Uvita - Swimming in the river, Marino Ballena National Park, and an interesting natural phenomenon

After not feeling quite comfortable in Manuel Antonio, I hoped that I would like Uvita better. And luckily, I did. Although there is not as much to see in Uvita, at least according to my expectations, I still wanted to make a stop there before continuing to Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula. There are 2 major highlights in Uvita: First, you can apparently watch whales and dolphins off the coast, and second, there is the Marino Ballena National Park, which has a land formation that actually looks like a whale's tail ('ballena' means whale in Spanish). In Uvita, you can also go diving and snorkeling, and there are some beautiful waterfalls and rivers where you can swim. I also took a swim because, like in Manuel Antonio, it was extremely hot.

I had booked a shuttle that picked me up in the morning from the hotel in Manuel Antonio and was supposed to drop me off at my accommodation in Uvita. However, since Uvita is quite spread out, or for some other reason, they do not stop at all hotels and only take you to a central point in the town. I only found this out shortly before reaching the destination and asked the driver if he could take me to my accommodation. He was obviously torn because he had a tour to San José immediately afterwards and had to pick up the people on time. I was the last one in the shuttle, so he asked me if it was okay if he quickly went to the gas station. Sure. So we went to refuel and he even cleaned the car for the next guests while I sat in the car and he hurriedly cleaned around me. Poor guy. I could have taken a taxi, but apparently he didn't want any complaints or he was just being nice, because he actually drove me to my accommodation. My hotel was a bit outside, at the end of a dirt road, but right next to a small river. It wasn't really a hotel, but an Airbnb (for those who don't know: a type of private accommodation). Shawnna, the owner, is from the USA and has been living there with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend for only half a year. The previous owner had already been renting out rooms, so she only had to renovate it a bit and make it feel like home. The main building is an old shipping container with an added floor. There are 2 rooms on the ground floor and 2 rooms on the upper floor, each with a shared bathroom. She lives in a separate building next to it. Between the two buildings, there is a semi-open communal kitchen and an open seating area. Everything was decorated with great attention to detail, and you could feel that Shawnna had put a lot of thought and love into the accommodation. I found it really cozy and it had a very family-like atmosphere. And Shawnna told me that I had the nicest room 🙂 There was a small, short path from the garden down to the river, where I immediately cooled off after arriving. After that, I went shopping and had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, which was really cozy and had delicious food. I continued writing my blog there, and a DJ started playing, for some reason. In any case, I was really in the writing flow and treated myself to a cocktail. By the way, it was the first one on my trip.

The next day, I wanted to visit the Marino Ballena National Park, which is about 4 kilometers away from the shore. I asked Shawnna how to get there, and she offered to drive me. She also offered to pick me up afterwards. So we drove down to the beach in her rickety Jeep. She even made an extra stop at an ATM for me. Like everything else here, there is an entrance fee for the small national park, but 6 dollars is reasonable. It's about 2 kilometers to the 'whale tail' that is located in the park, and I decided to walk there along the forest trail. It was simply too hot on the beach, even though it was only 10 o'clock or so. I discovered a small path that led to a river with mangroves, but it ended there. Basically, there was only a tiny muddy bank where you could barely sit. But there were some birds, small fish in the water, and hermit crabs on the shore.

  

I explored the forest a bit more and then went to the 'whale tail' because you can only walk to it during low tide, and then you have about 6 hours until the next high tide. The timing of low tide shifts by about 50 minutes each day and started at 10 o'clock on that day. The path to the end of the tail felt endless because you couldn't estimate the distance at all, and it was already almost noon and the sun was beating down on the sand from above. There was no shade. The end of the tail consisted of sharp rocks and was not easy to walk on. I had imagined it differently somehow, as it looks more like sand in aerial photos. But with good shoes, you can at least walk on it for a bit. Due to the low tide, small pools of water had formed, and I had to wade through the water a few times. Jumping was often not an option because it would have been too dangerous. As I walked back, the water was already returning and I could watch as the water slowly made its way from both sides and met in the middle. The water had already reached a part of the beach as well.

I made another stop at a small river that flowed into the sea halfway to the exit. You could walk along it for a while until it became impassable due to dense vegetation and mangroves. There, I took a dip and observed the birds and spotted a stingray. After a while, I saw the seawater flowing back into the river, so I decided to start heading back. The water had already advanced quite far on the beach, and the river that I had to cross was barely passable in some places.

It was only shortly before reaching the exit that I had reception again and could message Shawnna. I went to a falafel restaurant nearby and then she picked me up there. Before that, I had observed two blue tanagers sitting on a fern in the restaurant. After a while, I noticed that they had a nest there. In the fern that hung from the ceiling of the restaurant. I also had a conversation with an Israeli guy with a super interesting life story, who told me that he used to live in Leipzig. Funny coincidence.

In the car, I told Shawnna that I wanted to visit the waterfall near her house again, and she offered to drive me there. I could walk back because it wasn't too far. The entrance fee was about 2 euros, and I could also visit a butterfly house there, although it was a bit neglected and some of the butterflies were dead on the floor. One of the staff members showed me the way, but it was actually easy to find. There were several natural pools there, large enough for a nice swim. At the highest pool, there was even a platform from which you could jump into the pool. Some people and even children were jumping down from there as if it were nothing. For me, it was too high and too dangerous. The young French guy who took pictures of me didn't dare. I tried to motivate him and counted backwards from 10. And he jumped. He thanked me for encouraging him afterward.

In the evening at the hotel, I talked to 2 Germans who were staying in the room opposite mine. Funny enough, she also lives in Leipzig and he in Chemnitz. We had a really nice conversation and might meet up in Leipzig sometime.

For the next day, I had decided to go on a whale watching tour, where you can watch whales from a boat, as it was the small whale season off the coast of Uvita. Shawnna organized a tour for me for the next day through some contacts she had. And again, she drove me down to the national park where the tour was supposed to start. When we were trying to leave the parking lot and she backed up, there was a small bump. We both got scared, and at first, I thought we had hit the dog. But she had hit the rental car of the two Germans. Sh... There was a dent in their car, and Shawnna didn't know what to do. She later told me that she was torn between dealing with the situation or driving me to the whale tour. But she drove me to the national park first. The whale tour itself was a small mass event, and in retrospect, I wouldn't do something like that again. We spent at least 2 hours on the boat cruising along the coast and didn't see anything at first. Then a few dolphins. After a while, there was a stop for swimming from the boat. I didn't feel like swimming and preferred to watch the frigate birds that were resting on an island near our boat and possibly even nesting there. But the island was too far away to see any details, and one of the tour guides kept getting in the way of the photos. After a while, they said we were moving on because whales had been spotted. There are only 7 boats allowed around the whales, and when we arrived, there were only 2 boats. When we spotted the whales, the guy suddenly started handing out fruit. Huh? That was apparently included in the tour. We saw a humpback whale with a calf. Since the whales only come up to breathe rarely and only stay at the surface for a short time, you have to have a lot of patience. But since the calves can't stay underwater for as long yet, both surfaced regularly after a few minutes. It's actually a beautiful experience, but I still felt guilty about it. And for good reason. As a friend later told me, there are studies that show that whales and other marine animals are very stressed by the noise of boat engines. Underwater, the noise is even more intense, and even though the number of boats is limited, there is still a lot of noise underwater. A mother with a calf can be particularly sensitive to the noise and even reject the calf. With acute or persistent disturbance, it can even happen that the whales do not return to the area and seek other coastlines. I also didn't feel good about chasing after the animals just to get a better view of them. In the end, everyone has to decide for themselves whether they want to do a whale watching tour or not. But for me, it's clear that I won't do it again.

Since we were dropped off at the beach in the national park from the boat, I went back to the river where I had been the day before. I found it beautiful there, and hardly anyone found their way there. I could observe a kingfisher hunting and saw the stingray again. Or maybe it was a different one, who knows.

Near the park entrance, there is another hiking trail that I wanted to check out. However, I decided to turn back after a few hundred meters because it was already quite late, and I was hungry.

I went back outside the national park to a restaurant where Shawnna picked me up shortly after. She had spent almost the whole day at the car repair shop because her Jeep had been making some noise for a while. The mechanics apparently took lunch breaks in between and left everything where it was. When she got home, she could only deal with the issue with the Germans' car, whom she had already informed. Since she needed proof for her insurance, the police had to come to document the damage. That's apparently what the insurance requires. Shawnna was quite upset and worried about the whole situation. On the same day, she also discovered that the air conditioning in one of the rooms had broken because the previous guests had apparently dried their laundry on it. It was all too much for her, understandably. But despite everything, she was still so kind and washed my laundry, which I had given her the day before. The police officers even sat down and enjoyed a coffee with us, even though it was already evening. It all seemed quite uncomplicated.

By the way, Shawnna told me that at first, she didn't want to host backpackers because she somehow thought they were dirty and messy 😅 I don't know where that came from. In any case, she told me that I am completely out of the norm. In a positive way. Because normally, she doesn't have solo female travelers as guests, especially not without a car, and on top of that, I'm a backpacker who is clean and tidy. We both laughed about it because she meant it in a really nice way. She also said that she doesn't drive everyone around like that, but she apparently found me very likable 😊

I definitely had a few really nice and relaxing days in Uvita and made interesting acquaintances. The next day, I was going to take a shuttle bus from Uvita to Drake Bay, a place in the north of the Osa Peninsula, which is mostly made up of national parks, including the highly acclaimed Corcovado National Park.

It was like paradise there, and I made a very special friendship. I'll tell you more about that next time.

Thanks for reading. Muchas gracias, Thank you, Merci beaucoup, makasih banyak, Děkuji!... that's all I can say...

Note: The first aerial image of the whale tail is from the internet. Source: https://www.costaricadiveandsurf.com