Alone With Nature in a Tropical Rain Forest

MARENCO, Costa Rica —  There are no roads to Marenco.

Remote, tropical, blessed with unspoiled beaches, towering rain forest and only a few flying insects that bite, Marenco Biological Station is a privately owned nature reserve along Costa Rica’s southern Pacific Ocean coast.

My first view of the station was from a five-passenger, single-engine plane. A cluster of red metal roofs beckoned from the forest that surrounded them.

During the trip by launch 10 minutes down the coast from a grass airstrip, we passed narrow bands of deserted beaches--palms and forest encroaching onto dark sand. By dinghy, we maneuvered among lava rocks to shore.

Less than two hours after leaving the traffic and sounds of Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, I was setting off down a trail that winds silently through mile after mile of rain forest giants.

For the next two days I tramped along with four other nature lovers behind resident Lou Jost.

The hip-high, red-clay stain on Jost’s white pants was a tip-off to trail conditions after days of rain. Soon those of us who had gingerly stepped from the dinghy, protective of dry shoes, were wading across rivers and slipping through mud like veterans.

A green kingfisher, a red-capped manikin, woodcreepers and butterflies welcomed us. Although I was a neophyte at bird watching, I saw an exotic, slaty-tailed trogon. Mysterious sounds from unseen creatures punctuated the stillness.

Later, a bird book in the Marenco station’s small library added color and shape to some of the sounds Jost had identified for us. We peered at pages showing the Amazon parrot and pale-billed woodpecker.

Our small group neither saw nor heard tapirs, crocodiles, anteaters or sloths, but we were treading their turf.

Returning at sunset on trails behind the station grounds, loud, hoarse barks pulled us back in search of howler monkeys. In the dim light of a darkening forest, we finally saw a troop high in the trees.

Private reserves such as Marenco, along with Costa Rica’s internationally recognized park system, help conserve the biological diversity of the tropics in this corner of Central America.

Though Sergio Miranda, director of the biological station, suggests that Marenco is not for the luxury traveler, accommodations are far from primitive.

Lodges on a hill 180 feet above the ocean house two people per room, with private baths. Each room has its own terrace looking out at a sweep of machete-cut lawn, over the forest and down to the sea.

Floors of gleaming tropical hardwood prompted me to leave muddy shoes outside. A split-tailed “Jesus Christ” lizard, so called because of its ability to walk on water, has taken up residence near the lodges.

The isolation in the midst of tropical rain forest that doomed the fruit farm was the key to Marenco as a center for nature-adventure travel.

Three years after Miranda came to Marenco, Costa Rica set aside 87,500 acres south and east of it as Corcovado National Park. Corcovado now encompasses more than 105,000 acres.

“Creation of the national park in 1975 began to change the whole future,” Miranda said. “The biggest problem then, as now, was how to get into the area. I used a dugout to travel out of Sierpe when I was building Marenco.” As word spread among researchers that Miranda was coming and going in the area, they started to contact him to get them to Corcovado.

He not only brought them in, but soon was housing the scientists and then university student groups. One day a tour agency called to inquire if a group of bird watchers could use his boats. “I didn’t know anything about natural-history travelers,” Miranda said, but he researched the nature-adventure travel market and in 1985 went into business.

A stay at the station offers a day with a Marenco guide in Corcovado Park. After a 6:30 a.m. family-style breakfast in the dining hall--eggs, black beans and rice ( gallo pinto ), toast, fruit, juice and coffee or tea--I set out with Jost and four other travelers to see the national park.

A gentle rain was all that remained of a roaring nighttime downpour as we transferred from dinghy to launch for a 20-minute ride to San Pedrillo, a ranger station marking the northern park boundary. After hiking along the beach, we climbed into the forest.

We saw red spider monkeys leaping from tree to tree in search of fruit, one toting a baby on its back. My bird list mushroomed--I saw kiskadees, a golden-hooded tanager and anis (of the cuckoo family), and caught a glimpse of the huge, turkey-like curassow through thick foliage.

We caught scent of white-lipped peccaries, a sort of wild hog. “If they appear,” advised Jost, “stand still and hope they don’t charge.” In case of attack, he suggested we climb at least three feet up in a nearby tree. Peccaries roam in herds of up to about 50.

The secret to knowing where army ants are on the move? The chirr of antbirds that prey on insects fleeing a swarm. Miniature roads in forest litter tell of leaf-cutting ants that carry bits of bright green leaves for the fungus gardens in their nests.

We touched the white latex of the baco , or milk tree. Indigenous peoples drank its “milk,” ate its sweet fruit and beat its reddish gray bark to use as blankets or clothes.

Fallen flowers on the forest floor hint of riches hidden in the canopy above. “That’s why I decided to go into the canopy,” Jost said. He discovered an arrow lost on a previous attempt to climb one of the forest giants; using a crossbow,, he shot climbing lines that helped him get to an area of the rain forest that has been largely inaccessible to researchers.

Red, yellow, brown and green seed pods--works of art and engineering--also litter the forest floor. One looks like a child’s top. It hangs with the point up, and a bottom plug pops out to release seeds into the air.

Printed guides to trails on Marenco’s 1,500 acres allow visitors to encounter the tropical forest alone, an adventure worth taking.

Walking through the thick carpet of leaves, Jost would suddenly squat to briefly detain a brightly colored frog no bigger than his thumbnail. He noticed a toucan--against the sky on a dead tree--that I could barely see with binoculars.

As my eyes adjusted, I, too, made discoveries: A small salamander so delicate and tiny, like a toothpick with legs, camouflaged brown against a brown leaf; a toucan, unseen, but identified by his song; a baco or ajo recognized.

Jost spun tales of interrelationships in the forest. My favorite was his description of the “arms race” between the passion flower and the Heliconius butterfly.

The passion flower has Velcro-like leaves with little hooked hairs to catch marauding butterfly larvae. The plant also produces egg-mimics on its leaves to fool butterflies into thinking that eggs already have been laid there.

Butterflies, for their part, have learned to detoxify the poisonous chemicals in the plant or to use them to make themselves toxic to their predators.

Though he refers to these forests as “benign” because of the few bothersome insects and snakes that mostly keep to themselves, Jost recalls one woman who sat on a log without looking and found herself on the tail of a fearsome fer-de-lance, the most dangerous snake in Central America. As Jost yanked her up, the surprised snake slithered away.

We ate sack lunches beside the roaring waterfall at Llorona. Although it was a cool day from the rain and cloud cover, I stepped in to feel the pounding torrent. On a dry, hot day, tired hikers, no doubt, rush to the cooling water.

For those not up to the rigors of an all-day trek through the forest, there are miles of uninhabited coastline to explore and there’s swimming in rivers or ocean, snorkeling and horseback riding.

One need only carry binoculars to the hammock on the terrace to get a view of parrots, toucans and maybe a scarlet macaw as they fly through the clearing.

Others saw two humpback whales from the terrace while we were away at Corcovado. Residents say that whales announce summer, the dry season that begins in December. At night sparkling fireflies can be seen from the same vantage point.

One night we descended the long hill to the beach to look in tide pools with our flashlights. (Flashlights are essential--the generator for electricity sometimes is turned off as early as 8:30 p.m.)

Marine life is abundant, especially around Isla del Cano, a national biological reserve about an hour away by boat.

Legend says pirates’ treasure is hidden on the island, and Indian graves and stone spheres suggest an ancient cemetery. Earlier Indian habitation is also evident on the mainland--while we waited at the airstrip, workers digging a drainage ditch unearthed pottery shards.

This is a remote area--communication with the outside world is by radiophone. Plans may have to change according to weather and tides. Visitors do well to travel with some flexibility in schedule.

Temperature and humidity on departure day, for instance, made it necessary to ferry the five of us out in two trips to Palmar Norte, where we rejoined for the flight to San Jose. While three of us waited for the plane to return, we were treated to pipas , coconuts a worker cut for us, deftly whacking off the tops so we could drink the milk.

Charter flights to the Marenco Biological Station leave San Jose on Mondays and Fridays on a 47-minute trip. Cost for three nights at the station is $515, including round-trip transfers from hotel to airport, plus flight, lodging, meals, guided trip to Corcovado and Rio Claro, and taxes. A four-night package adds a tour of Cano Island; cost is $631.

Boat trips must be arranged. There are two possibilities: from Uvita, a coastal village where a Marenco boat picks up guests for the two-hour ride to the station, and from Sierpe, traveling on the Sierpe River through the largest mangroves in Costa Rica and then along the coast.

Most visitors prefer the dry season, from December through April. However, Miranda says those who want to stay away from the “crowds” should consider November or May to August. Even in the wet season, rains are intermittent, but September and October can be waterlogged.

Pan Am, Mexicana and Lacsa, the Costa Rican airline, fly out of Los Angeles to San Jose.

The San Jose office for the Marenco Biological Station is on the second floor of Edificio Cristal, on Avenida 1 between Calles 1 and 3. Mailing address is P.O. Box 4025-1000, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Travel companies in the United States who book individual travel to Marenco include Seattle-based Journeys (toll-free 800-345-4453), and Voyagers in Ithaca, N.Y. (607) 257-3091.

For more information of travel to Costa Rica, contact the Costa Rica National Tourist Office, 3540 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 707, Los Angeles, Calif. 90010, or call (213) 382-8080.