Well, it only took half a decade, but it finally happened! My very own orchid expedition! For those of you who are long-time followers of this blog might remember this post from 2010 when my friend got to go hunting orchids in Costa Rica. I was eagerly following along from the comforts of home via his blog, wondering if, and secretly hoping that I would one day dare to do the very same. Well, guess […]
Monday morning and my friend and I caught a “monkey shuttle” north, a sort of poor man’s cab/car share service, a bit Über style, cheaper than taxi and way faster than bus. Still a 5 hour drive to Cartago where Daniel picked us up and drove us the last bit to Paraíso och hotell Orokay. A nice and quiet oasis with a rather spectacular view of the mountains, Macho Gaff-Cerro De La Muerte, […]
We rose very early and were on the road by 7. We bid a fond farewell of Las Tablas and the family and as we set off down the mountain a light drizzle began to fall. It was a rough and bumpy near hour long drive in the farms’ old army surplus vehicle… On a wooden bench in the back of the tarp covered flatbed with diesel fumes permeating the space. It was […]
A short trip south brought us to the small village below Las Tablas. Here we had to leave our trusty bus behind and hike up. The road up to the small very remote farm was rough to say the least, no way the bus would have made it, even four wheel drives would struggle here. During rainy season it would be completely closed, completely isolating the farm for weeks at a time. We are […]
This was the big climb, the crescendo, what I had been preparing for all summer… the hike up Cerro Echandi. The morning brought a lot of anticipation and preparations as we were getting ready to leave for the long hike and two nights of sleeping out. Very exciting but also a little daunting considering how much more we had to carry along for the duration. We are all carrying sizable backpacks now […]
A not too long but fairly bumpy journey by bus landed us at the research station of Las Alturas at an elevation of 1528 meters. It is a wonderfully rustic place with only a diesel generator for power and running cold water only. The reserve sits on a hillside overlooking sprawling coffee plantations but with primary forests at its doorstep further up the mountain. It is located on the very edge of La […]
Morning fog around El Copal made it seem as if the large wrap-around porch was floating in the canopy of the trees surrounding it. Quite magical! Most of us got up early, 5:30 to be exact, to watch the sunrise and do some bird watching from the porch before breakfast. Actually it was a hawk who woke me up, very strange call, sound more like an owl, but a nice alarm none the less.
With all […]
We had a really nice minibus with a quite interesting driver to our disposal for the duration. I think he did not quite know what to make of us all at first, but by the end I think we had won him over. Along the way we also met up with our two fantastic local guides, Daniel and Eugenio.
Our first day was a long drive over to the Caribbean side and the beautiful El Copal, […]
The alarm went off at 3:45 (!)… nothing like three hours of restless sleep to make you feel refreshed and ready to take in the day. Nova seemed a bit confused that I actually woke her up for a change, but she was game. I will miss the little bugger. Mom dropped me off at the airport in Gothenburg at 5:30 and I was airborne an hour later. Smooth start. The adventure […]
No matter how many months of preparations and planning, packing still took most of the day. Carefully squeezing every thing I might possibly need for my three week adventure into my two backpacks. Yes two… one smaller, though still quite sizeable daypack of 35 liters, and one larger 65 liter pack needed for all the camping gear on the multi-day hike. I had been fretting over the meticulously detailed packing list a bit as I found it […]
