Lapa Rios, Costa Rica – the wonder of forests and their fearless denizens

By Simon Heyes

 

“This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.” Richard Powers, The Overstory

 

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.” John Muir

 

 

A place where you can gaze out from your room or restaurant table and see only a swathe of trees and sea is already a rare and wonderful thing. It seems greedy to receive more, yet in mind-boggling abundance we did just that. In our first few hours at Lapa Rios, a huge spider monkey just metres from us crashed around noisily looking for fruit; minutes after, strolling down towards the coast, a 3-toed sloth did an Usain Bolt of a dash up a huge tree (never seen one move so fast). Troops of howler monkeys casually moved just above us in the low canopy, calling to each other and dozens of squirrel monkeys scrambled about alongside sporadic human dwellings.

 

 

 

Other than the Galapagos, I don’t think I’ve been anywhere the wildlife is so wonderfully oblivious of us large pink monkey-folk as in Costa Rica’s wild jewel, the Osa Peninsula.

 

Perhaps most arrestingly of all, as we strolled along the deserted surf beach at Matapalo – so named for the strangler figs that abound in the area – familiar screeches stopped us dead in our tracks. Our necks craned to find the source – flashes of impossible colour that are one of nature’s most exuberant and stunning expressions – as 3 pairs of Scarlet Macaws shot overhead. Known locally as lapas, they squawked with delight, flying around to alight and kiss beaks. So beautiful. 

 

 

This is life unrestrained. In tropical abundance a profusion of plants, trees, insects, animals and birds, including eye catching toucans, always unwilling and unused to be upstaged.

 

 

So why are the animals so unafraid of humans here? Speaking to guides and researchers, the answer seems to lie in the cordillerita that snakes towards the Pacific Ocean, an irresistible highway for animals, from the huge Corcovado National Park, where they feel safe and unthreatened. Corcovado is large, much of it pretty inaccessible, so the animals have relatively little human contact, and when they do it’s mainly benign. (NB: an entirely safe Eden though, it isn’t – Corcovado faces threats like everywhere else from gold mining & hunting).

 

Some stats. The Osa Peninsula represents only 0.00000085% of the Earth’s total surface area yet holds 2.5% of the Earth’s species. It is home to 700+ tree species, 117+ reptile and amphibian species, more than 350 bird species and 120+ mammal species. This is one of “the most biologically intense places on Earth” (Nat Geo Magazine).

 

 

At Lapa Rios, rainforest meets Pacific Ocean and one day we took a boat out from sweet and sleepy Puerto Jimenez into true tropical fjord Golfo Dulce. There followed one of the most wonderful cetacean encounters: a large pod (perhaps 100 individuals) of common dolphins thrilled us with their swimming and aerial antics. Ojo this is also an important area for whale watching between the months of August and October; mainly humpbacks and pilot whales, which can even be seen from the vantage point of the lodge.

 

 

On the final afternoon back at the lodge, Danilo the longest serving guide at Lapa Rios took us on a truly beautiful walk – the Osa Trail – from high above the lodge, snaking back down through the emerald forest. We marvelled at the trees and especially so at one in particular, the cathedral-like Sangrillo Colorado, indigenous and endemic to Lapa Rios. We talked about primary and secondary forest, and of Lapa Rios’s laudible conservation efforts learning that over 30 years secondary forest recovers well, but that primary takes around 300 years. Most poignantly however, once we cut forest, we’ll never know what is lost and will never return. I was reminded that yes we need to reforest where we can and must but first we desperately need to stop cutting trees in the first place. “You can’t come back to something that is gone.” Richard Powers, The Overstory.

 

Corcovado National Park, the Osa Peninsula and Lapa Rios Lodge truly inspire. Together they show how rich and diverse our future can be, and yes why not how humans can live symbiotically and peacefully with other animals and pristine forests.

 

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At high end wildlife lodge Lapa Rios (https://www.laparios.com) tourism, conservation and science positively affect & reinforce each other. My absolutely beautiful large room and private deck had uninterrupted sweeping views to rainforest and ocean beyond. As well as experiencing many of the guided activities on offer I saw the advanced progress of Roberto and Luz’s spectacular new villas and suites (Lapa Ocean Villas and Premier Lapa Suites) which opened in December 2019 and take the region’s offering to a new level.

 

 

“Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. Sleep in forgetfulness of all ill.” John Muir

 

“People aren’t the apex species they think they are. Other creatures-bigger, smaller, slower, faster, older, younger, more powerful-call the shots, make the air, and eat sunlight. Without them, nothing.” Richard Powers, The Overstory (a truly wonderful book i happened to be reading whilst in Costa Rica)

 

Further reading courtesy of Margaret Songster – my thanks for generously giving her time – from the University of florida who spent much of 2019 at Lapa Rios. 

 

An Island of Wildlife in a Human-Dominated Area:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0214390  

 

Social and Environmental Effects of Ecotourism on the Osa:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14724040902953076  

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