Isla Del Cano

We were ready to head on south and leave this tourist magnet of Antonia Manuel   It was a beautiful but rolly anchorage and we had some trouble sleeping both nights.  We have a flopper stopper but it doesn’t stopper. J

It was again a nice easy cruise south with several dolphin sightings.  Ziggy was particularly annoyed at three boobie birds that buzzed the boat for hours.  He was exhausted chasing and barking at them.  He does a good job keeping those poop bombers off the boat but they still seem to manage drop a few no matter what. 

In the distance we could see the small island of Del Cano. It’s about 10-12 miles off Bahia Drake (off the mainland) in the southern part of Costa Rica.  As we approached we were puzzled by some sort of fish flying straight up and out of the water.  As we got closer we saw that they were sting rays, several of them.

The draw to this island for me  was it’s history.  It is believed that this island was the site of a pre-Columbian cemetery.  Many puzzling stone spheres or balls were found here.  Some the size of 6 feet in diameter.  It’s a mystery as to how they were made and deposited here.  I was enamored by the idea and had to see them.  The park has been a restricted biological reserve since 1978.  It is surrounded by beautiful coral reefs that are known to fantastic diving and snorkeling spots.  The water was an amazing tuorquoise blue unlike the mostly green mucky water we  have seen throughout this trip.

Unfortunately though, this is a very rolly, swelly, rocky area and does not provide for a good safe anchorage.  There is a park ranger station on the single small beach which provides the only access.  It is located on the only place on the island where you are permitted to anchor.  Larry got a good hold at about 50-60 feet but the swells and waves were really intimidating.  After our experience with the dinghy at Antonio Manuel we were not ready to repeat the experience especially in this location. The waves were big, and quick and the shore dropped quickly.  I thought perhaps I could kayak in and take my chances with a beach landing but the swells were too dangerous.  I got back on the boat and told Larry we might as well go to the mainland as it was too rough here for us.  He didn’t want me to be disappointed and managed to hail a nearby scuba diving skiff and asked if he would take me in.  He said “no problem” and I hopped on and had a thrilling experience while this expert took me in through the large waves and with perfect timing turned the boat and told me when to jump off.  I stuffed a few Colones (Costa Rican dollars) in between his dive tanks and pointed to it as I jumped and thanked him.  He yelled to me that he could give me a lift back in an hour when he picked up his group. 

I walked to the rangers office. There was a handcarve stone basin filled with water and above it a sign that said “llave los basuras”  which I took to mean, “wash your feet” before coming up onto his porch.  So, hoping that’s what it meant, I dipped my sandy feet in and proceeded to buy a ticket to hike the island and find the ancient balls.  He didn’t speak any English.  I had to pay $8 for entrance to the park and $4 for the boat to be anchored and my husband (one person) board.  He didn’t trust that there was only the two of us.  I told him “yo y mi esposo, y un pero, soloamente” (myself, my husband, and a dog, only), so the total charge was $12.  I then asked where the stone spheres were in my best Spanish.  He took me behind the ranger station to the most unlikely place and pointed up a steep narrow path in the jungle that lead up the hill.  It didn’t look like a real path but he kept knodding to go.  I asked how long it would take to reach the spheres and where they were exactly.  I got some vague directions and an estimate to reach them of about  45 minutes.  I’m thinking that puts me late to get the ride back with the scuba guy but after all this trouble I headed up the jungle path..

I called Larry on our two-way radio and said it would be at least an hour an a half before I could get back.  I was scared to death walking this narrow path because I had read in one of my books that the island had a wide variety of snakes (boa constrictors, grass snakes, chunk-headed snakes, and the poisonous sea snake).  I don’t like snakes so I was really nervous about it.  Then I started wondering why all these people come here to snorkel if it’s known for having poisonous deadly sea snakes.  With those pleasant thoughts in mind, I headed into the jungle alone.  It was the scariest hour I ever spent.  There were things rustling in the bushes, and bunches of leaves and debri on the ground that I had to walk on thinking there was some slimy creature hiding in them.  There was a  million little lizards (that looked just like the leaves on the ground) that kept running out of the leaves and scaring me to death.  I’d jump about a foot each time and then I just got to the point where I was telling them to get out of the way because they became more of a nuisance than anything.  There were noises I had never heard before and things dropping from the canopy of foliage above me.  There were vines and branches hanging over the trail and I imagined boa constrictors camouflaged in the branches.  I was sweating profusely as there was no air to breathe.  The perspiration was running down into my eyes and burning them so I couldn’t see what was ahead. I was having difficulty watching out for all those monsters I was imagining.  I kept thinking there would be someone on the path that I would meet and I would feel more comfortable but no one passed.  I would pass a wooden sign every so often and hope that it would say the spheres were be near but the signs only said useless things like “thank you for not littering” or something to that effect.  The further I got into the jungle the more the path narrowed.  It became more and more faint and I had visions of being lost in here.  Some middle aged idiot woman lost in the jungle on an island in the sea searching for some stone balls.  Many times I thought I would turn back but I had to go on because of all the trouble we had gone to get here.  FINALLY, I came to the end of the trail and found the round spheres.  In fact, I wasn’t sure they were the spheres.  There was a piles of rocks with a measily 15” in diameter sphere in the center and then a few yards away was another one.  I guess you could imagine that within this pile of rockswere other odd shaped stones that may be ancient implements or tools.  I tried my best to take some photos that would make the spheres look bigger than they actually were.  I wanted something to validate this crazy hike I had gone on.   I did my bet to take some dramatic pictures of these piles.  I did see some large empty round holes in the earth that looked like it had excavation marks that may have been left when they removed the big spheres from the island.  I found out later they all had been removed and were now in some museum in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

Larry was trying to call me on the radio.  I couldn’t make out what he was saying but was convinced that the seas were getting rough and he needed to leave.  I hurried back, exhausted, hot and thirsty.  On the way back I wasn’t so concerned about all the imaginary monsters I had envisioned on the way.  There was something about having come the first distance that made the return easier.  As I finally got close to the ranger station, Larry came in loud and clear.  There was no problem with the boat but he was getting worried about how I would get back to the boat because my scuba boat lift had to leave.  As I rounded the ranger station I motioned to the ranger I needed a lift.  He looked at me like, what’s the problem just swim.  As he was no help, I spotted a couple by the shore that looked like they were waiting for a boat.  I asked them if I could get a lift back to their scuba boat and though they were overloaded they said yes.   They were a nice young couple on their honey moon from Colorado. 

Back on the boat, having felt I overcome a fear of going through that dense jungle, I was very thirsty and hot.  The ocean water was a clear turquoise and I couldn’t resist diving off the swim step and cooling off.  The water was wonderfully clear there and the snorkeling must be fabulous.  Although, you have to be careful of the swells and waves it’s a truly exciting place to come.  We pulled anchor and headed to our destination for our night anchorage,

 Bahia Drake