jungle

“IT’S on your left,” I hear someone say, muffled through the water.

I spin round and barely a foot away is a beautiful greenback turtle, lazily coming up for air next to me.

Normally this would have been the highlight of my holiday.

But it was just one of the amazing, up-close animal experiences on my trip along the lesser-visited south of Costa Rica.

Despite its small size, the country holds half a million different species.

And some of the very best are found at Corcovado, the largest of Costa Rica’s 30 National Parks.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

To embrace the true jungle life, I spent the night at the Wilderness Lodge, a 30-room hotel tucked into the forest with huts overlooking the ocean.

It was an adventure from the start, having to take two boats and a “limo” (a tractor with a LIMO 1 plate) to get there.

My treehouse room attracted animals aplenty, with barking howler monkeys becoming my natural alarm clock.

And on one late night walk back from the bar, I was greeted by herds of wild coatis and cheeky spider monkey babies, blinking at me through the branches.

The hotel hosts guided walks through the National Park, with guides very much recommended.

A few minutes into the tour, I was greeted by the smell of wine. Did I have one too many at the bar last night?

Thankfully not — the smell was in fact from the fermented jobo lining the path, a small pitted fruit thrown to the ground by monkeys wanting them for their leaves.

The discarded fruit also attracts another animal, which is why we bumped into a young tapir greedily gobbling them up.

With its bear-like ears, long trunk and squeaks, I wondered why there hasn’t been a Disney film about one yet.

Mind you, this was before I was told how dangerous they can be, should one decide to charge at you.

Having failed to spot some of the other much-anticipated animals in the park, such as sloths and pumas, the cooling ocean was calling my name.

I ditched my hiking boots for a life vest, and headed to nearby Isla del Caño, a biological reserve.

Leaping straight into the water, I felt like an explorer discovering a luscious island for the first time, snorkelling without a soul in sight.

I spent what felt like hours exploring the waters, watching turtles and bright blue fish nibbling the coral.

It was as we started to return to land that we spotted a mum and baby humpback whale in the distance.

We waited in bated silence as their fins broke the surface, wanting to see them leap out of the water.

Moments went by before the huge creature backflipped, showing off her stripy underbelly to our happy cries.

Almost as if she had been shy before, she continued leaping for us until my driver said we had to continue our journey back to the hotel.

But my ecstasy turned into fear that same night.

The jungle quickly reminded me how terrifying nature could be, woken at 4am by a ferocious thunderstorm that made my bed rattle.

Wandering over to breakfast bleary-eyed and wobbly-legged just a few hours later, I expected staff to be just as concerned.

But no — all I heard was “Pura Vida,” the way locals say hello, as well as meaning ‘way of life’.

Dolphins and whales

Safe to say that night was enough for me, and I needed some quieter time outside of the jungle.

Further down the coast is Kunken Lodge — an eight-villa boutique hotel overlooking the Golfo Dulce.

The gulf is often dubbed an animal nursery, where dolphins and whales come to have their babies.

And the hotel was a much calmer affair, the loud sounds of the forest replaced with silence, bar a few cawing birds.

After all that animal hunting, I was extremely glad for my massive portions of Costa Rican breakfast every day.

Plates of gallo pinto — rice and beans — alongside eggs and tortillas were always chased by fresh mango and watermelon.

And, of course, a steaming hot fresh cup of coffee from locally brewed beans.

As a caffeine enthusiast, I could hardly resist a trip to a local coffee farm.

Some of the best is found in San Vito, a town near the border of Panama with an Italian influence.

The coffee farm I visited even supplies the famous Illy instant coffee to Italy, as well as my daily cup while in the area.

I thought I would wind away my afternoon drinking cup after cup while relaxing outside.

Yet I found myself persuaded to visit a local ranch, testing out their new horse trekking tours before getting soaked climbing a waterfall.

“That’s the good thing about Costa Rica — everything is unexpected,” my guide Juan Carlos (nicknamed JC) told me later.

As I boarded my tiny plane, waving goodbye to the locals after trekking a jungle, being left fearing for my life during a thunderstorm and nearly trampled by a tapir, it was clear.

JC couldn’t be more right.