Cerro Durika--Costa Rica (2012)

Arrival

Monday, 11th: (Repeat day from Chirripo Report) Walked down to bus stop near Café Roca Dura. First bus at 5:15 to San Isidro (900-1000c). In San Isidro, walk 3 blocks to MUSOC bus station (Cafeso buses). Caught 7:20 bus to Buenos Aires (1000c).

Arrive in Buenos Aires at 8:30. Check into Hotel Fabi right across the street. Room without a/c (has ceiling fan) 7000c. Found directions to Durika Office—7 blocks from hotel. Spoke with the man in the office who called the Reserve for my permission. They wanted $60us/day just to visit, not including the hiking guides. I said thanks but no thanks, so I decided to go to Ujurras. Walked back to the center park. Asked taxi driver for Ujurras bus stop. Found bus stop than runs to Ujurras (town center park) 3 times/day: 4am, 12pm, and 4pm, for 700c. Made plans to go next morning.

Tuesday, 10th: Took 4am bus to Ujurras.
Note: Tell driver to let you off in front of the colegio. This is 3K before the final bus stop.

Asked for guides. Was directed to Raul. He could not take me, so he went to find his nephew. 2 hours later, he introduced his nephew, Wiston. They thought there was not enough time for me to reach the summit, so I asked if we could go as far as we could. They said there was another way that tourists are not taken, and that we could cut a way up the other side of the peaks. Sounded fine for me! We agreed on $25us/day as a guide and as far as we could hike since I needed to be back on Sunday. He couldn’t start until the next day, so we agreed to meet at Rocas Calientes. This all took 3.5 hours to arrange since I had no lead.

Begin Hike

From Ujurras to Rocas Calientes, take the same road you came in on about 8K. When you see a fork the road, this is where the bus drops people off and picks them up to go back to Buenos Aires. From the fork, go right and across the bridge. Cross a few small brooks, pass a ridiculous looking zoo. When you see the painted rock with “Aguas Termales,” you’re there. It took me 2 hours to hike there, about 9-10K.
 
 
Rocas Calientes: Take a right, cross the bridge, open the fenced gate and walk pass the pools to the open house. The Varantes family runs the place and they are super friendly. They charge $40us/per person for room, 3 meals, facilities, and thermal pool (This one is real). Since I arrived in the PM, I asked if I could pay $25 for 2 meals and facilities. They agreed—there was no one else there. I set up my bivy tent for the night. They grow and raise their own food here—the mom (Aurora) is an excellent cook. For dinner, she told me I could take the fish I wanted to eat from their pond. She makes her own hot sauce—awesome. Showers available. The termales are great to soak in-hot but soothing. There is no Internet here, but you can call ahead and contact them at 60356021 or 50121401. Rained in the PM.
 

Note: If you can’t get a guide in Ujurras, go to this place. The father-sons (Arnold) are experienced and may be able to guide you. Also, they rent rooms here but I never saw what they looked like inside—they’re little cabin rooms next to the pools.

Mountain Finger

Wednesday, 11th: Got breakfast at 6am. Wiston arrived at 6:30am. We set off for a 5 hour hike that would eventually take us to Durika base camp. You need boots, snake gaiters, gloves, a collapsible water container, and a walking stick will come in handy. There is no water source on this 5 hour hike to the base camp, so load up beforehand.
Part 1: From Aguas Termales, walked parallel to river, had to cross it. Bridge was out, so you need to take off your boots to wade across. From the river, the hike never levels and there is very little trail to guide you.
 
Part 2: We hiked through a few barbed wire fences and up through a finca pasture land that was the beginning of a finger that leads to Cerro Durika.
 
Part 3: You walk clay inlets and grassy scrub, and many places you need to grab the tufts of grass to pull yourself up. You come to a part I termed “the stairs”—a vertical step by step pull over the hump.
 
 
Part 4: After more zig-zagging, you then come to what I termed “the wall”—another vertical hump to pull your self up, only higher.
 
Part 5: Levels off some, over a mountain shoulder and you will see your first flat area, the “campemento.” Rocky and scrubby, hard to find a level smooth area for bivvy. It started to rain, so we set up the shelters and rested for the next 4 hours. Darkness set in when it stopped, so that was it, as it started to rain again an hour later.
From this camp base to the peak, Wiston said it would be about a 6 hour hike.
 

"Near" Summit

Thursday, 12th: Rain and cloud covered the mountain base camp, so we decided to hike down the other side of the camp to a stream for water (I collected rain for water, but there was nothing else to do). We slid, fell, and held on down the side of this mountain for an hour on this mini-foot trail into thick rain forest valley. Wiston came across a poisonous snake named “Mano Piedra” (Jumping Viper). We made it to the stream and loaded up our containers with water. We labored up the mountain in the rain with water—took 2 hours to reach camp. I told him to never do that again (He didn’t know how to trap rain for drinking, and I didn’t appreciate hanging onto limbs and bushes while ascending into poisonous snake area—without gloves! Stayed at camp for the rest of the day. Rainy and foggy.

Friday, 13th: Woke up to clear sky, so we decided to cut a trail as far as we could. He showed me 2 smaller peaks (Cerritos) before the Cerro Durika, the actual peak. It took 1 hour to cut up a trail to first “Cerrito,” and another 2 hours of hacking to the second Cerrito. The rain-fog started to roll in here, so we rested and turned around. We hacked (machetes) our way up through vegetation to this point. Wiston told me hunters have hiked this way but tourists have not.
 

Note: The hike from this base camp to this second Cerrito is not the way others have taken to Cerro Durika, so I can’t compare the other way. We (the guide) wanted to see if we could find a short cut to the main trail. We fell short of Cerro Durika but had a great time cutting a new and hopefully new trail. He told me he and others would have it ready in a few years.
 

We made it back to camp in 2 hours. Rained on and off.

The Return

Saturday, 14th: Broke camp and started down. Very slippery and steep. Took us the almost the same amount of time to get down as we did to get up (4 hours). Going down, small non-venomous snake. Walking past the large thermal rocks, maybe 600 meters from Aguas Termales, a long (7 feet) yellow and black snake shot out of the left bush in front of me and raced across the path into the bushes on the right. I still can’t find a photo to identify this one. It was gone in a flash and had its head raised as it moved. The locals believe it to be a bird-snake. It was definitely colorful and large. Lots of snakes in the Aguas Termales area. Arrive at Rocas Calientes 2PM. Pay family $30us for night (2 meals, facilities, and the mom washed my clothes. Showered and sat in the thermal pool. The dad butchered a pig for the market earlier that day, so that evening, I enjoyed fresh roasted pork chops and chicharones. Set up tent for the night.
 

Sunday, 15th: Breakfast, took down tent, showered, hiked back to Ujurras bus stop (After the bridge right at the fork in the road). Caught 4pm bus back to Buenos Aires. Walked 1 block and checked into Hotel Fabi for night.

Monday, 16th: Walked to Tracopa bus station. Paid 4600c for direct bus to San Jose (Does make stop in San Isidro for 10 minutes). 3 direct buses from Buenos Aires to San Jose: 5:45am, 9:15am, and 4:30pm. From Tracopa station in San Jose, walked 6 blocks (3 up, 3 over) to Hostel 1110 (Thumbs down, but walking distance from bus station) for night.

Note: I prefer Tracopa over the others as they claim-check your bags below, so when you get off, you need to give the driver your ticket in order to get your bag—safety rules.
Note: From hostel, on Avenue 14, go up 3 blocks and on left corner, a great fruit stand—fresh coconuts, mangoes and papayas.

Tuesday, 17th: Took 2000c taxi to bus stop (Forgot the name—ask the hostel people). Buses from here to airport start at 5:30AM. Caught 1000c bus to airport. Left for New York.

Local advice about hiking Durika area

Don’t come to hike Cerro Durika in September, October, or November—too much rain. AND, be careful about hiking in January, February, and March, as there are strong winds up on the mountains.

Images

View Cerro Durika--Costa Rica (2012) Image Gallery - 24 Images