought of a beer was better but all I really wanted was a bed to lie on and not be on my feet anymore!
Soon enough it came and we were back at Roca Dura hostel where we had pre-booked a room. Unfortunately the amount of bugs was a bit harder to deal with in such an exhaustive state, but I put a brave face on, closed my eyes whilst showering and after 2 cups of coffee and a bit of time in my slippers, felt ready to face the world again. It was 8pm and time for a beer which went down very well. So did the second and it was over that beer that we decided we have both probably had our fair share of trekking through jungles now. There was still the matter that we couldn’t leave Costa Rica without visiting Monteverde, the world famous cloud forest paradise further north, but after that, we decided a break from dry tropical forests / cloud forests / anything else described as ‘lush’.
That evening, before heading to bed, we booked ourselves into a hostel in Monteverde for the following night. However, our plans of a lie in and a leisurely coffee before returning the rented gas stove to the hostel 45 minutes up the road and jumping on a bus mid-morning were shattered with the realisation that the bus we needed required another 4:30am wake up. Looks like that last bit of lush was going to come a bit quicker than we thought!
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