First, I have an admission to make. Upon reflection, this is the first time, EVER, that I have done any hiking or this type of exploring while in Costa Rica. I know, embarrassing, right? There is a variety of reasons for that. Most would include a lack of interest or laziness. My thoughts went as follows: I am on vacation. I am here to rest and relax. I am at the beach and just want to sit in the shade and read my book. I do not want to go tromping through the jungle. I must admit, I think I also didn't feel confident enough that I was up to the physical challenge. I am not in perfect condition right now, but I am probably in the best shape I have been since I was a gym bunny in my mid 20’s. And, as I have mentioned in previous posts, between the influences of my graduate program and our Flagstaff relocation, I also have a renewed interest, passion, and appreciation for nature. I want to look at everything and explore. It is precious, endangered, and fleeting to me. I want to experience a new place by walking it and make new memories that involve the outdoors around me.
Our first destination was Braulio Carrillo National Park. Here is a second link with some more information, too. To get there, you take the Guápiles Highway. Apparently, the establishment of this highway was a big deal as it connects the capital, San Jose, with the Caribbean side of the country and has made travelling much easier, as well as providing access to this forest. Unfortunately, it also bisects a large virgin rain/cloud forest. You can imagine the ecological conservation controversy that arose over it being built. It was needed, but definitely has had an impact on this formerly pristine area.
We were optimistic that we may catch a sunny day, but instead, we got a rain forest type of day. By that, I mean rainy. Oh well, it let me put my fairly new Marmot Precip rain jacket to the true test. I wish I could say it passed with flying colors, but by the end of our soggy hour and half hike, it was starting to soak through. However, I was much dryer than Husband who forgot to pack his rain jacket for the trip. I also discovered, as you will see in a few photos, it is hugely unflattering in pictures. Oh well. Not what I bought it for, right?
It really is almost indescribable, so I will let R’s pictures do most of the work for me. It has that wild almost prehistoric feel with gigantic ferns and towering trees and vines and dripping water. We walked near a river for part of the trail, so your ears were filled completely with the sounds of water, both rain dripping off the leaves and the roar of the river. It is green and lush to a point that you start to become blasé to what is surrounding you, and then you see a new plant or fern or vine that makes you stop and look closer. I would love it when I would find a fern that was all curled up still, like those party favors you blow into so that they unroll and make a noise.
What I found most fascinating is the vegetation growing on vegetation growing on vegetation. There would be multiple types of mosses growing on all the tree trunks, as well as two or more different types of plants or vines growing off of or wrapped around the tree. I would just stand there and stare and see how many different ones I could see. Some of the giant palm and fern leaves also had moss growing on them. I pulled a word out of my recently acquired biology vocabulary that even my science-smart father-in-law was unfamiliar with: commensalism. Dr. W and Dr. J would be so proud! It means a relationship between two organisms where one benefits, and there is no harm or benefit for the other. Look at me being all smart and stuff!
I also got put to the test on this trip. My challenge was to find this super large tree and was told we were not leaving for home unless I found this tree. I realized it must be ridiculously huge and hard to miss, but I was still feeling the pressure! Luckily, you really can’t miss it. It is a ceiba tree. The locals call it the Heavenly Tree or the Sacred Tree, and is associated all the way back in history to the Mayans. It has these nicknames because it is so tall that it believed to hold up the heavens and push down the earth. The roots were crazy large and grew on top of the surface because that is where all the nutrients are. You start seeing the roots before you even came upon the tree. I had no problem finding the tree. It was hard to miss.
Part of the reason for this trip was because my father-in-law needed to pick up a drawing that a local Costa Rican artist had done for him. The young man’s name is Cope, and he is a genius. He does some of the most striking and realistic drawings I have ever seen. His primary interest is nature and birds, and he has done the illustrations for a guidebook to Costa Rican birds. His story is an interesting and inspiring one. He comes from a low-income background and has had little formal education and no formal training in art. Someone discovered his talent, and decided to become his benefactor, and started providing him with supplies so that he could practice and create his art. The rest is history, as they say. Both Cope and the world are very fortunate that his life took this turn. It would have been a shame for his work to go undiscovered or undeveloped. I highly suggest you take the time to take a quick look at the links I included, even if you are not interested in birds!.
All in all, it was a good way to spend the day.
We embarked on our next rain forest adventure a few days later. Again, we hoped for dry weather, but instead got mas lluvia (more rain).
I think I enjoyed this drive quite a bit more. Although the other has spectacular views of the vegetation and many waterfalls, there is a sameness to it after a while. It is also cut through mountainous terrain so often you are just driving through a corridor of green covered mountain. It is pretty, but this drive had more variation. I would describe the terrain of the area to be more rolling hills than mountains, so you can see more and farther. As it was a rainy cloudy sort of day, the cloud cover hovered along the tops of the hills with little bits caught in the valley making fog patches. There is also a lot more variation in vegetation. You have palm trees next to palm trees next to trees dripping with Spanish moss. I also am always amazed that many of the flowering plants, like impatients and hydrangeas, that people buy in the states to plant as decoration are practically weeds in Costa Rica. For example, impatients just grow along the road as common weeds.
In particular, I liked that we drove through coffee country. It is pretty spectacular to see coffee bean trees for as far as your eyes can see. I became even more amazed as I started seeing the trees hanging precipitously from the side of steep hills. At first I was impressed by their growing power, but then my amazement began to shift to the reality that someone is going to be picking those beans because of course, all coffee must be handpicked. I cannot even imagine how difficult that would be.
This time our destination was Tapantí. We took two different shorter hikes. Both ended at the river, which was moving fast and brown from all the recent rain. Although there was some sameness to the feel of the forest when comparing it with our first cloud forest hike, there was also some differences. In particular, this area was much mossier, and I would say more similar to the moss I am familiar with growing up with in the states. Not as “ferny” looking.
The second hike had some nice waterfalls along the way, and ended with a view of a high one that was pretty spectacular. Again, we could tell it is raining a lot in the area right now, as there was lots of little streams running over our path as well.
As we left the park, we encountered a really cool animal called a coatimundi. It was a funny looking little creature. It looked like a dog crossed with a raccoon crossed with an ant eater, with a little bear thrown in for good measure. The craziest part was that it was not the least bit scared of us and was in fact quite curious. We stopped the car, and it literally came running up to us. Perhaps a little too curious…if you know what I mean. Those teeth looked like they could leave a mark, but it made for some good pictures. Its boldness reminds me of those squirrels in parks and on college campuses that have no problem coming right up to you if you are near something they want.
After hiking we stopped at a little restaurant that is also a trout farm. I decided to order the trout since it would, of course, be fresh. Unfortunately, I don’t think my brain fully registered what that meant, until I noticed off in the distance the fishing flopping around. I thought they were just leaping out of the water, and then R clarified that those were the ones that they had just pulled out for our lunch. I was like, oh. Then they pulled out the machetes and started swinging. Here is a picture Robert caught of my shock and realization of what was going on. I did eat my fish as it was already ordered and would have to be paid for, but um, it definitely was another push towards vegetarianism. I remember my friend, J, being asked in class one time if she would kill a fish since she does not eat meat and part of her reasoning is that she would be unable to kill the animal to eat it. She realized she probably wouldn’t be able to kill a fish either. I was definitely feeling that way on this day…
On our return trip, we also stopped by this huge dam. I don’t know if it is always this impressive, but all the recent rain made for some spectacular views. This is one of the major water sheds for the area. I definitely got vertigo when I looked down.
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