Drake Bay - Mirador Ecolodge

9:30AM
I'm at Tobias Bolaños airport in Pavas, San Jose. Check-in is short and humorous; they ask each passenger to step on the scale with their carry-on luggage to insure no one is over the 300 lbs limit and I barely make the cut off. We all walk outside and I smell the air; it is crisp and fresh and there are white puffy clouds in the sky. The runway is short and feels very open at the same time. I can see the end of it in both directions.

40 feet away is our plane: a small plane, it seats maybe 20 but has huge windows. We are off and flying though the mountains is a treat to the eyes... the different color greens that I see everywhere... the sprawl of the jungle clashed against the organized planting of trees... I don't know if my eyes deceive me, but I think I see both oceans. We are getting closer to Drake Bay and rivers are flowing into the ocean. There is a waterfall too! The colors are spectacular: a continuous mixture of brown and blue.

We land at an even smaller airstrip than the one we took off from. There is one office, which is literally a hut that is still being constructed. The "taxi" driver drives a 4x4 and 8 of us get in. 5 minutes down the road we come to a river and drive right into it. What!? This river has a current and it is pretty deep. 5 minutes later we do the same in smaller river. From my reading, I knew it was rustic, but I wasn't expecting this. I'm stoked.

I arrive at my hostel and am greeted by the owner. As we are walking up the 4 hills that are too steep, too narrow and too slippery for a vehicle, he points out a big pheasant looking bird that he calls a turkey. With it, are its two young. "This is a rare treat," he whispers. Cautiously, I walk closer to take a picture but it is behind a tree... I can't get a good shot. I look down to take another step and there is an opossum 2 feet away from my foot just walking along! And then, after I check in, the owner points out a sloth in the trees!

It is a cloudy but very bright day. I'm on the 30ft x 30 ft deck / balcony which serves as the dining room and the main office and looks out to ocean 100 feet in the distance. In the background a Luis Miguel love song is casually interrupted by the crashing of waves in the distance. Every so often a few leaves fall down and a butterfly or a bird skips across their air highways.

The vegetation and life is so varied here! There are trees with vine-like twigs whose drooping leaves spring into yellowish green flowers. Sprouting from the ground are long curved leaves: they are green leaves about 3 feet tall. Its flowers are red and oval shaped, still cupping the water from when it rained last. To me, the flowers resemble narrow outstretched hands and although organic by nature, the lines and angles are somewhat block-like in construction. I see them now in different periods of their lives. This one has 2 well developed buds that are very close to the stem. This one has flowers that alternate side to side as it stiffly grows to the sky. The next one is similar to the last except instead of flowers that stack, it spirals as it sternly spirals up.