The Caribbean Side…

I usually try to blog one of our adventures as soon as possible, but with the in-laws here and school starting up again, I’m way behind. Oh well.

On the last day of January the four of us and the in-laws headed off across the country to Caribbean side to check out that area. Probably the most challenging part was trying to navigate through the capital city of San Jose itself. Once that was done we went through Cartago (the old capital before it was moved to San Jose), past Volcan Turrialba and then out towards Limon.

Along the way we saw some of the huge banana plantations where they grow them for export. There was row after row of them and they seemed to go on for ever. Very cool.

Having heard that there really wasn’t much to stick around for in Limon, we zoomed straight through and turned south along the coast to Cahuita. The first night we stayed right at the entrance to the Cahuita National Park.

While our hike through the park was a definite highlight for me, we also discovered that it has an interesting history. The original town of Cahuita was actually situated inside the park as it stands today. They moved everybody out back in the 50’s and stopped all of the logging that had been going on there. Then, once the park boundaries had been set up, they started to reforest the area. What I was looking at was a second-growth forest only 50 to 60 years old. To see the tangled jungle and massive canopy in the area today really impressed me.

Megan and I got to go on a late day hike into the park without kids for a change (thanks grandma & grandpa!!!). We saw a lot of howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys quite close to the trail which is always great.

But my favourite part was when we came to a waterway that was spilling out of the dense jungle across the beach into the Caribbean Sea. We could walk upstream a bit and look into the thick Mangroves on each side, but I didn’t want to go very far. To see a huge croc or snake come shooting out of the underbrush would not have surprised me at all!!! It reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of the Amazon. It was really great.

The next couple of nights we moved over to Playa Negra just on the north end of Cahuita. A few weeks before there had been an unusually long rain which brought a lot of driftwood down the rivers which made its way onto the beach. It was too bad because the beach looked great (other than that). The good thing was we were at a great little resort (also called Playa Negra) with a pool and the most playful German Sheppard guard dog named Dolly. Both kept the kids occupied for hours.

Being on the Caribbean coast, this side of Costa Rica has a lot more of a Jamaican-like flavour to it - the residents are much darker-skinned than the rest of Costa Rica, and there is much more English being spoken. One night (again thanks to the in-laws), Megan and I got to go out to “Coco’s Bar”, where they had a  guy singing along to Reggae tunes in both English and Spanish. It was kind of fun to people watch the locals and tourists alike and just kick back and enjoy.

Another night we were eating at a good local restaurant when the waitress said that the kids might want to go and see the “perezoso”… Huh?, what’s that? So out we go and we realize that it means “sloth”. How cool is that. This is the first one we’ve seen so far.

From there it was down to almost the Panama border at Punta Uva for the last 2 nights. Here we had a great resort on Playa Chiquita right on the beach. Unfortunately, it was this beautiful location where Grandpa, Nathan and I all finally came down with the stomach bug that Megan had previously. I stayed in bed for 24 hours more or less and read a whole novel. Nathan was much quicker recovering. I did get out once for 20 minutes or so to take some pics of the kids at the beach, and we were all better after a short time.

Megan, Grandma and the kids did get the chance to go to a great little zoo / animal rescue center without me and I was jealous. They had a great time playing with the monkeys, holding baby sloths, etc. (See the pics below.)

We were all very happy that we got to see that side of the country.

 

Coco’s Bar in Cahuita

Stuff found in and around the park.

Jungle meets Ocean meets Megan.

Howler in the trees. No, those aren’t his eyes.

The sloth at the restaurant.

 

 

Some views from our spot at Punta Uva (Playa Chiquita)

 

The animal reserve…

This one screams for a punch line but I’m drawing a blank.

 

A Visit to a Costa Rican Clinic

We’ve been in Costa Rica for almost 6 months already, running around with tarantulas, snakes and scorpions, drinking the tap water and eating at all sorts of restaurants and road-side food stands and none of us has been the least bit sick or injured… that is until a couple of weeks ago when Megan came down with a bit of a stomach bug that knocked her down a couple of pegs for 4 or 5 days.

So, not being the sick one, I looked at it as an excellent opportunity to experience first hand what a visit to the local clinic is like here in Costa Rica.

Of course, going on an adventure like this with kids, the very first thing we looked into was the cost, availability and quality of the medical system and we heard pretty much all positive reviews. Also, we shopped around for out-of-country medical insurance and found a good, comprehensive policy that we could afford.

So, with our policy in hand, Megan and I headed down to our local clinic. Having limited Spanish is one thing at the grocery store or the mechanic’s, but the medical clinic is quite another. I was actually a bit surprised that there wasn’t somebody that spoke English readily available, mind you I never directly asked that question either. Maybe there is. Megan was definitely not feeling good, but neither was she dying, so we stumbled through the initial questions at the front desk as best we could. We got confused a couple of times for sure. If I was in there with a really sick kid I think I would have had to find somebody that spoke English.

They asked us if we had insurance and I said that I would be paying cash and then claim it on my insurance policy. After a bit of confusion, they seemed to think that would be OK. After yet more confusion with the instructions, we eventually got in to see a doctor. I’m sure it took us no more than twenty minutes to see him. Things were looking up!

He spoke no English either, so asking and answering questions about symptoms and remedies was a challenge (like that Steve Martin joke, did he say NEVER drink milk, or MAKE SURE you drink milk???) Anyway, we got through that and he finally said that we should take her for a blood test. “Ah, I thought, this will be a drag. I thought I would have to go find a clinic, wait in line again, go through more confusing instructions etc. etc.”, but no, we were just sent down the hall, there was no line up at all, and the guy taking the blood (who did speak English) said to wait about 20 minutes and he’d have the results. Are you kidding me!!!!???" When was the last time it took you less than a half an hour to take blood AND get the results?

So we were given the results and given more instructions. Of these, I basically only understood to “go back”. So we returned to the desk where we originally checked in (noticing a couple of other people waiting in line smirking at the obviously lost gringos) and without having to wait again, were sent right back to the same doctor who saw us initially.  He looked at the results and told us that Megan has “rotovirus”, or one of several viruses commonly referred to as the stomach flu. Most people have come in contact with this virus in their lives and it’s rarely a real danger other than for very small children. This was great news because I don’t have life insurance on Megan yet anyway.

The doctor told us that this is going around Costa Rica these days and gave us a prescription for some Gatorade-like rehydration liquid, some Acetaminophen, and some pills to help the stomach cramps. And we’re done! All that we have left to do is go back to the main desk and pick up our bill.

And the cost you ask? Well, for the medical consult AND the blood work it cost us 31000 Colones, or approximately $59 Canadian dollars. As we had Tylenol at home we didn’t get that part of the prescription filled, but for the liquid and the stomach pills, our total was around 4000 Colones or approx. $7.50 Canadian. I’m still contemplating whether $67 is worth the hassle of making the claim or not. (Probably not).

And from the time we left home to go to the clinic till the time we got back with the prescription filled, it was less than 3 hours. When’s the last time you went to a walk-in clinic and accomplished all of that in that amount of time??

Oh yeah, and Megan got better. (Unfortunately Nathan, Grandpa and I all ended up with the same bug a few days later, but no trips to the clinic were necessary.)

Trapiche - Sugar Cane processing

We had another fabulous opportunity to see a piece of Costa Rica that’s not available to any other tourists through our good friend Eduardo. He still keeps in close contact with his old neighbours in the little pueblo he grew up in near the town of Plancillo. They have a finca (or farm) with an old-fashioned, yet still working sugar cane processing set-up that he used to work at while he was a kid.

They graciously invited us to come and spend the day to watch the whole process and we happily accepted. Along with our family (including the in-laws, here visiting for a month), we were joined by the GonzosInCostaRica clan, and Ginger and her 3 daughters. They are also from Texas and have recently moved to Atenas permanently and Casey is in the same grade as Rachel and Gabbi.

To get there took us about 45 minutes and we got to travel on the best and the worst of Costa Rican roads. We started on the newly opened super-highway that goes from San Jose to the Pacific coast, and ended up on a dirt road to the farm where we had to put the car in 4-wheel drive and even cross a couple of small creeks.

The sugar cane processing starts with an ox-driven wheel turning a large grinding wheel. The long stalks of cane are cut up into small pieces (by hand with a machete) and fed into the grinder. The spent and squished cane fibre is pilled up and left to dry. It will be used in the fires later. The raw “jugo de cana”, or sugar cane juice, runs through an underground pipe to one of 2 huge metal cooking pots that sort of resemble a huge wok.

These 2 pots are placed on top of a very cool brick oven system that is built right into the ground. Somehow (convection?) the smoke is all drawn out of a large chimney and there is almost no smoke inside the building.

So, after passing through a rough strainer into the first pot, the juice starts to be warmed up to evaporate all of the water out of it, however it is still very cloudy with debris. Thus the next step is to find the bark of a tree that grows on the farm (whose name escapes me now) and strip it and put it into a pail of water. The sap of this particular tree is very thick and gooey like molasses. They mush it around in the pail of water and then remove the bark. Once that is done, they pour some of the sappy mixture into the cane juice and it helps separate out the debris which will rise to the top. Pretty cool.

It doesn’t take long to see a thick froth form on top. Then they take what looks like a huge spoon and start to skim the debris off the top into another strainer. The resulting sludge is used as a highly nutritious animal feed. As you are starting to see, nothing goes to waste. The now much-clearer juice is left to evaporate out the water. Eduardo tells me that if you were to put a glass bowl over the big pots to catch the escaping steam, you’d get almost pure water.

The reason there are 2 pots is a little unclear to me, however I did hear somebody say that it is simply to split the liquid into more manageable volumes. I’m guessing having more surface area to allow evaporation must help as well.

While we are waiting for the liquid to be ready for the next step, Eduardo comes in with an 8 foot long length of banana tree trunk and proceeds to separate off some outer layers. We had no idea why he was doing this, but eventually found out he was making some natural vessels to hold some of the hot liquid and keep it in liquid form while they were doing other things. I don’t know if the banana tree helps maintain the heat or what, but it certainly was fascinating to see them once again make use of their natural surroundings. I called these “Banana Boats”.

So now the liquid is ready and they take their huge spoon and fill up the banana boats first and put them aside. Then 2 people bring out what looks like a dug out canoe (and in fact they call it “canoa” in Spanish). They start spooning liquid into it and using a huge paddle to stir it around. Then when it’s just the right consistency, they scoop it out with a little pot, and using wooden utensils, they spoon it into conical little moulds cut into a large thick wooden plank.

They harden quickly and then they turn the whole thing upside down to get them out. The resulting little blocks of cane sugar are called “tapas” that are used either for cooking or they will break a small piece to put in their coffee, sort of like a sugar cube.

Finally, they stack 4 tapas end-to-end and tie them into bundles using the sugar cane leaves. They go into the crop earlier in the year and pick the leaves off before the windy season starts and shreds them. One of the videos below show them tying up a bundle.

The process we witnessed took about 4-5 hours for 2 people (but they had a bit of help from Eduardo as well), and produced around 90 tapas. They tell us that they will sell them for around 400 colones per tapa (which is less than a dollar), or around $70 dollars Canadian for the day’s work.

Now, back to the banana boats. Once they were done with the tapas moulds, they went back to the liquid banana boats and poured then into the bottom of the “canoa”. To this they added peanuts, condensed milk powder and butter, and stirred it up until it hardened into a type of sugar cane “brittle”, sort of like peanut brittle, but sweeter. Each of the families got a big “block” to take home. It was quite hard, and a bit too sweet for my tastes, but the experience was unforgettable.

 

The grinding wheel and the catch basin.

Pipe into the initial filter & the cooking pots.

The oven.

To Rachel’s right, you can see the “canoa” and the tapas moulds.

Ray and Lu get to taste some of the sweet foam that is produced as part of the evaporation.

Here you can see them stoking the fire with the old crushed sugar cane stalks, and the big pot in all of it’s steaming glory.

 

The Ox wheel proved to be a great toy for the kids to play on.

The Ox gets a sugar cane break.

Stirring the “canoa”.

The banana boats.

Filling the moulds.

The Tapas – done.

A bundle of 4 tapas tied up, ready for market.

 

Arenal Volcano

Time for another road-trip with the in-laws. Volcan Arenal (in Spanish) or the Arenal Volcano is probably the most talked about tourist destination in Costa Rica. Since it is so popular, I was expecting it to see busloads of gringos everywhere, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that, yet again, as with all of the other attractions we’ve visited this year, it was not overrun with tourists. (Perhaps one reason many of these places are not as busy as expected is because of the economy, but that’s only a guess.)

It is about a 2.5 hour drive from Atenas to Arenal, and the drive straight north from San Ramon was very picturesque. We drove through a lot of different types of terrain, from dairy cattle/ cheese making country to lush, untouched valleys to some commercial nurseries growing ferns and other plants for export. The typical winding roads of Costa Rica and the varied terrain made for a very enjoyable drive.

Once we arrived in the town of La Fortuna, which is the closest town to Arenal, it reminded me a little bit of the tourist town of Banff back home in Canada. There were quite a few little souvenir shops and restaurants (which were of course more expensive than what we’re used to back in Atenas), and lots of places to book tours/adventures. However, like Banff, you can dismiss the commercialism around you when you look at the scenery right down main street. The volcano is an almost perfect conical shape and looks like it was created on a Hollywood set, rather than by nature. Just a fantastic sight! We got lucky the first day as we got a clear view of the volcano in it’s entirety. The next 2 days we got a more typical view with the top covered in clouds.

We stayed at a great little resort right at the foot of the volcano called Los Lagos, which has thermal hot spring pools, as well as a bunch of cold pools with water slides for the kids, and some incredible grounds. There was an abundance of great jungle trees and plants with plenty of local bird, bug and lizard life to watch for. At various stops along the walking path, there was also little exhibits like butterflies, frogs, crocodiles, ants and turtles. The kids, especially Nathan, really enjoyed this, and made many trips per day to see them. There was one old croc who was blind in one eye, and only had one tooth left in his mouth. Nathan found out from his keeper that he was 70 years old.

Another real highlight was one day we saw a family of howler monkeys passing overhead. One had a baby on her back and they were going hand over hand over the zip-line cable. The group going down the zip-line had to wait till they all crossed over. It was cool to see.

Here’s the view from our front door:

 

A couple of the butterflies on display:

 

 

The grounds:

 

 

 

 

And even when we are no where near either coast, Nathan still manages to get too close to crocodiles.

Poas Volcano & La Paz Waterfall Gardens

So the in-laws are here for a month and we got off to a rocky start, with my car breaking down (again!) just hours before I was to pick them up at the airport. Then, after coming home in a taxi, we had an above normal number of power outages. I can’t speak for them, but I’m sure their first impression of our lives here in Costa Rica was not the greatest.

However, we got the car back and FINALLY got a cell phone (after waiting for 3 months) on day 2, so things got much better.

And day 3 was excellent. We went on a road trip to see the Poas Volcano and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Poas is the nearest volcano to us here in Atenas, only about an hour and a half away by car. It is active, but there hasn’t been a serious eruption since 1954. A year ago, on Jan. 8, 2009 there was a 6.1 magnitude earthquake and landslide 8 kilometres from the volcano crater which resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people and seriously affected some local communities.

After seeing the volcano yesterday, I realized that I don’t remember ever seeing one before and I was really impressed. You can walk right up to the rim and look down into the crater and see the gasses escaping near the shores of the little lake at the bottom. (The average temperature of the water is around 40 degrees Celsius and it has a ph level of almost zero.) You can also see where previous eruptions have thrown huge boulders great distances and it really makes you wonder about the incredible forces at work here.

There is also a fabulous path system up to a second extinct crater with a rain-water filled lake. The path has been cut through intense jungle with old, mossy, gnarled trees. The twisted roots and vines on each side look impenetrable and you wonder how the first people hacked their way up there and what nasty beasties they might have found in there.  Very Cool.

After leaving Poas, we drove to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. This is a tourist attraction that I hadn’t heard much about before showing up and was again very, very impressed. The road from Poas to La Paz was washed away by the earthquake & landslides in 2009, and was only very recently reopened. It was quite an eye-opener to see the devastation to the roads and villages even a year later and there is still a lot of work to be done.

Once there however, we all loved it. Cut through some very lush rain/cloud forest and very well taken care of grounds, you can find areas displaying local birds, insects, monkeys, jungle cats, frogs, orchids, hummingbirds and snakes. In the aviary, some of us got to put a Toucan on our arms and feed it live worms right out of our hands. Seeing the colors on those beaks up close was absolutely fantastic.

The monkeys were also a hit and they acted as monkeys do in all zoos, with far too much display of bodily functions and hedonistic behaviour. I had to tell the kids a couple times to “move it along, nothing to see here…”. We went on this journey with our friends the Gonzoles family as well, and Patsy was posing the kids in front of the monkey cage for a photo-op, when one of the spider monkeys reached through the cage and grabbed Nathan’s shirt and wouldn’t let go. It was hilarious and he needed Gabbi to help him escape the evil clutches.

In the frog exhibit, the frogs are not kept behind glass or anything. You just look for them on the plants growing out in the open. One of the tour guides for another group was trying to coax out one of the little poison-dart frogs for a picture while Rachel was walking past. The frog jumped out of it’s hiding place and almost landed on Rachel’s shoulder. Pretty cool close encounter.

Just wandering through the grounds and all of the animal displays would have made for a great day, but they also have some of the most spectacular waterfalls I have ever seen. The jungle trail down to them would have been great on it’s own as well. My favourite view was a look-out right over the top of the “Magia Blanca” waterfall. You look like you are just about to fall over the edge along with the water. It was amazing to watch the water plummet onto the rocks over a 100 feet below from that unique vantage point!

All in all, a fabulous day, however my camera battery died after Poas, so I don’t have any pics of La Paz. I will try to get some from Patsy and update this post with them.

 

 

The main Crater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at how much has been ejected in the past

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second, extinct crater called “Laguna Botos”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The path to the second crater.

Well, it is a Jungle out there…

A big part of the appeal of living in Costa Rica was that we get to live in a lush, tropical environment. Our house is outside of the town proper, so we have even more opportunities to commune with nature. For the most part it’s great, with a huge variety of plants and animals that make life very interesting.

In fact, I’m thinking that one day I might dedicate a whole post to the “critters I found in my house or yard”, or something like that.

However, yesterday we were reminded that living in or near a real jungle can have some real consequences. We found out that last year, our next door neighbours lost one of their young kittens to a big Boa Constrictor!!!

It was playing in the coffee plants just on the other side of the fence to both of our properties early one morning (before sunrise) while our neighbours were having coffee on the veranda. They told me that the kitty was only 4-5 months old and they could hear it’s screams but could do nothing to help it. Yikes…

I have been over that fence myself a few times at night, wearing nothing but my flip-flops, following a trail of pesky leaf-cutter ants to their hidey-hole so I could get rid of them at the source. My neighbour thinks that because the kitty was a gringo, it lacked the survival instinct of the Tico cats, and I’m starting to think my instincts are no better.

They got 2 friends to capture the snake and take it away and let it go, so at least it didn’t have to die as well. As my neighbour said, the snake was doing what snakes do and the kitten was doing what kittens do.

Here’s the pics. (They’re small, but you might be able to click to enlarge:)

 

 

Prey

 

 

 

 

 

Predator