Uvita

Hundreds of thousands of acres of tall, dark green oil palm trees were planted in rigid, grid-like patterns as far as the eye could see.

Occasional narrow access roads cut through the greenery, revealing glimpses of machinery, water buffalo grazing or workers tending the palms. By the side of the road, you could see men on bicycles carrying forty foot aluminum poles with a curved sickle blade at the top, which they used for felling palm oil clusters. They were driving home from work. I loved these little glimpses into a simpler life.

Photo Above: The Whale Tail, exposed at low tide and completely visible in the distance.

Small villages pop up every 10 miles or less, with a cluster of houses clumped around some type of public field and there was always a school nearby. It was easy to identify these as villages which were built by the plantation owners decades ago when they had to build homes to house the workers.

Over time, these little villages have evolved into small communities. 

Interestingly, while Palm Oil plantations are not generally environmentally friendly, because Costa Rica’s estates were planted on failed banana farmsteads, they’ve avoided much of the stigma associated with most palm oil plantations, which is primary rainforest destruction.

Due to the strong environmental laws in Costa Rica, these are among the most highly monitored plantations of their kind on the planet. Costa Rica has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, but much of its wildlife requires large ranges to survive, especially species like jaguars, tapirs, monkeys, and scarlet macaws. To address habitat fragmentation from agriculture, roads, and urban development, Costa Rica actively promotes ecological corridors that connect protected areas, national parks, and fragmented forests.

These plantations are mandated to include surrounding wildlife corridors and large transition zones between land and a body of water, like a river. These zones then act as a crucial buffer between aquatic and agricultural environments, which filter and sediment and herbicides runoff, assuring that local wildlife has lots of natural refuge nearby.

If you are driving through, corridors are visible as green patches, strips along rivers, and clusters of trees among farmland. You won’t see a marked “corridor,” but if you look for it, you’ll see green bands of forest every few miles, which was obvious when the rows of palm oil trees ended. Wildlife moves through those areas. Those are the details that really stood out to me.

In Costa Rica, wildlife is as important as human beings and that’s the way it should be.

Coming into Uvita.

By this point in our travels, we were ready to slow the pace down. It had been a busy two months of traveling around much of the country, often having something to do every day and in Uvita, our big plans were to simply walk the beaches. 

Once we arrived, we made our way to our Airbnb and were happy to discover the road leading to it was one of the best of our trip. It actually looked residential and everything just got better from there. From the moment Yim opened the big red gates and we drove inside Ocean Melody, we both knew this was going to be our favourite part of the trip.

Our car fit neatly inside a designated parking area with a beach bike and as we walked into the property, the first thing we saw was our own private swimming pool surrounded by lush tropical gardens, lounge chairs and a cool little wooden house.

From the moment Yim opened the big red gates and drove inside Ocean Melody, we both knew this was going to be our favourite part of the trip.

The house was perfect. The kitchen was well equipped with a nice counter space for morning coffee and quick meals and there was a small dinner table out on the back balcony, which is surrounded by forest. The balcony also featured bamboo curtains if we wanted some privacy – presumably from the Toucans and Scarlet Macaws because the backyard was basically a jungle, and I mean that quite literally. I loved that.

There was a large living area and a nice bathroom, in which the shower worked very well. We both appreciated that a great deal. The bedroom was a nice size, with a built in wooden closet which has lots of hanging space for clothes as well as space to tuck away our suitcases, which made the room feel much roomier. It also had patio doors which opened up out onto the pool deck.

We loved the pool and used it daily, after our morning walks, sometimes in the mid-afternoon and then after dinner or before bed.

Costa Ballena – The Whale Tail Coast

Costa Ballena is one of the most distinctive coastal regions in Costa Rica, known for the dramatic meeting of tropical rainforest, mountains, rivers, and the Pacific Ocean in a relatively undeveloped stretch of shoreline and marks the transition into Costa Rica’s wetter, more biologically intense South Pacific zone.

The name Costa Ballena literally means “Whale Coast.”

The region is famous for seasonal migrations of humpback whales—one of the rare places in the world where two different migration populations (from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) visit at different times of year.

It is also visually dramatic, because the mountains rise steeply from the coast, allowing rainforest to run almost uninterrupted right down to the beaches, giving it a vibrant, jungle-like feel that’s alive with wildlife.

And the beaches were incredible. Quieter and more natural than those further north, offering soft sands, warm waters, and dramatic cliffs right down to the ocean’s edge.

The region is famous for seasonal migrations of humpback whales—one of the rare places in the world where two different migration populations visit at different times of year.

Marino Balleno National Park

Marino Balleno National Park is Costa Rica’s first marine park, established in 1989. It is one of the few places in the world where humpback whales migrate to from both the northern and southern hemispheres.

It is one of those places that makes you slow down without even trying.

As you enter the beach at low tide, the first thing that catches your eye is the whale tail formation, jutting from the water off in the distance. It seems to form a spinal attachment to the shoreline that allows you to walk out to the tip of the tail. Standing on the shore, watching the waves break around it, it was easy to feel a sense of awe.

We spent 40 minutes walking out from the beach to the tip of the tail, then along the rocky edges, feeling the morning breeze and admiring the jungle drop background. On our way down the other side of the tail, we talked about tidal ranges and about the fact that this is one of the only places in the world where humpback whales from both hemispheres migrate to. And no, I didn’t know why at the time. I explained my fascination with the park to the fact that such a structure in such a place actually existed and how that couldn’t be coincidental. I mean come on, an actual geological formation in the exact shape as a whales tail where humpback whales migrate to from both hemispheres. That’s kinda cosmic.

When we got out onto the coral outcroppings at the Whale’s tails end, Yim said that this was just a phenomenon!

We returned later in the afternoon at high tide to witness its disappearance as the spit gets swallowed back up by the sea.

It was fun. This was another one of those places that I have felt drawn to for many years and as I often feel when I am in these environments, I felt at home. I am so grateful to have been able to share these experiences with Yim. As I’ve been saying in these posts now, these are the times that Yim and I are going to remember as we age and I want the rest of our lives to be spent making wonderful memories together.

This was one.

After leaving the tip of the sand spit, we spent a wonderful hour walking along the beach line and then back, as the sun intensified. It was still early morning and Yim had on a t-shirt over a sports bra and after considerable deliberation, she took off her t-shirt and enjoyed the sunshine on her body, wearing just a sports bra and shorts in public. Ooooh.

It’s hard for me to reconcile the fact that she does burlesque back home but had trouble walking the beach in a sports bra but what do I know? I know I liked it when she took her t-shirt off.

Whale watching, scuba diving and other related activities associated with the park are estimated to generate about CDN $29 million a year for Costa Rica and support roughly 25,000 jobs in the immediate coastal communities, making Marino Ballena National Park a key component of Costa Rica’s nature based tourism economy.

Considering that the population of Uvita is 4,500, that 25,000 jobs is enormously wide reaching within the area.

I am very impressed at how good a job Costa Rica has done in instilling a sense of pride within their communities towards their natural environments. They have been forward thinking enough to recognize the reasons the world needs to protect wildlife and the environment and by creating and maintaining these national parks. They have created conservation careers for the population and instilled them with a sense of stewardship. Currently, roughly 6% of the population is employed in some sort of environmental protection and the country has plans to increase that to 20%, which would include renewable projects.

Harnessing the importance of nature to create conservation oriented sustainable employment.

That’s pretty cool.