JAN 24-25, 2013 FORTUNA, LA COIBA COSTA RICA

DRAFT


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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