Reading & Rainforest In Costa Rica

Throughout my travels around this big blue ball, I’ve often found myself in exactly the right place, at the right time, with the right book. Yet, I can’t say that I consciously chose that book for that place or time. In fact, it’s usually serendipity that aligned these forces: grab a book that I’ve started and stopped at home multiple times, but never got into deeply. Take it with me to read while traveling. And sometimes when place, time, and content converge it can be magical, life changing, and awe inspiring. There’s nothing quite like getting lost in a tome that speaks to an experience, and hits just the right time.

So was the circumstance when I found myself last month in a rainforest in southern Costa Rica reading The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert. Without getting too deep into specifics (I strongly recommend reading this book yourself if you’re interested in the fate of humanity and our planet) she speaks a lot about biodiversity, evolution, ocean acidification, climate change, all while engaging the reader with her personal experiences that led to her enlightenment. I picked it up a handful of times at home and never made it past the first chapter. Once I settled in and realized how significant her ideas were to the place I landed, I couldn’t put it down.

Between spring break and summer is a good window for me to travel before the business really kicks into its season. I decided to plan an escape for a few weeks to scout a potential off-season paddle opportunity (which is now a thing). I feel the itch to get back into the travel game, and paddle travel isn’t very developed. I was going to return to southern Thailand and work out some itineraries for Phang Nga Bay (which will soon be a thing) where the amazing limestone towers offer magical ecosystems teeming with wildlife, geological wonders, amazing food, people, and experiences. But something was holding me back. I kept putting off booking tickets and couldn’t commit. It was about a week away and I had nothing planned.

Then I saw a Facebook post from my friend Stu who moved a few years ago to Costa Rica and I started to think that maybe I should go somewhere new. I’ve kayaked in Thailand so many times, I could plan that trip in my sleep. I message Stu and immediately the phone rang. After about five minutes, he said “brother, I believe in ready-fire-aim. Come down here and scout it out and post up an itinerary. You’ll sort it all out”. With that I booked my ticket and started digging into the overwhelming options of places to go in Costa Rica (and again, it’s a thing).

Of all the advice I got, the most compelling place was the Osa Peninsula. Remote, unspoiled jungle teeming with wildlife and protected waters to paddle in the Golfo Dulce. Ok, I’m in. Now where exactly am I going, how will I get there, and where will I stay? At this point I’m leaving in two days and I need a first stop at least. I had rented a car from San Jose and thought I’d drive. It’s only 5-6 hours - no biggie. But everyone starts warning about Costa Rica’s roads. Also everyone seems to be skittish on long drives here. I just drove around the entire coast of Southern Italy last fall. This should be nothing.

Then I find my spot. I want to pop into Corcovado, but the real goods for me are across the gulf at Piedras Blancas. There, you’re set into the rainforest, but can paddle into the calm waters of the bay to make double-duty on land and water. There are a handful of sexy little retreats that dot the shoreline, expensive as fuck, but my clients are gonna want to be comfortable, right? After a debacle with one place where I thought they were quoting me the total price, only to realize it was per night!? I landed on Golfo Dulce Retreat. Reviews were stellar, looked pretty, time was ticking, and they had a room. 36 hours before I leave I book and they recommend flying into Puerto Jimenez or Golfito on the tiny little Sansa Airline (which turns out to be cheaper than renting a car for the same period). So I book with no driving involved.

After a couple of days at Osa and Corcovado (cool place, albeit a worn trail), a boat picks me up in Puerto Jimenez and takes me 20 minutes across the gulf. I meet a lovely Irish couple on the boat who I would enjoy getting to know over the next few days. A woman in breezy white linen is waiving to us on the beach when we land. “Leave your things, I am Chantelle. Simone, my husband will be here tomorrow. Welcome to our retreat”. As we walk up a little boardwalk that winds through the dense jungle the sounds are deafening and the kaleidoscope of colors is dizzying. It’s like we stepped into a children’s coloring book of the rainforest. Chantelle talks to us about being alert for spiders, bullet ants, snakes, and other fiesty critters that we’ll likely encounter in the next few days. “Always carry a flashlight at night”.

We arrive at the main pavilion where meals will be served and everything is positively luxurious. Woven baskets, supple textiles, accent lighting, field-guides, cocktail menu, daily schedule, and communal spaces for tea, happy hour, and meals. There’s an observation deck, and a perfect little pool to cool-off. All of this, in a very living and breathing jungle. My room was of the same standard. Elegant and simple: pale woods, thatched roof, stone accents, an outdoor shower, and a perfectly placed hammock that would soon come to be my daily rainfall reading nest.

Throughout my stay at GDR, I saw much of the wildlife that is advertised in the region (even some Chantelle envied that she’s never seen), including sloth, scarlet macaw, crocs, toucan, boa, tapir, and all four of the monkey varieties that reside here: squirrel, spider, howler, and capuchin. Many of these species are endangered and, as I would learn, so much of this entire ecosystem is desperately threatened. The Sixth Extinction is not a happy book that you read to feel good about humanity.

I’ve read plenty about evolution, climate, and the impact of man on the earth. I don’t think I had the full picture until I read this book. Kolbert lays out the historical precedents for five mass-extinction events over a 400 million-year span. I always assumed the impact that took out the dinosaurs was the cause of all such calamities. But it turns out climate events were responsible for at least the first two major resets on the planet. She makes it very clear that it isn’t just the level of change we’re experiencing, but the rate that it’s happening that is absolutely unprecedented and certainly will have a massive, potentially catastrophic, impact on the planet. Thus the sixth extinction. She’s not saying it will happen, but she’s saying that we’re certainly headed there and history is pretty clear signpost.

Of course the rainforest, with the greatest density of biodiversity on Earth, is at the core of her story. So as I am sitting in my hammock every afternoon when the torrential rains batter this slice of paradise, I am reading about my very surroundings. It was another one of those unplanned moments that landed the right book in my lap, at the right time, and certainly in the right place (that a few days ago I didn’t even realize I would be visiting). I plowed through it, savoring each chapter, wishing it were longer, since I still had another night of rains ahead.

As it happens I was speaking with Chantelle that night after dinner… wait, what? I haven’t spoken of the food. Quickly… Chantelle and Simone are Italians. Every freaking meal was outstanding. Like the best food I’ve had in three weeks in Costa Rica. They somehow manage to cull together ingredients to put out dishes that I would seek out in San Francisco or Rome, let alone in east-bumfuck-jungle. So, after another amazing meal, I was brewing with all of the ideas that Kolbert seeded in my brain and had a lovely conversation with my host. I told her about the book and her eyes lit up. It’s hard to get books in her world, especially great ones that are so relevant. I happily handed her my copy and she beamed - “this is truly a great gift”.

I’m still buzzing from my time in Golfo Dulce. The rest of Costa Rica is disadvantaged to have to compete. Adding to that the connection I found with my hosts, that book, and the forest itself, I’ve had one of those experiences that will stick with me forever. I will return there. Soon, in fact. I’m putting together a group to paddle and see humpback whales breeding in September (DM me if you’re interested). But I know that I only get one shot at the convergence of forces and serendipity in any particular place - it's not repeatable. Still, I know there will be more elsewhere, like I’ve had time and again in my life, like I had last week, and will have again. So, next visit here maybe I’ll read something light.

And with that. I’ve created an itinerary for September and will certainly repeat in the future. Space is incredibly limited.