We started our Saturday in a leisurely fashion, although we still got up around 5am. We took showers and packed our bags because it was time to move to our next location: Yatama Eco Lodge. We enjoyed our last breakfast at Chilamate and another walk around the grounds. We checked out around 10:30am and a Chilamate staff member loaded our suitcases into a wheelbarrow for the departure through the horse pasture and across the wooden planked bridge to the parking/pickup area. Pedro, the owner of Yatama Eco Lodge was due to pick us up at 11.
He came in an old Isuzu 4×4 and we loaded our bags and departed for the first part of the trip. We drove for about 25 to a restaurant named Palmitour, which specializes in dishes made from hearts of palm. There, we met Stephanie’s Spanish teacher, Carlos, and his girlfriend Alejandra. We enjoyed a 2-hour lunch and conversation, mostly in Spanish, with them. Then we rejoined Pedro in his 4×4 for the remaining 40-minute trip to Yatama.
The narrow, private dirt road from the town of Horquetas was very rough, steep and slick from rain. We picked up a German couple along the way, who were going to Yatama too, because they were reluctant to drive their rental 4×4 up the road. It was so rough, rocky and slick, the car had a hard time. And then we got stuck, jammed on the edge against a grassy bank. Pedro tried to get the truck out for 15 minutes, but he wasn’t successful. And he didn’t have a phone to call for help. He sent the German couple to walk the remaining kilometer up the road to ask for help. Then I remembered I had my burner phone and a Costa Rican SIM card that could call. Pedro used that to call someone for help. One of his employees drove another 4×4 down from the lodge and pulled the Isuzu out. Yay, we could finish the trip!
Stephanie and I are in separate cabins in the rainforest. There are bed nets, wooden walkways between cabins, and a dining room that’s separate. Internet is very limited, so there may not be photos in my blog entries for a few days.
We had a good dinner of fish, then went on a night walk with Pedro and another guide and the German couple, where we saw a tarantula, eyelash viper and one other snake, and more bullet ants. I stepped on a leaf-cutter ant trail and had many ants crawling on me, but they didn’t bite, thankfully.
Afterwards, we went to sleep in our cabins in the very dark but noisy jungle.
Lori's Travels 