We did this hike when we were here in 2015 also. This time we went further — past Cocolito beach, but not quite to Caletas beach — and it was more exciting. It didn’t seem as difficult this year.
Below is a giant strangler fig.
As the trail leaves the beach in the village it follows along and then over the Rio Agujitas via a pedestrian suspension bridge. We hear there are crocodiles in the river.
Part of our excitement was two encounters with angry capuchin monkeys. The first was on the way to the beach, at a point where the trail went through a gate. The monkeys were crossing the trail through the trees at that point, and may not have appreciated the humans taking pictures of them. One stopped on a fence post and hissed at Steve. The second time we ran into them was just short of Cocolito beach on the way back. They snarled at us and chased us a ways down the trail. We lost one or two of our water bottles in the excitement. We found out afterwards that you should not smile at the monkeys. They see it as a sign of aggression. Also that you shouldn’t run but we didn’t have a handy stick!
We actually saw the beach at Cocolito this time. Last time we were here the tide and the waves were all the way across the beach into the grass and trees.
The other excitement was me almost stepping on a snake on the trail. A very long, very thin, very green snake. We stopped a local walking by and asked if he knew snakes. He said he did, and that it was a harmless green vine snake. It crawled off the trail and into a tree, where you could tell how it got its name! It’s in the photo below climbing the tree in the center. (When we got home we described the snake to my dinosaur-loving niece, who immediately knew exactly what it was!)
These last four photos are of the trail from our hotel down to the beach.
