SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
WINTER IS ON IT'S WAY
Friday, February 15, 2013
JAN26, 2013 ARENAL HANGING BRIDGES, COSTA RICA
Jan 26, 2013 TERRY's Birthday AUSTRALIA DAY HANGING BRIDGES & GUANACASTE
DRAFT
615 BREAKFAST 715 DEPARTURE - I was cold in bed last night if you can believe it and had to get up and use my wrap for a blanket - all we had on the bed was a thin cotton sheet - and no we didn't have the air conditioning on! We woke up to a very pretty morning with the sun shining through breaks in the clouds while we had an early breakfast - my best yet, fresh pancakes cooked to perfection with fresh papaya and fresh coffee. Terry was disappointed because of our early start the pastries weren't ready!
We had an excellent day with some tough driving, but very interesting scenery and adventure on the suspension bridges - and we remarked during the day how glad we are that we took the extra time to tour Costa Rica after arriving here after or Panama Canal cruise no time like the present as they say!
Around the beautiful MANOA property this morning before we left I managed to catch photos of a couple of colourful birds including the Northern Jacana, Passerini's Tanager (black with blue beak and red chest) and the tiny, but spectacular, violet crowned wood nymph (hummingbird) sitting on its' nest.
We set off heading North towards the lake along the base of ARENAL volcano up into the clouds - and Elson explained a little more about Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica everyone is entitled to free education and the government have Schools everywhere, even in remote areas, even to 1 single classroom (about 10 in CCosta Rica) where only 1 teacher and 1 student - CR very proud of Education system. Some kids have to walk 1 or 2 hors through jungle to schools, so President granted bicycles to kuds to get to school - even horses where bicycles were not practical. There is over 96% literacy rate in Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica school uniforms are mandatory: blue pants and white shirts in elementary school; high school uniform is blue pants navy shirt 7am - 5pm in high school 5days each week Monday -Friday.
high school vocational and academic, 5 years to 5th grade, English first foreign language (some in City teach French as second foreign language) not fluent in English - then to private institution if they wish to become fluent or better. Basic test for Bachelors diploma for secondary education must pass for entry into University. Vocational High school - last year specail training in many areas if they don't ave resources to go to University right away, get an extra year of trainig for computers, hospitality industry, mechanic etc Meanwhile can work jobs in neighbouring towns or city to get jobs for these kids.
+1 year for vocational
Public UNIVERSITY (no dorms so long commutes for many kids) + 25 private Universities
130 stop in Liberia atthe main shopping centre for40minutes - time to hit the ATM and get some cash (we could get US $ here which was good) then the Supermarket - very large with everything you might need, and we bought wine, gin and tonic!
This was where we ran into at least50% of folks from the bus since we wllbe staying at the J W Marriott Guanacaste for the next 2 nights.
lake dame 40% of CR electricity 70% in CR by hydro electric plants 22 miles long
2 villages flooded now underwater
right now 30 feet low (2nd time in 2 years due to dry) rainfall doesn't keep depth of lake (El Nino or Nina) so when low the roofs of the villages can be seen and are still intact.
We took 2 hours to hike the hanging and suspension bridges at ?
eyelash viper (la bacaraca)
white nosed coati (like a cute racoon)
]
canopy level 60 to 70% of biodiversity of rain forest but is least explored level of forest.
We departed from Arenal Hanging Bridges at 10am started back down the mountain and on our trip to West Pacific Coast. We drove North around Laguna de Arenal lake on highway 142 to Tilaran (about 2 hours) passing through the new town of Arenal (the old Arenal town was flooded when the dam was built), and Guadalajara at the North end of the lake. The road was paved well but quite narrow, and Marcus did a grand job of stopping on a dime when we came almost head on with a truck going in the opposite direction. The road was up and down and very winding. As much as we don't like bus tours with 40+ guests, this really is the best way to see Costa Rica and absolutely in excellent accommodations and luxury transport. Certainly our driver Marcus must have nerves of steel on the roads we have travelled, to say nothing of his skills getting around seemingly impossible tight corners and small spaces. Along highway142 around Laguna de Arenal there were an amazing number of hotels, lodges, resorts and restaurants. It seemed over built and that may account for the "se vende" for sale signs signs we seemed to see on almost every piece of property and restaurant and hotel!
This area gets lots of wind during the dry season from December to April - more on the West end of the Lake than the East end and has become very popular with windsurfers. It has become known as one of the 10 top places in the world for wind surfing. There were white caps on the lake as we came around the Northwest corner and at least 20 windsurfers out on the lake enjoying themselves.
We crossed the Continental Divide around 11:20 and learned that he water from the lake is taken West into Guanacaste through 3 tunnels to three power plants (Santa Rosa ??), and the water is also used for irrigation in Guanacaste - the driest province in Costa Rica which sees no rain for 5 months at a time. The vegetation changed noticeably now looking drier, not such dark green foliage as in the rain forest. We stopped for buffet lunch in Tilaran (excellent chicken pieces, grilled fish, salad, rice, mashed beans and taco chips, watermelon juice and a great cocot cookie) at the Restaurante Trojan. They also had a gift store selling ice cream (Linda bought us all one and I immediately dropped the chocolate on my white linen top!) and again beautiful wooden bowls and vases. I bought a beautiful pair of circular spotted ? wooden earrings, they make beautiful wooden items in Costa Rica. and in this area they specialise in using the mango trees wood.
Just before we left the restaurant we gave the friendly little dog outside 4 small sausage we had saved from breakfast- he was thrilled and wagged his tail like crazy! Every day we have seen terribly thin little dogs everywhere 9as well as well fed dogs) and promised myself to bring something along for the next one as a treat so today was the day!
At 1220 pm we continued South to join interstate CI1 which headed West to the Pacific Coast and Guanacaste named after the beautiful umbrella mango tree. Guanacaste has lots of huge 2,000 to 3,000 acre haciendas which are passed down from family to family.
Just prior to reaching the highway we passed the extinct volcano CHOPO with very red soil and lots of very narrow strata evident, then we drove through the local town of CANYAS (like sugar cane) which has a rice processing plant. Costa Rica grows only 17% f what they consume and import the rest from Nicaragua and Honduras. MIRAVALLES (North of here is one of the two active volcanoes in Costa Rica (the other being POAS). East of Miravalles is RINCON DE LA VIEJA erupted last in 1806, and SANTA MARIA last erupted in 1916, both now dormant. Only 5% of CR electricity power is generated using oil - and an amazing 95% comes from renewable resources including windmills, solar power, and water. On the highway we passed over the very straight and wide man made canal carrying the water from Santa Rosa to Guanacaste. We passed a small town and airport called Agua Caliente and we wondered if the air traffic controllers say to the pilots "You're in Hot Water now!!"
Jan 29, 2013 COSTA RICA TOUR SUMMARY
January 20-29, 2013 CARAVAN COSTA RICA NATURAL PARADISE TOUR - SUMMARY
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We just returned from Costa Rica after taking a tour with Caravan Tours. We had a group of 8 folks from BC and Alberta (3 had to cancel just prior to departure). The Costa Ricans all speak Spanish, and all take English at school as their first foreign language. However, if they have not taken additional schooling after high school their English may not be good enough to understand (but probably better than your Spanish!) The literacy rate is over 96% and the Government mandates education for all and will even put1 teacher in a remote area for1 student if necessary.
The Costa Ricans are physically a fairly small race, with distinct differences in how they look from area to area. They love their country and are rightfully proud of it, it is a beautiful country, and proud of the fact that they have such a wide bio diversity which they are trying hard to protect. Tourism is extremely important in Costa Rica. Dry Season December to April, rainy season May - November.
We had no problems while travelling apart from 2 or 3 folks with an upset stomach for a couple of days - either from something they ate or the much higher volume of fruit and fruit juices than they would eat at home.
This bus tour, with a driver and excellent Costa Rican guide with perfect English, well educated and very experienced, is a great way to see much of Costa Rica from the Caribbean to the Pacific - starting and ending in the capital city of San Jose - excellent value, highly recommended. Be prepared to spend lots of time on the 50 passenger luxury Mercedes bus. Caravan changes and assigns the seats daily and everyone moves around the bus during the 10 days. This tour is so highly recommended that at some hotels that we stayed at there were 4 groups at a time - 2 groups on day 1 and 2 groups on day 2. In addition, there were other groups at other hotels at the same time! We went in January - the high season. Caravan will run a tour every day of the year of they have enough clients and have been in business for over 60 years. They also run tours in Panama, Guatemala, USA and Canada. They have stopped their Mexico tours due to danger problems in Mexico currently.
This tour is put on by CARAVAN Tours USA. It is 9 nights and includes all airport transfers, large bus transportation (up to 45 passengers per tour), National Park admission fees, 2 boat transfers in and out of Tortuguero National Park, Turtle Sanctuary Film in Tortuguero, 2 boat safaris in Tortuguero, suspension bridge hike in Arenal, BALDI Arenal hot springs resort visit, Las Chiles boat trip, boat trip in CARARA Biological Reserve, 9 nights hotels and 3 meals daily. The pricing is excellent value (around $1300 USD including taxes based on double plus $40 gratuities for driver and $75 gratuities for the Guide). Note that CARAVAN will only handle their tour with not a single change - if you require additional hotel nights you must book it yourself, they also handle airport transfers only on the day that the tour starts and finishes. You must book your own air.
The hotel accommodation is top notch - 4 to 5 star, with more basic accommodation in the Tortuguero National Park on the East Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. Over 9 nights we stayed in 4 hotels for 2 nights, this helped make the tour more relaxing and enjoyable without the need to change hotels every day. All 3 meals every day were self serve buffet style with the exception of the lunch at POAS volcano (we had a choice of 3 different entrees) and the farewell dinner on the last night in San Jose. As far as buffets go the food was good with a similar variety every day; breakfast everywhere had the least variety but an "eggs cooked to order" station available at every hotel. The best buffet by far was the J W Marriott in Guanacaste - this hotel also had the slowest coffee poured every breakfast and here you had to buy coffee $5 cup if you wanted it at lunch or dinner. A very nice touch was the special surprise of a small selection of free cocktails from 1 to 4pm provided Caravan at the J W Marriott in Guanacaste -this was our "relax day at the pool" at the end of the tour.
Costa Rica is quite a small country - you can travel from the Pacific Coast to the Caribbean Coast in one day should you need to, crossing the Continental divide. The main roads and highways are well paved but too narrow for the large trucks and buses to pass each other - many times we had sudden braking as we came around a corner to see another truck os bus coming towards us on our side of the road, or us over the centre line. Costa Rica is a spectacularly beautiful country with amazing vistas no matter which way direction that you look. It is a country with lots of volcanoes, including two active volcanoes, and is quite mountainous - so the driving can be slow and with lots of up and down when crossing from East to West, or vice versa where you will always cross the Continental Divide.
The temperatures and weather vary greatly - from very hot and dry in the East Guanacaste area (where lots of the beach resorts are located) to wet and humid in the Eastern Caribbean area. The dry season is December to April and this is the high season for tourists.
70% of the country is designated as National Parks - but we saw no mammals except for quite a lot of monkeys (spider monkeys, howler monkeys. and 1 capuchin white faced monkey), 3 raccoons and 1 white nosed coati (Northern racoon). Like most folks, we think of Costa Rica having lots of cats: jaguars, pumas, ocelot, jaguarundi, tapir etc but we saw none. We were also expecting to see lots of brightly coloured birds that you always see advertised for Costa Rica like the scarlet macaws and toucans. We essentially saw none except for two toucans high in trees (one in Tortuguero and one at the Manoa resort in Arenas) and no scarlet macaws at all on this tour. Costa Rica has recognised its; unique and varied biodiversity but only after much of the country has been inhabited or logged. After Tortuguero was logged it has taken only 34 years for the rain forest to come back but it appears that it will take much longer for the animals to come back, with the exception of monkeys which are there now.
The CARAVAN tour is exceptional value for money but make no doubt it is a bus tour with 40+ passengers. The guests on our bus, all from USA and CANADA, were pretty good, average age appeared to be late 60's with some in their 50's and 70's. Getting on and off the buses was slow, some folks waiting until the last minute to get their stuff together holding up everyone else - as always long lines for the ladies' bathroom at every stop! We appeared to have only two smokers on our bus which was great, - always getting their last drag on their cigarette before frequently being last back on the bus. Most mornings were a fairly early start (715 to 815am) which noone had a problem with. Most days required long drives due to the narrow winding roads, so when changing hotels we never arrived before 330pm - Caravan always included bathroom and lunch breaks, and a boat ride or hike to break up, and make the most of, the day.
Our Guide ELSON, had 20+ years experience, impeccable English and well educated as well as well experienced. Elston and an easy manner, big smile, fun and made sure every single individual knew exactly what the time and details were for every activity, break, or transfer. The microphone in the bus was top quality and very easy to hear every word being said at the back of the bus - Elston gave us lots of information about Costa Rica, where we were travelling, politics, culture and history, as we drove. There is nothing more that I could have asked of Elston - and this was with his wife expecting their third baby (a girl) to be delivered the day after we returned to San Jose!
SAN JOSE gets a bad rap in every information book or web site that we looked at. Mostly for being dangerous with theft rampant. We took care to not wear any jewellry or go downtown after dark. Imagine how surprised we were to spend two days in San Jose and love what we saw!
The Nacional Theatre is one of THE best and most elaborate theatres in the world and still in use! You must take the $7.50 guided tour fee - a great tour, so much interesting information and you can only go as far as the lobby if you don't take the tour. We also took the 4pm walking tour around downtown to see all the old and current important buildings with Jeffrey (also a Guide at the Nacional) - meet in front of the Nacional Theatre at 4pm, $10USD per person.
The underground Museum complex next door (called the Gold Museum) has an amazing amount of information, artifacts, displays on culture, history, art, architecture - well worth the $14 admission fee. Give yourself 2 to 3 hours here. The red taxis are everywhere and very reasonable. They have meters and typically cost us between $8 and $12 for the few miles from downtown to the Barcelo San Jose Palacio hotel depending whether there were 3 or 8 of us. Although we did NOT take any public transportation we understand that it is very cheap and that you can get anywhere in the country by bus for as little as $2 to $3.
Everywhere in the country will take USA dollars, although occasionally in smaller areas you may be given the local currency COLONES in return - approximately 500 to $1 USD.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
JAN 28, 2013 TARCOLES RIVER, CARARA BIOLOGICAL RESERVE, COSTA RICA
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JANUARY 28, 2013 GOLFO NICOYA, CARARA BIOLOGICAL RESERVE
Today we were drinking in-room freshly brewed BRITT dark roast coffee on the patio at the J W Marriott Hotel (room 376) at 530am watching the stars fade, the satellite float by and listening to the howler monkeys in the distance -a comfortable warm breeze under a sky without a cloud in it. Imagine our surprise when we saw in the darkness what looked like a large cat walking by - I shone my book reading light in that direction and there were 2 racoons who had stopped in surprise to look at us, then they jumped down the bank, then a third one came running by and jumped down the bank in a hurry to join the others!
We were packed with our bags outside the door for pickup at 7am, finished buffet breakfast by 720am (the staff here are not very good at getting the coffee served at breakfast) and our bags stowed on the bus leaving 10 minutes to enjoy the store before we left. There is only1 store here at the Marriott, quite surprising when you realise how far it is to the next small town of Tamarindo ($7 each way on the Marriott shuttle). The prices are absolutely comparable to top end resort prices anywhere in the USA, we have been quite surprised at; the cost of everything in Costa Rica, certainly the same as travelling in the USA unless you are buying fruit and veg from the local markets. The assistant in the store told us she lives 40 minutes away, and works two shifts, from 700am to 300pm or from 3 to 10pm. She comes in by bus so has to get up at 330am to arrive for the early shift. Worse yet, last night she finished the 10pm shift and had to go home then get up at 330am this morning to start the 7am shift!
The Gulf of Nicoya in Guanacaste is the most important Ba and port area on the west Coast, and is also known as one of the areas in the world where population lives longest - often to well over 100 years.. We are heading today to the Tarcoles River and the Carara Biological Reserve to take a boat trip to see the largest crocodile population in the Americas. This is a wildlife and tropical bird sanctuary and nesting site for the scarlet macaw - beautiful large brightly coloured birds that we would love to see in the wild although we understand that the chance of seeing them is very slim - apparently you need to take a very early morning bird watching tour with a guide who can call them to stand a good chance of seeing them.
Since we were heading South East the sun was shining through the window most of the way which made for a warm ride! There was quite a bit of road construction, and again lots of braking when we needed to pass vehicles on our side of the road r pass trucks and buses coming towards us. At 10:10am we crossed over the extremely wide Tempisque River, with a large crocodile on the sand bank, on a 23 million dollar suspension bridge built by the Taiwan Government (for what in exchange?) just before we stopped for the bathroom break of the morning at 10:30am at the Restaurante Vaqueros along the highway 18 heading East and before we joined the Inter Americas Highway C1 heading South.
Just North of Puntarenas we left highway of Americas C1and headed South on highway 23 then at 1145am we saw the Gulf of Nicoya, the most important body of water on the Central Pacific Coast. There is a large port here at Puntarenas where cruise ships dock, and also some commercial fishing is done here in the Gulfo de Nicoya. We passed Puerto Caldera at 1150am, today Monday January 28, just 9 days since we docked here last Saturday January 19 and disembarked from the (Paul Gauguin) Tere Moana after our cruise through the Panama Canal from St Maarten - that seems like such a long time ago! Just south were large fields covered in plastic where two types of cantaloupe were growing during the dry season - rice is grown in the same fields during the rainy season. We took Highway 34 (toll road) still continuing South to our objective for today - the CARARA biological reserve.
We stopped at Amaruezas restaurant at 1210pm for buffet lunch: green salad, steamed white rice, black pinto beans, cucumber, vegetables in cheese sauce, poached fish and chicken with a molasses coconut square for dessert - all served under a very high roof with open sides, so a nice breeze blowing through. The restaurant was probably 80 feet by 20 feet - it could handle a lot of diners! We departed at 12:55pm for the 20 minute drive to the Tarcoles River for a 45 minute JUNGLE CROCODILE SAFARI adjacent to the Carara Biological Reserve established in 1948. As we crossed the Tarcoles River we could see 2 huge crocodiles on the sandy banks sun bathing. The Cavetes family used to own the largest hacienda in this part of the country and back in the 1960's the Cost Rica government took over a large portion of their hacienda (imminent domain) and paid the Cavetes family for this 30,000 acre portion to be preserved as the Carara Biological Reserve National Park. Carara is the name that the local indigenous people had for the crocodile.
The Carara Bioogical has some areas similar to Tortuguera but also drier ares where the scarlet macaws nest along with other species who like the drier areas like Guanacaste. We stopped and boarded the covered boat at Jungle Crocodile Safari to the music of two older Costa Rican gentlemen playing the wooden bamboo xylophone - the Marimba - exactly the same as they play in Africa.
It was very hot and sunny and where we boarded the Tarcoles River is very close to the mouth of the river as it enters the Gulf of Nicoya so the water is brackish - a mix of salt and fresh water. The first sighting was a Black spiny iguana which live in deep holes and caverns underground, but this was soon surpassed by an American crocodile about 16 feet long! This is obviously fed by the Safari operator here and immediately swam out and nudged our boat looking for food! We also saw the Emerald Green Basilisk iguana
We didn't see any more crocs during our 75 minute crocodile safari but we had great luck with birds! These included: Giant Green Macaw, Scarlet Macaw (4 pairs flying high overhead and not close), green heron, Great Blue heron, Little Blue Heron, 3 coloured Heron, Bare Throated Tiger Heron, Boat billed Heron, Wood stork, white egret, snowy egret, Magnificent Frigate, pink Roseate Spoonbill, woodpecker, osprey, Mangrove Black Hawk, Black necked Stilt, Tropical Cormorant, Anhinga, White Ibis and Winbrill.
We were very hot and sweaty by the time we got off the boat and had time for a few minutes to browse the souvenir store before we left at 245pm so we thoroughly enjoyed our $2 chocolate coated vanilla ice cream before we left! The two old gentlemen playing their beautiful marimba xylophone. As we drove North back over the Tarcoles River we saw 7 American Crocodiles of varying sizes on the sandy river banks! This boat Safari was excellent and we felt much better with way more sightings than on the boat ride on the RIO NEGRO up by the border of Nicaragua which we took three days ago.
Soon we took highway 27 heading West for the 1 1/2 hour drive back to San Jose - for our last night to be spent at the Quality Inn near the airport. Our guide, Elston, told each of us what time our transfer would be tomorrow morning - ours being 630am for our 930am departure with American Airlines for Dallas then a 6 hour layover for the last flight from Dallas to Vancouver arriving 10:30pm tomorrow night, Tuesday Jan 29th.
We arrived at the Quality Inn, San Jose at 4:15pm with little time left to take the taxi to pick up the two large bags we left there last Tuesday morning then get back to the Quality Inn for wash and change for our farewell dinner at 7pm.
Overall we found this to be a pretty boring day with a lot of driving (815am - 415pm, so 8 hours less bathroom break, lunch and boat ride about 3 hours), and quite hot in the bus - finishing in Liberia and flying home from there might have been a better option from our perspective.
JAN 26-27, 2013 GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA
DRAFT
Jan 26, 2013 TERRY's Birthday AUSTRALIA DAY HANGING BRIDGES & GUANACASTE
615 BREAKFAST 715 DEPARTURE - I was cold in bed last night if you can believe it and had to get up and use my wrap for a blanket - all we had on the bed was a thin cotton sheet - and no we didn't have the air conditioning on! We woke up to a very pretty morning with the sun shining through breaks in the clouds while we had an early breakfast - my best yet, fresh pancakes cooked to perfection with fresh papaya and fresh coffee. Terry was disappointed because of our early start the pastries weren't ready!
We had an excellent day with some tough driving, but very interesting scenery and adventure on the suspension bridges - and we remarked during the day how glad we are that we took the extra time to tour Costa Rica after arriving here after or Panama Canal cruise no time like the present as they say!
Around the beautiful MANOA property this morning before we left I managed to catch photos of a couple of colourful birds including the Northern Jacana, Passerini's Tanager (black with blue beak and red chest) and the tiny, but spectacular, violet crowned wood nymph (hummingbird) sitting on its' nest.
We set off heading North towrads the lake along the base of ARENAL volcano up into the clouds - everyone exc
Schools everywhere, even in remote areas, even to 1 single classroom (about 10 in CCosta Rica) where only 1 teacher and 1 student - CR very proud of Education system. Some kids have to walk 1 or 2 hors through jungle to schools, so President granted bicycles to kuds to get to school - even hprses where bicycles were not practical. There is over 96% literacy rate in Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica school uniforms are mandatory: blue pants and white shirts in elementary school; high school uniform is blue pants navy shirt 7am - 5pm in high school 5days each week Monday -Friday.
high school vocational and academic,5 years to 5th grade, English first foreign language (some in City teach French as second foreign language) not fluent in English - then to private institution if they wish to become fluent or better. Basic test for Bachelors diploma for secondary education must pass for entry into University. Vocational High school - last year specail training in many areas if they don't ave resources to go to University right away, get an extra year of trainig for computers, hospitality industry, mechanic etc Meanwhile can work jobs in neighbouring towns or city to get jobs for these kids.
+1 year for vocational
Public UNIVERSITY (no dorms so long commutes for many kids) + 25 private Universities
130 stop in Liberia atthe main shopping centre for40minutes - time to hit the ATM and get some cash (we could get US $ here which was good) then the Supermarket - very large with everything you might need, and we bought wine, gin and tonic!
This was where we ran into at least50% of folks from the bus since we wllbe staying at the J W Marriott Guanacaste for the next 2 nights.
lake dame 40% of CR electricity 70% in CR by hydro electric plants 22 miles long
2 villages flooded now underwater
right now 30 feet low (2nd time in 2 years due to dry) rainfall doesn't keep depth of lake (El Nino or Nina) so when low the roofs of the villages can be seen and are still intact.
We took 2 hours to hike the hanging and suspension bridges at ?
eyelash viper (la bacaraca)
white nosed coati (like a cute racoon)
]
canopy level 60 to 70% of biodiversity of rain forest but is least explored level of forest.
We departed from Arenal Hanging Bridges at 10am started back down the mountain and on our trip to West Pacific Coast. We drove North around Laguna de Arenal lake on highway 142 to Tilaran (about 2 hours) passing through the new town of Arenal (the old Arenal town was flooded when the dam was built), and Guadalajara at the North end of the lake. The road was paved well but quite narrow, and Marcus did a grand job of stopping on a dime when we came almost head on with a truck going in the opposite direction. The road was up and down and very winding. As much as we don't like bus tours with 40+ guests, this really is the best way to see Costa Rica and absolutely in excellent accommodations and luxury transport. Certainly our driver Marcus must have nerves of steel on the roads we have travelled, to say nothing of his skills getting around seemingly impossible tight corners and small spaces. Along highway142 around Laguna de Arenal there were an amazing number of hotels, lodges, resorts and restaurants. It seemed over built and that may account for the "se vende" for sale signs signs we seemed to see on almost every piece of property and restaurant and hotel!
This area gets lots of wind during the dry season from December to April - more on the West end of the Lake than the East end and has become very popular with windsurfers. It has become known as one of the 10 top places in the world for wind surfing. There were white caps on the lake as we came around the Northwest corner and at least 20 windsurfers out on the lake enjoying themselves.
We crossed the Continental Divide around 11:20 and learned that he water from the lake is taken West into Guanacaste through 3 tunnels to three power plants (Santa Rosa ??), and the water is also used for irrigation in Guanacaste - the driest province in Costa Rica which sees no rain for 5 months at a time. The vegetation changed noticeably now looking drier, not such dark green foliage as in the rain forest. We stopped for buffet lunch in Tilaran (excellent chicken pieces, grilled fish, salad, rice, mashed beans and taco chips, watermelon juice and a great cocot cookie) at the Restaurante Trojan. They also had a gift store selling ice cream (Linda bought us all one and I immediately dropped the chocolate on my white linen top!) and again beautiful wooden bowls and vases. I bought a beautiful pair of circular spotted ? wooden earrings, they make beautiful wooden items in Costa Rica. and in this area they specialise in using the mango trees wood.
Just before we left the restaurant we gave the friendly little dog outside 4 small sausage we had saved from breakfast- he was thrilled and wagged his tail like crazy! Every day we have seen terribly thin little dogs everywhere 9as well as well fed dogs) and promised myself to bring something along for the next one as a treat so today was the day!
At 1220 pm we continued South to join interstate CI1 which headed West to the Pacific Coast and Guanacaste named after the beautiful umbrella mango tree. Guanacaste has lots of huge 2,000 to 3,000 acre haciendas which are passed down from family to family.
Just prior to reaching the highway we passed the extinct volcano CHOPO with very red soil and lots of very narrow strata evident, then we drove through the local town of CANYAS (like sugar cane) which has a rice processing plant. Costa Rica grows only 17% f what they consume and import the rest from Nicaragua and Honduras. MIRAVALLES (North of here is one of the two active volcanoes in Costa Rica (the other being POAS). East of Miravalles is RINCON DE LA VIEJA erupted last in 1806, and SANTA MARIA last erupted in 1916, both now dormant. Only 5% of CR electricity power is generated using oil - and an amazing 95% comes from renewable resources including windmills, solar power, and water. On the highway we passed over the very straight and wide man made canal carrying the water from Santa Rosa to Guanacaste. We passed a small town and airport called Agua Caliente and we wondered if the air traffic controllers say to the pilots "You're in Hot Water now!!"
Jan 26, 2013 TERRY's Birthday AUSTRALIA DAY HANGING BRIDGES & GUANACASTE
615 BREAKFAST 715 DEPARTURE - I was cold in bed last night if you can believe it and had to get up and use my wrap for a blanket - all we had on the bed was a thin cotton sheet - and no we didn't have the air conditioning on! We woke up to a very pretty morning with the sun shining through breaks in the clouds while we had an early breakfast - my best yet, fresh pancakes cooked to perfection with fresh papaya and fresh coffee. Terry was disappointed because of our early start the pastries weren't ready!
We had an excellent day with some tough driving, but very interesting scenery and adventure on the suspension bridges - and we remarked during the day how glad we are that we took the extra time to tour Costa Rica after arriving here after or Panama Canal cruise no time like the present as they say!
Around the beautiful MANOA property this morning before we left I managed to catch photos of a couple of colourful birds including the Northern Jacana, Passerini's Tanager (black with blue beak and red chest) and the tiny, but spectacular, violet crowned wood nymph (hummingbird) sitting on its' nest.
We set off heading North towrads the lake along the base of ARENAL volcano up into the clouds - everyone exc
Schools everywhere, even in remote areas, even to 1 single classroom (about 10 in CCosta Rica) where only 1 teacher and 1 student - CR very proud of Education system. Some kids have to walk 1 or 2 hors through jungle to schools, so President granted bicycles to kuds to get to school - even hprses where bicycles were not practical. There is over 96% literacy rate in Costa Rica.
In Costa Rica school uniforms are mandatory: blue pants and white shirts in elementary school; high school uniform is blue pants navy shirt 7am - 5pm in high school 5days each week Monday -Friday.
high school vocational and academic,5 years to 5th grade, English first foreign language (some in City teach French as second foreign language) not fluent in English - then to private institution if they wish to become fluent or better. Basic test for Bachelors diploma for secondary education must pass for entry into University. Vocational High school - last year specail training in many areas if they don't ave resources to go to University right away, get an extra year of trainig for computers, hospitality industry, mechanic etc Meanwhile can work jobs in neighbouring towns or city to get jobs for these kids.
+1 year for vocational
Public UNIVERSITY (no dorms so long commutes for many kids) + 25 private Universities
130 stop in Liberia atthe main shopping centre for40minutes - time to hit the ATM and get some cash (we could get US $ here which was good) then the Supermarket - very large with everything you might need, and we bought wine, gin and tonic!
This was where we ran into at least50% of folks from the bus since we wllbe staying at the J W Marriott Guanacaste for the next 2 nights.
lake dame 40% of CR electricity 70% in CR by hydro electric plants 22 miles long
2 villages flooded now underwater
right now 30 feet low (2nd time in 2 years due to dry) rainfall doesn't keep depth of lake (El Nino or Nina) so when low the roofs of the villages can be seen and are still intact.
We took 2 hours to hike the hanging and suspension bridges at ?
eyelash viper (la bacaraca)
white nosed coati (like a cute racoon)
]
canopy level 60 to 70% of biodiversity of rain forest but is least explored level of forest.
We departed from Arenal Hanging Bridges at 10am started back down the mountain and on our trip to West Pacific Coast. We drove North around Laguna de Arenal lake on highway 142 to Tilaran (about 2 hours) passing through the new town of Arenal (the old Arenal town was flooded when the dam was built), and Guadalajara at the North end of the lake. The road was paved well but quite narrow, and Marcus did a grand job of stopping on a dime when we came almost head on with a truck going in the opposite direction. The road was up and down and very winding. As much as we don't like bus tours with 40+ guests, this really is the best way to see Costa Rica and absolutely in excellent accommodations and luxury transport. Certainly our driver Marcus must have nerves of steel on the roads we have travelled, to say nothing of his skills getting around seemingly impossible tight corners and small spaces. Along highway142 around Laguna de Arenal there were an amazing number of hotels, lodges, resorts and restaurants. It seemed over built and that may account for the "se vende" for sale signs signs we seemed to see on almost every piece of property and restaurant and hotel!
This area gets lots of wind during the dry season from December to April - more on the West end of the Lake than the East end and has become very popular with windsurfers. It has become known as one of the 10 top places in the world for wind surfing. There were white caps on the lake as we came around the Northwest corner and at least 20 windsurfers out on the lake enjoying themselves.
We crossed the Continental Divide around 11:20 and learned that he water from the lake is taken West into Guanacaste through 3 tunnels to three power plants (Santa Rosa ??), and the water is also used for irrigation in Guanacaste - the driest province in Costa Rica which sees no rain for 5 months at a time. The vegetation changed noticeably now looking drier, not such dark green foliage as in the rain forest. We stopped for buffet lunch in Tilaran (excellent chicken pieces, grilled fish, salad, rice, mashed beans and taco chips, watermelon juice and a great cocot cookie) at the Restaurante Trojan. They also had a gift store selling ice cream (Linda bought us all one and I immediately dropped the chocolate on my white linen top!) and again beautiful wooden bowls and vases. I bought a beautiful pair of circular spotted ? wooden earrings, they make beautiful wooden items in Costa Rica. and in this area they specialise in using the mango trees wood.
Just before we left the restaurant we gave the friendly little dog outside 4 small sausage we had saved from breakfast- he was thrilled and wagged his tail like crazy! Every day we have seen terribly thin little dogs everywhere 9as well as well fed dogs) and promised myself to bring something along for the next one as a treat so today was the day!
At 1220 pm we continued South to join interstate CI1 which headed West to the Pacific Coast and Guanacaste named after the beautiful umbrella mango tree. Guanacaste has lots of huge 2,000 to 3,000 acre haciendas which are passed down from family to family.
Just prior to reaching the highway we passed the extinct volcano CHOPO with very red soil and lots of very narrow strata evident, then we drove through the local town of CANYAS (like sugar cane) which has a rice processing plant. Costa Rica grows only 17% f what they consume and import the rest from Nicaragua and Honduras. MIRAVALLES (North of here is one of the two active volcanoes in Costa Rica (the other being POAS). East of Miravalles is RINCON DE LA VIEJA erupted last in 1806, and SANTA MARIA last erupted in 1916, both now dormant. Only 5% of CR electricity power is generated using oil - and an amazing 95% comes from renewable resources including windmills, solar power, and water. On the highway we passed over the very straight and wide man made canal carrying the water from Santa Rosa to Guanacaste. We passed a small town and airport called Agua Caliente and we wondered if the air traffic controllers say to the pilots "You're in Hot Water now!!"
JAN 24-25, 2013 FORTUNA, LA COIBA COSTA RICA
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Thursday January 24, 2013 FORTUNA, Costa Rica
"con toda la pata - (with all my feet) ready to rock and roll!
Today we transferred from the Eastern Caribbean Coast to close to the Northern border with Nicaragua, to the town of Fortuna - well known for adventure tours and the backpackers who like this area due to lots of activities and reasonable prices - in fact, in Costa Rica you can get to almost anywhere in the country for $3 or $4 using the local buses.
We were awake shortly after 4, and by 6am were showered, packed, ready to go and with time to try the rainforest just one more time looking for tree frogs, who are nocturnal and come out after dark. No luck but we enjoyed the walk through the forest again. The black (with yellow tail feathers) Montezuma Oropendola were already busy building their nests in the palm trees - very similar to what the weaver birds do in Kenya, but the same process with larger nests for the larger Montezuma.
After toast, coffee and fresh fruit we started said our farewells to Laguna Lodge, and Tortuguera National Park and were soon on the boat and on our way. It was a very exhilarating ride - we saw and lots of iguanas and birds, so many herons, but we also had the thrill of coming around one bend and seeing spider monkeys crossing the river by jumping across from one tree branch to another - the are are so athletic. The ride was so different than when we arrived two days ago - at that point it was low tide and this morning it was high tide and the the river was much higher and the water just racing back to the ocean! This still required lots of slow downs along the way, taking corners wide, and lifting the motor out of the water frequently when the driver knew that we were going through very shallow spots.
We arrived at the bank (no dock) at 9am, and after the long line for the ladies' the bus was off again at 930am heading for the banana plantation, where Elson promised to tell ad show us how to buy the best bananas in the store when we go back home. He then explained about how the banana plant grows - starting with the seed and flower, and each petal that falls off the large purple "chica" shows the flowers and tiny banana underneath. It turns out that the bananas at the top of the bunch get nutrients first and mature first so they are the best, with the most potassium and vitamins. The smallest bananas are from the bottom of the bunch, less nutrients and smaller. Remember the saying "top banana' meaning best of the bunch!
When the brown speckles start on the banana that means the sugar level in the fruit is at the max and the best time to eat it! Bananas ripen faster if they are kept in a bunch after purchasing from the store due to the ethylene gas that all fruits produce, they ripen slower if pulled apart into singles. Their are 70 varieties of bananas in the world, best temperature for storage at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. When shipping bananas they always taste better when ripened on the plant. For best taste (to be sold close to ripe) in the store they are picked 4 weeks ahead for shipping to Europe, and ? weeks ahead for USA and Canada.
We passed through thousands of acres of banana plantation, pumpkin fields and other vegetables stopping in Guapiles at 10:40 next to the Rio Santa Clara for lunch - very early! We had a short Charlie Chaplin dance display put on by University students, supported by Caravan who receive a small stipend which helps the students with their education costs. The restaurant was very well laid out - iron gates but no signage on the road - they put 2 bus lads through while we were there for a beef and pasta buffet lunch - they are used to processing tourists here and did it well. There was a young an blowing glass there with fabulous copies of geckos, lizards, sloth and free form characters, along with earrings and pendants for sale. In the grounds there was a 400 year old kapok tree - this being an "emergent" tree in the rain forest canopy -grows up above the man canopy level at 120-150 feet. It was massive! We left at 1210, the only instance so far when noone was given a departing time and as a result we waited about 20 minutes in the bus for the final guests to return to the bus.
Costa Rica is now #1 in the world for producing Pineapple - the plantation we visited after lunch is owned by USA company Corsica. There were acres and acres of pineapples, the ground covered in black plastic to prevent weeds growing since pesticides cannot be used when growing organic pineapples. It was a really fun visit as Mike from Corsica gave us a good demonstration about pineapple - asking questions and making us laugh (and feel like idiots) as we tried to answer his questions! One guest Dick from Texas answered correctly how to determine the best pineapple in the super market - look for the largest and most regular shaped "eyes" - the eyes are the diamonds you see on the skin and actually each eye is a fruit in its' own right! Dick's Mom came from Brazil and had taught him this, and Brazil is where the very first pineapple came from! We all got to try a drink of fresh pineapple juice (more like pulp), fresh pineapple (so sweet) and pineapple fruit cake - I loved it!! As Terry said when looking for the freshest pineapple in the supermarket: "look it in the eyes and squeeze its' bottom!" Actually, pineapples as soon as they are picked they stop ripening and when they are picked and eaten where they are grown, they are green with a slightly gold bottom. However, for export just prior to picking they are sprayed with ? to remove the green ? from the skin which means they will turn more golden which is what customers in North America and Europe are looking for! I believe that the pineapples from this plantation are shipped to ?in Florida, and the cake is made and shipped from Collins Bakery - Corsicana, Texas.
After the pineapple plantation stop, it was a sleepy bus load of passengers sitting with the sun streaming through the widows past fields of taro (kasava), hearts of palm, sugar cane, We arrived in the tourist town of Fortuna watching the AENAL volcano get closer all the time - the top covered in clouds. We had slowly been gaining elevation as we climbed the slopes of the Arenal mountain. Arenal is known as a chain of volcanoes and Elson (our guide) told us that if the cloud should clear we would see two volcanic cones - one that had never erupted, and the other which had its' last eruption at 730am on July 29, 1967 and the explosion killed 87 people. This eruption had the side of the mountain completely blown out (similar to Mt Helen's in Washington State). Research on volcanoes is relatively new starting in the 1960's, so even though activity in the area had been increasing prior to the eruption, and the locals had been advised to leave - many were hesitant to do so or believe the information. Even though in one location the temperature of the streams and river coming down from the mountains had become too hot for the animals to drink!
We arrived at MENOA resort and spa and were really wowed! A huge property on a hill, beautiful exotic flora and fauna, so well manicured - and the rooms were huge - each room with two queen size beds, and a beautiful bathroom with a raised brick laid centre separating the shower area from the toilet and washbasin. It was huge and a large sky light gave lots of light. We were room #101 - right next to reception and the swimming and hot pools with swim-up bar and a happy hour from 5 to 6pm! Everyone made a beeline for the swimming pools and a refreshing drink, but my first stop was a shower with a hair dryer to use after two days in Tortuguero Laguna Lodge!
We caught up with free WIFI before heading down for buffet dinner (beef, pasta and salads) at 7pm. The night sounds were amazing - so many tree frogs and cicadas - or room even had a patio and beautiful teak furniture to relax in! It also had a TV but too high and far away to watch from bed - so we crashed early!
20130125 SAN CARLOS VALLEY, RIO FRIO, CANO NEGRO WILDLIFE REFUGE, ARENAL VOLCANIC HOT SPRINGS
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Well we woke up to be all in cloud - but that's what makes it so beautiful here! We even got showered on as we walked back from buffet breakfast (corn flakes, yoghurt, toast, pastries for Terry, eggs, beans, plantain, coffee, juice)- it's a beautiful large property and we are in room #101 which is a 400 metre walk down the hill and over the lake and stream through the property to the large restaurant which is all ope sided (or with glass doors that open wide) overlooking the property. The growth is so lush and exotic here and unbelievably peaceful- truly a beautiful resort, with efficient and friendly staff.
Just as were about to board our bus by reception, Terry saw a small hummingbird fly into a low palm tree of bush. WOW - it flew right into its' nest and sat in it! Amazing we have never seen anything like this before - we have humming birds at home in BC, the Anna's humming birds who stay all year long and some other transient humming birds who arrive in the Spring and migrate South for the Winter. But to see this hummingbird sitting on its' nest was so very special.
Arenal Mountain was covered in cloud - mysterious and dark as we passed by and headed into Fortuna then North to Los Chicas for the 1 1/2 hour drive which is right on the Nicaraguan border. It took 30 minutes to drive back to Highway ? heading North for the 74km drive to Los Chicas. As we drove through Fortuna we came up behind a man riding a bicycle pulling 2 horses behind him on rope - the horses didn't like the sound of the bus and started to run - so they would have been pulling the man on the bicycle if they had passed - what a panic but fortunately they got settled down and continued straight on as we turned left.
FORTUNA has lots of hotels, restaurants, stores and activity centres. We saw about 20 ATV's heading out for their day's safari into the ARENAL NATIONAL PARK and rain forest. We also passed by the BALDI Hotel, Hot springs & spa where we will spend the afternoon in the 26 hot spring pools - some as hot as 40 Celcius and others with water slides.
As we headed north we turned left past the Las Iguanas restaurant - and believe it or not, on the trees next to the bridge there were HUGE iguanas and they were everywhere - they call them "the Iguana trees" and you could see the massive bright orange (during their mating season until February/March) male green iguanas displaying all their spikes and mantles surrounded by the females. Amazing! FYI in Tortugeuro the females iguanas swim across the Tortuguero lagoon, lay their eggs (40 to 50 day gestation period) on the beach and then swim back to the forest after birth.
For both turtles and Iguanas lower temperatures in the nest mean more males, lower temperatures means more females since the temperature in the nest determines the sex of the eggs "If you can't stand the heat baby - get out of the nest!".
The next town was Buenos Aires (NOT Brazil where the first pineapple came from) where there is a sugar cane processing plant - apparentlyUSA is a big importer of Costa Rica sugar cane. You can harvest a sugar cane plant for 5 to 8 years. It is harvested both manually and by machine, and is ready for harvesting after 14 to 16 months (same family as bamboo). Another new tree used to make paper for furniture - fast growing tree called meligna. There were also teak farms in this area and throughout Costa Rica. Property is purchased and reforested, it takes about 12-15 years for the growth of a 12 inch trunk. Teak is felt to be a good investment since it is an expensive, exotic wood. Both Melina and Teak have been introduced into Costa Rica from Asia. It was here at 915am where we passed a troop of monkeys sitting in a tree by the side of the road - all with their backs to the road so they were like small curled up black balls!
We also passed large fields of sweet Valencia oranges - and unfortunately here we saw the results of a very bad head on collision that had happened minutes before between a gravel truck and a large tractor trailer filled with Valencia oranges - it did not look good for the drivers. The problem here is that the highway is in excellent shape but they are narrow and not wide enough for two large buses or trucks to pass each other. Each truck was loaded and very heavy so if either one had not given way to the other there would have been a problem and if one did give way and put its' wheels over on to the soft shoulder this could have caused a real swing back into the road - so sad. Our luxury bus is fitted with seat belts, and the click click click of seat belts could be heard after we detoured off the road onto the grass to get around this accident scene.
Los Chiles is the most Northern town in Costa Rica- we arrived at 950am for a quick bathroom break, with enough time to buy a rosewood bowl made locally before walking the block to the EL GASPAR boat on the Rio Frio with Captain Wilbert and local (not loco) Naturalist Guide Garry. The river FRIO ends in Lake Nicaragua about 6km from where we ultimately turned around at the Northern border with the Nicaragua Green Hope Wildlife Reserve. We headed out at 1010 and right off we saw a small brown Caiman with a striped tail (much smaller than crocs and not as aggressive as crocodiles, and are very shy). Next the engine stopped and we saw an Amazon Kingfisher, parrot, long nosed bats -lined vertically on a tree trunk as a defense mechanism against predators. They are nocturnal insect eaters. Female Anhinga bird with brownish neck (also known as snake bird, piano bird, needle duck, water turkey) has to spread its' wings out to the dry feathers after it has been fishing in the water.
We also saw an exceptional orange howler monkey with white skin with a normal black coloured baby - a genetic abnormality- she was just hanging on a branch with the baby next to her, having an occasional scratch. There was a troop of black howler monkeys with black skin hanging around in the top tree branches and Garry managed to get them howling at us by calling to them - very cool. We also saw capuchin (the white faced monkeys) travelling through the trees - one female with a tiny baby on her back - they can really move along.
It was very frustrating trying to get photos on this boat - the boat would pull in to the bank front first which was good for stability - but only a few people could stand on the front platform and many folks did not move back to let others out - mmmmmmm!
Birds that we spotted - not necessarily gray necked wood rail with red eyes,, Limkin, ,Mangrove swallow, Snowy egret, Cattle egret, Vulture, Little green kingfisher, Amazon kingfisher, Peregrine falcon,Sun grebe, Parakeets
1150am We arrived at the Northern border with Nicaragua and saw the following sign
(I have converted to English) "Welcome to Nicaragua, Green Hope Reserve,Wildlife Refuge, LOS GUATUZOS. 1st Site RANSAIR (world wide conservation association) ASDE VERDE - fund raising association. There was also a large pointed stone (like a small obolisk) with the flags of both Nicaragua and Costa Rica painted on it and the number XII standing for?
mohomg
1250pm we were back in the bus and had finished our buffet lunch of beans, rice arroz con pollo (with chicken except that the lady in front of us took 5 minutes and all the chicken!!)vegetables, fried kasava, and some folks got fresh pineapple for dessert. We also bought another rosewood bowl - they are all made from fallen wood - no trees cut to make them, so fabulous exotic woods and amazing natural shapes. Then it was a quick 2 minutes across the road for a $4 bag of potato chips to enjoy with our cocktails tonight.
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JAN 22-23, 2013 TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK, COSTA RICA
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Tuesday Jan 22, 2013 TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA
"TUANIS" is our word of the day to learn, it is a more informal version of PURA VIDA - really meaning Life Is Great - a greeting to each other when you meet or are asked how you are.
Today we are heading from San Jose to the East Coast of Costa Rica to see the country and spend two days in the conservation Tortuguero Park.
OK we're ready for the Caribbean today! After breakfast and a glass of champagne we left the Barcelo San Jose Palacio at 7am for our trip heading East to the coast. First we had a short drive through San Jose city centre, population 1.3 million at 3200 feet altitude. We are so glad that we had taken the two days to walk around downtown and take the guided tour walk. We recognized many spots, buildings and parks and we were thrilled that we had seen many of these attractions in depth and from the inside. We would have missed so much historical and cultural background if all we had was this quick drive-by in the 40+ coach!
The City's name San Jose comes from the name of the Patron who founded San Jose in 1737. The original name of the country's capital city was much longer - Vida Nueva Del Rocce Delmonte Del Valle Arbore! Try saying that in a hurry! The Costa Rican flag is 5 stripes and 3 colours with Blue at the top and bottom representing the ocean on both sides of the country (Caribbean on the East and Pacific on the West), then it is white representing Peace (there has been no standing Army in Costa Rica since 1949, although they do have a very large Police Force) and the middle is Red representing the blood of the Costa Ricans killed during their Civil War.
SOCCER is huge in Costa Rica (we passed the impressive modern soccer stadium on our way through San Jose City Centre). Number two in the league are the SABRISSAS - the favourite of our Guide Elston (colours purple and white), but first in the league is ALAJUELA colours red and black. All 7 provinces in Costa Rica have their own soccer team.
POLITICS: A major part of Costa Rica's history revolves around the very short Civil War in 1948. This was precipitated by the 1944 election won by ? , but it was felt by the general populace that fraud and corruption helped him win. The general population did nothing about it although they were very unhappy. By the time re-election came in 1948 the general populace were ready for him and he lost the 1948 election but he refused to accept defeat and did not step aside for Ortillis but "coincidentally" the electoral building was burned down so it could not be confirmed that Ortilis had won the election.
This was followed in 1948 by a short 44 day civil war when? organized an uprising of University Students and civilians who stormed the Army barracks in San Jose ( we saw the bullet holes when we toured it 2 days ago!). The final result is that ? escaped to Nicaragua and then ? ran the country for 18 months. During this time he nationalised many industries and services (like banking and insurance) and generally earned the respect and support of the people. ? also banned reelection to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, and he also abandoned the standing army because so many people lost their lives during the war. Today CR is the only country in the world with no standing army although they do have a very large police force.
The political system today consists of an Executive branch (like a cabinet) with a woman President Laura Chinchiga elected in 2010. There are two main parties who end up essentially alternating with the majority vote/ (based on the voting) every 4 years: National Liberation & Social Christianity Unity. There are also 20 or so small parties emerging and working hard to get representatives in office.
We crossed over the Continental Divide at 750am and at the same time passed a large number of tractor trailers parked along the sides of the highway heading into San Jose - this is due to a restriction on the hours when they can enter San Jose City Centre - so the trucks are parked waiting for time to pass so that they can enter the city.
As we drove on, we entered the Braulio Carrillo National Park - 115,000 acres of protected land with the largest biodiversity of flora and fauna. This was an amazing road conceived and started in the 1800's - steep up and down, with no stopping allowed and no turn outs for photos which was a shame, and winding as we descended towards the Caribbean Coast over 3,000 feet lower. We passed through the Zurqui tunnel, the only tunnel in CR. Prior to the tunnel being built the migratory animals used to go higher or lower to seek food as the seasons and the food supply changed, but now the animals now use the tunnel, although initially there were lots of animals killed by the motorists using this tunnel, but apparently the animals are now a little more "streetwise"..
3 of the 4 species of monkeys to be found in Costa Rica live in the Braulio Carrillo National Park, along with 50% of bird species to be found in Costa Rica and 10% of raptors. Du to the difficult terrain and its' inaccessibility the park is very pristine with dense forest descending into tropical rain forest.
Towards the bottom of the very long run down from the Continental Divide we passed a very recent accident with a semi trailer on its' side in the ditch, probably going too fast as it took the curve. This was just before we crossed a long, high bridge crossing the point where the Suelo river meets the ? river. and also where the 3 provinces of San Jose, Limon and Cartago also meet. The colour of the water from the rivers changes as they mingle and move on - very rusty and orange with mineral sediments.
The scenery started to change quickly as the terrain levelled out - some tree cutting had taken place here in the past, and the huge trees and bamboo from the higher up more inhospitable terrain disappeared.
We stopped at 840am in the town of Guapiles for a break at the butterfly garden Selva Tropical and bar / restaurant Las Potrancas. (Butterfly Farms are where butterflies are raised and shipped abroad for weddings etc.) The number of butterflies inside was awesome - so many, all different sizes, and beautiful colours, they were landing on our hats, shirts and even faces and hands - but somehow never standing still for the perfect photo. Elston (our Guide) also found a tiny, and I mean tiny maybe 1 or 2 cm, bright red Blue Jean frog which he brought out of the foliage in the Butterfly Garden to show us all! ..............
Unbelievably, we also saw a brown throated three toed sloth sleeping in the trees at the butterfly Gardens (Cost Rica also has a two toed sloth). At 10 months old sloths are abandoned by their mother - returning 1 year later to reclaim their territory and telling the 22 month old sloth to go and find it's own territory! The solitary sloth only comes down from the tree once a month for the bathroom. They are vegetarian with a very slow system! Sometimes you will find two sloths in a tree when they are mating, or a mother and baby. The very large Ground Sloth is now extinct, and the Armadillo and ant eaters are related to the same order as sloths. Sloths are the slowest animals on earth and spend 8% of their time sleeping! Many insects live in their fur and studies have shown that 30+ series of insects, mice etc. have been found living in their fur - the sloth's own eco system! So the sloth is a very important species.
Laving Las Potrancas at 1030am and heading North we drove through several small villages (Rita & Cariari) on the way to the 47,000 acre Tortuguero National Park where we boarded the boat to the Tortuguero Lodge andwould spend the next two nights. The road was one lane, but mostly good condition, requiring lots of braking and moving over (or a vehicle coming the opposite way moving over) so that we could pass. North of Cariari we drove through huge banana plantations owned by corporations such as Chiquita and Del Monte - Costa Rica is second in the world for the the amount of bananas exported, Ecuador is first. There are 70 varieties of banana plants in the world, Costa Rica produces Valerie, Cavendish and dwarf bananas but didn't start producing bananas until the early 1900's when their coffee exports started to decline. (India is the world's largest producer of bananas but they eat most of what they produce). The banana plant is 70% water, so they need to be grown in areas with lots of rainfall. As we looked out the window of the bus, we could see the clouds increasing and getting darker as we got closer to the Coast and Tortuguero - we may be using those raincoats soon!
Each bunch of bananas weighs 60 to 80 pounds, so picking ripe bananas is very heavy hard work for the workers. The workers make a "train" of 25 bunches of bananas using a cable. Each banana plant is ready to harvest in 9 months, then you start again with the new shoot from the plant that has just produced its' crop - the total life of each banana plant totalling 25 to 30 years. The blue plastic bags covering all the bananas are impregnated with an insecticide to prevent against insects and wasps, they also act as a micro climate to induce the bananas to grow inside the blue plastic bags, and the bags also prevent the bananas from sunburn.
We hit gravel road round 1020am, North of Cariari and had lots more rattle and roll in the bus. We passed maybe 12 buses on this stretch, mostly the 45 passenger, but some 30 passenger buses and a couple of mini vans - this Tortuguero National Park is very popular and generates big tourism business for CR. We crossed the Pavona river at 1045 and at this point we had been driving through plantation and ranching lands for some time - the only "wild animals" we saw included goats, dogs, and cattle.
We arrived at the river bank and restaurant / bathroom stop (at least 50 ladies lined u waiting to use the bathroom!) where there were 50+ parked cars, plus large buses and mini TURIsm buses - all waiting to pick tourists up and continue on their tours, or, like us, drop us and our overight bags off, for a couple of nights inside the Tortuguero National Park. This rain forest area had been logged copletely in the mid 1900's but Costa Rica changed direction when Dr Alex Carr arrived in the 1970's and advised the Costa Rican Government that they had something special that tourosts would pay money t come and see - so the area was turned into National Park. Now the forest has regrown (amazingly so, very large trees) and the reptiles, turtles, birds, and animals are starting to come back. The locals used to catch the birds and animals to eat or sell, but when it became a National Park this was outlawed and there was a fine if they were caught with wild life, but that fine has now been changed to a minimum 5 year prison term.
We climbed aboard two boats with open sides and a roof along with our overnight bags, and soon Captain Midor had backed us into the very shallow river and we were turned around and cruising along the very shallow and winding river on our way to the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero National Park. We stopped occasionally to look at special birds and monkeys that we (or more likely Elson or Capt. Midor) spotted on the river banks! We cruises 3 rivers - the Viola Asuerte river which is fresh water about 50 feet wide, ultimately joining the Tortuguero River, Penitencia River, and Tortuguero Lagoon, brackish mix of fresh and salt water, on which our Lodge for the night was located.
Around 12:30pm we left the Viola Asuerte river and entered the Penitencia (penitence) river which was much wider, maybe 150 feet, and deeper. If we had turned left instead of right we would have reached the border with Nicaragua in approximately 3 hours. Very shortly after entering Penitencia River we passed what is known as the "hotel zone" where various small lodges are built along the river banks. Being high noon the sun was very hot and we really appreciated the cooling breezes coming off the water from the boat going fast - even if we were wearing our compulsory life jackets which make you so hot. There were 23 of us on our boat plus Guide Elson and Captain Midor. We arrived at the Tortuguero river and lagoon - brackish water at 12:45pm, and were really surprised to see so many small and medium sized lodges and boats along the banks. Even though we still felt like we were in the middle of the jungle, Elson told us that in fact we were only 200 feet from the bank across to the Caribbean Sea! Then it was full speed ahead on our boat to the Tortuguero Lodge - our home for the next 2 nights.
This was a good start to our time in Tortuguero and even though this was not a "spotting boat safari, along the way we had spotted much:
TREES: huge Kapok trees,Breadnut which has lots of seeds - it is related to the Breadfruit Tree which has no seeds)
REPTILES: Caiman (small type of crocodile) with lines on his tail (Note: the American crocodile which you do not find in Tortuguero is much larger up to 20 feet long and has spots on its' tail), Green Iguana, turtle on a log,
BIRDS: Osprey sitting in a tree with its' wings hanging down, white egret, reed Kingfisher, Little Blue Heron with grey beak and greyish coloured legs, Grey heron, Bay Wren, Anhinga sitting on a log at the side of the river with its' wings spread wide open to dry them so that he could fly again after diving for fish and getting them wet
ANIMALS: Central American spider monkeys
Arriving at 1pm we were pleasantly surprised to see the Laguna Lodge since we knew that this was not going to be the most basic of all the resorts that we would be staying in. Laguna Lodge was right on the Tortuguera Lagoon banks with a small open air bar and deck over the water, and a large dining room with roof but open sided, that would seat maybe 200 guests at one time, sitting at the water's edge. Our first stop was reception where we were given our room assignment (our group of 8 were all assigned rooms next to each other) ours was room #58. There are probably 12 pr more bocks of rooms at Laguna Lodge, each a long wooden building with a shared deck and 2 very comfortable leather rocking chairs out front, most facing out on to the lush tropical and ver well maintained grounds, or 1 of the two very nice swimming pools.
We took the short walk to our room and it was clean and comfortable with a queen size bed and a single bed inside, with a night table and 2 reading lights on the wall. There was a bottom and top sheet on the beds, and 2 blankets in the small clothes closet with 3 coat hangers and no door - you really don't need to bring very much when you come here. The separate bathroom was spacious with a shower, hand basin and toilet and a clean white towel each. There were 2 small bars of soap but no shampoo or conditioner. There was a window at the front and back of the bedroom which were covered in screening to keep out the insects, and wooden shutter doors for privacy which was essential at night for privacy due to the shared deck if you had a light on inside. We actually kept the shutters open and the lights off since it was still incredibly humid and sticky at night when we went to bed, although it had cooled off if you woke up in the early hours of the morning. On the deck there was also a water jug that we all shared to fill up our own water bottles and try to stay hydrated. You could hear the constant roar of the waves from the Caribbean Ocean crashing on the beach which was maybe 100 yards away.
We headed back to the dining room for our buffet lunch which as very good - salads and fruits, chicken and Gallo Pinto (beans and rice) which was served at every lunch and dinner that we had every day in Costa Rica. The staff were excellent continuously coming to our tables to give us water and juice, and then coffee after all 3 meals each day. We took the one hour before we had to get together at 3pm to check out the two pools (very nice), watch the Montezuma Oropendola (black with yellow tails) building their nests at the top of the very tall palm trees (we figure must be related to the small weaver birds in Kenya). We also walked out to the beach and watched the waves crashing on to the beach.
At 3pm it was time for our first boat safari in Tortuguero and we headed 1/2 mile down the lagoon to the Turtle Sanctuary - started by Dr Alex Carr back in 1974 - where we watched an informative and enjoyable movie all about the turtles of Tortuguero. Then we walked down the beach with our guide to the small village located here. It is still the long holidays for the school kids here (from mid December until the first week in February) so unfortunately we couldn't visit the school which is a typical activity for the tour group when the school is open. But we walked from one en of the village to the other (maybe there are 60 very modest homes here) most of them running home based businesses for adventure tours, boat tours, nature tours, hotel rooms, restaurants, and souvenir stores. Everything related to Costa Rica, and specifically Costa Rica. It was so hot and humid - our tshirts and shorts and underwear were all soaked but at least it wasn't raining! At the very far end of the village we came to the HQ for the Tortuguera National Park - Terry spotted a Toucan here high in the trees - little did we know that during our entire 10 day tour we would only spot one more toucan also hidden in the trees - we truly expected to see many! We also saw a spider monkey in the trees, so it was a very enjoyable and rewarding afternoon - even though we did pass up on buying an ice cream each, as tempting as it looked!
The boat picked us up at the village and took us back to the Lodge where we all made a mad dash to the bar for Happy Hour and 2 for 1 drinks! The Cuba Libre's (rum and cokes) went down extremely well at abut $7 each (or 2 for 1 during happy hour) as we watched the sun set on the opposite side of the Tortuguera Lagoon behind the high canopy of the rain forest.
We were most definitely remote and in the rain forest, but we have to admit that we were amazed at the couple of hundred tourists we had seen come in by boat at the same time as us that afternoon, somehow we had the preconceived idea that it would be quite remote and pristine!
Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA
What a night in the Laguna Lodge! We had a torrential downpour in the middle of the night and since the roof of our room is tin you can just imagine the noise!! The wind changed during the night sometimes gusting sometimes quite calm, but it made for an interesting night. We had the fan on when we went to bed - we were so sticky - but the temperatures cooled down and we turned that off eventually and even threw the light blanket on! We had been sleeping with nothing on at all, not even the top sheet - and the wooden shutters open for the breeze - but since everyone that walks by can look in (and even talk to you!) we kept the lights off! There is a purified water tank outside our room for the set of 6 rooms in our unit of wooden chalets (all connected in 1 block with a long verandah in front and 2 amazingly comfortable wood and leather rocking chairs for each room. It looks like everyone is 80+ years old as they sit and rock in the chairs!
We woke up at 530 but the alarm was set for 630am so we had a slow start and managed to download and backup photos prior to our breakfast at 7am. Everyone was in the herd mentality with a long line for the cooked eggs! Pretty spartan buffet - pineapple, watermelon, toast, spicy wiener sausage, eggs, beans and rice, pancakes and cereal with fruit juice, water and Costa Rican Coffee. The egg line took half an hour to clear! Everyone was excited, noise level high and by 730 our group was finished and ready for the boat ride departing at 8am.
Gerardo Aguilar Munoz was our Naturalist Guide and Juan the Captain. There were 3 boats for our group of 40, so our own group of 8 managed to get on to the same open air (no top) boat - complete with hats, sunscreen, cameras, binoculars and wildlife identification cards and anticipation and we were off!
We spent two hours on the Tortuguera river and lagoon and were thrilled with everything that we spotted (and mostly Gerardo & Juan spotted!!):
BIRDS: juvenile green heron, yellow crown heron, bare-throated tiger heron (3 months old and not yet able to fly), great tailed grackle, a nest with 2 eggs and Momma green heron close by, blue heron, white egret with yellow feet, black (male) and female (brown) grackle, ring kingfisher (the largest species), royal terns, Northern jacana, bare throated tiger heron (full grown),, small yellow tropical king bird, osprey (migrated from North America), 2 flying grey hawks, turkey vultures, oscillated antbird, black striper antbird, nun bird?, royal terns.
TREES: breadfruit & mango trees, wild ginger plants with flowers, extremely large
tropical almond trees 100-120 feet tall - they could not be logged when they were logging this area prior to becoming a protected National Park in 1952, and as well as being too hard for them to log, they also sank when loggers tried to float them in the water! Pachita aquatic flowers and fruit which was a huge round ball, huge rattan palm, and royal palm.
Across the lagoon from the Laguna Lodge where we were staying, we could see the Manatus (manatee) Lodge across the lagoon.
REPTILES: LIZARDS & IGUANAS: huge iguanas with wattles that they were shaking about and nodding their heads up and down trying to attract the boring brown female iguanas, Jesus Christ lizard (walks on water and we saw it!!) Emerald Basilisk (a female and a larger emerald green one), spectacled caiman (like a baby crocodile)
ANIMALS: two cows who looked stranded on a very small island with huge amounts of healthy green grass; two toed and three toed white faced sloth hanging in the top of the tree (they come down just once a week!), spider monkeys high in the trees, howler monkeys. We also had a large troop of howler monkeys walking along the tree branches (whereas the spiders tend to swing from branch to branch, hand by hand). The howler monkeys live between 25 to 30 years old.
After travelling along the Tortuguero Lagoon there is a meeting point of the 4 rivers which is across from the Tortuguero Park Headquarters: Chiquero river, Tortuguero, Penitensia (which continues North all the way to Nicaragua, about 2 to 3 hours by boat to the border), and Tortuguero Lagoon which runs in from the Caribbean Sea. As we cruised along we spotted the Red Frog Lodge, and Tortuguero Hill which is an extinct volcano and only 120 metres high! Again we were advised as to the history of the Park which really started in 1959 when Dr Archie Carr arrived from USA and started working towards implementing conservation in the Tortuguero area in Costa Rica.
The boat turned around at 10am and we headed back towards Laguna Lodge. This area gets 240" of rain each year. We saw the black anhinga female bird sitting on a branch with her wings outstretched drying her wings, they spear fish and kill it before swallowing. But they can't fly with wet wings so they sit and spread them to dry them out before they can take off again.
Back at Laguna Lodge I arranged for a water taxi to take us back to the Turtle Conservancy since yesterday the store had been closed when we were there and this is also where you can sponsor a turtle. Afterwards we also called in to the small village to pick up a couple of Costa Rica wildlife identification reference cards to help us with our spotting. The water taxi fee is normally $10 each but with some negotiation we got it for $8 each.
Buffet lunch was enjoyable sitting at the tables for 6 and enjoying the open air and views of the birds and boats on the Tortuguero Lagoon. We had another couple of hours before our afternoon boat safari at 3pm, time to download photos from the camera to the computer and also to enjoy the beautiful grounds. Some folks enjoyed a swim while others wandered through the Botanical Gardens and mini rainforest (with identification plaques) set up right on the property.
Our afternoon boat safari departing at 3pm was enjoyable again, we just can't get enough of all the birds that we see - we even saw a nest with anhinga and 2 chicks, and bare-throated tiger heron nest with chicks. Our first stop before entering the Tortuguero National Park is a stop at the Park Headquarters where our boat guide has to take in the Park Passes showing that the daily Park fee has been paid for each of us on the boat. Costa Ricans used to keep exotic birds and animals as pets - but nowadays if anyone is caught with wild birds or animals as pets it is an immediate 5 years prison sentence, not just a nominal fine like before.
We cruised along the Chiquero river to the Tortuguero river in the incredible heat of the still afternoon - we were so glad to get into the side channels (originally made by the logging companies many years ago to cut the trees down, then float them back out - but for us it meant that we were out of the heat and in the protection of the rain forest shade. Again our spottings were numerous:
REPTILES: fresh water slider turtle, 2 black river turtles sitting immobile on a log and right behind them a caiman (small crocodile) sitting on a log in the middle of vegetation - he didn't move an inch even when we pulled over to look at him! The largest that they grow to is about 2 metres long.
Emerald Basilisk Lizard.
BIRDS: Swallows, Yellow Crown Night Heron, Ring Kingfisher flying along with a fish in its' mouth. the fascinating Boat Billed Heron - such a unique beak, but always hiding in amongst the trees at the water's edge so impossible to photograph, and the Blue Heron, and an immature Blue Heron - which are white! Green Heron. Bare throated Tiger Heron.
FLORA & FAUNA:
There were many very tall wild almond trees - the wood was too hard for logging companies so they left them alone - the almond trees also sink if the loggers try to float them on the river to be processed!
Here the termites build their nests in the trees (not on the ground like Africa and Australia) and we saw a termite nest high in a tree that had been vacated by the termites and had now been taken over by bees.
This is secondary rainforest (34 years of growth) and amazing how high and dense it can already be after 34 years.
The Mimosa tree have large pods with seeds which explode and the loud cracking noises as the seeds explode is amazing, spreading their seeds all through the rain forest.
ANIMALS:
Spider monkeys including a Mom with her young one clinging to her, high up in an almond tree.
There were even squirrels running around.
Somehow the boat safari went by way too fast and we were heading back to the Laguna Lodge long before we were ready - we could have stayed out there way longer! But we were back at 5pm in time for Happy Hour at the bar overlooking the Tortuguero Lagoon! Today we tried the GU?? cocktail made from the local Costa Rican liquor and a lemon juice - excellent! After a couple of those we headed over to the swimming pool and into the rain forest to see if we could see the tree frogs which had been spotted the night before! We were lucky enough to find 3 but not lucky enough to get any decent photos - trying to protect the camera from the rain and figure out my close up settings at the same time with no flash! Never mind it was a great experience and Jan Dicks had taken us to where she had sene them the night before so we were thrilled to just see them clinging to the stems of the foliage.
After a shower and change (we felt clean and dry for only about 5 minutes) we had our last buffet supper and sharing what we had seen that day - we truly enjoyed Tortuguero and would love to go back. I suspect if it was pouring with rain it would not be anywhere near as much fun in the boats with no roof but for us it had been perfect! We soon fell asleep looking forward to our next day's adventures!
Tuesday Jan 22, 2013 TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA
"TUANIS" is our word of the day to learn, it is a more informal version of PURA VIDA - really meaning Life Is Great - a greeting to each other when you meet or are asked how you are.
Today we are heading from San Jose to the East Coast of Costa Rica to see the country and spend two days in the conservation Tortuguero Park.
OK we're ready for the Caribbean today! After breakfast and a glass of champagne we left the Barcelo San Jose Palacio at 7am for our trip heading East to the coast. First we had a short drive through San Jose city centre, population 1.3 million at 3200 feet altitude. We are so glad that we had taken the two days to walk around downtown and take the guided tour walk. We recognized many spots, buildings and parks and we were thrilled that we had seen many of these attractions in depth and from the inside. We would have missed so much historical and cultural background if all we had was this quick drive-by in the 40+ coach!
The City's name San Jose comes from the name of the Patron who founded San Jose in 1737. The original name of the country's capital city was much longer - Vida Nueva Del Rocce Delmonte Del Valle Arbore! Try saying that in a hurry! The Costa Rican flag is 5 stripes and 3 colours with Blue at the top and bottom representing the ocean on both sides of the country (Caribbean on the East and Pacific on the West), then it is white representing Peace (there has been no standing Army in Costa Rica since 1949, although they do have a very large Police Force) and the middle is Red representing the blood of the Costa Ricans killed during their Civil War.
SOCCER is huge in Costa Rica (we passed the impressive modern soccer stadium on our way through San Jose City Centre). Number two in the league are the SABRISSAS - the favourite of our Guide Elston (colours purple and white), but first in the league is ALAJUELA colours red and black. All 7 provinces in Costa Rica have their own soccer team.
POLITICS: A major part of Costa Rica's history revolves around the very short Civil War in 1948. This was precipitated by the 1944 election won by ? , but it was felt by the general populace that fraud and corruption helped him win. The general population did nothing about it although they were very unhappy. By the time re-election came in 1948 the general populace were ready for him and he lost the 1948 election but he refused to accept defeat and did not step aside for Ortillis but "coincidentally" the electoral building was burned down so it could not be confirmed that Ortilis had won the election.
This was followed in 1948 by a short 44 day civil war when? organized an uprising of University Students and civilians who stormed the Army barracks in San Jose ( we saw the bullet holes when we toured it 2 days ago!). The final result is that ? escaped to Nicaragua and then ? ran the country for 18 months. During this time he nationalised many industries and services (like banking and insurance) and generally earned the respect and support of the people. ? also banned reelection to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, and he also abandoned the standing army because so many people lost their lives during the war. Today CR is the only country in the world with no standing army although they do have a very large police force.
The political system today consists of an Executive branch (like a cabinet) with a woman President Laura Chinchiga elected in 2010. There are two main parties who end up essentially alternating with the majority vote/ (based on the voting) every 4 years: National Liberation & Social Christianity Unity. There are also 20 or so small parties emerging and working hard to get representatives in office.
We crossed over the Continental Divide at 750am and at the same time passed a large number of tractor trailers parked along the sides of the highway heading into San Jose - this is due to a restriction on the hours when they can enter San Jose City Centre - so the trucks are parked waiting for time to pass so that they can enter the city.
As we drove on, we entered the Braulio Carrillo National Park - 115,000 acres of protected land with the largest biodiversity of flora and fauna. This was an amazing road conceived and started in the 1800's - steep up and down, with no stopping allowed and no turn outs for photos which was a shame, and winding as we descended towards the Caribbean Coast over 3,000 feet lower. We passed through the Zurqui tunnel, the only tunnel in CR. Prior to the tunnel being built the migratory animals used to go higher or lower to seek food as the seasons and the food supply changed, but now the animals now use the tunnel, although initially there were lots of animals killed by the motorists using this tunnel, but apparently the animals are now a little more "streetwise"..
3 of the 4 species of monkeys to be found in Costa Rica live in the Braulio Carrillo National Park, along with 50% of bird species to be found in Costa Rica and 10% of raptors. Du to the difficult terrain and its' inaccessibility the park is very pristine with dense forest descending into tropical rain forest.
Towards the bottom of the very long run down from the Continental Divide we passed a very recent accident with a semi trailer on its' side in the ditch, probably going too fast as it took the curve. This was just before we crossed a long, high bridge crossing the point where the Suelo river meets the ? river. and also where the 3 provinces of San Jose, Limon and Cartago also meet. The colour of the water from the rivers changes as they mingle and move on - very rusty and orange with mineral sediments.
The scenery started to change quickly as the terrain levelled out - some tree cutting had taken place here in the past, and the huge trees and bamboo from the higher up more inhospitable terrain disappeared.
We stopped at 840am in the town of Guapiles for a break at the butterfly garden Selva Tropical and bar / restaurant Las Potrancas. (Butterfly Farms are where butterflies are raised and shipped abroad for weddings etc.) The number of butterflies inside was awesome - so many, all different sizes, and beautiful colours, they were landing on our hats, shirts and even faces and hands - but somehow never standing still for the perfect photo. Elston (our Guide) also found a tiny, and I mean tiny maybe 1 or 2 cm, bright red Blue Jean frog which he brought out of the foliage in the Butterfly Garden to show us all! ..............
Unbelievably, we also saw a brown throated three toed sloth sleeping in the trees at the butterfly Gardens (Cost Rica also has a two toed sloth). At 10 months old sloths are abandoned by their mother - returning 1 year later to reclaim their territory and telling the 22 month old sloth to go and find it's own territory! The solitary sloth only comes down from the tree once a month for the bathroom. They are vegetarian with a very slow system! Sometimes you will find two sloths in a tree when they are mating, or a mother and baby. The very large Ground Sloth is now extinct, and the Armadillo and ant eaters are related to the same order as sloths. Sloths are the slowest animals on earth and spend 8% of their time sleeping! Many insects live in their fur and studies have shown that 30+ series of insects, mice etc. have been found living in their fur - the sloth's own eco system! So the sloth is a very important species.
Laving Las Potrancas at 1030am and heading North we drove through several small villages (Rita & Cariari) on the way to the 47,000 acre Tortuguero National Park where we boarded the boat to the Tortuguero Lodge andwould spend the next two nights. The road was one lane, but mostly good condition, requiring lots of braking and moving over (or a vehicle coming the opposite way moving over) so that we could pass. North of Cariari we drove through huge banana plantations owned by corporations such as Chiquita and Del Monte - Costa Rica is second in the world for the the amount of bananas exported, Ecuador is first. There are 70 varieties of banana plants in the world, Costa Rica produces Valerie, Cavendish and dwarf bananas but didn't start producing bananas until the early 1900's when their coffee exports started to decline. (India is the world's largest producer of bananas but they eat most of what they produce). The banana plant is 70% water, so they need to be grown in areas with lots of rainfall. As we looked out the window of the bus, we could see the clouds increasing and getting darker as we got closer to the Coast and Tortuguero - we may be using those raincoats soon!
Each bunch of bananas weighs 60 to 80 pounds, so picking ripe bananas is very heavy hard work for the workers. The workers make a "train" of 25 bunches of bananas using a cable. Each banana plant is ready to harvest in 9 months, then you start again with the new shoot from the plant that has just produced its' crop - the total life of each banana plant totalling 25 to 30 years. The blue plastic bags covering all the bananas are impregnated with an insecticide to prevent against insects and wasps, they also act as a micro climate to induce the bananas to grow inside the blue plastic bags, and the bags also prevent the bananas from sunburn.
We hit gravel road round 1020am, North of Cariari and had lots more rattle and roll in the bus. We passed maybe 12 buses on this stretch, mostly the 45 passenger, but some 30 passenger buses and a couple of mini vans - this Tortuguero National Park is very popular and generates big tourism business for CR. We crossed the Pavona river at 1045 and at this point we had been driving through plantation and ranching lands for some time - the only "wild animals" we saw included goats, dogs, and cattle.
We arrived at the river bank and restaurant / bathroom stop (at least 50 ladies lined u waiting to use the bathroom!) where there were 50+ parked cars, plus large buses and mini TURIsm buses - all waiting to pick tourists up and continue on their tours, or, like us, drop us and our overight bags off, for a couple of nights inside the Tortuguero National Park. This rain forest area had been logged copletely in the mid 1900's but Costa Rica changed direction when Dr Alex Carr arrived in the 1970's and advised the Costa Rican Government that they had something special that tourosts would pay money t come and see - so the area was turned into National Park. Now the forest has regrown (amazingly so, very large trees) and the reptiles, turtles, birds, and animals are starting to come back. The locals used to catch the birds and animals to eat or sell, but when it became a National Park this was outlawed and there was a fine if they were caught with wild life, but that fine has now been changed to a minimum 5 year prison term.
We climbed aboard two boats with open sides and a roof along with our overnight bags, and soon Captain Midor had backed us into the very shallow river and we were turned around and cruising along the very shallow and winding river on our way to the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero National Park. We stopped occasionally to look at special birds and monkeys that we (or more likely Elson or Capt. Midor) spotted on the river banks! We cruises 3 rivers - the Viola Asuerte river which is fresh water about 50 feet wide, ultimately joining the Tortuguero River, Penitencia River, and Tortuguero Lagoon, brackish mix of fresh and salt water, on which our Lodge for the night was located.
Around 12:30pm we left the Viola Asuerte river and entered the Penitencia (penitence) river which was much wider, maybe 150 feet, and deeper. If we had turned left instead of right we would have reached the border with Nicaragua in approximately 3 hours. Very shortly after entering Penitencia River we passed what is known as the "hotel zone" where various small lodges are built along the river banks. Being high noon the sun was very hot and we really appreciated the cooling breezes coming off the water from the boat going fast - even if we were wearing our compulsory life jackets which make you so hot. There were 23 of us on our boat plus Guide Elson and Captain Midor. We arrived at the Tortuguero river and lagoon - brackish water at 12:45pm, and were really surprised to see so many small and medium sized lodges and boats along the banks. Even though we still felt like we were in the middle of the jungle, Elson told us that in fact we were only 200 feet from the bank across to the Caribbean Sea! Then it was full speed ahead on our boat to the Tortuguero Lodge - our home for the next 2 nights.
This was a good start to our time in Tortuguero and even though this was not a "spotting boat safari, along the way we had spotted much:
TREES: huge Kapok trees,Breadnut which has lots of seeds - it is related to the Breadfruit Tree which has no seeds)
REPTILES: Caiman (small type of crocodile) with lines on his tail (Note: the American crocodile which you do not find in Tortuguero is much larger up to 20 feet long and has spots on its' tail), Green Iguana, turtle on a log,
BIRDS: Osprey sitting in a tree with its' wings hanging down, white egret, reed Kingfisher, Little Blue Heron with grey beak and greyish coloured legs, Grey heron, Bay Wren, Anhinga sitting on a log at the side of the river with its' wings spread wide open to dry them so that he could fly again after diving for fish and getting them wet
ANIMALS: Central American spider monkeys
Arriving at 1pm we were pleasantly surprised to see the Laguna Lodge since we knew that this was not going to be the most basic of all the resorts that we would be staying in. Laguna Lodge was right on the Tortuguera Lagoon banks with a small open air bar and deck over the water, and a large dining room with roof but open sided, that would seat maybe 200 guests at one time, sitting at the water's edge. Our first stop was reception where we were given our room assignment (our group of 8 were all assigned rooms next to each other) ours was room #58. There are probably 12 pr more bocks of rooms at Laguna Lodge, each a long wooden building with a shared deck and 2 very comfortable leather rocking chairs out front, most facing out on to the lush tropical and ver well maintained grounds, or 1 of the two very nice swimming pools.
We took the short walk to our room and it was clean and comfortable with a queen size bed and a single bed inside, with a night table and 2 reading lights on the wall. There was a bottom and top sheet on the beds, and 2 blankets in the small clothes closet with 3 coat hangers and no door - you really don't need to bring very much when you come here. The separate bathroom was spacious with a shower, hand basin and toilet and a clean white towel each. There were 2 small bars of soap but no shampoo or conditioner. There was a window at the front and back of the bedroom which were covered in screening to keep out the insects, and wooden shutter doors for privacy which was essential at night for privacy due to the shared deck if you had a light on inside. We actually kept the shutters open and the lights off since it was still incredibly humid and sticky at night when we went to bed, although it had cooled off if you woke up in the early hours of the morning. On the deck there was also a water jug that we all shared to fill up our own water bottles and try to stay hydrated. You could hear the constant roar of the waves from the Caribbean Ocean crashing on the beach which was maybe 100 yards away.
We headed back to the dining room for our buffet lunch which as very good - salads and fruits, chicken and Gallo Pinto (beans and rice) which was served at every lunch and dinner that we had every day in Costa Rica. The staff were excellent continuously coming to our tables to give us water and juice, and then coffee after all 3 meals each day. We took the one hour before we had to get together at 3pm to check out the two pools (very nice), watch the Montezuma Oropendola (black with yellow tails) building their nests at the top of the very tall palm trees (we figure must be related to the small weaver birds in Kenya). We also walked out to the beach and watched the waves crashing on to the beach.
At 3pm it was time for our first boat safari in Tortuguero and we headed 1/2 mile down the lagoon to the Turtle Sanctuary - started by Dr Alex Carr back in 1974 - where we watched an informative and enjoyable movie all about the turtles of Tortuguero. Then we walked down the beach with our guide to the small village located here. It is still the long holidays for the school kids here (from mid December until the first week in February) so unfortunately we couldn't visit the school which is a typical activity for the tour group when the school is open. But we walked from one en of the village to the other (maybe there are 60 very modest homes here) most of them running home based businesses for adventure tours, boat tours, nature tours, hotel rooms, restaurants, and souvenir stores. Everything related to Costa Rica, and specifically Costa Rica. It was so hot and humid - our tshirts and shorts and underwear were all soaked but at least it wasn't raining! At the very far end of the village we came to the HQ for the Tortuguera National Park - Terry spotted a Toucan here high in the trees - little did we know that during our entire 10 day tour we would only spot one more toucan also hidden in the trees - we truly expected to see many! We also saw a spider monkey in the trees, so it was a very enjoyable and rewarding afternoon - even though we did pass up on buying an ice cream each, as tempting as it looked!
The boat picked us up at the village and took us back to the Lodge where we all made a mad dash to the bar for Happy Hour and 2 for 1 drinks! The Cuba Libre's (rum and cokes) went down extremely well at abut $7 each (or 2 for 1 during happy hour) as we watched the sun set on the opposite side of the Tortuguera Lagoon behind the high canopy of the rain forest.
We were most definitely remote and in the rain forest, but we have to admit that we were amazed at the couple of hundred tourists we had seen come in by boat at the same time as us that afternoon, somehow we had the preconceived idea that it would be quite remote and pristine!
Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 TORTUGUERO, COSTA RICA
What a night in the Laguna Lodge! We had a torrential downpour in the middle of the night and since the roof of our room is tin you can just imagine the noise!! The wind changed during the night sometimes gusting sometimes quite calm, but it made for an interesting night. We had the fan on when we went to bed - we were so sticky - but the temperatures cooled down and we turned that off eventually and even threw the light blanket on! We had been sleeping with nothing on at all, not even the top sheet - and the wooden shutters open for the breeze - but since everyone that walks by can look in (and even talk to you!) we kept the lights off! There is a purified water tank outside our room for the set of 6 rooms in our unit of wooden chalets (all connected in 1 block with a long verandah in front and 2 amazingly comfortable wood and leather rocking chairs for each room. It looks like everyone is 80+ years old as they sit and rock in the chairs!
We woke up at 530 but the alarm was set for 630am so we had a slow start and managed to download and backup photos prior to our breakfast at 7am. Everyone was in the herd mentality with a long line for the cooked eggs! Pretty spartan buffet - pineapple, watermelon, toast, spicy wiener sausage, eggs, beans and rice, pancakes and cereal with fruit juice, water and Costa Rican Coffee. The egg line took half an hour to clear! Everyone was excited, noise level high and by 730 our group was finished and ready for the boat ride departing at 8am.
Gerardo Aguilar Munoz was our Naturalist Guide and Juan the Captain. There were 3 boats for our group of 40, so our own group of 8 managed to get on to the same open air (no top) boat - complete with hats, sunscreen, cameras, binoculars and wildlife identification cards and anticipation and we were off!
We spent two hours on the Tortuguera river and lagoon and were thrilled with everything that we spotted (and mostly Gerardo & Juan spotted!!):
BIRDS: juvenile green heron, yellow crown heron, bare-throated tiger heron (3 months old and not yet able to fly), great tailed grackle, a nest with 2 eggs and Momma green heron close by, blue heron, white egret with yellow feet, black (male) and female (brown) grackle, ring kingfisher (the largest species), royal terns, Northern jacana, bare throated tiger heron (full grown),, small yellow tropical king bird, osprey (migrated from North America), 2 flying grey hawks, turkey vultures, oscillated antbird, black striper antbird, nun bird?, royal terns.
TREES: breadfruit & mango trees, wild ginger plants with flowers, extremely large
tropical almond trees 100-120 feet tall - they could not be logged when they were logging this area prior to becoming a protected National Park in 1952, and as well as being too hard for them to log, they also sank when loggers tried to float them in the water! Pachita aquatic flowers and fruit which was a huge round ball, huge rattan palm, and royal palm.
Across the lagoon from the Laguna Lodge where we were staying, we could see the Manatus (manatee) Lodge across the lagoon.
REPTILES: LIZARDS & IGUANAS: huge iguanas with wattles that they were shaking about and nodding their heads up and down trying to attract the boring brown female iguanas, Jesus Christ lizard (walks on water and we saw it!!) Emerald Basilisk (a female and a larger emerald green one), spectacled caiman (like a baby crocodile)
ANIMALS: two cows who looked stranded on a very small island with huge amounts of healthy green grass; two toed and three toed white faced sloth hanging in the top of the tree (they come down just once a week!), spider monkeys high in the trees, howler monkeys. We also had a large troop of howler monkeys walking along the tree branches (whereas the spiders tend to swing from branch to branch, hand by hand). The howler monkeys live between 25 to 30 years old.
After travelling along the Tortuguero Lagoon there is a meeting point of the 4 rivers which is across from the Tortuguero Park Headquarters: Chiquero river, Tortuguero, Penitensia (which continues North all the way to Nicaragua, about 2 to 3 hours by boat to the border), and Tortuguero Lagoon which runs in from the Caribbean Sea. As we cruised along we spotted the Red Frog Lodge, and Tortuguero Hill which is an extinct volcano and only 120 metres high! Again we were advised as to the history of the Park which really started in 1959 when Dr Archie Carr arrived from USA and started working towards implementing conservation in the Tortuguero area in Costa Rica.
The boat turned around at 10am and we headed back towards Laguna Lodge. This area gets 240" of rain each year. We saw the black anhinga female bird sitting on a branch with her wings outstretched drying her wings, they spear fish and kill it before swallowing. But they can't fly with wet wings so they sit and spread them to dry them out before they can take off again.
Back at Laguna Lodge I arranged for a water taxi to take us back to the Turtle Conservancy since yesterday the store had been closed when we were there and this is also where you can sponsor a turtle. Afterwards we also called in to the small village to pick up a couple of Costa Rica wildlife identification reference cards to help us with our spotting. The water taxi fee is normally $10 each but with some negotiation we got it for $8 each.
Buffet lunch was enjoyable sitting at the tables for 6 and enjoying the open air and views of the birds and boats on the Tortuguero Lagoon. We had another couple of hours before our afternoon boat safari at 3pm, time to download photos from the camera to the computer and also to enjoy the beautiful grounds. Some folks enjoyed a swim while others wandered through the Botanical Gardens and mini rainforest (with identification plaques) set up right on the property.
Our afternoon boat safari departing at 3pm was enjoyable again, we just can't get enough of all the birds that we see - we even saw a nest with anhinga and 2 chicks, and bare-throated tiger heron nest with chicks. Our first stop before entering the Tortuguero National Park is a stop at the Park Headquarters where our boat guide has to take in the Park Passes showing that the daily Park fee has been paid for each of us on the boat. Costa Ricans used to keep exotic birds and animals as pets - but nowadays if anyone is caught with wild birds or animals as pets it is an immediate 5 years prison sentence, not just a nominal fine like before.
We cruised along the Chiquero river to the Tortuguero river in the incredible heat of the still afternoon - we were so glad to get into the side channels (originally made by the logging companies many years ago to cut the trees down, then float them back out - but for us it meant that we were out of the heat and in the protection of the rain forest shade. Again our spottings were numerous:
REPTILES: fresh water slider turtle, 2 black river turtles sitting immobile on a log and right behind them a caiman (small crocodile) sitting on a log in the middle of vegetation - he didn't move an inch even when we pulled over to look at him! The largest that they grow to is about 2 metres long.
Emerald Basilisk Lizard.
BIRDS: Swallows, Yellow Crown Night Heron, Ring Kingfisher flying along with a fish in its' mouth. the fascinating Boat Billed Heron - such a unique beak, but always hiding in amongst the trees at the water's edge so impossible to photograph, and the Blue Heron, and an immature Blue Heron - which are white! Green Heron. Bare throated Tiger Heron.
FLORA & FAUNA:
There were many very tall wild almond trees - the wood was too hard for logging companies so they left them alone - the almond trees also sink if the loggers try to float them on the river to be processed!
Here the termites build their nests in the trees (not on the ground like Africa and Australia) and we saw a termite nest high in a tree that had been vacated by the termites and had now been taken over by bees.
This is secondary rainforest (34 years of growth) and amazing how high and dense it can already be after 34 years.
The Mimosa tree have large pods with seeds which explode and the loud cracking noises as the seeds explode is amazing, spreading their seeds all through the rain forest.
ANIMALS:
Spider monkeys including a Mom with her young one clinging to her, high up in an almond tree.
There were even squirrels running around.
Somehow the boat safari went by way too fast and we were heading back to the Laguna Lodge long before we were ready - we could have stayed out there way longer! But we were back at 5pm in time for Happy Hour at the bar overlooking the Tortuguero Lagoon! Today we tried the GU?? cocktail made from the local Costa Rican liquor and a lemon juice - excellent! After a couple of those we headed over to the swimming pool and into the rain forest to see if we could see the tree frogs which had been spotted the night before! We were lucky enough to find 3 but not lucky enough to get any decent photos - trying to protect the camera from the rain and figure out my close up settings at the same time with no flash! Never mind it was a great experience and Jan Dicks had taken us to where she had sene them the night before so we were thrilled to just see them clinging to the stems of the foliage.
After a shower and change (we felt clean and dry for only about 5 minutes) we had our last buffet supper and sharing what we had seen that day - we truly enjoyed Tortuguero and would love to go back. I suspect if it was pouring with rain it would not be anywhere near as much fun in the boats with no roof but for us it had been perfect! We soon fell asleep looking forward to our next day's adventures!
JAN 21, 2013 POAS VOLCANO, COSTA RICA
Monday Jan 21, 2013 POAS VOLCANO & COFFEE PLANTATION
PURA VIDA - Life at it's best
We were all very excited and raring to start exploring Costa Rica. Staying at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio, breakfast was at 645 in the Aphora restaurant, an excellent buffet and wonderful Costa Rican coffee. Elston Valentine, our Tour Leader, was there right on time at 720am and we were on the highway by 740am. It is a beautiful 45 passenger Mercedes bus (only 5 in CR) and spacious, luxurious cream leather seats with seat belts for safety (and a rest room on board for emergencies only). Otherwise we tell Elston "I need a happy stop!". Marcus our driver had put a bottle of water in the back of our seats - so away we went under a beautiful blue sky with no sign of clouds. Since the opportunity to see the volcano is only 30% due to the cloud cover - it would be amazing if we were lucky enough to see the summit without clouds! We start heading North towards our objective of Poas volcano - the sky looks clear!!
Costa Rica used to be an island isthmus and peninsula until with the shifting of the
Caribbean and Pacific tectonic plates it eventually became part of South America. Costa Rica is fairly small and would fit into Lake Michigan. 75% of the world's biodiversity are represented in CR - more than in USA and Canada put together - this has resulted in a high increase in tourism into Costa Rica for visitors over the last few years.
There are 4 mountain ranges in Costa Rica, 2 of which are volcanic. The Central volcanic range free of clouds, and the Poas volcanic formed this mountain range - East to West starting with ?Durreil pa isazcu 11000 feet, Poas. There are three volcanoes still active in Costa Rica today. The Western end of Palamaca Mountain range. Interestingly, the highest mountain in CR was formed by tectonic action NOT by volcanic action. There are 7 provinces in CR and we today are in the central province in ALAJUELA. Here there is a National hero monument honouring Juan Santa Maria in 1856 (rifle in one hand and torch in the other hand) for acting against invaders (William Walker from Tennessee) from USA who was trying to bring back slavery to Costa Rica.
Walker wanted to take over Central America after independence in Costa Rica in 1821. James Buchanan did not support Walker. Walker and his mercenaries had already managed to take control in Nicaragua (on Costa Rica's Northern Border) where the political situation was unstable - so Walker had taken possession of the Nicaraguan army and named himself chief of Nicaraguan Army and also President of Nicaragua. As Walker tried to move into Costa Rica, the filibusters had taken over one of the largest cattle ranch haciendas in Costa Rica. However it took only 14minutes for Costa Rica to oust the filibusters and send them back across the border to Nicaragua (Rivas).
As we drove through the beautiful countryside, with mountain ridges everywhere, towards the Poas volcano, we passed through the town of Alajuela where the streets were very narrow and very much a challenge for our bus driver Marcus. The higher elevations (3 to 5,000 feet) in CR are ideal for Coffee plantations along with temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees. As we drove along and the bus started climbing towards Mt Poas we could see evidence of the coffee plantations. Apparently beans grown at this elevation are firmer and roast well, versus lower elevations where the beans are softer and can taste bitter when roasted. Best yet - volcanic soil is the best soil for gourmet coffee which is what CR has in abundance! Brazil, followed by Columbia, are the two largest coffee growers in the world. But apparently Brazil has quantity but no volcanic soil- so CR prides itself on the quality of its' coffee bean due to their volcanic soil. In 1943, an Englishman visited the interior of Costa Rica and was really impressed with the coffee beans but it was not being harvested at the time because the local farmers sad there was no market for coffee. He made a deal to load coffee on his boat and take it back to Europe, which he did. This was the beginning of coffee exports from Costa Rica to Europe, which was unknown before this time.
As a side note - when Costa Rica students went to Europe to study they developed a love of soccer and today Costa Rica is a massive soccer nation versus the neighbouring countries of Panama and Guatemala where the major sport is baseball!
We reached POAS National Park just before 9am - we very fortunate with the weather and were still seeing clear blue skies. Off the bus we were given 90 minutes to enjoy the POAS volcano and area before our departure at 1030am. (But first we gave our lunch order for the restauarnt to prepare: rice, beans, plantains, veggies with choice of grilled mahi mahi, steak, or chicken (vegetarian burrito also available). POAS belongs to the 500 "Ring of Fire" volcanoes around the Pacific and there are only 580 volcanoes in the world. In Costa Rica there are 120 volcanoes and there are up to 100 earthquakes every day usually not more than a magnitude of 3 and deep underground so not typically felt by the populace. Costa Rica is sitting on top of the Caribbean and Pacific tectonic plates which are continually moving, the Pacific plate subducting underneath the Caribbean plate - the Caribbean plate being the most active.
POAS erupted in 1906, but the largest eruption was in 1910 sending ash 8,000 metres into the air. The temperature of the green water in the lake at the bottom is about 56 Celcius (decreasing each year) with a PH of 1 - very acidic which is believed to be a sign of a very active volcano. This volcano has been undergoing significant testing and has been found to be the only one of its' kind and it is expected that in the future there will be a "POAS" type of volcano. We were so lucky - we arrived at the crater rim just before the clouds arrived .... but only just!! From the parking lot to the rim of the POAS volcano was about a 20 minute walk on a good path, all uphill, quite a gentle slope. As we arrived the clouds from the Caribbean in the East were just starting to roll across the rim - perfect timing!
The rim was at 8871 feet (2640? metres) and looking down into the crater was amazing - it was smoking quite well and the smoke was flowing down the valley following the same path of the original lava path. We took lots of pictures then took the Escalonia Cloud Forest Trail uphill (now we really were puffing as we walked uphill!) a good 20 minutes in very wet and mossy trees so overgrown we couldn't see any sky overhead - there is no doubt that they spend most of their time in the ever present clouds! At this point we could see the BOTOS lake from an earlier eruption than POAS - as a result there are lots of flora and fauna around BOTOS, whereas POAS is very barren and desolate at this point being a much younger volcano. It was a slow (pole pole) walk up and for many folks it was quite a struggle - their breathing being impacted by the altitude.
After taking photos and enjoying the views, and the walk through the trees with lots of green moss hanging down due to how much time they spend in the clouds, we walked back down passing many tourists arriving and walking up to the rim. We thoroughly enjoyed our POAS volcano stop and back at the POAS Park Gift Store and Coffee Shop we had a quick look at the goods for sale - many paintings, lots of woodwork and coffee ranging from $7 to $20+ per pound depending on where the beans were grown and processed, volcanic soil being a major factor! Of course there were also tshirts, dresses, caps, hammocks and bags for sale as well.
The Central Valley area, where POAS is located, is populated by 60 to 70% of Costa Rica's 4.7 million total population. The views as we descended from the crater were amazing - never ending wide vistas stretching to the horizon. There were huge greenhouses (made from thousands of yards of black mesh fabric) growing anthuriums, leather ferns, and roses - mostly for export to Europe and North America. Enjoying the views we arrived at the restaurant for lunch sitting on the deck overlooking the spectacular Central Valley. Lunch was excellent (all served efficiently by 3 hombres) and followed by excellent rice pudding flavoured with cinnamon, cloves and coconut and we were finished (except for coffee) by 12 noon and ready to continue the day's adventures.
Outside it was very warm in the sun, so after a short wander through the coffee bushes, banana plants and fruit trees we left at 12:20pm heading for the BRITTA coffee plantation nestled in Barva de Heredia on the slopes of the extinct Barva volcano. In the coffee plantations, trees and shrubs are planted to protect the coffee bushes from the wind and sun - there are consistent winds coming from the East and the Caribbean Sea. The beautiful PORO tree is seen often providing shade to the coffee plants with its' leafless branches covered in beautiful orange flowers - just glorious!
Our stop at Britta was surprisingly so much fun - the store and shopping was great quality -buy 4 get 1 free, buy 20 get 5 free, ship 10 packages coffee beans to USA for $80 including shipping - really well marketed. But best of all was Maria and her male cohort who toured us around the plantation showing and explaining the coffee planting, harvesting and roasting process. Did you know that the coffee bush has a beautiful flower (smells like Jasmine) that flowers for 1 to 3 days in April, and then the flowers drop and the beans start to grow. But the coffee plant is a member of the Gardenia family - I never knew that! For the short walking tour through the plantation we were joined by another busload of Caravan Tours people, so 80+ folks. We ended up in a large demonstration shed where two guests were invited to do a coffee taste test after first being shown how to taste the coffee correctly. By the way, coffee should taste exactly the same when it is cold as when it is hot and if it tastes bitter when it is cold then it is poor coffee. Also coffee beans that are flavoured are poor quality beans flavoured to hide the poor coffee beans. Decaffeinated coffee beans from BRITT coffee use the water process for decaffeination, so no chemicals are used. After the taste test Maria and her cohort also showed a movie and did a great routine explaining the history of coffee - they were both very funny.
Apparently many of the workers that come to harvest the coffee and flowers come from Panama and Nicaragua - and as in every country in the world the immigrant workers are not universally liked by the local population. After planting, the coffee plants they start to produce after 3 or 4 years, and continue producing for the next 8 to 10 years. Then the trees are pruned back. The coffee plants flower in March and the harvesting starts in October.
We left BRITT at 3pm - the funny thing being trying to track down our driver Marcus when we were back at the bus and he was nowhere to be found for 5 or 10 minutes!
It had been a very full day and we all relaxed as we headed back to our hotel the Barcelo San Jose Palacio. Along the way we saw well tended houses and gardens, and were amazed to see the beautiful exotic and tropical Birds of Paradise being used as a hedge! The hedge was just glorious and in Canada we spend a lot of money for just one stalk of a Bird of Paradise at the local flower shop!
Due to the altitude of San Jose and the frequent breezes, it can be quite cool outside in the large and beautiful tropical gardens of the Barcelo Sa Jose Palacio hotel, requiring a sweater or jacket to be comfortable - and as a result not many folks swimming in the large pool. Back at the hotel we sat outside and relaxed at the Grill by the pool and enjoyed an afternoon cocktail with chips (that was a misunderstood request!) before heading into dinner in the APHORO restaurant at 7pm. The APHORO restaurant has an outside seating area as well as inside tables - the outside area being much nicer we felt, so we all sat outside for all of our meals. Even though we were part of a tour group with buffet meals, we sat at tables of any size (versus one large table) and we found the food was very good at the Barcelo San Jose Palacio.
After 2 nights in the capital city of San Jose, tomorrow we leave for Tortuguero National Park on the East Coast - so tonight we were re packing bags to leave behind at the Barcelo which we will pick up at the end of the tour before we fly back to Canada. This lets us travel with smaller bags and less hassle over the next 7 nights of our 9 night tour with CARAVAN.
It is of note that Caravan has been running this same tour for over 60 years. There were 2 groups of 40+ passengers at the Barcelo while we were there - at this time of the year they have at least one new tour (and sometimes more) starting every day! They must be doing something right!
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