Camino de Costa Rica
Day 13: Naranjillo to Esquipulas
Date: February 25, 2024
Miles: ~8
Time walking: ~ 4 hours. Start 7:30am and finished at 11:30am
Difficulty: Elevation loss 2913 ft
6:30am breakfast - rice and beans, eggs, plantains and fruit. They also prepared a snack for us - fruit and an empanada. Another warm sunny day. One last goodbye to our amazing view.
A bit of climbing to start before mostly gradual descent for the rest of the day on wide gravel roads.
More beautiful views out to the side of our fire road.
Interesting to see flowers from inside the tree. They weren’t visible looking at the tree from the outside.
Place for lunch and night is Esquipulos Rainforest. Nice open air main area for our meals and to gang out.
Wonderful bird viewing, even for non-birders. The birders in our group were in heaven. Below a Toucan. Fruit Loops anyone?
Spent $3 each to visit a nearby river for a refreshing swim. A little strange to pay, but was nice. They apparently start rafting trips from the same location.
Enjoyed more beautiful plants and birds at our place for the rest of the afternoon.
Our sleeping area for the night looks a bit tight. Hopefully the earplugs will help. The group is very respectful, but with this proximity and no noisy river background noise, everything will be heard. Each person gets their own tent including breaking up the couples.
Looked like units on the hillside, but apparently those were for the more premium tours.
We had hot showers (7 or so) and refreshing showers open to the jungle(5). Several toilets available. Interesting they had open air urinals.
That night before dinner (at 7pm) we did a guided walk to see the frogs. It was getting dark so couldn't see all that well.
Enjoyed more beautiful plants and birds at our place for the rest of the afternoon.
Day 14: Esquipulas to Quepos
Date: February 26, 2024
Miles: 16
Time walking: ~5 hours. Started at 7:30am and finished at noon.
Difficulty: Fairly hot which made the 16 miles tough even though their wasn't a big ascent.
Today was fairly flat and HOT. We walked through small communities on wide gravel roads. Saw some mountain bikers and the stick bird.
We walked several miles through the beautiful palm oil plantations
Eventually arriving in Quespo at the final section 16 maker. We were elated to have completed the walk across Costa Rica. Last lunch was bittersweet as we really enjoyed our group’s company.
We took the public bus (the bus station felt a little sketchy so we just waited on the beach until we had to go back to the bus station) to Manuel Antonio to our hotel - Falls Boutique hotel. A welcomed oasis to celebrate our accomplishment.
During a guided frog walk the previous night, Larry had unknowingly stepped on a fire ant mound. Ugly blisters the following afternoon. So glad it didn’t happen until our last night of the hike.
