Our last full day at El Remanso and we planned to make the best of it. We knew before we arrived that this trip would fly by but after a relaxing 4 days here at El Remanso both Jess and I felt that we' had made excellent use of our time here.
One of the last hikes on the El Remanso resort that we hadn't actually toured was the Riverwalk down by the beach. Despite being near the beach, however, the Riverwalk trail followed a creek that was actually in the rainforest while being within earshot of the waves from the Pacific crashing on the beach. So with the beach on the other side of an embankmanet the creek side was freshwater and quite humid.
After a full breakfast, we left the cabin and took the Beach Trail down towards the beach veering off in the direction of the Riverwalk trail that followed the freshwater creek right before the beach trail got close to the actual beach. The Riverwalk trail began simply enough and took us down a steep path that emptied us into the creek. Jess and I were both prepared for hiking in
water having worn sandals/water shoes for just such an occaison. The trail followed the creek through wide expanses and narrow overgrown brush alike. The humidity really held us here as no breeze could be felt from the beach on the other side of the embankment. Feeling like true natrualists after all of our guided hike learning experiences we both felt like we could spot interesting wildlife but it was too hard. Perhaps most of the wildlife disappeared before we could see them once they heard us sloshing along through the creek. Towards the end of the trail after successfully jumping over logs and deep spots in the creek bed I looked ahead on the trail and saw a brownish/orange/yellow flash speeding up out of the creek and climbing the embankment. This flash had a vague form that I could detect as very cat-like. I wasn't completely sure what I had seen at first, since the moment was only fleeting, but because of the animal's movements and the fact that it was only barely seen by us led me to believe that it was a Puma or the native Mountain Lion species. This was very exciting as we had not seen that many groundlevel animals on our hikes.
The creek emptied into a shallow lagoon with surrounding palm trees and a deep groove that the creek had carved into the sand that led to the beach. The lagoon was a little light on water and completely deserted of other humans. We stopped and enjoyed the sunshine and some drinking water that we had brought with us before searching for the leatherback sea turtle eggs that Cindy had earlier told us to look for. Directly in front of Palm #34, there were several eggshells scattered around a nest hollowed out of the sand. We saw tracks leading away from the nest but could not ascertain as to whether the eggs had actually hatched on their own or were eaten by scavengers.
We strolled down the rest of the beach until we again returned to the end of the Beach Trail. This trail haunted us yet again but this time would probably be our last time scaling this very steep trail.
After a nap and some lunch we met Ray and Daileen for our joint excursion to the Pandulce Beach - a beach that was safe for swimming unlike the beach at El Remanso. The four of us walked out the front gate of the resort and down the dirt road that leads eventually to Puerto Jimenez. Considering this was a dirt road, the road was very busy with other vacationers, locals and trucks working on the expansion of the airstrip nearby. We felt very unsafe on this road as extremely large dumptrucks working on the airstip passed us as we walked on the side of the road. There was no sidewalk and the road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass going in opposite directions. After about 50 minutes we found the road that led to Pandulce beach. Given that this beach was safe for swimming and surfing there were also luxury beach homes in the vicinity of this beach - many of them quite impressive. This sometime gated community was on a dirt road of its own and right along the beach. We found a shady spot away from the remains of previous beachgoers' bonfires and cookouts, set out our towels and bags and headed straight for the water. It was very salty and blue-green in color but very warm. A steep rocky incline met us on our approach to the water but there were smooth large rock slabs that we stood on as we dodged the waves and relaxed in the warm water.
Later, Jess and I took a walk down to the end of the inlet where we saw numerous pelicans resting after an afternoon of hunting for fish in the shallow waters of the beach. Many terns and native seagulls were also in attendance here.
Our afternoon of beach and relaxing conversation ended in the late afternoon and we walked back to the main road where the El Remanso staff had agreed to pick us up and take us back to the resort. Daniel Gehring was our driver and he chatted animatedly with us on our drive back.
Our dinner that night was to be our private dinner. Instead of being able to set us up on the beautiful deck at our cabin they were happy to arrange for and decorate a private table at the lodge for dinner that night. We had a bottle of savignon blanc on the house with seafood skewers and rice. It was brilliant and just private enough.
One of the last hikes on the El Remanso resort that we hadn't actually toured was the Riverwalk down by the beach. Despite being near the beach, however, the Riverwalk trail followed a creek that was actually in the rainforest while being within earshot of the waves from the Pacific crashing on the beach. So with the beach on the other side of an embankmanet the creek side was freshwater and quite humid.
After a full breakfast, we left the cabin and took the Beach Trail down towards the beach veering off in the direction of the Riverwalk trail that followed the freshwater creek right before the beach trail got close to the actual beach. The Riverwalk trail began simply enough and took us down a steep path that emptied us into the creek. Jess and I were both prepared for hiking in
water having worn sandals/water shoes for just such an occaison. The trail followed the creek through wide expanses and narrow overgrown brush alike. The humidity really held us here as no breeze could be felt from the beach on the other side of the embankment. Feeling like true natrualists after all of our guided hike learning experiences we both felt like we could spot interesting wildlife but it was too hard. Perhaps most of the wildlife disappeared before we could see them once they heard us sloshing along through the creek. Towards the end of the trail after successfully jumping over logs and deep spots in the creek bed I looked ahead on the trail and saw a brownish/orange/yellow flash speeding up out of the creek and climbing the embankment. This flash had a vague form that I could detect as very cat-like. I wasn't completely sure what I had seen at first, since the moment was only fleeting, but because of the animal's movements and the fact that it was only barely seen by us led me to believe that it was a Puma or the native Mountain Lion species. This was very exciting as we had not seen that many groundlevel animals on our hikes.
The creek emptied into a shallow lagoon with surrounding palm trees and a deep groove that the creek had carved into the sand that led to the beach. The lagoon was a little light on water and completely deserted of other humans. We stopped and enjoyed the sunshine and some drinking water that we had brought with us before searching for the leatherback sea turtle eggs that Cindy had earlier told us to look for. Directly in front of Palm #34, there were several eggshells scattered around a nest hollowed out of the sand. We saw tracks leading away from the nest but could not ascertain as to whether the eggs had actually hatched on their own or were eaten by scavengers.We strolled down the rest of the beach until we again returned to the end of the Beach Trail. This trail haunted us yet again but this time would probably be our last time scaling this very steep trail.
After a nap and some lunch we met Ray and Daileen for our joint excursion to the Pandulce Beach - a beach that was safe for swimming unlike the beach at El Remanso. The four of us walked out the front gate of the resort and down the dirt road that leads eventually to Puerto Jimenez. Considering this was a dirt road, the road was very busy with other vacationers, locals and trucks working on the expansion of the airstrip nearby. We felt very unsafe on this road as extremely large dumptrucks working on the airstip passed us as we walked on the side of the road. There was no sidewalk and the road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass going in opposite directions. After about 50 minutes we found the road that led to Pandulce beach. Given that this beach was safe for swimming and surfing there were also luxury beach homes in the vicinity of this beach - many of them quite impressive. This sometime gated community was on a dirt road of its own and right along the beach. We found a shady spot away from the remains of previous beachgoers' bonfires and cookouts, set out our towels and bags and headed straight for the water. It was very salty and blue-green in color but very warm. A steep rocky incline met us on our approach to the water but there were smooth large rock slabs that we stood on as we dodged the waves and relaxed in the warm water.Later, Jess and I took a walk down to the end of the inlet where we saw numerous pelicans resting after an afternoon of hunting for fish in the shallow waters of the beach. Many terns and native seagulls were also in attendance here.
Our afternoon of beach and relaxing conversation ended in the late afternoon and we walked back to the main road where the El Remanso staff had agreed to pick us up and take us back to the resort. Daniel Gehring was our driver and he chatted animatedly with us on our drive back.
Our dinner that night was to be our private dinner. Instead of being able to set us up on the beautiful deck at our cabin they were happy to arrange for and decorate a private table at the lodge for dinner that night. We had a bottle of savignon blanc on the house with seafood skewers and rice. It was brilliant and just private enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment