Dec 302008
 

Today was four hours of riding in the bus, broken up with a number in interesting stops. We left San Jose at 7:00am, traveling east through the Braulio Carrillo National Park, over the Continental Divide to the Caribbean Sea.

Our first stop was in the Braulio Carrillo National Forest for an aerial tram tour of the rain forest.

Aerial Tram

Before the tram ride, we had a guided nature walk through the bottom of the forest. At the head of the trail there was a three toed sloth and her baby which we observed for a bit before heading into the forest.

Rain Forest Nature Hike

On the nature trail

Leaf Cutter Ant Crossing

Leaf Cutter Ant Crossing.

We learned quite a bit about the biodiversity of the region, including the difference between a vine and an air root. Vines grow up from the ground, air roots come down from the plants in the trees. Tarzan swung on air roots, not vines.

Monkey Vines

“Monkey Vine”

Coolest insect: a bullet ant. My photo didn’t come out very well, but they’re about an inch and a half long and have an almost paralyzing bite. I didn’t get close enough for the shot. Duh.

Fungus

These fungi are about 3/4″ across. Check out the tiny red flies on them.

Fungus, Again

Don’t eat it.

The cable-suspended tram travels a one and a half hour round trip through all three levels of the canopy. You travel close to the ground, then through the middle canopy, and then for most of the return trip you travel at or above the top of the canopy. It was incredible seeing the complexity of the environment, and trying to grasp the interwoven relationships of all the creatures and flora that inhabited it.

Aerial Tram Views

Heading out into the rain forest at the lower level.

Aerial Tram Views

The trip back over the canopy.

Dec 302008
 

Around 2pm we stopped at a Del Monte banana plantation and learned about the entire banana pipeline, from growing through picking to sorting and packing.

While on the tree, the bananas are encased in blue plastic bags. The bags protect the bananas from predators and damage, and also keep them from being sprayed by the insecticides.

Wild Bananas

Wild bananas (not at the plantation)

Banana Protection

Tame bananas (at the plantation)

Once cut from the trees, they are hauled in trains of about 30 bunches suspended from an overhead cable system. The guys who do the pulling are among the more highly paid workers, and when you watch them do this grueling work you understand why.

Hauling Bananas

Hauling bananas

Once at the processing area, the ‘hands’ are separated from the main stalk and floated down a pool to workers who cut them into smaller bunches and sort them for quality. Level 1 bananas are exported to the US and Europe, Level 2 bananas (which are smaller and may have small scars) are sold for baby food or pig food, and Level 3 bananas are discarded. You can buy a banana in Costa Rica for a few cents.

Banana Staging

Banana staging

First Pass

The ‘hands’ are cut off the stalk and thrown into a water stream, where they’re cleaned as they float to the next step.

Banana Trim and Sort

These women cut the hands down to smaller bunches and sort them. It was amazing how fast they were.

Next to the processing area a few vendors were selling miscellaneous items, including fresh coconuts. I would guess this little guy got his share.

Dog and Coconut

Dec 312008
 

After breakfast this morning we visited with the resident spider, who lives on a 3 foot wide web just outside the breakfast area. She was the same type as I saw last night, which leads me to assume that they’re not too dangerous. She was busy repairing her web from, one must imagine, a busy night.

Another big spider

Fixing her web.

Split into three groups of about 15 each, we loaded into open tour boats for our first visit with the Tortuguero wild life. In a short amount of time we had already spotted more birds that I could keep track of, giant iguanas, spider monkeys and howler monkeys. The tour lasted about two hours, so we had time to go deep back into some of the canals and listen to the sounds of the rain forest.

Photo Op

Fellow travelers, monkey spotting.

White Faced Spider Monkey

White-Faced Spider Monkey

Howler Monkey

Howler Monkey

Iguana

Iguana on a log.

Iguana in a tree

Bigger iguana, in a tree.

Hidden Lizard

Find the hidden lizard. Somehow our guide did.

Hidden Lizard - Closeup

Easier to see closeup.

Bats

Bats. They live on the underside of this tree’s trunk during the day.

Green Heron

Green Heron.

Heron

White Heron.

Back to the lodge for a break, then some more sights.

Dec 312008
 

Following a short break back at the lodge, we headed over to the Caribbean Conservation Corporation where we saw a movie about the sea turtles that the CCC was formed to study and protect. Because of the CCC, Costa Rica created the Tortuguero National Park, and set aside 15 miles of protected beach for the turtles to lay their eggs on. They also tag the turtles to study their migratory and other habits. Turtles born here travel throughout the entire Caribbean Sea and return here to lay their eggs.

The Guys

Eric and Kevin on the beach.

Tortuguero Beach

Warning sign. This isn’t turtle egg season, so the beach was safe for us.

From the CCC we walked up the beach to the village of Tortuguero, which supports itself on fishing and tourism. There were about an equal number of tourists and residents.

Tortuguero Village

I was enjoying not being on line, so we just walked on by.

Dec 312008
 

Lunch was back at the lodge, and then another boat tour of the river and channels. We started out spotting a sloth and her baby hanging in a dense tree almost over the water, so we were able to get very close in the boat. Even though there were fifteen or more of us, she didn’t seem concerned at all about our presence, and the two of them continued eating.

Sloth with Baby

Mother sloth with baby.

As we were traveling up one of the canals, it began to rain. By the time the boat’s pilot had pulled out the ponchos and passed them out it had become a tropical torrent. It was warm out, but everything not under a poncho was instantly soaked, and before a few minutes were up, those of us on the right side of the boat had our feet in about three inches of water. Kevin, being on the port side, was able to keep his shoes dry.

It's Called a Rain Forest For a Reason

It’s called a Rain Forest for a reason.

Rain

Luckily I had my waterproof point-and-shoot camera with me, so I could take riveting shots like this.

The wildlife viewing isn’t so good in that kind of downpour, so we headed back into the lodge.

Once dried off, napped and cleaned up, we headed into the bar before dinner for some cards, New Year’s Eve libations and live Calypso music.

Jan 022009
 

We woke up to mostly clear skies this morning, with the volcano above us sporting a cloudy cap that changed every minute. While Sarah and most of the rest of the group headed out to a boat tour near the border of Nicaragua, Eric, Kevin and I headed out to do some zip lining.

The Arenal Mundo Aventura experience was recommended to us so we had booked three reservations the day before. They picked us up at the hotel at 7:30am, and after a couple of other stops to pick up four others we headed over to their park, just a few kilometers outside Fortuna.

This was a great zip line experience, the first for all of us. After a safety introduction they loaded us into something like a bus that was towed up a dirt road by a tractor to a cable platform. We got out there, put on our harnesses and hiked up the mountain for another 15 minutes on a dense trail that was mostly stairs. That took us to the first of ten zip lines that we would ride most of the way back down the mountain.

Zipline Ready

Kevin and Eric harnassed up and ready to go.

Zipline Ready

Getting psyched to zip over that waterfall.

A zip line is a cable strung between two points that you ride down alone, suspended from a pulley. In our case, the cables were stretched across deep rain forest canyons cut by a river, and included the dramatic La Fortuna Waterfall that was easily 100’ tall. Some of the cables spanned canyons hundreds of feet deep.

The first three cables were fairly short, and each was faster than the prior. This was to get you comfortable with the ride, with the proper position, and with controlling your speed for a gentler stop at the end.

Go Into The Light

Kevin, riding into the light.

Coming Down

Viewed from the end of a cable with Eric coming down.

Gentle Landing

Eric, making a soft two point landing on one of the platforms.

Me, Landing

I came in a little faster on this one.

The next seven rides were much longer and faster. The longest ride was almost a kilometer, and on the fastest cable they said we traveled at about 35-40 mph. The views were incredible, at one point looking straight down at the pool below the waterfall, on another line looking out to the city of Fortuna, and on another zipping across a canyon then into a hole cut through the canopy to ride between the trees. In total we traveled about three kilometers of cable over a 45 minute period.

A Long Way To Go

Another launch, this time on one of the longer cables. If you look and the larger version of this image (click to go to Flickr) you can just make out the landing platform next to the top of the waterfall.

Yeh, It's Way Up High

Yes, it’s a long way down.

980 Meters

The longest cable, at 980 meters, goes over a waterfall and two canyons. That hole in the trees about 3/4s of the way up the image is the starting platform.

Hauling Himself In

If you happen to slow down along the way, you might not make it to the end. In that case you get to haul yourself in, as demonstrated here by Kevin. Notice the concern expressed by our guide (left).

As a part of the adventure, after the zip lines you visit a re-creation of an indigenous Maleku village, then ride horses back down the dirt road to the main reception area.

Maleku Village

In their re-creation of an indigenous Costa Rican Maleku village, this young man told us about their lifestyle and culture.

Only one of our two guides rode down with us, and he stayed in the rear to make sure there weren’t any stragglers. The horses knew the routine so well that you didn’t have to use your reins. In fact, the herd was lead down the trail by an unsaddled black horse and no guide. A couple of times the horses would break into a trot, but otherwise it was a gentle and fun ride down. Eric’s saddle was missing the right stirrup though, so the trotting wasn’t quite so comfortable for him.

I'm Such a Cowboy

I’m such a cowboy. Even more impressive is Kevin in the background. They didn’t tell us the horses’ names, so Kevin called his ‘Rodeo’.

A Horse With No Name

Mine: a horse with no name.

Riding Down The Mountain

See that black horse way out front? He was our guide down the mountain.

We were taken back to the hotel, where we joined up for lunch with a few other people from our tour who had decided not to take the morning trip. After a nap and some R&R, we called a cab and headed into town to meet up with Sarah and the rest of the group.

Jan 032009
 

Another 45 minutes of travel and we stopped at the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve where we had a 45 walk with a naturalist through the cloud forest. More leaf cutter ants(!) and some beautiful birds were the most visible wildlife, plus we learned more about the flora of a cloud forest.

Oliver - Our Nature Guide

Oliver, our naturalist guide.

Cloud Forest, and Me

Cloud forest, and me.

More Leaf Cutter Ants!

More leaf cutter ants! The worker ant has cut the leaf and is carrying it back to the nest. The smaller ant you see on the leaf is a nurse – she’s cleaning the leaf and will help grow fungus on the leaves inside the nest.

Leaf Cutter Ant Nest

This leaf cutter ant nest is over 10 years old. What you see here is about 8 feet in diameter, and very fragile. If you were to step on it it could collapse.

Insect Nest

Built on the bottom of a giant leaf, this nest is home to either bees or wasps – I didn’t stick around to find out.

Beauty

One of the many beautiful birds we saw in the cloud forest.

Twenty minutes of the drive to and from the cloud forest was along a twisty two way, one lane, road. Normally not that unique or interesting, unless you’re doing it in a tour bus with small trucks coming the other way. Marcos proved his skills.

A half an hour further down the road and we stopped for lunch, then on to Doubletree in Puntarenas for the next two nights.

Jan 052009
 

Our last full day in Costa Rica, and the main agenda item is to get back to San Jose to fly out tomorrow. We had three stops along the way – the first was in a town whose name I missed, where we walked around the plaza, visited the church, and most importantly had ice cream. Kevin and I have agreed that a proper diet should include ice cream three hours after breakfast every day if possible.

View From The Front Seat

Our turn in the front seat today. Much more thrilling than I thought – this bus is gigantic.

Our lunch stop was in the town of Sarchi, which is famous for their painted oxcarts and painted everything else. We watched some of the local artists painting souvenirs.

Painter in Sarchi

Painter in Sarchi

Paint

Cans of paint.

Paint

Paint pots.

Palette

Palette detail.

Artist's Drawers

Artist’s drawers.