Day 4 - December 19 - Tortuguero to Quepos

In the morning, we checked out of the Mawamba lodge, said goodbye to Renaldo and Ernesto, and the motor boat took us to the airport. At the airport, 3 chartered planes were waiting for us, one took 4 passengers, the other two planes took 6 passengers each. Michael and Don rode in the 4 seater, with Michael in the co-pilot's seat. We took off first and landed first. The plane climbed to about 8500 feet according to the altimeter, just clearing a "pass" in the central mountains, with the land going up higher than the plane on either side. At that point the pilot started a slow decent, even though we had one more mountain range to cross. We flew slightly south of San Jose, over coffee plantations and then straight into the Quepos airport (which by the way is not on the National Geographic map). Our original bus and bus driver met us with our luggage that we had left behind

As we were too early to check into the Mariposa Hotel, we went into Quepos to a point where we picked up sea kayaks and our sea kayak guides, Arturo, Anne, and Sam.

We basically kayaked across a small bay to a private beach below Punta Quepos where we had a snack of fruit and fruit juices. Don and Marina again took a double, this time Marina was in the stern. David and Marina jumped out of the kayaks into the ocean (something no one wanted to do on the river and the canals ). Getting back in, David capsized twice when he tried to get his paddle which was floating in the ocean. The dry bags worked though, and none of our belongings got wet.

After we returned to the launch point, we got back on the bus, and went almost to the entrance of Parque Nacional Manual Antonio where we had lunch. After lunch we went to the Mariposa hotel which is about halfway between Quepos and Manual Antonio. Don crashed to catch up on sleep - he did not sleep well at the Mawamba. The rooms at the Mariposa had some level of air conditioning.

Dinner that evening was on our own. We walked on the road back towards the park and ate at a restaurant that Jimmy recommended, El Avion. This restaurant has a link to the Iran Contra affair. During the running of weapons to the Contras there were two Fairchild C123's that were part of this effort (probably more cargo planes we don't know about). When one was shot down, and the American involvement came to light, the other C123 was abandoned at the San Jose airport. The plane was bought for $3000 in April 2000, dis-assembled, carted and re-assembled on the Quepos / Manual Antonio road. Dinner was excellent.

In the morning before we boarded the planes: