The second half of our stay in Costa Rica was at a resort called Drake Bay Wilderness Camp. Maryly decided on this because it was close to Corcovado Park, which we wanted to see, and the resort had a "kayak with the dolphins" tour. We flew out to Drake Bay in a small plane, the only passengers in a Piper that normally seats 6 counting the pilot. The rear seats were folded down and filled with a Christmas tree on it's way to the resort. As we flew out of San Jose the pilot took us close over a ridge covered with primary rain forest. I started to comment that this was another "Canopy Tour" when the plane dropped in the air going over the other side of the ridge. My loose seat belt allowed me to bounce my head off the ceiling and Maryly's camera came down in my lap. The pilot smiled at us over his shoulder. Another wild ride in Costa Rica.
The "Wilderness Camp" turned out to be more of a "resort" with an army of Tico's cleaning rooms, cooking meals, mixing drinks, and leading tours. Like a cruse ship they have regularly scheduled "tours" every day and we are expected to go on these. Our first day we were taken on the default tour, a boat ride to a cove a few miles away for a snorkeling adventure and a hike. The highlight of the time in the water was following an iridescent blue parrot fish around and watching him take bites out of the coral. After lunch we hiked with our guide a few kilometers along the coast to the "Rio Claro" where we could go swimming in the river if we wanted.
We found a man living on the beach there who owned land up the river. He also owned three sit-on-top kayaks made by Ocean Kayak that he rented out to tourists like us. We struck a bargain for 2000 Colones (about $7.00 US) for a double and a single and some paddles in very poor shape. We didn't have money in our swimsuits but the unnamed guy was used to this and was willing to have us pay our guide later. The money would get to him eventually.
To my disappointment the river became too rocky to paddle after only 200 meters or so. However while up the river we saw a rare bird, a trogon. We had also seen a toucan on the walk here. Curiously we had met a man at Monteverde who had a goal of seeing three rare birds in Costa Rica: A quetzal, a trogon, and a toucan. We had just seen two of these birds in one afternoon! I wonder how our friend in Monteverde did?