Costa Rica's Whale Tail National Park

in #travel5 years ago

El Parque Nacional Marino Ballena

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Making this a stop was a nice idea and a good way to get acclimated to the heat before spending a few days camping in a festival.

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As you can see why... people around here call this place the whale's tail. We came here in 2011 to volunteer at a Festival... The party spilled over onto the beach which is a National Park and needless to say the park rangers were pissed. They charge a little something to get into the park and all of the sudden you have a couple thousand people sneaking in, to play on the beach naked!!!

Guess what, we were here again now to go to that same festival, though they had found themselves a new place that wouldn't encroach on the National Park. (For once it seems these promoters are doing something right!).

Trying Not to Burn!

As it was really our first days on the beach, closer to the equator after a long winter in New York State, we didn't want our pale skins to turn lobster-esque! So here we were on our way to the whale's tail at what could almost be the worst time of the day. With only a couple hours left before the sun was at its strongest we headed out smeared in sun block!

Inside the park were these fun signs:

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If you let me grow, I'll give you shade, coconuts and I'll protect the beach from erosion.

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This is Cista Rica and crocodiles are everywhere. There's a salt water crocodile thay loves surfers here too. I am exaggerating, but they do have problems from time to time.


This was our first time on a beach this year and were very happy. Of course we left the cold winter of New York to be somewhere warm and here we were, complaining it was too hot!!!! But the beach was awesome, and we played a lot.

I figured put for the first time how to open up a coconut without a machete, only equipped with a rock. A bonus @steembasicincome share to the first three people who can tell me what we thought this coconut looked like:

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I wish I had taken photos to show you how we did it, but I can try and explain it here:

  • First you need a mostly intact brown coconut.
  • Shake it to make sure there is still some water in it.
  • Find a tool with a bit of a sharp edge and a pointy bit helps too.
  • Start by taking off the hard little petals where the nut would otherwise be attached to the tree. They should pop right off.
  • From that same place, under the petals, start cutting or smashing the outer husk all around the belly button
  • Than you can cut or smash down from that point and start peeling as you go.

That first time it probably took me twenty minutes to peel.

  • Than once ypu have a clear shot of the three dark spots like the picture above, you need something sharp to pierce through one of them.

  • Clean it off, put your mouth to it, tilt your head back and suck the sweet coconut water out!

  • When done, the coconut can be cracked in half with a rock again.

  • Let it sit in the sun a while and it will be easyer to pry the meat of the hard shell with a nife at a later point.

With the stringy material from the outer shell I tought myself to make rope. I think i finally got the hang of it.

And with our little human we decided to make a palm frond tipi for shade:

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Of course he was directing the whole thing like a boss. You see him pointing there?

I'll leave you with a few photos and until next time...

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I missed the window to vote on the post you were promoting in Travelfeed, so I put one here. This article is good too but i just wanted to note the topic in that Sustainability Edu Center is valuable

Thanks so much for that. Yea it's an important piece of education. And I think that Rancho Mastatal was very well put together in the respect.

Wow, what great photos and a magical trip. That flower is amazeballs! I love the whaletail formation of the headland,that's cool!! I love fresh coconut water -- when we were in Bali we drank it ALL the time - I swear to god I had coconut water baby belly constantly... lol.

Coconut water baby belly... lol! You were probably really well hydrated!!!

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