Day Seven - The Resplendant Quetzal

Today Kate and I saw one of the most colorful natural wonders we have ever seen; a bird that is the reason many people travel to Costa Rica and some pay thousands of dollars to find: the Resplendent Quetzal!

We slept in a bit and then walked a kilometer east from our hotel to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. When the Quakers moved to Monteverde in the 50s they had bought this land. In 1972 they bought a lot more and donated it to the Central Tropical Science Center to form the reserve. The reserve is huge, covering thousands of hectares, but only 3% is accessible to the public. The rest is simply protected land used occasionally for research.

Some of the land that the Quakers purchased had been cleared for farming and since the purchase has been allowed to regrow into rain forest. This is called secondary forest. It was obvious when we passed from the secondary forest into the older, primary forest. Our extremely experienced and knowledgeable guide, Esteban, told us that Costa Rica (and therefor these forests) were about one million years old. The secondary forest contained much shorter, thinner trees. The primary forest had many beautiful trees that were probably 8 ft in diameter, covered with other plants and moss and probably filled with hundreds of animals and insects.

As we walked along the trail Esteban told us very many interesting things like how he was bit by a tarantula as a child when he was taunting it with a stick. He told us about the Costa Rican pain scale for insect bites and how his hand swelled up and he cried for hours. However, the tarantula is only a 6/10 on the pain scale. It is poisonous but not deadly. The most painful insect bite in Costa Rica comes from the bullet ant (10/10 on the pain scale)!

One of the most fascinating plants he told us about was the strangler fig tree. The strangler fig starts as an epiphyte (a harmless plant growing in the canopy of the other trees) but soon begins to drop vines down towards the ground that take root. As these roots sink into the soil they steal nutrients from the host tree. Eventually the roots thicken and begin to shade the sun and rain from the host tree, killing it. This whole process takes about 80 years. Eventually the host tree is completely covered in the roots of the strangler fig and it dies. After rotting completely its pieces drop to the ground and the fig tree is hollow, providing a shelter to bats, porcupines and other animals. Fascinating!

Esteban had told us that he had spotted a Quetzal in the park recently and as we came around the corner of the "hot spot" we walked very slowly. We saw a little motion in the trees and Esteban freaked out, quickly setting up his tripod and telescope. Sure enough, a quetzal was perched in the trees above us. The quetzal is extremely rare and extremely beautiful. Our guide told us about his freelancing days when people would pay him thousands of dollars for him to find one for them to observe (bird watchers are intense people). Its head, back and long tail feathers are iridescently blue-green. From some angles he looked completely blue. From others he looked green. He had a little mohawk of feathers on his cartoonishly round head and black, beady eyes. His chest shone a deep red and he had little white feathers on his tail with thin black stripes. Behind these white feathers hung long (as long as his body) blue-green feathers. He sheds these feathers every year and the bird we saw had only grown them back half way. We stood watching the bird in awe and snapping pictures for ten minutes or so before moving on. The quetzal sat very still on his branch digesting his meal and looking fabulous!

After lunch at the reserve's cafe we headed back into the park without a guide and hiked the whole way up to a lookout point (Mirador) overlooking the continental divide. There was a sign describing to us that in front of us was the Pacific side and behind us was the Carribean side. This line, which goes from Canada down through Argentina divides the nation's climate and wildlife species. It rained heavily through our hike and through the rest of the evening but we hiked on regardless. Costa Rica is no place for those who mind getting wet.

After we left the reserve we headed back to the hotel, dried off and took a taxi into Santa Elena for dinner at Morpho's, a restaurant named after the blue morpho butterfly, the same one we had seen flying by the side of the road the day before and learned so much about at the butterfly garden. Then we headed home and went to bed at 9 pm in anticipation of getting up at 4:45 am for our bus to San Jose.

Day Six - Turismo

Today was a tour day for us. We got up early and had a delicious Tico breakfast of fruit, rice and beans, and eggs. Outside the window we were joined by many beautiful (house) plants that were thriving like we have never seen them, apparently because this is where they are meant to grow. If Jason and I could get our rainforest weeds to grow like these, it would be a miracle!

Then it was immediately off to the cheese factory, where we started the tour with some Rum Raisin ice cream. Jason was called loco in la cabeza (insane) for doing so so early in the morning but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We then spent an hour learning about the history and operations of this originally Quaker-run cheese factory. They continue to operate based on Quaker values, with workers having ownership over the company and no one having more than 5% of shares. They make a wide variety of cheeses, from their original Monte Rico to gouda to provolone to cheddar. We got to sample them all at the end of the tour as well as see the workers cutting up 12 kg blocks of Swiss straight out of the cheese vats. We ate quite a bit of cheese as we were the only two people on the tour.

We then headed for a tour of a butterfly garden and on the way got started by getting a glimpse of a bird-sized iridescent blue butterfly very common in the area. We were once again the only two people on the tour in a slightly mixed up garden staffed entirely by American and Canadian volunteers. We got to see tarantulas, scorpions, katydids, cockroaches, walking sticks, talking beetles, and caterpillars. The garden had four different butterfly "houses," each representing a different elevation and climate within Costa Rica. The butterflies were beautiful, and Jason and I each got to release a butterfly that had just emerged from its chrysalis. Mine even sat on my hand for a few seconds! We got to see more of the huge blue guy we had seen, as well as some with zebra stripes and even clear wings.

From there we got a taxi back to our hotel, where we had planned to make some lunch with groceries from the night before. However, we discovered our stove did not work and although there was a hose with a contraption on the end and a gas tank sitting on the floor, we decided not to attempt anything that might blow us up. We used a toaster oven to melt some cheese on tortillas and then were on our way to a tour of the local coffee cooperative.

I might note here that it had already been POURING for several hours. What with being a cloud forest, things tend to be a bit wet here. We were picked up by a van and taken through some very muddy mountain roads to the farm of a local coffee grower who has been a part of the cooperative for 20 years. Remember the columbian coffee commercial with the dude with the donkey and the mustache? We got to see how he grows coffee starting from the seed up until harvest and preparation of the beans. It apparently takes an entire year before a coffee plant will start to produce fruit, and once a limb of the bush has borne fruit it will never do so again. The farmer must rely on new growth for harvest and eventually must cut back the entire bush and start over. Then we sat around with the farmer and drank some of the most delicious coffee either of us has ever tasted. The farmer had been a little dreary up until that point, but once he started in with the coffee, he perked right up! He revealed to us that he drinks four huge mugs of coffee daily, and that his two year old also loves the stuff. Starting them early.

Since then we have had a lovely Italian dinner and are now across the street on the balcony of the Argentinean restaurant from the night before having coffee, dessert and hopefully beer if they ever come back out here. From here we will walk back the 1.5 km to our hotel in complete darkness. I was a little freaked out by this walk last night, but I think it will be better the second time around!

Ciao!

Day Five - A Change of Pace

Today we moved on to a very different town and a definite change of pace. We awoke after a pretty good night of sleep and had another breakfast of fruit, rice and beans and eggs. The fruit at the hotel was so good. I'm a fan of pineapple but this was particularly good. We went across the street to the coffee shop for one last cup for the road and then boarded the first stretch of our planned jeep/boat/jeep excursion. The "jeep" was actually a van. We joined another couple from our hotel and stopped by Gringo Pete's (another hostel in town) to pick up a group of three young men who were obviously in some kind of hair contest. Then we headed off around the mountain to the shores of Lake Arenal.

The boat ride across the lake was absolutely stunning. Behind us the volcano grew smaller and smaller and to every side, lovely mountains rolled into green hills which met the lake. Kate was particularly excited about the boat portion of this trip and the experience did not disappoint. What amazed me most were some of the homes on the hillsides by the lake. I can not imagine what it would be like to live beside such beauty.

At the other side of the lake we hopped back into another "jeep" (micro bus) and headed off to Monteverde by way of one of the most dangerous drives I've ever been on. We were literally winding our way up and down mountains on a very thin dirt road. However the driver was very skilled and you could tell that he had done this many times. We were in good hands.

The little towns of Santa Elena and Monteverde are just tiny mountain villages connected by a dirt road. However, they are one of the tourism hot spots of the country. There is a rainforest on either side of them and a few years ago National Geographic wrote a piece about how Monteverde Reserve was the place to see the rare and beautiful bird, the Resplendent Quetzal. It is not the busy season for tourism now but we could tell that the little towns could be teaming with bird watchers and the dirt roads crowded with tour busses. It's very interesting observing the positives and negatives of the tourism industry on the country and culture. On one hand a ton of jobs have been produced by the industry and Costa Rica is one of the more wealthy countries in Central America. It's great to see the pride that the local Tico's have as they are giving you directions or greeting you. On the other hand, the constant drone of rental ATV motors and the screaming gringo's on zip lines through the forest are really invasive to what would otherwise be a peaceful, heavenly place. However the government and most tourist destinations seem to be handling it well. There is a lot of emphasis on preserving the rain forests and a lot of hotels really stress saving electricity, recycling and reusing towels and linens from day to day.

We are staying in a little cabin on the west side of Monteverde near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. After staying downtown in San Jose and La Fortuna it is nice to be away from it all. The place is owned by a family that lives on the grounds. There is a little deck outside our cabin from which to look out over the beautiful fields and forests surrounding the place. Today we say a few little capybaras running around on the lawn below. If we are lucky, we are told that we'll see monkeys in the trees. After settling in we walked towards town. We stopped by the local cheese factory (they make excellent gouda), ate some lunch and sampled the cheeses. We'll be stopping back for a tour tomorrow. I am really excited about the cheese tour!

We then headed to our only real event of the day, the bat sanctuary. The compound housed the bat sanctuary, chocolate shop, art gallery and Argentinean Restaurant. Kate got really excited about the bats. The tour guide was really friendly and had a deep love of bats. She gave us a 40 minute informational talk about different species and how they are good for humans (and have a similar bone structure to us). A lot of the talk was aimed at debunking scary myths about the creatures. The facts were a lot of fun. For instance, I learned that if I were a fruit bat I'd have to eat 350 whole bananas a night to satiate my appetite and Kate would have to suck down 150 liters of nectar! Then the best part came. We were led inside the bat sanctuary. The guide noted how lazy their bats were because of the easy life they led. They probably had 10 different species of fruit eating bats there and we were lucky enough to show up during feeding time. There was a little sound system set up in the place to capture their echolocation, pitch shift it down so we could hear it and then play it over loud speakers. When the worker stepped into the cages the bats freaked out! He gave them pineapples, watermellon and apples. Bats were pigging out everywhere, upside down.

Saying adios to the bats we walked further towards town, hit up an ancient internet cafe and shopped for some groceries. Then we returned to the Argentinean restaurant for dinner. It was really good. Of note was the salad dressing, which the owner said everyone asks about. She would not fully reveal the ingrediants but Kate already has ideas about how to make it. By the time we were done it was dark and Kate and I walked the 2 km dirt road in pitch black back to the hotel. It was a very peaceful walk with a light mist and lots of insect noises.

Now it's raining and we can hear crickets outside our windows punctuated by the occasional hum of a passing motorcycle. I may play my ocarina on the porch before bed but mostly we're just going to take it easy. Tomorrow we're touring the cheese factory, a butterfly sanctuary and a coffee plantation.

Day Four - Off Roading

Day Four: Off-roading

Today was the most beautiful day yet here in Costa Rica, very adventurous, and very rainy. We started the day early and had some delicious breakfast up on the balcony of our hotel overlooking the volcano (it was not raining yet!). In a little kitchen downstairs the hotel had prepared fresh watermelon, pineapple, and papaya as well as rice and black beans with eggs, and some good coffee. After a couple of helpings each, we headed out to our Suzuki Jimmy to hit the road toward the volcano.

It was a beautiful ride around the base of the volcano to the other, more active, side. Also slightly terrifying because of the lawlessness of the streets of Latin America, but Jason handled the driving very well. Along the way we saw some sort of aardvark/badger/racoon animal on the side of the road who was quite large and lumbering. We have yet to figure out what it was. When we arrived at the Volcano National Park, we encountered a sour young man who was also a bit badgering and who wanted to be our tour guide, but we decided to go it alone. We hiked first through some drier landscape with what were probably 16 ft tall grasses and some sparse trees, then got into some denser rain forrest. As it started to rain, the canopy above us kept us rather dry! We ended the hike on a huge pile of lava rocks that were left over from the volcano's 1992 eruption. There was a beautiful view from the lava flow of the adjacent crater lake, Laguna Arenal, and some occasional views of the volcano when the clouds cleared. There was a sign forbidding us from going further, and I had to remind Jason that the high risk threshold in Latin America probably meant that the risk was real - we headed back to the Jimmy. After spending some time at a lookout point, we headed back and dropped off the rental car. I was so freaking happy to get rid of that danger-magnet!!

By then it was really starting to rain. We went to a little shop and rented some bikes to ride the the "nearby" waterfall. We told both the bike rental man and another man at the Jeep-Boat-Jeep shop (see tomorrow's entry!) we were planning to ride there, and both were rather non-chalant about the whole affair. What they did not say was that the ride was a 4 km, steep trek up a muddy dirt road in the pouring rain. The ride was wild! Every Costa Rican we passed could not help but laugh at us, riding away in our soaking wet jeans with our backpacks. When we finally arrived at the top and tied up our bikes next to some horses waiting for the return of their riders, we quickly saw that the ride had been worth it. Through the jungle and across the canyon was the most beautiful 70 meter waterfall cutting through the trees into the forrest below. We then climbed down a steep, steep staircase built into the side of the valley to the jungle floor and the bottom of the waterfall. The water was green-blue surrounded by walls of green stretching up hundreds of feet. Standing on rocks right near the water's edge, Jason proposed to me, and I said yes (of course!). Now we are officially conprometidos - promised to each other. We celebrated by taking a treacherous ride back into town, getting into some dry clothes, and going to a Mexican restaurant. The restaurant had no walls and was completely open the the air, which felt great, and also had the Phillies game on - an additional treat! We shared a bottle of wine and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves taunting the Yankee fan staff.

More adventures to come. Buenas noches!

Day Three - Hard Times

With the exception of the beautiful birds and bats at Cinco Hormigas Rojas in San Jose, today presented us with the most natural beauty we have yet seen in Costa Rica. However today was also a difficult day in some respects; a real testament to the challenges of international travel even in an era of internet booking and information.

We started the day early again catching a 8:40 AM bus from San Jose to La Fortuna where we will be spending the next two evenings of our vacation. Kate and I haven't had more than four hours of sleep since we left the states and the early mornings are beginning to take a toll on us, but we press on. We'll be taking it easy tonight. The ride was absolutely beautiful. The bus was quite nice and I had an excellent window seat from which to snap a lot of pictures. We both also dozed off now and then until a bump on the rough roads woke us.

Most of the drive was spent meandering up and down thin, curvy mountain roads until we got close to La Fortuna and the land flattened out. As we drew near, the object of our journey loomed overhead, Arenal Volcano, one of the most active volcanos in the Americas today. Earlier in the century it erupted violently, wiping out a few surrounding villages. It still spits out plumes of ash and even a few lava runs. A half hour before we arrived an earthquake shook the town.

After 5 hours of bus travel we stumbled off and found our way to the rental car place. Turns out that in spite of what I thought, we didn't have a rental car reserved. But they had a vehicle available and we were on our way. We drove east to the edge of town and pulled in to the Cabinas La Rivera, a small group of cabins around a garden of fruit trees. Kate and I had booked a cabin over a month before, paid a down payment, and were really looking forward to it based on the description in our travel guide.

However, when we got there it was not the paradise we were promised. The woman who greeted us told us that the place had changed ownership recently and that all reservations were void. If we wanted to stay there we'd have to pay again. Additionally, the woman who owned the place now was not there and we'd have to wait for her to get into a room. The place was also overrun with feral cats and their feces. As we sat on the porch of one of the cabins waiting for the new owner to return we grumbled about the situation. In response the skies opened up and poured rain on La Fortuna for 4 hours straight. We grew frustrated and left. A quick search in our travel guide book (Kate is very good at navigating the Lonely Planet books) led us to Las Colinas hotel. The hotel is pretty standard but there is a great balcony with the most awesome view of the volcano directly in front of you.

Not having eaten anything but some bread and jam at 7:30 AM we headed out in search of food and settled into the Lava Lounge, a tiki-like bar on the main street (by the way, La Fortuna is a very small town consisting of one main street no more than 15 blocks long). The food there was quite good but the best part was a new friend we made during dinner. It's unclear whether Bosco the cat (Kate named him that on the spot) belonged to the restaurant or was a stray, but he was very friendly. He wanted to cuddle, but his eyes had a bit of a feral glint; we petted him a bit.

After dinner we walked back to a little coffee shop across from our hotel. It was just a hut and seemed very simple but served the best coffee we've had in the country yet. Since then we've made a quick run to the grocery store nearby and are chilling on the balcony watching Volcan Arenal in the night. It's truly beautiful!

Tomorrow we plan to drive up into the volcano and hike to a beautiful waterfall around the base of the mountain.

Buenas Noches!