Gone Again

Back Home

connieandjohn — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:37:00 GMT

After we crossed into Texas we spent a couple of days at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. This is where the whooping cranes hang out in the US. There are only about 500 world-wide and it is a treat to see even a couple of them. Then it was on to Houston to visit John's brother. He and Connie nearly share a birthday and we had a joint celebration. It is amazing how quickly you get used to civilization. You can drink the water, flush toilet paper, and expect hot showers. You can even read the menu and understand the language.

We even went to a movie. The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman won't be a revelation to you who travel the world but it should be an inspiration for the rest of you. It's not that travel is essential but living your life as if it is finite (and it is) and the end is near (and it might be) makes a lot of sense. It is a "life is short - eat dessert first" kind of thing. Anyhow, we squeezed each others hands and smiled silently. We have had our own 'bucket list' for years and as we cross something out we usually find another to add.

We arrived home around 2:30 and had everything unpacked and put away in an hour. It will take longer to do the laundry though. So we are staying for a while - maybe until fall. If you are coming to Colorado let us know. If you want to contact us try john17connie@juno.com As Roy and Dale would sing, "Happy Trails to You!"

Epilogue

connieandjohn — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:34:00 GMT

Friends say they would love to travel the way we do. That, of course, isn’t the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They really don’t want to miss out on family gatherings. They can’t imagine spending Christmas Eve on a kibbutz in Israel. Are they willing to carry all their possessions in a single medium-sized backpack? How do they feel about foreign plumbing or food shopping in the local markets? I think they would like to visit the places we go as tourists, not as independent travelers.

The truth isn’t always obvious. Connie and I each keep a journal of the trip. Even though we are on the same trip, you can’t always tell from our journal entries. The journals record only the facts. The truth lies somewhere between our journals and slightly to the left of the photos. The truth resides in our minds. Like a much handled wooden bowl, memories acquire a patina over time. The fabric of truth is altered by experience. Its colors and textures are softened – and possibly improved – like a well used Oriental carpet. The truth, like the experience, is personal. It is unique to each of us.

How much wouldn’t we have known if we hadn’t taken this trip? The answer seems to be the real reason we travel. I learned that Mexicans defy the American stereotype. They are friendly and wonderfully helpful. They are very resourceful and can accomplish so much with so little. And I learned that I like people with brown skin and dark eyes and rich black hair. Yet after five centuries, there are still a surprising number of people with pure Spanish blood, especially in the central colonial cities.

It is surprising how accepting the Latinos are of us Norte-americanos. Even before Teddy Roosevelt instigated Panama’s split from Columbia so we could build and control the Canal, the US was warring with Mexico. Our record in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador in the latter half of the 20^th Century is an embarrassment. But only once did we feel any “Yanqui go home!” resentment and that from a drunken gang-banger in a bad part of Santa Ana, El Salvador. We were told by men who had been deported from the US as illegals how much they liked our country and all the cities they had lived in.

I had always thought of Latin America as a land of Catholics, a place of churches and cathedrals built by the Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries. The cathedrals are spectacular but there is a strong evangelical presence throughout Central America. Even where Catholicism flourishes it is flavored by ancient Mayan traditions that probably wouldn’t be well received in Rome.

Yes we had some rough times along the way, times that made us stop and question what the heck we were doing. But they were created by greedy individuals and were not representative of the general populace. (See how the truth is already diverging from the facts.) For each of these instances we can list several random acts of kindness; a stranger patiently repeating directions to this stupid gringo with the bad Spanish; a woman who walked with me to show me the way to our hotel; food stall owners who took time to talk to us while the pollo asado was roasting and countless other examples.

We learned more about Mayan history and culture than we will ever be able to assimilate. We explored the most famous ruins of their civilization. We walked among the diminutive descendants of the Mayans in the markets of Guatemala. We were introduced to the art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and the causes they supported. We spoke with people who had been forced out of their countries by repressive governments and saw protests against current policies.

We reveled in the beauty of Central America from Copper Canyon in Mexico to the Panama Canal. We saw howler monkeys and caimans, mangrove fringed mudflats and pristine beaches, lava spewing volcanoes and misty cloud forests. And the birds! – trogons and toucans, quetzals and tanagers, parrots and macaws.

My Spanish vocabulary increased daily but not my grammar. If I have one regret about the trip it is that we didn’t take the time early on for a week long intensive Spanish course. It would have made the trip both easier and more enjoyable. I eventually got to the point where I would reply in Spanish without thinking, just as I do in English. Connie often says that I am just as surprised by what comes out of my mouth as anyone. Now it is true in two languages.

Was it a good trip? Definitely yes. Did we enjoy ourselves? Very much. Would we do it again? Hell, no!

Out of Mexico

connieandjohn — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:05:00 GMT

Tuesday was another long distance drive with little to report. The roads are pretty good and we are making good time despite the intermittent rain. It is a flat and uninspiring part of Mexico but I don’t miss driving on the winding mountain roads of Guatemala and Honduras. The nearer we get to home the easier I want things to be.

We have been experiencing issues with the laptop in foreign countires. We can connect to the internet but cannot access anything that requires a password except for Hotmail. I spent an hour last night reading our online journal and looking at the photos and it appears we have had a good trip.

We spent our last night at Hotel Panoramico overlooking Ciudad Vitoria. It was another 200 mile drive to the border at Brownsville and we crossed back into the US just after noon. True to form they conducted a pretty thorough search of our car. Looking for fruit I presume.

The Home Stretch

connieandjohn — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:48:00 GMT

It took a long time yesterday to drive the 175 miles to the Mexican border but it was the easiest crossing yet. Our Guatemalan papers were just a day old and our vehicle permit for Mexico was still valid so the only thing we had to do was have our passports stamped. The relief I felt at entering Mexico defies reason. We are still in a foreign country and we have two thousand miles to drive before we are home. But Mexico feels familiar and it is good to be back in “civilization.” We returned to the Plaza Inn in Tabachula where we spent our last night in Mexico nearly two months ago. Today we made it all the way back to Acayucan, a convenient stop along the auto piste, where we had stayed back in December

We have been listening to audio books to pass the time while driving. We have covered subjects from Churchill and Roosevelt to the genome project. Today we began A Year in the Life, a travel story by the author of Under the Tuscan Sun. It isn’t the best we have listened to but it has already gotten our travel juices flowing just at the time we were thinking “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” Is there no hope for us?

The only drawback to driving to Central America is the return trip. For all practical purposes the trip was over once we left Panama. There were still some places to visit in Costa Rica and we were looking forward to seeing Julio in Honduras but that is hardly enough to warrant the 4,000 miles we had yet to cover.

The past two days were our most productive of the trip, mileage wise. We spent a lot on tolls on the auto piste but we covered 340 miles from Acayucan to Tuxpam on Monday. From Veracruz on the road skirted the Gulf of Mexico and we found a decent hotel out of town on the road to Tampico.

Tuesday was another long distance drive with little to report. The roads were OK and we made good time despite the intermittent rain. It is a flat and uninspiring part of Mexico but it is better than driving on the winding mountain roads of Guatemala and Honduras. The nearer we get to home the easier I want things to be.

We continue to have issues with the laptop, a function of the foreign providers no doubt. We can connect to the internet but cannot access anything that requires a password except for Hotmail. I spent an hour reading our online journal and looking at the photos. From all accounts it appears we have had a good trip.

We are spending our last night at Hotel Panoramico overlooking Ciudad Vitoria about 200 miles from the border at Brownsville. If all goes well we should be back in the States by early afternoon – if only in Texas.

Stuck in No Man's Land

connieandjohn — Fri, 8 Feb 2008 10:39:00 GMT

We left Copan around 7 o’clock so we could arrive at the border at La Florida before the crowds. We quickly and painlessly processed out of Honduras and went through immigration into Guatemala. But our car papers had expired for the C-4 countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras) on January 26. We had expected to have to renew them in Nicaragua but for some reason it wasn’t required. No problem in Honduras either but suddenly it was an issue. We had taken the car out of Honduras but couldn’t bring it into Guatemala and the official couldn’t figure out what to do. We were stuck between borders - in “boda boda” hell as they would say in Africa!

We were getting anxious to be on our way so I offered the official $40 for his expert advice and his help if he could come up with a solution. He issued new papers in my name, not Connie’s. Now we are certain that we were royally fleeced when we first entered Guatemala. (See December 17 entry.) In the end it took us the usual 2 ½ hours to cross the border but it would have been the same even if our papers had been in order. The bank clerk shut down for an hour to have breakfast so we couldn’t have paid our $7 registration fee anyway.

We had forgotten how mountainous Guatemala is and how dangerous the drivers are on the twisting, single-lane roads. We survived the insane drivers and even negotiated Guatemala City with relative ease yet only managed 177 miles today. We are staying in the non-descript town of Chimaltenango on the Pan-American Highway from where we will launch our assault on Mexico tomorrow.

Copan Ruins

connieandjohn — Thu, 7 Feb 2008 10:54:00 GMT

The crown jewels of Mayan civilization are Tikal, Chichen Itza, Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan and now we have visited all of them. Like the others Copan was occupied from around 1400 BC until 600 AD and then declined. It lacks the towering pyramids and encroaching jungles of Tikal but it is known for its intricate carvings. Even more impressive are the ruins beneath the ruins and the stelae which when translated, provided a record of the dynasties from century to century. In 1989 archeologists dug two excavation tunnels beneath the visible structures and discovered intact stucco covered temples built centuries before.

The nearby museum contains a replica of the Rosalila Temple as it would have appeared. It also houses many of the stelae from the Grand Plaza where replicas have replaced the originals. Moving them into the protected museum is the only way to preserve them for future generations.

We were the first visitors into the site today and had it pretty much to ourselves for most of the morning. After we finished exploring the ruins we spent an hour birding on the nature trail. The signage along the trail told how the ancient Mayans utilized the materials from the forest. But in the end over-population resulted in deforestation. The temperature of the valley increased and the drought it caused eventually led to the demise of the Mayans. It is a good lesson for us today.

After lunch we exchanged the highlights and horrors of travel with Brian and Mary from Montreal. They are riding their BMW motorcycle to Tierra del Fuego as part of a sponsored two year around the world trip. And they are doing it on $50 a day, about half of our budget. It is nice to find other adventurous people who can inspire us.

TNC Honduras

connieandjohn — Tue, 5 Feb 2008 11:08:00 GMT

It isn't easy to like Nicaragua. The border crossing isn't bad but the roads can be terrible. The local people are friendly and accomodating but the police hassled us again. No fire extinguisher. Rather than even try to negotiate in Spanish I repeated "No entiendo" (I don't understand) until they sent us on our way. We spent a quiet night in Masaya, a natural stopping place if you are trying to avoid Managua, then continued to the border crossing at Los Manos.

Again it was an easy border and we drove all the way to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We stumbled upon a nice hotel, the best of the trip and settled in to watch the Superbowl.

We met Julio Carcam, The Nature Conservancy's director for Honduras and Nicaragua, for lunch. He filled us in on their projects and took us on a brief visit to the TNC headquarters. He seems like the ideal person to deal with the issues in conservation while helping the indigenous people realize some gains.

He picked us up this morning, an unseasonably rainy day, and took us into the mountains to see some of the small former mining towns and La Tigre National Park. Honduras has a unique flora with pine/oak forests and dry forests and each requires a lot of studying as well as protection. Back at HQ we met some other staffers who are working on projects as diverse as prescribed forest burns and whale shark conservation in the Bay Islands. Julio has gone above and beyond what can be expected of a TNC director. He invited us to stay with him and his family tonight. They have a wonderful house in Tegu and it is a real treat to be a part of their family.

Cano Negro

connieandjohn — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 10:54:00 GMT

We spent our next to last night in Costa Rica in the farming village of Upala in the NW part of the country, a good jumping off point for exploring the Cano Negro Refuge. We originally planned to spend the night in Liberia but since Connie flawlessly navigated us around San Jose we had time to reach Upala yesterday.

The hotel owner, Victor, called his friend Pedro/Santiago (it seems he answers to both names who is a local guide and arranged a boat for us this morning. It is the only way to see the refuge's lagoons and rivers. It took more than an hour for the 20 miles of tooth-rattling road but we arrived almost on time. We had the entire 20 person boat to ourselves while we saw other smaller boats packed with tourists. Santiago was pretty good with the birds and helped Connie to find several new ones including two of the three she had targeted that are found only in the region. We also saw our first - and about 99 more - caiman, a relative of the crocodile and I got some good photos of howling howler monkeys, "mono congo" in Spanish.

Out of touch

connieandjohn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:27:00 GMT

It is February and we are beginning the trek homeward but computer access from our laptop is sketchy. No photos and no detailed entries until we get it squared away. Sorry.

The Best Laid Plans

connieandjohn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:37:00 GMT

I am writing this while in semi (I hope!) police custody. We spent our last two days in Panama in the mountain town of Cerro Punta. At an altitude of 1800 meters it is a good base from which to explore both Barca Volcano and La Amistad National Parks. Although both parks are known for their birding it is becoming more and more difficult for us to find new species. connie has already identified more than 350 new birds on this trip and there can't be too many more left to find. It gets pretty cold at night and we were looking forward to crossing back into Costa Rica and some sunshine.

Immigration and vehicle registration went as smooth as silk at Rio Sereno, our favorite border crossing. Or so we thouhgt! The road from the frontier includes the worst 5 km section of the trip but we eased through at 10 mph. Connie found us an honest-to-god shortcut to the Pan-American highway that cut off 100 km and saved us hours. The fun began at the routine document check where they said our two hour old vehicle registration had expired on January 26. They wanted to confiscate our car for driving illegally in the country. The computer had no record of us leaving CR or bringing the car back in. We finally convinced them to call the woman at Rio Sereno who would surely remember us - who wouldn't! She did and apologized for giving us the wrong paper. But we still had to go back 65 miles to Rio Sereno, negotiating the terrible road twice, get the proper certificate and return to the police checkpoint. Although it was their mistake they made it plain they were doing us a favor for not seizing our car. Back in Rio Sereno I replied to the girl's "Lo siento" (I'm sorry) with "Nosotros tambien!" (us too!) We eventually made it to San Isidro where we had stayed a couple of weeks ago. It's just one of those things that makes travel interesting.

The Nature Conservancy - Panama

connieandjohn — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 10:21:00 GMT

We found a Subaru dealer in Panama City and got the Outback serviced. We have driven nearly 9,000 miles and with a little bit of luck (and the blessings of Sister Barbara of the Sisters of Mercy in Colon who was picking up her Subaru) this should get us home. We spent the afternoon at the Metropolitan Park, a little slice of rain forest right in the middle of Panama City. The birding was pretty good and we saw our first Geoffroy's tamarind, a tiny monkey found only in Panama.

Our Nature Conservancy contact, George Hanily, invited us to attend the final hurs of a symposium on the effects of mining in Panama. Of course the presentations were in Spanish but George and his right-hand lady, Mayte, filled us in on the issues and what projects TNC is involved in. The issues for TNC Panama are the same ones facing conservationists in Africa and throughout the world; too many people with too little resources on too little land. It is good to know that many groups are working together to try to make a difference.

One of the groups, Ava Fauna, has set up the panama Rainforest Discovery Center at Soberania NP with a series of trails and a bird viewing tower that rises forty meters above the forest floor. Before we even reached the tower we saw several coatis, a troop of howler monkeys and a bunch of white faced capuchin monkeys leaping from tree to tree. The steel tower was constructed entirely by hand in order to leave the smallest possible footprint. From our perch we watched as toucans soared above the forest and songbirds flitted in the canopy. Along the lake we saw crocodiles, hawks, trogons, orioles, jacans, toucans and a sungrebe, another new bird for us. The center has been open for only a week and it is a great way to introduce the public to the preserve.

Around Panama City

connieandjohn — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:52:00 GMT

We rolled into town just after noon yesterday and checked in at the Costa Inn. Its major draw is that it had rooms available. It also has secure parking and breakfast is included. Internet access is frustratingly sporadic and the TV selection is pitiful. But we call it home.

After lunch we flirted with death (if you believe Lonely Planet)and walked to Casco Viejo. After Morgan the Pirate sacked Panama in 1671 the city moved to Casco Viejo where it remained until the canal was built. Very little of the area has been restored but you can get an idea of what it will be like when the gentrification is complete. It’s a little bit like New Orleans, pre-Katrina.

Today we drove to Soberania National Park and hiked along the Pipeline Road, the famed birding area. The park boasts more than 500 species of birds and 100 kinds of mammals but we were disappointed. Although it reminded us a little of Uganda’s Royal Mile the birding was nowhere near as good. We managed to find about a dozen new species. The park is managed by STRI, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and we ran into one of its researchers out netting butterflies.

We visited the Summit Biological Garden and Zoo to look at the harpy eagle and Baird’s tapir. It was worth the one dollar admission price and besides, we were starving. On the way back we stopped at Miraflores Locks to watch the ships in the canal. We knew the history of the canal from David McCullough’s book, The Path Between the Seas but we wanted to see it in action. The canal is so important to shipping that its width sets the standards for ocean-going ships. Instead of the weeks or months it would take to sail around the tip of South America, transiting the canal takes about 24 hours including waiting time. Actual time in the canal is between eight and ten hours. The average cost for cargo ships is $30,000 and it must be paid in advance. Some cruise ships have to pay as much as $150,000. At thirty ships each day, that’s a lot of Balboas.

Gallery: Panama

connieandjohn — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:39:00 GMT

Panama

connieandjohn — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 11:56:00 GMT

Having read that the main border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama is the worst in Central America we elected to try an alternate route. We spent our last night in CR at San Vito, a lumpy, bumpy half-hour drive from the crossing at Rio Sereno. Few people cross here and it may be that we were the only ones who brought their car from the US. There were no lines and little to indicate the frontier other than an “ALTO” sign. Officials on both sides of the frontier were courteous and efficient. The only snag came when we needed $10 revenue stamps in our passports. The nearby market was out of them so we walked 500 meters to the national bank where they had only $1 denominations. (Panama uses the US dollar but they call them “Balboas.” I would take this crossing any time and we will return to CR the same way. Today we were stopped for a routine check and the officer introduced himself, shook my hand and told us everything was in order before waving us on. Nice people!

Last night we stayed in David, the first sizeable town on the highway. A lot of Panamanians must spend weekends in the cities because finding a room was difficult, tonight too. We are staying in the town of Chitre; already well off the beaten track. Chitre is on the Gulf of Panama on the south side of the country. Panama is oriented west to east with the Caribbean on the north so the Canal runs north-south. After several tries we found a cheap hotel near the center of town but made reservations at a nicer place for the next couple of nights. There are a few things we want to do before we go to Panama City. This afternoon we went to Playa Aguillato to check out the birding. At low tide it’s not a beach but a large mudflat surrounded by mangroves and covered in shorebirds. We had already seen most of them even if we had trouble identifying them without the book but Connie found a few new ones. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a gas station to sluice some of the mud from our toes and Tevas.

Turn signals are very important when driving in Central America. Using your left signal can mean it is safe to pass. At other times it is used as a warning when speeding down the wrong side of the road. I used it to indicate a left turn, on it happens we didn’t really want to take. The guy who zoomed up behind us decided it was OK to pass. Only through his skillful maneuvering did we avoid a major accident. The only damage was minor; my mirror was knocked off and he had a tiny crease on his new van. He insisted it was our fault and repairs would cost at least $200. (I fixed our mirror with some duct tape.)

Life in the Canopy

connieandjohn — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:18:00 GMT

Canopy tours are all the rage in Costa Rica and we have avoided them…until today. Much of the life in the rainforest exists only in the canopy. Scientists like Meg Lowman of the Explorers Club continue to discover new species of plants and insects and who knows what else. But the canopy tours we have seen are for thrill seekers, not naturalists. The adrenaline rush from sliding along zip lines is the goal, not observing life in the treetops.

One of Merlyn’s friends just opened La Palma Osa Canopy Tours near Danta Lodge. Eduardo was trained at one of the best facilities in Osa and it shows. He is personable, safety conscious and has a good understanding of the plants and animals of the rainforest. We were one of his first clients and we were happy to help him get started.

It rained during the early morning hours and the road to La Palma Osa was a mess but the views of Golfo Dulce from the top were lovely. Even though we knew the drill Eduardo and his brother Frank helped us into climbing harnesses and helmets and gave us protective gloves with a special leather brake pad for slowing down. Once you clip into a pulley on the cable and sit down you cross your ankles and S-L-I-D-E away.

You can’t see much as you flash over the treetops but the views from the platforms are good. Some are at ground level where you can find insects, amphibians and reptiles. In the high platforms, up to 100 feet above the ground, you can see some of the amazing birds. We weren’t very lucky today but not because Eduardo didn’t try. I did get some good close-ups of a black-throated trogon, some long-nosed bats and a masked pityra in the canopy and a basilisk lizard and a poison dart frog on the ground. The basilisk is also called the ‘Jesus Christ lizard’ for its ability to run across water on its hind legs, and the skin of the dart frog was used by indigenous people to poison their arrowheads.

After the tour we had a huge plate of fruit then we drove to Playa Blanca where we spent the rest of the morning birding along the mangroves. I took some good photos of the fiery-billed apari, a small toucan, and his larger cousin, the chestnut-mandibled toucan before heading back to Danta for lunch. We spent the afternoon relaxing around the lodge. It is almost like being back in Africa. We have the entire place to ourselves and the only sounds are the buzzing of insects, squawking parrots and now the rain on the roof. It is good to know the roof won’t leak like our banda in Uganda.

National Parks

connieandjohn — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:15:00 GMT

National parks in the US are major tourist destinations and visitors expect a certain level of infrastructure: lodging, campgrounds, restaurants, and most important, access roads. But the reason the parks were established was as preserves to protect the resources of the area. In most parks only a tiny portion of the park is accessible to the average tourist. Hikers, climbers, backpackers and their ilk are the only ones who visit the more remote spots.

When we visit other countries we realize how difficult it is to get to the national parks and how few facilities, if any, there are. We tend to forget how little of our parks we actually see. This is especially true in Costa Rica. Monteverde, Santa Elena, and Los Quetzales national parks are reached only by the most difficult roads. But the rewards are worth the effort. How else can you find resplendent quetzal? The Osa Peninsula in southwest Costa Rica is one of the most remote and least visited areas of the country. There are several tropical habitats, from coastal wetlands and lowland tropical rainforest to cloud forests making it one of the most bio-diverse places on earth. The centerpiece of Osa is Corcovado National Park. Its 300,000 acres are largely inaccessible except by boat or on foot. There are few facilities and reservations for those must be made months in advance. For those reasons we considered skipping it but at the last minute changed our minds.

The ‘season’ is just getting underway and we were able to get a room at Danta (Danta is the local name for Baird’s tapir) Corcovado Lodge a truly amazing place. For tonight at least we are the only guests of Merlyn, a Tico, and Laura from Michigan. The lodge was once his family’s home but now sleeps thirty in five rooms and several cabins. The wood floors gleam – shoes are removed at the entrance – the furniture is hand-crafted and the shared bathrooms are right out of “The Flintstones”. We are not sure how long we will stay or even what we can do in the area but we have high hopes.

Parque Nacional Carara

connieandjohn — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:02:00 GMT

From our seaside suite in Jaco (hock-o) we backtracked 25 miles to Parque Nacional Carara. We may have missed out on seeing the resplendent quetzal in Monteverde but we scored big here in Carara. The biggest prize is the scarlet macaw. Poaching for the pet trade had reduced their numbers to fewer than one hundred. With increased conservation efforts and protection the population is now around four hundred macaws. We ran into a group of kids from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay who were doing volunteer work in the park. The toxic smell of paint brought back mixed memories of our volunteer gig in Uganda. It is good to see young people committed to the future.

In addition to the scarlet macaws we saw toucans, antbirds, trogons, and the very large crested guan. The forest is filled with birdsong but actually seeing the birds is difficult. Several groups had birding guides and we couldn’t help overhearing their sightings. OK, we eavesdropped. But we found columns of leaf-cutter ants all on our own. Likewise the basking crocodiles on the nearby Rio Tarcoles (Crocodile River.) We usually think of crocodiles in Africa and alligators in America but these guys are definitely crocs – but possibly a different species?? (Crocodiles have a pointed snout like an ‘A’ while ‘gators have rounded C-shaped snouts like in ‘crocodile.’

Volcan Arenal

connieandjohn — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:43:00 GMT

We are staying at the Nido del Colibri (Hummingbird Nest) in El Castillo which must be the nicest B&B in Costa Rica. The two guest rooms look out on the Volcan Arenal, one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. The property teems with birds including the brightly colored Montezuma oropendola and chestnut-mantled toucan.

The volcano sat dormant for a thousand years until it blew up in 1968 and destroyed several villages. It has been erupting pretty consistently ever since, sometimes spectacularly. The lava flows recently switched from the north side to the southwest making El Castillo, not La Fortuna, the best vista. That assumes, of course, that you can see the mountain. It was visible all afternoon but as darkness came so did the clouds. I keep checking for breaks in the cloud cover so we can see the lava. Maybe I will shift my vigil to the hot tub.

Around 3:30 AM when I got up to pee the sky was filled with stars and lava was running down the sides of Arenal. It wasn’t a major eruption but we could hear the rumblings and see flashes from the cone. To add to the show several meteors flashed through the sky. All in all it was pretty exciting.

We learned today that Sir Edmund Hilary died. He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to summit Mt. Everest. We can't help but wonder if this morning's display was Arenal's salute to the great mountaineer.

The Cloud Forest

connieandjohn — Mon, 7 Jan 2008 11:32:00 GMT

The road from CA1 to Monteverde is rugged. The first 20 miles are paved followed by ten miles of rutted and potholed dirt. The last ten miles are really bad. Four-wheel-drive probably isn’t necessary but it does make one more confident. We seldom got out of second gear and often climbed hills in first. The Quakers who settled here in the 50s don’t want Monteverde overrun with tourists and figure the terrible roads will keep traffic down.

The Cordillera de Guanacaste forms the Continental Divide, the mile-high backbone of Costa Rica. Moisture laden trade winds from the Caribbean sweep up the slope, condense, and form the cloud forest, home to many unique birds, amphibians and mammals. The cloud forests of Reserva Santa Elena and Monteverde Reserve were made popular in 1983 by an article in National Geographic as the home of the resplendent quetzal. We haven’t seen this beautiful bird but have seen and photographed dozens of others, including several colorful hummingbirds and the emerald toucanet. We have also run into capuchin monkeys, coatis and kinkajous (cousins of raccoons), large rodent agoutis, peccaries, and the three-toed sloth.

From the Mariposa B&B in Monteverde you can see the Gulf of Nicoya and, on a clear day, the Pacific but in Santa Elena, only 10 km away it was all cloud. The trails were muddy and we climbed over, under and around downed trees. Twenty-five percent of the biomass of the cloud forest is epiphytes. Ferns, moss, bromeliads and orchids cling to the trees making them top heavy and they topple in the strong winds. There are more than 400 species of orchids in the area. Not all are in bloom but many of those that are add splashes of color to the forest.

Reserva Santa Elena is administered by the local high school and the largest preserve in the area, Bosque Eterno de los Ninos, was purchased with funds raised by school children around the world who decided to save the forests. Just goes to show that even kids can make a difference. They connect with the Monteverde Reserve to create a very large contiguous protected area.

For the Birds

connieandjohn — Thu, 3 Jan 2008 07:12:00 GMT

What do we find so fascinating about bird watching? First of all it’s a great excuse to be outdoors. Searching for new species and old favorites requires you to pay attention. You use all of your senses and tend to see so much more. You need little in the way of equipment; decent binoculars and a good identification guide will suffice but some ‘twitchers’ (as they are called in Britain) spend thousands extra for spotting scopes, tripods, cameras and even professional guides.

Some birds are non-descript, the “LBJs” (little brown jobs) but many more are brightly colored. Others display interesting behavior or have wonderful songs. Similar species can be found continents apart. You have only to sit still in a forest clearing, along a lakeshore or overlooking a tidal marsh and wait to see what will show up.

Being close to nature cleanses the soul. Learning about what you see enriches the mind.