Two white horses graze in a meadow and beyond them, evening mist spills over a ridge thick with jungle. Fireflies flicker in the gathering darkness.
I let out a long breath and feel tightness release in my belly. Henry David Thoreau had it right when he said: But we need new approaches that support people, too. Don Felix is a case in point. Now he and his wife have joined a network of local entrepreneurs hosting groups like ours on immersive tours. Daniel helps pull all the various stakeholders together and market the four- to six-day itineraries — as well as tailored trips that combine trekking, kayaking, horse riding, diving and snorkelling with visits to indigenous communities.
By 9pm, full of beans and beer, we retire to our bedrooms in an extension Don Felix has recently added to his home to accommodate guests. At mid-morning the next day, my horse, Negro, trots up a steep section of track and through a break in the trees: Once your buttocks adjust, horseback is definitely the way to travel this landscape. Negro clops steadily along, allowing me to take in at my leisure enormous hardwoods with buttressed roots, scarlet macaws Osa has the largest population in Central America and even a troop of howler monkeys, whose guttural bellows belie their diminutive size.
These trails were originally blazed by hunters and gold prospectors. He shows us a camphor tree that emits a flammable sap like eucalyptus, wild coriander and garlic, and a tree that smells like a corpse. When I brush past an acacia bush, symbiotic ants swarm out of seedpod hiding places and attack me with kamikaze fervour. Alberto has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the plants. Costa Rica developed its national parks system in the s, taking its cue from the great North American parks.
It has been hailed as an outstanding conservation success, but community ecotourism initiatives are still brand new. After lunch, we head down to the beach. Crocs and bull sharks populate these waters and rip currents abound, so going for a dip can be dicey.
