Last update from Costa Rica
Righto... this will be my last post from beautiful Costa Rica. I could have stayed another week, there seems to be SO much to do and I feel I've only just scrapped the surface. Everybody tells me I MUST go back... and I might well do... one day, God willing.
Nature's wonders
On Friday night, after I last emailed, I decided to stay behind after dinner (instead of heading for bed early) and sit near the feeders to look out for possums or racoons (as they are mostly nocturnal). I was soon joined by Edwin, the nice naturalist chap who I'd first met whilst based in Savegre. He talked to me for about two hours and was SO interesting (all naturists I've ever met are because they are SO passionate about saving the jungle). He told me for instance that one kind of animal (but I cannot, for the life of me, remember which one !!!) can create its own air bubble before diving and looking for fish, as if it had its own built-in scuba diving kit. Wow.
I did ask him if most of the jungles were protected from deforestation here but he said that only half of them are. Costa Rica is 30% thick jungle and only 15% of that are National Parks. The rest is owned by private investors and most naturalists are actively compaigning to get them to sell their land to people who would protect them. Because, if they use it for farming, the sad part is that after 2 years the soil is no good anyway, so you have chopped all this amazing habitat for very very little profit. And once you've chopped down all the trees, it could take a LONG time for them to grow back again...
15mns after we were into our conversation, we saw our first opposum. It has smaller eyes than the possum and is a gorgeous ginger colour, all fluffy, with a long white tail like a wire that he used to dangle himself down so that he could put his nose straight into the feeder. Edwin only switched on his torch a few seconds at a time, once every few minutes, to show me how gorgeous he was, because nocturnal animals cannot stand light and he didn't want to disturb him too much. Just like we are not allowed to take photos of frogs with a flash because if you overdo it, you can make them go blind.
We experienced a downpour 15mns later, the sound of the rain on the roof was deafening, we thought it was GREAT fun. After that, he said it was the best time to look for frogs as they love the rain. Sure enough, within minutes he found me the famous green one with the big red eyes. But I didn't take any photos... only people who had digital cameras could get away without using the flash much. Edwin mentioned that a female frog is usually 3 times as big as a male frog, because she will need to lay 3 x 40 eggs in different locations. But the eggs must always be laid above stagnant water and under a leaf so that the birds can't see it. When the eggs have matured, after 20 days, they will be born with the reflex to jump so they must have water to fall into. Otherwise they will die. The main predator at this time, when they are 'in waiting' are snakes, who can lurke around and eat all the frog eggs. It can happen quite often but as he said, no one will interfere because if the snake wasn't eating so many eggs, it might create an inbalance with too many frogs. Nature is so much more clever than men, that it would make NO sense to interfere because the bigger picture is bigger than what we can even conceive.
We then went back to the lounge area (no windows, too hot) and I ordered another papaya milkshake (my fav treat here) and we chatted some more. He was also telling me for instance that humming birds have evolved alongside heliconia (the beautiful red flower that almost looks like a staircase... if you don't know the one, I have taken LOTS of pictures of them, as they come in all colours, so I will soon send scans over). The heliconia has shaped itself so that it's easy for the humming bird to get nectar and water from them (the flowers are like mini wells that can retain water for them), and humming birds, in turn, have adapted their beaks so that it fits the flower of heliconias perfectly well. Snakes have also made the most of heliconia's colours and shapes. One particular snake is yellow and its scale colours is almost identical to one of the type of heliconia, so they often climb up and put their head at the top and wait for humming birds to come closer... and... easy meal.
He said that snakes usually use just enough venom to paralyse their prey, so that it doesn't move when they swallow it... yuk. Aren't you glad you cannot be eaten alive ??? What a horrible fate. I truly cannot bear snakes... and yet, I guess they have their own purpose to fill too, otherwise there'd be too many rats ? He once almost stepped on a deadly snake and said that if he had, and if he hadn't been taken to hospital within 2 hours, amputation would have been a must. The only time you might lucky with a snake bite is if you have a 'dry' bite, i.e. the snake has used up his venom recently on a big enough prey and as its stomach will be full for at least 2 or 5 days, it will take 2 days for him to produce enough venom again for the next meal. But, the odds of this happening are rare...
That is the most incredible part of nature, everything is part of a whole, and one the reasons it makes most naturalists so cross when people feed animals is that, not only you can make them sick as their stomachs are not designed to eat sweets, but if they grow to dislike their 'normal' diet because they have developed a sweet tooth, then they won't be after flowers so much and so the flowers will miss out as they rely on the insects or birds to disperse the nectar, and trees need the mammals (pretty much any mammal) to disperse their seeds. The birds and monkeys eat the fruits and then 'reject' them later... this ensures the trees can survive as they cannot move themselves ! Everything in nature is so finely in tune and balanced that you can soon create a major disaster if you interfere... and as he said, the tragedy is that most people mean well. They actually think they are helping the animals... when in fact, they are slowly killing them in the long term... and their whole environment in the process. ahhhh...
Some trees try to be smarter and not rely on animals so much. The mimosa (I think it was this one) for instance has seeds that look like giant vanilla pods. They will 'explode' in the heat and the pod then opens up wide, like a boomerang so that it can fly a lot further away from the tree. He said that as a kid, he used to pick up all the natural 'boomerangs' to make them 'fly' a lot further... (I guess kids who live in the jungle have got healthier games to play than computer games!). They look a lot fitter too, I tell you.
We swapped emails so that I can ask him more questions if I can think of anything else. He was fascinated by all my travels... I mentioned I'd hoped to go to Madagascar in Oct, he said that ALL naturalists want to go there as it is almost exclusively endemic.
Photo workshop
The next day, it was really sunny again.... I was delighted. In fact, the weather has got better and better as the days went by. Downpour has only happened over lunch-time (when I was indoors emailing or eating) or at night. Perfect !
I met up with Greg again and we first ran through the technique, a recap on metering, which I badly needed. We then started to walk through a trail within the lodge ground to try and look for flowers and birds and within seconds we were surrounded by about 15 toucans.... I was totally enthralled. We saw all 3 different types of toucans and he said in the 13 years he had lived in CR, he had never seen so many, let alone all 3 in one place. We were mesmerised... You just didn't know where to look. They seemed to follow us too, which was sooo cool. There were also other larger birds with yellow tails too but not as cute. I was just spoilt for choice. I endeavoured to look for tucans that were the nearest to me so that I could fill my frame. I have NEVER seen wild toucans that close before, let alone that many together...
I thanked God SO much. I felt my photo album would now have all of CR's most famed treasures - the macaws, the toucans, the morfo, the frogs, the jungle shots, the beach shots, the countless bright flowers... un poco de todo. It might actually look better than my India album - much more colourful on the 'nature' front anyway. But India still gets thumbs up on the food front. Nothing can beat theirs ! :) Costa Rican food still bores me to tears... I don't know how people can eat the same thing day in, day out.... the only blissful thing here are the fruit juices or milk shakes with fresh fruits. Every day we have new juices, cas (deep green), star flower (yelllow), tamarin (dark brown), etc. Flavours I've never tried before and though some are a touch bitter, I love them all.
In the afternoon we did more flower shots, Greg showed me I could use back lighting in the darker areas by pressing the 'test' button on my flash. This could only work because we were a team. I put my camera on the timer and read up the count down, whilst he stood behind the flower and pressed the 'test' button at the same time I said 'zero'. It might be harder to coordinate on my own, though, if I had a longer exposure, it'd easier as my timer goes 'beep beep' a lot faster during the last 2 seconds, as a hint. This was a tip I'd have never thought of before. And he let me use his macro lens for a few flower shots... including the ginger shampoo which is an incredible piece of art, looks like plastic but finely designed and when water gathers in its mini wells, the indigenous people say it smells like shampoo and collect it to wash their hair. I wish I'd had the chance to try it as I was seriously intrigued....
Last but not least, he said we should take some close up of frogs as no trip to Costa Rica is complete without frog pictures. I told him about Blue Jeans being seriously dangerous and he laughed it off and said that my guide had exaggerated the tale. So, delete my gangraine story from your memory bank ! He then showed me how wrong the guy was by catching Blue Jeans in his hands and putting him on a nice leaf. He said that for close up of frogs he always cheats and puts them in flowers or nicer leaves, etc. It just looks better. The frog are a bit stressed for a minute but then calm down quite quickly.
After we said good bye I went back to the feeder at night, to try and see the lovely opposum again, but he didn't show up. In nature, every day is a different day. And as I told Greg, who knows, if we had done the workshop a day earlier, as planned, maybe the toucans would not have surrounded us so much ? We'll never know...
Zip Line
On my last day I decided to go for a dip in the gorgeous swimming pool (I love swimming surrounded by lush vegeatation and bright red or pink flowers)... it beats the indoor pool any time. I had a nice splash for 20mns and then I then I asked about the zip line again.
The day before I was told there was no one booked to do it... but thankfully, when I checked again, 2 people had just booked, which meant I could join them.
A driver from the lodge took me there (for a fee!) and I zipped down 12 cables again, but it wasn't as spectacular as over Arenal. They were not as long and definitely not as high. Maybe 1/3 of the height. It was still fun, but not as thrilling as the first time. Still, the setting was gorgeous and the last cable ran across the Sarapiqui river, so they had saved the 'best for last'.
I was so in the mood for adventure after that that I wanted to try the rafting as, going by the Guest Book, everybody raved about it saying it was the best of all... but they only do minimum 2 hours, minimum 2 people, and my driver is picking up at 3pm and all tours start at 1:30pm. SIGH. I just needed an extra 3 hours in CR really... SO frustrating.
But I've also been told there is a stunning waterfall about 1H away from here, on the way to the airport, and that if possible, I should make a quick stop over. So, I'll try to negotiate that. I don't particularly fancy sitting 3 hours in an airport lounge, so 2h30 will suffice ! I know that one gets the best seats if you check in early but... life is always a trade-off.
In fact, the lodge is very quiet. At breakfast or lunch or dinner I never see more than 5 other people and the dining room is big enough for over 100 (24 tables for 4 - my maths are correct, no?). Edwin was telling me that this is the best time... in between seasons... he said 3 weeks ago he was at Selva Verde, it was fully booked and the noise of conversations and cultery was deafening and he hated it. Whereas this week, you can hear the sound of the river nearby... you can even eat on the porch, with your feet dangling down in the air, as you are overlooking the river as the balcony is designed to double up as a table with benchs. Cute.
Anyway... on this note, food is calling! And I need to have a shower and wash my hair and get ready for the BIG trip... 24 hours door to door, ahhhhh...
I hope you've found some of info interesting... I realise it's not my most educational journal but that's about all I could find out! Sorry...
BISOUS, Sylvie xxx
Righto... this will be my last post from beautiful Costa Rica. I could have stayed another week, there seems to be SO much to do and I feel I've only just scrapped the surface. Everybody tells me I MUST go back... and I might well do... one day, God willing.
Nature's wonders
On Friday night, after I last emailed, I decided to stay behind after dinner (instead of heading for bed early) and sit near the feeders to look out for possums or racoons (as they are mostly nocturnal). I was soon joined by Edwin, the nice naturalist chap who I'd first met whilst based in Savegre. He talked to me for about two hours and was SO interesting (all naturists I've ever met are because they are SO passionate about saving the jungle). He told me for instance that one kind of animal (but I cannot, for the life of me, remember which one !!!) can create its own air bubble before diving and looking for fish, as if it had its own built-in scuba diving kit. Wow.
I did ask him if most of the jungles were protected from deforestation here but he said that only half of them are. Costa Rica is 30% thick jungle and only 15% of that are National Parks. The rest is owned by private investors and most naturalists are actively compaigning to get them to sell their land to people who would protect them. Because, if they use it for farming, the sad part is that after 2 years the soil is no good anyway, so you have chopped all this amazing habitat for very very little profit. And once you've chopped down all the trees, it could take a LONG time for them to grow back again...
15mns after we were into our conversation, we saw our first opposum. It has smaller eyes than the possum and is a gorgeous ginger colour, all fluffy, with a long white tail like a wire that he used to dangle himself down so that he could put his nose straight into the feeder. Edwin only switched on his torch a few seconds at a time, once every few minutes, to show me how gorgeous he was, because nocturnal animals cannot stand light and he didn't want to disturb him too much. Just like we are not allowed to take photos of frogs with a flash because if you overdo it, you can make them go blind.
We experienced a downpour 15mns later, the sound of the rain on the roof was deafening, we thought it was GREAT fun. After that, he said it was the best time to look for frogs as they love the rain. Sure enough, within minutes he found me the famous green one with the big red eyes. But I didn't take any photos... only people who had digital cameras could get away without using the flash much. Edwin mentioned that a female frog is usually 3 times as big as a male frog, because she will need to lay 3 x 40 eggs in different locations. But the eggs must always be laid above stagnant water and under a leaf so that the birds can't see it. When the eggs have matured, after 20 days, they will be born with the reflex to jump so they must have water to fall into. Otherwise they will die. The main predator at this time, when they are 'in waiting' are snakes, who can lurke around and eat all the frog eggs. It can happen quite often but as he said, no one will interfere because if the snake wasn't eating so many eggs, it might create an inbalance with too many frogs. Nature is so much more clever than men, that it would make NO sense to interfere because the bigger picture is bigger than what we can even conceive.
We then went back to the lounge area (no windows, too hot) and I ordered another papaya milkshake (my fav treat here) and we chatted some more. He was also telling me for instance that humming birds have evolved alongside heliconia (the beautiful red flower that almost looks like a staircase... if you don't know the one, I have taken LOTS of pictures of them, as they come in all colours, so I will soon send scans over). The heliconia has shaped itself so that it's easy for the humming bird to get nectar and water from them (the flowers are like mini wells that can retain water for them), and humming birds, in turn, have adapted their beaks so that it fits the flower of heliconias perfectly well. Snakes have also made the most of heliconia's colours and shapes. One particular snake is yellow and its scale colours is almost identical to one of the type of heliconia, so they often climb up and put their head at the top and wait for humming birds to come closer... and... easy meal.
He said that snakes usually use just enough venom to paralyse their prey, so that it doesn't move when they swallow it... yuk. Aren't you glad you cannot be eaten alive ??? What a horrible fate. I truly cannot bear snakes... and yet, I guess they have their own purpose to fill too, otherwise there'd be too many rats ? He once almost stepped on a deadly snake and said that if he had, and if he hadn't been taken to hospital within 2 hours, amputation would have been a must. The only time you might lucky with a snake bite is if you have a 'dry' bite, i.e. the snake has used up his venom recently on a big enough prey and as its stomach will be full for at least 2 or 5 days, it will take 2 days for him to produce enough venom again for the next meal. But, the odds of this happening are rare...
That is the most incredible part of nature, everything is part of a whole, and one the reasons it makes most naturalists so cross when people feed animals is that, not only you can make them sick as their stomachs are not designed to eat sweets, but if they grow to dislike their 'normal' diet because they have developed a sweet tooth, then they won't be after flowers so much and so the flowers will miss out as they rely on the insects or birds to disperse the nectar, and trees need the mammals (pretty much any mammal) to disperse their seeds. The birds and monkeys eat the fruits and then 'reject' them later... this ensures the trees can survive as they cannot move themselves ! Everything in nature is so finely in tune and balanced that you can soon create a major disaster if you interfere... and as he said, the tragedy is that most people mean well. They actually think they are helping the animals... when in fact, they are slowly killing them in the long term... and their whole environment in the process. ahhhh...
Some trees try to be smarter and not rely on animals so much. The mimosa (I think it was this one) for instance has seeds that look like giant vanilla pods. They will 'explode' in the heat and the pod then opens up wide, like a boomerang so that it can fly a lot further away from the tree. He said that as a kid, he used to pick up all the natural 'boomerangs' to make them 'fly' a lot further... (I guess kids who live in the jungle have got healthier games to play than computer games!). They look a lot fitter too, I tell you.
We swapped emails so that I can ask him more questions if I can think of anything else. He was fascinated by all my travels... I mentioned I'd hoped to go to Madagascar in Oct, he said that ALL naturalists want to go there as it is almost exclusively endemic.
Photo workshop
The next day, it was really sunny again.... I was delighted. In fact, the weather has got better and better as the days went by. Downpour has only happened over lunch-time (when I was indoors emailing or eating) or at night. Perfect !
I met up with Greg again and we first ran through the technique, a recap on metering, which I badly needed. We then started to walk through a trail within the lodge ground to try and look for flowers and birds and within seconds we were surrounded by about 15 toucans.... I was totally enthralled. We saw all 3 different types of toucans and he said in the 13 years he had lived in CR, he had never seen so many, let alone all 3 in one place. We were mesmerised... You just didn't know where to look. They seemed to follow us too, which was sooo cool. There were also other larger birds with yellow tails too but not as cute. I was just spoilt for choice. I endeavoured to look for tucans that were the nearest to me so that I could fill my frame. I have NEVER seen wild toucans that close before, let alone that many together...
I thanked God SO much. I felt my photo album would now have all of CR's most famed treasures - the macaws, the toucans, the morfo, the frogs, the jungle shots, the beach shots, the countless bright flowers... un poco de todo. It might actually look better than my India album - much more colourful on the 'nature' front anyway. But India still gets thumbs up on the food front. Nothing can beat theirs ! :) Costa Rican food still bores me to tears... I don't know how people can eat the same thing day in, day out.... the only blissful thing here are the fruit juices or milk shakes with fresh fruits. Every day we have new juices, cas (deep green), star flower (yelllow), tamarin (dark brown), etc. Flavours I've never tried before and though some are a touch bitter, I love them all.
In the afternoon we did more flower shots, Greg showed me I could use back lighting in the darker areas by pressing the 'test' button on my flash. This could only work because we were a team. I put my camera on the timer and read up the count down, whilst he stood behind the flower and pressed the 'test' button at the same time I said 'zero'. It might be harder to coordinate on my own, though, if I had a longer exposure, it'd easier as my timer goes 'beep beep' a lot faster during the last 2 seconds, as a hint. This was a tip I'd have never thought of before. And he let me use his macro lens for a few flower shots... including the ginger shampoo which is an incredible piece of art, looks like plastic but finely designed and when water gathers in its mini wells, the indigenous people say it smells like shampoo and collect it to wash their hair. I wish I'd had the chance to try it as I was seriously intrigued....
Last but not least, he said we should take some close up of frogs as no trip to Costa Rica is complete without frog pictures. I told him about Blue Jeans being seriously dangerous and he laughed it off and said that my guide had exaggerated the tale. So, delete my gangraine story from your memory bank ! He then showed me how wrong the guy was by catching Blue Jeans in his hands and putting him on a nice leaf. He said that for close up of frogs he always cheats and puts them in flowers or nicer leaves, etc. It just looks better. The frog are a bit stressed for a minute but then calm down quite quickly.
After we said good bye I went back to the feeder at night, to try and see the lovely opposum again, but he didn't show up. In nature, every day is a different day. And as I told Greg, who knows, if we had done the workshop a day earlier, as planned, maybe the toucans would not have surrounded us so much ? We'll never know...
Zip Line
On my last day I decided to go for a dip in the gorgeous swimming pool (I love swimming surrounded by lush vegeatation and bright red or pink flowers)... it beats the indoor pool any time. I had a nice splash for 20mns and then I then I asked about the zip line again.
The day before I was told there was no one booked to do it... but thankfully, when I checked again, 2 people had just booked, which meant I could join them.
A driver from the lodge took me there (for a fee!) and I zipped down 12 cables again, but it wasn't as spectacular as over Arenal. They were not as long and definitely not as high. Maybe 1/3 of the height. It was still fun, but not as thrilling as the first time. Still, the setting was gorgeous and the last cable ran across the Sarapiqui river, so they had saved the 'best for last'.
I was so in the mood for adventure after that that I wanted to try the rafting as, going by the Guest Book, everybody raved about it saying it was the best of all... but they only do minimum 2 hours, minimum 2 people, and my driver is picking up at 3pm and all tours start at 1:30pm. SIGH. I just needed an extra 3 hours in CR really... SO frustrating.
But I've also been told there is a stunning waterfall about 1H away from here, on the way to the airport, and that if possible, I should make a quick stop over. So, I'll try to negotiate that. I don't particularly fancy sitting 3 hours in an airport lounge, so 2h30 will suffice ! I know that one gets the best seats if you check in early but... life is always a trade-off.
In fact, the lodge is very quiet. At breakfast or lunch or dinner I never see more than 5 other people and the dining room is big enough for over 100 (24 tables for 4 - my maths are correct, no?). Edwin was telling me that this is the best time... in between seasons... he said 3 weeks ago he was at Selva Verde, it was fully booked and the noise of conversations and cultery was deafening and he hated it. Whereas this week, you can hear the sound of the river nearby... you can even eat on the porch, with your feet dangling down in the air, as you are overlooking the river as the balcony is designed to double up as a table with benchs. Cute.
Anyway... on this note, food is calling! And I need to have a shower and wash my hair and get ready for the BIG trip... 24 hours door to door, ahhhhh...
I hope you've found some of info interesting... I realise it's not my most educational journal but that's about all I could find out! Sorry...
BISOUS, Sylvie xxx
posted by Sylvie at 7:26 PM
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