Happy Valentine’s Day.

Tortuguero is on the Caribbean side of the country. To get there we take a bus then a boat. “Town” is on a coastal island that is separated from the national park and where our hotel is, by river. There are no vehicles in the town.

Plantain products are wrapped in cloth bags as well as bananas. Apparently bananas, plantain as well as pineapple crops are sprayed with chemicals although not as highly. We saw a huge, huge drone that is used to spray but we were passed before anyone could take a picture.

Coast guard station

Bananas have cloth bags around them while growing so that the product doesn’t get any damage to skins or they will be rejected. It takes Pineapple 2.5 years to grow naturally. Only 50,000 hectares are used for growing. More chemicals used on them than any place in world. They speed up growth rate so that they are ready in 6 months. Hmmmm, makes you think!!!

Drug dealers were using pineapples to hide cocaine for transport but government now have X-ray machines on all exports so not so much gets through.

We stopped at a coffee cooperative. Crops are brought in from the growers from Oct to Dec. it takes 4 years to grow a plant that produces. They plant 2 together because the plants compete with each other. For 12 kilo of beans picked, the pickers gets $2. There are 120 farms in this co-op. Th e farmers spray the bushes with a vinegar water mixture for prevention of fungus, twice a week. The beans are dried in a greenhouse for 4 months, then an additional 8 months before go to 50 year old ovens for roasting. The 1st quality beans are heavier, 2nd and subsequent are lighter. Darker roast depends on number of minutes roasted. Light has more caffeine. To make a pot of coffee, the use one heaping tablespoon of coffee per cup, medium ..,,..1 heaving tbsp for every 2 cups

In the morning bright and early we got up to go bird watching on the property, which incidentally has 31 individual tent cabins. The tents are quite cute and roomie although quite rustic but with individual bathrooms with showers. Jaxon had a tough time getting to sleep with the tropical deluge pounding on the “roof” and howler monkeys howling. The howlers sounded as if right outside the walls although I am sure they weren’t all that close. They are so loud they can be heard for several kilometres.

As with the night before when we did a night walk, my camera or phone were not cooperating so pretty much any pictures are from some others in the group.

Jaxon, Mary and I went white water rafting. It was fun although I would have like a little more adrenaline. At one point where there was a pool that wasn’t running too rapidly, our guide was going to cut open a pineapple for us to enjoy using a very sharp knife. Mary said to him be careful you don’t puncture the raft when he promptly dropped it into the water. Jaxon jumped in but it was too deep him to reach it, then the guide jumped in an retrieved it. I have pictures but not sure how to download cuz it’s a Dropbox file.

Back at the “lodge”, they all went down into an open area and had a bonfire.

Sorry about some of the double pictures.

We had a nice relaxing start to our day. We just caught up on our blogs (homework for Jaxon), had breakfast from a bakery and hung out with some of the others. Oh yes…. bought drinks and snacks to take in our hike in the afternoon.

We hiked up as far as the lava flow of the Arenal volcano. I am not saying we walked the whole way. A bus drove us part way up.You are not permitted to travel any higher toward the top for safety reasons. It was not a long hike but extremely steep.

The Arenal volcano first erupted in 1968. Before that it was just a hill. Every year it has kept growing by 4-5 metres just from escaping gasses. It is not a volcano like the ones in Hawaii that spew lava that runs. It is an explosive type that blows great huge chunks sometimes as big as cars along with hot gasses. The last major eruption was in 2010. It is still considered as active because those gasses present always as a little clouds stop the crown. Most of the time you cannot see even half of the volcano because is shrouded in “real” clouds.

After our descent, we went for a bit of a hike through a rainforest to the hot water river and enjoyed our drinks etc. The river was totally full of people sitting in it…. reminiscent of the Merritt Mountain Music Festival when everyone sat in the Coldwater River to cool off. This one was like sitting in a warm bath that didn’t ever get cold. No one wanted to leave.

Below are picture of us sitting in the hot water river

Some of us went to Cano Negro to see wildlife from a boat. Rebecca is our guide.

There is no hunting at all in Costa Rica . Jaguars have been spotted 3 times in last 6 months in the area we are going so we’ll see if we are so lucky.

If being chased by an alligator run zigzag cuz they can’t run that way.

Apparently there are gasbar fish in the river. They can get up to 1.5 metres. They have been in existence since the time of the dinosaurs. Hope we see one.

On our way we passed a spot where there were well over 50+ iguanas in the bushes. Did you know that they can lose their tails twice. If they are attacked they can shed their tails. Pineapple has to be planted by hand. Cacique Guaro (said something like Cassica)… Costa Rican rum made from sugar cane.

Going to be near Nicaragua so we need to carry passport in case we are. Stopped to be checked by police. The area we are going to is in the dry lowlands.

Iron in the soil (red colour) protects the produce from fungus that is caused by humidity.

School year is Feb to July when have 15 days off, then back until December.

As we started through the area.

I will be posting mostly my pictures but some will be from Carl Sayers. He has a way better camera and equipment than I do. I will identify his as per his request.

Mutated howler monkey ….. orange …. Sort of like an albino but the eyes and skin are not affected as if albino. They are not black and so not camouflaged. They are kicked out of troupe but this one was sort of adopted by another. He’s about 9 years old…. Wrinkles on the face apparently

Cayman… temperature of egg cause sex of baby. If they are too hot they become make females. Because of the higher temps lately, there are more females than males

Male green iguana turns orange to attract female during mating season, then goes back to grey green colour.

Spider monkeys troup… females are the alpha. They are largest monkeys in country. At night they hang by their tails. The new world ones their tail joints lock so they don’t fall.

Did not see the howler monkeys but could smell them…. That is their poop…. smells somewhat similar to marijuana.

Anhinga…. Female brown throat

Spider monkeys picking bugs off each other

Capuchin monkeys…. Caymans and iguanas are afraid of them. They also eat baby howlers

Saw blue morph butterfly. It’s is not blue but is brown so birds cannot see them.

Red-slider turtle

50 litre of sugar cane juice… become 20 litre molasses after boiling 8 hours

Leftovers used for feed for cattle, compost and fire wood.

Liquor is “contrabando” cuz 60% alcohol. That sold is called chirate

Oh my, the roads are so steep & twisty….. so mountainous! It’s got to be extremely difficult for the cattle to graze on the side of the hills (their legs one side of their bodies are longer than the other so they don’t tip over..,,, lol!). As walking would be. You’d be constantly hiking. The driver is driving 1st gear most of the time when climbing. Where we climbed up to Monteverdi, we are now basically descending though.l

We stopped for snacks and bathroom brake at same place as before. This time (for the benefit of others that went through here 4 years ago) there were no ducks in the pond and no parrots in the rafters outside.

Arenal Lake is an artificial lake. (1975) Before, the water ran off toward the Caribbean side but now it diverted into the lake where it was then directed toward the Pacific side with 2 dams to produce electricity. It is then diverted into canals that water the farms on that side off the country.

20% geothermal electricity produced from Miravalles volcano.

We drove through an area that has even more wind than we have been experiencing (mountain pass that channels the wind) and so has many wind turbines.

Between 20s & 50s a lot of the country was deforested for farming. What remained became protected by becoming National Parks. The govt then began paying farmers to allow the land to return to forests. Now 65% of the country is covered by forests

After having a late lunch we taxied to Los Lagos to soak in the many natural hot pools……pools naturally heated by one of the volcanoes. The higher the pool, the hotter the temperature. Even the lower one, the one with a swim up bar, pretty darn hot. There were several slides that travel through tunnels and hot water shaped volcano, etc. Jaxon had a great time. Unfortunately because we were in the water, I did not have my camera or phone (should have brought my waterproof case but didn’t). One of the gals did. You should take a look at it on Google maps …. Los Lagos La Fortuna Costa Rica.

We were up early to go zip lining this morning. 13 of the group of 16 went. Of those 13, most also did the Tarzan swing. Not me or Jax or Carl.

It’s really difficult to download and send the videos so maybe later I will.

Marcelo is our driver today and ….whoohoo we have wifi on the bus!

The port of Caldera near Puntarenas is the country’s 2nd largest port. It is used for off-loading freight for transport across the country to Puerto Limon where it is loaded back onto freighters as a cost effective way around using Panama Canal. It is also a stop for cruise ships.

40,000 hectares Monteverde preserves… only so much for public for public or commercial use

Santa Elena is the name of the town where we are staying

90% of the people are involved with tourism… most tourist businesses are owned by Costa Ricans

We are staying at the same hotel as where Linda, Jeanette and I stayed before although I didn’t recognize the name before getting here. More rooms/ buildings have been added and the gardens expanded. Where else would you see rows of big beautiful dark red amaryllis’?

We all got dropped off down town to get lunch and where most of the group….13 of 16 (Jax and I decided not to) were picked up to go do the canopy walk. (Those that went said they only saw the clouds they were in). But J and I walked back up, up, up the hills to the hotel…over 5000 steps (3kms) and counting but 22 flights……training for climbing mountains in Uganda…..we’ll see. My glutes are talking to me.

Eventually ended up with 8100 steps …4.88 kms and 39 flights. Yesterday…9763 steps….6 kms (only 1 flight); Sunday….6612..about 4 kms (6 flights), Saturday…7746 or 4.88 kms and 1 flight and the day we mostly flew or were in airports …7258 or 4.65 kms and 3 flights.

Before dinner we all went for a night walk to see what insects and animals that we could find (with a guide of course).

After our dinner we returned to the hotel only to have one couple (Carmel & Herman) find a scorpion on the drape behind their bed. I think we all checked our rooms after that. Bob found a lizard & cockroaches. I guess they all come with the territory.

This morning we went to Manuel Antonio National Park for a guide tour and then an hour visit to the beach that is only accessible from inside the park (no peddlers).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

And then we went on a humongous catamaran. Jaxon went down the slide and went snorkelling with a lady from the group. She is a stronger swimmer than me while I watched. (My shoulder is not feeling very good). We had fruit snacks, dinner and drinks included. We stayed out long enough to watch the sun go down…. Beautiful!!!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Marique is our driver. On the road exactly at 7 am

There are 200 volcanos in Costa Rica-4 are active now.. One near San Jose is erupting about every 2 months.

Casado …main food for lunches & dinners is rice and beans, meat and salad… leftovers for breakfast with eggs maybe and onions. Patacones are made with plantain. Coffee main crop in past. The best quality is exported. Micro chips are the biggest exporter…. Not bananas, not pepper or coffee.

Electricity is produced 70% from hydro, 20% geothermal from volcano, and rest from wind turbines and solar.

Carara national park best for birding. Good for animals too … wet and dry forest animals from both sides of the mountain. Only one male jaguar per 1-4000 hectares each. They do not overlap each other’s territory.

Stopped for breaky then off to see the crocodiles. American crocs will grow up to 6 metres in length. Sometimes people die when swimmers and surfers go to where they have been warned not to go. We stopped to see the huge crocs in the river from the bridge over the River Tarcoles.

Date palms used for production of palm oil were planted to replace the best kind of bananas that got infected with a disease back in 1940’s. Bananas are basically clones so once one has the disease it will affect them all. The palm trees themselves have only a 14 year lifespan.

After arriving at this lovely little hotel…. (actually the same one we had stayed at 4 years ago), we all travelled by local bus to a public beach near Manuel Antonio Park. The roads are incredible going up and over the hills… so steep and narrow and windy although I never felt that we could fall off a cliff like some other places I’ve been. Anyway, rented lounge chairs for $5 US each…. Under a canopy. Thank God. The heat was so, so very hot, a person could get third degree burns from walking on the sand so you run like hell from one shaded spot to another. The beach was gorgeous. Jax loved playing in the surf… actually trying out boogie boarding.

Later we walked to a restaurant for dinner but along the way a man was urinating on the sidewalk…. which I think shocked Jax cuz apparently kept bringing it up to others in the group. It’s an education but I’ll bet that if you went downtown Victoria, you’d see the same thing happening.