|
Costa Rica is rich with vegetation, animals and good people. We had a great time visiting the cloud forests of Monteverde, seeing the active Volcan Arenal erupt at night, walking the beaches of Montezuma and witnessing a large leatherback turtle lay her eggs on the beaches of Playa Grande. To jump to any one of these entries, simply click the destination, otherwise, feel free to read each entry in the order that they were written. MONTEVERDE:
December 8 - December 11, 1999
MONTEVERDE: CLOUD FORESTS FROM ABOVE Saturday, December 11, 1999 Mother Nature is truly amazing! We have just spent the past three or so days zipping through cloud forests, walking on suspension bridges above the green foliage, trekking through the Monteverde Reserve searching for the elusive quetzal, hiking 12 miles to a mysterious waterfall, and reflecting on how fortunate that we are for this opportunity to experience the beautiful country of Costa Rica. Now I will explain the above in a little more detail. After an interesting full day of travel, we finally arrived in the remote town of Monteverde which lies below the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Monteverde is visited by many tourists. In fact, we saw about as many tourists as we did locals. However, to get to this beautiful cloud forest, one must travel through long, bumpy dirt roads. Furthermore, there are few direct buses that travel to Monteverde. This is the fact for most of Costa Rica. Therefore, I advise anyone traveling to Costa Rica to rent a car...and not just any car, but a four wheel drive, as many of the roads are neither paved nor smooth. Given our budget, we are forced to rely on public transportation, but remember, that is half the fun! We awoke the next morning to a delicious meal cooked by Yolanda, the owner of our hotel, the Manakin. We barely finished, when our cab came by to take us to the Sky Trek and Sky Walk in the Monteverde cloud forest. We had such a ball as we viewed the cloud forest from above while zipping by on zip wires. Zip wires are essentially wires that extend from one cliff to another. We were attached to the wires by little cables and given a push by one of the guides, thereby sending us across the wires through trees and clouds to the other side. It was a thrilling experience! As we walked from one zip wire to the other along trails and long extension bridges that literally hung 150 to 200 feet above the forest floor, we saw beautiful trees, vines, roots, monkeys and birds.
Here I am being linked onto the zip wire by our guide, Sabastian. A native of Ecuador, Sabastian is also traveling the world. He has been traveling for 6 years around the Americas and learning how to scuba dive and guide while working in hopes of someday becoming a licensed guide in the Galápagos Islands.
Rich cooks in the kitchen of our little cottage at the Manakin hotel. Our second day in Monteverde, we decided to hike to the San Luis waterfall which is said to be the second largest waterfall in Costa Rica towering at 100 meters (approximately 300 feet). We were told that this hike would be very long, and that we really should consider taking a cab or traveling by horseback. We, of course, did not listen to the advise of those that live there and would be familiar with the area. Instead, we headed out by foot into the beautiful landscape of Monteverde, passing farms, streams and fields. We had wonderful views of the Golf of Nicoya and the forests below. In fact, we could see the waterfall from afar...and I mean AFAR. After several hours, we arrived in San Luis. We thought it odd that we had to cross rushing streams and trek through mud as we neared the river and forests that would take us to the waterfalls. Nevertheless, we continued on, following the little yellow arrows that were said to lead to the waterfall. Suddenly, we were faced with an obstacle which we could not overcome: rushing whitewater rapids spilling down the mountain. We had come so far, but there was no way to cross these rapids. So we turned around, realizing that we would not see this spectacular waterfall, and, furthermore, we would now have to walk the 6 miles back into town. As we left the farm which leads to the falls, we were met by the owner. He was disappointed to learn that we were not able to see the falls. He explained that due to the heavy rain fall the night before, the trail was probably washed out.....that was information we could have used 6 MILES AGO! After talking to this nice man, we began our uphill 6 mile trek into town. The hike was very tiring, and the views were the same as they were on the way to the falls. We still managed to have a great time. The only real disappointment was that the cheese factory was closed on our way back; therefore, no ice cream. Our final day in Monteverde, we visited the famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We enjoyed this opportunity to see the cloud forest from ground level. We spent a great deal of time with our necks stretched as we looked up at the tree tops, searching for the elusive quetzal. The quetzal is a beautiful tropical bird adored by the people of Central America, but rarely seen. Despite our efforts, we did not see this elusive bird. We did, however, see a waterfall. We will be catching a 7:00 a.m. bus tomorrow to visit the Volcan Arenal, an active volcano located in the center of Costa Rica.
FORTUNA AND VOLCAN ARENAL: FLYING LAVA ROCKS AND HOT SPRINGS! Sunday, December 12, 1999 Sometimes our transportation experiences are as exciting as the destinations we are seeking. Today is no exception. We decided this morning to throw caution to the wind and stay at the luxurious Arenal Observatory Lodge, where we would be able to get a front row view of the volcano if and when the clouds allowed the volcano to come out. Getting to the Lodge turned out to be a difficult task. The buses could only drop you off at the entrance of the Arenal National Park. It is approximately 9-10 kilometers (6 miles) from the park entrance to the lodge. We would have to walk this road with our full backpacks, including the computer, in the rain. We did have the option of taking a taxi. However, $23 just seemed like too much money given the fact that we were preparing to pay 4 times as much as we usually do for a hotel room. This adventurous idea quickly became reality when the bus dropped us off at the park entrance in the rain. We began our walk with high hopes that a truck or car would come by to rescue us. We were soon joined by Gavino, a local man who makes this walk quite often to a resort just past the lodge where he works. Note, however, that he makes this walk without a heavy backpack. Gavino was kind enough to carry our computer pack which is, when combined with all of the equipment, books and water, almost as heavy as our packs. We were a little hesitant at first to trust this man with our computer; however, Rich was prepared to chase the old fellow if he decided to run away with our most prized possession. About a 1/2 mile into our walk, a friend of Gavino driving a big pick-up truck stopped to give us a ride. He had his family in the cab, but we were more than happy to jump into the truck bed, despite the fact that the rain was pouring down on us as we sat in cow manure. With a mile left to the lodge, we were dropped off at the fork in the road where we would have to part Gavino and his truck-driving friend. The rain kept pouring down on us as we continued on our mission by foot, but we were thrilled to have saved 5 miles of walking. It was not long before a small white Suzuki four wheel drive stopped to give us a ride. We were excited to see that it was a young American couple who ended up sharing many of the same interests as we had. Like us, Paul Montgomery and Jodi Lamagna were a long way from their homes in Boston, Massachusetts. They were also on their way to the Observatory Lodge to get a room with a view of one of the world's most active volcanoes. We found two great rooms in a cute little cabin just down the hill from the lodge. As we were taking care of business and registering our rooms, we looked at breathtaking posters and postcards of the volcano with lava spurting from the crater. Suddenly, Paul asked the question that was on most of our minds, "Can you see the lava from here?" We had already been told that we could see the volcano, but before this moment, nobody had bothered to ask this important question concerning the lava. Lucky for us, the man at the desk was very honest as he responded, "No, the lava flow has shifted and you now must go down to Fortuna to see the glowing lava at night." Without hesitating, Paul and Jodi offered to take us into Fortuna with them in search of a hotel with a view of the lava. We were pretty lucky, as without this generous offer, we would have been stuck at the relatively expensive Observatory Lodge with a lovely view of the volcano, but no lava. We traveled down the mountain to the small town of Fortuna and found the San Basco hotel which was said to provide a view of the volcano, if the clouds ever went away. We encountered another honest man at the desk of this hotel, who promised us that the weather would be terrible and the clouds would never break up for us to see the volcano. We hoped that this man was a better pessimist than weatherman, as we had come so far to see the active Volcan Arenal. His forecast was, however, accurate that evening, and we failed to see the volcano despite our hourly volcano-watch shifts throughout the night. Monday, December 13, 1999 Today we awoke to more rain. That did not stop us from joining Paul and Jodi in what turned out to be a wonderful day of horseback riding up to the "Danger of Dead" line of the volcano. There were many times that we did consider passing on this outing, even up to the last minute as I sat on my horse fearing that he would suddenly go into a full gallop thereby throwing me from his back and stomping upon my body. However, our guide, Botella, would not let me quit. I am very grateful to him, as I had a wonderful time riding my friendly horse, Pinto to the "Danger of Dead" line which sat only 500 meters below the crater. The weather broke for a while and we were able to sit upon volcanic rock and watch smoldering lava rocks fly from the crater and crash down the side of the volcano. Botella taught us a lot about the volcano, including the fact that Volcan Arenal has been constantly active since 1968, as it expels molting rock and boulders from its crater all day every day. We also learned that we were not seeing flowing lava in all of the post cards, but glowing hot rocks which looked like flowing lava in a long exposure photograph. At first, we felt disappointed by this fact, but then Botella reminded us that lava moves at such a slow rate down the side of a volcano, while the rocks that we watched flew from the top into the air, thereby making for a much more spectacular sight in the dark of the night. He was right.
A natural cowgirl I am not! The sky grew dark and the clouds went away as we ate a delicious meal of fresh fish and heart of palms at the base of the volcano with our new friend, Botella. Before long, we could see the active Active Volcan Arenal expel her glowing red lava rocks into the air. We decided to head on out to the Tabacon hot springs where we were told we would have a great view of the volcano. We were disappointed to find that we could only see some orange glow from the side of the volcano from this vantage point. So, we quickly ran down the road until we reached a desolate part in the road with a great view of the lava show. There was a bar nearby, so Paul grabbed us a few pops to drink as we enjoyed the presentation. I know now why so many people say that no matter what you do in Costa Rica, do not miss Volcan Arenal. It really is an experience of a lifetime to see lava flying from a volcano just above you, and for some reason not feeling like you must run for your life. After about an hour, the clouds came back out, and we returned to the hot springs for a relaxing dip in the natural springs that were heated by the lovely volcano that we were just so fortunate to see. We had a great time with our new friends, Paul and Jodi. We are sorry to say goodbye to them, but we have to move on to Montezuma and they have to head back to San Jose. Unfortunately, Jodi has to work the day after tomorrow, a concept very foreign to Rich and I at this time. Paul will see her off at the airport, and hopefully he will travel to Montezuma to join us for more traveling through Costa Rica. Paul drives a duck in Boston, and he gets 4 months off during the winter. Perhaps I need to explain a little further. Many cities in the United States that have some sort of body of water nearby (this would not include our home city, Atlanta) offer Duck Tours, which is a tour around the city on a tour bus that resembles a very large duck. The duck is also able to drive right into the water. The tour operator of these ducks must drive and explain the sights to the passengers at the same time. This task requires a lot of intelligence, personality and sense of humor, three qualities which Paul definitely possesses. He and Jodi, who is also very smart and fun, play well off of each other. Although we will definitely miss Jodi, we hope that Paul will join us in Montezuma. I almost hate to mention this fact, but I must, as we promised to share both the good and bad with you all. Besides, you may be curious as to what happened to all of our pictures of Costa Rica after today. Well, I will tell you what happened: While sitting on the sharp volcanic rock earlier today, we saw a group of Toucans. I have been waiting to see these colorful birds for so long. Rich knew this, so he rushed me over to the best viewing point and quickly took out our camera to get some shots of the beautiful birds. Upon returning the expensive digital camera to his pocket, he accidentally placed it in the vent hole which does not have a bottom. Behind me, I heard a crash. The lava rock was not very forgiving. The pictures were saved; however, the lens does not function. Rich is very upset with himself. I am disappointed, but surprisingly, I am not letting it bother me. After all, if this is the biggest disaster we have faced so far, we have been very fortunate. Also, Jodi and Paul took a lot of photographs of the volcano, so our memories will still be captured on film. As far as future photographs of Costa Rica, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words....I hope that a thousand words are worth a picture. We will replace this camera when we go home for the holidays.
MONTEZUMA: BEAUTIFUL BEACHES, WATERFALLS AND SOME HIPPIES. Friday, December 17, 1999 Montezuma is a great little beach town on the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We arrived in Montezuma on Tuesday afternoon. After several days in the beautiful, but rainy and chilly cloud forests, we were delighted to arrive onto the Nicoya Peninsula and ride in a taxi along the beaches until we arrived to Montezuma. We decided to stay at the Amor de Mar (Spanish for Love of the Sea). It is a beautiful little hotel which sits right on the Pacific Ocean with a beautiful green back yard covered with vegetation and comfortable hammocks. We just relaxed the rest of the afternoon and took a stroll into the town. The next morning we hiked over to the inland waterfalls. These falls were very tall. Several other young backpackers had also found our little watering hole, and they were swimming in the pool below the falls and diving off rocks. We had heard that there were more falls beyond the first grand falls. So, of course, we felt compelled to search for these other falls. It took us a great deal of time to find these other falls. We had to climb up steep hills and slide back down other ones to reach these other falls. However, they were well worth the effort. We were one of the only ones enjoying the smaller, but prettier falls. We were joined by some younger kids who were brave enough to jump off cliffs and trees into the water. Rich and I swam, but decided not to jump off any cliffs, since we had encountered several rocks in the water while we were swimming. Looking back on it, I wish that I had given it a try. When we got back to our hotel, we were excited to see that our friendly duck operator pal, Paul Montgomery from Boston, had rejoined us. Our final day in Montezuma was spent walking and climbing along the shoreline across large coral rocks and amazing beaches, each covered in a different color sand...some pink, some dark brown, some very light beige, and one filled with very colorful rocks. We walked for several hours until we came to the waterfall that meets the beach. It was very pretty. There were, however, a bunch of kids swimming and jumping all over. It kind of took away from the experience, because I was worried they were going to hurt themselves or me. Since nobody did get hurt, however, I consider the whole venture to have been a fantastic experience...particularly, the swimming in the ocean with the huge waives. That evening we had a fabulous dinner at La Playa de Artistas. We sat at a table just a few steps away from the Pacific shore. The table was just inches from the ground, so we sat on beach mats and listened to the waves as we enjoyed cocktails and delicious fresh sea food. We switched hotels that earlier that day to La Luz de Mona. It was a little less expensive, and it looked very nice. We were excited to see that the rooms were brand new and very nice. We learned that we were getting such a bargain because the hotel was still under construction. This became rather apparent when we were awoken in the middle of the night by intoxicated construction workers who were carrying on in Spanish and relieving themselves directly below our window. Nonetheless, it was well worth it when we woke up in the morning and saw white faced monkeys playing in the trees right outside of our window. And so today we prepare to leave our pleasant little getaway beach and head north to Playa Grande to see nesting turtles. Paul will be joining us as we drive up the peninsula with our friend and taxi driver, Giovanni. PLAYA GRANDE: THE EXCITING REPRODUCTION OF THE LEATHERBACK TURTLE Monday, December 20, 1999 Have you ever witnessed a 7 foot leatherback turtle make her way up to the beach in the moonlight, dig a hole with her back fins and lay dozens of small eggs? Have you ever taken an early morning walk down a beach and found track marks from a dozen different leatherback turtles who crawled up to the shore within the last hour to lay their eggs? Have you ever had the magical experience of helping 65 turtle hatchlings make their way to the sea for the very first time? I am happy to say that we were able to experience all of these things while visiting the beaches of Playa Grande. Playa Grande is not an easy place to get to. We had to hire a private taxi to take us from Montezuma to the bumpy back roads of Playa Grande. Once we arrived, we found that only a few hotels exist off the shores of this beach. This is a good thing, as Playa Grande is home to hundreds of nesting leatherback turtles during the months of September through March every year. It is this natural phenomena that we traveled so far to witness. We arrived in Playa Grande early enough to get a hotel, walk along the beach and prepare to hopefully see a mother leatherback turtle lay her eggs. Our hotel was rather interesting. It was much cheaper than any of the other hotels, but about the same as far as quality. We soon found out why the Parque de Aqua was such a deal. The owner, Yuri, is insane. After speaking with this Russian hulk of a man, Paul and Rich returned to our room wide eyed and terrified. If you talk to Rich, you will have to ask him for the details. At around 7:00 pm we showed up to the Tortuga Museum. We had a wonderful lesson on the reproduction and life of the leatherback turtle. I even took notes, being the nerd that I am. This is what I learned: The leatherback turtle ("baula" in Spanish) lives in every ocean on Earth, yet it is an endangered species. The female leatherback can reach up to 7-8 feet in length and 2000 pounds in weight. The primary food source for the leatherback is jelly fish. After fertilization by a male turtle, the female leatherback will come up to a sandy beach 12 different times and lay eggs. The turtle slowly moves up the beach just before or after high tide and digs a deep hole. She then lays approximately 100 eggs in about 10 minutes. She will then move the sand around to hide the eggs from prey. The female will then make her way back to the light of the sea. 60-80 days later, the eggs will hatch. If the temperature of the eggs stays below 85 degrees, the turtles will be male; otherwise, the turtles will be female. After the eggs hatch, the baby turtles will climb their way to the surface of the beach. This will take these small creatures 4 days. The young turtles will wait until sunset to leave the beach and follow the light of the sea. In 1996, 700 leatherback turtles came to Playa Grande to lay their eggs. In 1997, 450 returned to Playa Grande. In 1998, only 228 turtles visited these beaches to lay their eggs. Some blame this decline on tourism. Additionally, scientists believe that the population of the leatherback has declined, due to pollution, poaching and other prey in the ocean. Researchers and volunteers have been working very hard in the past few years to save these endangered species. The beaches are closed from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. in order to keep poachers and stupid, rowdy tourists away. In addition, some of the eggs that are laid on the beach are kept in a hatchery and released by the biologists after they hatch, thus guaranteeing at least the birth of hundreds of turtles each year. Unfortunately, the turtles will be on their own once they reach the sea. At that point, nature must take its course. They say that one in every hundred leatherbacks will reach adulthood. After our introduction to the world of the leatherback turtle, we waited outside of the museum for a guide to tell us that a leatherback had made her way onto the beach to lay her eggs. We waited several hours before we were given the word that a mother turtle had come up to the beach. We then raced over in people's cars to the section of the beach that the mother turtle was on. When we arrived, the guide had a red light over the turtle which allowed us to see the 7 foot leatherback dig her hole with her back flippers and then lay her eggs. Many of the eggs are false, meaning that they were not fertilized. There were 18 people in our group, so the guide had to break us up into 2 groups. We took turns watching the process. One woman argued that our group was not getting as much time as the other. Rich and I felt uneasy about the whole thing. We felt like we were witnessing a very private moment for this female turtle. Our guide had assured us that the turtle was in a trance during this process, but I was not convinced. We went back to our hotel not certain whether to be thrilled about this unique experience or ashamed. We were not ashamed enough to wake up very early the next morning to see if we could see baby hatchlings. Although there were no baby turtles that morning, we did see track marks from several turtles who had recently made their way up to the beach to lay their eggs. We knew that these turtles must have been on the beach within the last half of an hour, since the high tide was just going down, yet there were still marks in the sand from the turtles. The high tide would have washed these out if they were from an hour or more before. Rich and I found this to be a very interesting sighting. It added another step to the reproduction process that we were able to see. We were beginning to slowly feel more excited about our experience the night before. That day we walked the beach over to the next town of Tamarindo. This town was more like a town, with more hotels and shops and restaurants. Tamarindo used to be another popular location for the turtles to come and lay their eggs. However, when the town began to grow and brought with this development more lights and noise, the leatherbacks stopped coming to this beach. There is a lot of concern that Playa Grande will become this way and the turtles will quit coming there too. We had fun in Tamarindo. Rich and I went Christmas shopping, while Paul enjoyed a few cocktails by the beach. Our walk back to Playa Grande was very nice as the sun was slowly setting over the sea. The sunset was absolutely breathtaking. The beach closes at 6:00 p.m. for the night, and is thereafter patrolled by the park rangers, biologists and Earth Watch volunteers. This, however, did not prevent Paul, Rich and I from sneaking our way in, hoping to watch baby turtles making their way into the sea, from a distance of course. We had been told by a volunteer that this is the time they sometimes release the new hatchlings. Luck was with us that evening. Some Earth Watch volunteers came to the section of the beach where we were waiting in the thickets. They set down a large plastic tub and began releasing newborn baby turtles that had just hatched that day. There were 62 ridley turtles and 3 leatherback turtles. We approached the volunteers, and they were very nice to us. They even let us hold the baby turtles and help them in assisting these turtles in making their way to the sea for the very first time. This was such an incredible experience. I hope that at least few of these turtles make it. They were so cute and active....well, at least most of them. Some of them were so slow, that I sadly doubt they will make it through childhood. Rich and I now feel very fortunate that we have been able to experience this reproduction process. After this exciting event, we headed back to eat dinner. We ran into our new friends, Julie and Jim, who we had met the previous night when we were waiting for a female turtle to make her way to the beach to lay her eggs. We did not share our recent experience with them, because we did not want them to feel that they had missed anything. They were so excited that they had seen the mother turtle lay her eggs, and we did not want to take away from that. The next day we drove to Alejuelah, which is near San Jose, in Jim and Julie's car. They were very very kind to offer us a ride, since they too were headed to San Jose. All 5 of us had flights back to the United States the following day. We had a great time riding back over the bumpy roads in Jim and Julie's rented four wheel drive. Of course, we did not have to drive, so that made it fun. If you are reading this, "Thanks again Julie and Jim!".
WELL, TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 20TH AND WE ARE LEAVING CENTRAL AMERICA TODAY AND HEADING BACK HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. WE REALLY ENJOYED OUR TIME HERE. THE FOOD, THE PEOPLE, THE DIVERSE SCENERY AND CULTURE ARE SO FANTASTIC. WE DEFINITELY PLAN ON RETURNING SOME DAY...MAYBE SOONER THAN LATER. PRESS
HERE TO CONTINUE MY TRAVELOGUE AS WE RETURN HOME 4 THE HOLIDAYS.
|
|
2 Go Maps / 2 Go Actual Itinerary / 2 Go Photos / 2 Go Home Page
PLEASE E-MAIL US. . . WE WOULD LOVE 2 HEAR FROM YOU!
©1999-2001 Kelly and Rich Willis. All rights reserved. |
