Cerro de la Muerte, Sea Turtles, and Carara National Park

We left Corcovado early on Sunday morning. We packed, ate breakfast, and piled into three boats and headed back down the river towards Sierpe, where we got back on the bus. We stopped at a little grocery store and were allowed to pick out a snack and drink since it was going to be a while before we stopped for lunch (Pringles and Apple Juice). We then got back on the bus and headed out to Cerro de la Muerte. This is a higher elevation ecosystem and is the second highest elevation in the country. 

Cerro de la Muerte, where we stopped on our way to Santa Rosa from Corcovado.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch which was walking distance from the trail we hiked on. This restaurant had hummingbird feeders which was really cool because we could watch the hummingbirds while eating lunch. They were so little and cute! 

We then walked up the mountain and did some species reports on mostly plants and a salamander. It was pretty cold and rainy as we walked up the trail - I could feel it in my lungs as we hiked further up. The vegetation at this elevation was much different from that of Corcovado. The plants have to deal with more rain and stronger winds. We did all of the species reports back in the restaurant because it was too cold and wet to do them outside. We eventually left and drove for a while on the bus. We stopped at a restaurant on the beach and were able to catch the sunset. It was so pretty - by far the best one yet. 

Sunset on the beach

We then had dinner, which was really good (I ordered nachos) - the restaurant was right off of the beach where we saw the sunset. After dinner, we drove for another hour or so and finally made it to our hotel, La Pelicana, which was also on the beach. It was a super nice hotel! I spent the night playing cards with some of the other students, and then I finally went back to the room and took a nice hot shower... first time since I left home! 

The following morning I think could be considered the best Monday morning I have ever had. I woke up early to pack up my stuff, and then I went outside to write in my journal. There were a few of us sitting out there, and one of the girls came running from the beach saying she found baby sea turtles! We all ran out to the beach and found maybe 4 or 5 baby turtles crawling towards the ocean! It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I watched them for over 30 minutes. We also found the nest and saw two other babies emerge from the sand. It was absolutely unbelievable.

Photo creds to Daniel

After that excitement, we ate breakfast and got back on the bus to go to Carara National Park. Here we did a lot of species reports on plants and a few animals, including a ghost bat! 

This is the ghost bat! (photo creds to Google)

Carara National Park

We then traveled from Carara to a nearby beach, where Alan and Kathy ordered us Pizza Hut for lunch! It was sooooo good - kinda a nice treat after a lot of travel days. There was a stray dog who looked like a dalmatian mutt that sat with us during lunch. He was so sweet, and we fed him a lot of our pizza crusts. Kathy also had set up a little salad for all of us, which was really yummy!