flora – Costa Rica 2008

Coffee Lesson on the Road

Dec 29 Tagged with: coffee, flora, On the road

Dec 292008

Coffee Plantations

The tour officially kicked off this morning with our guide, Paul, and bus driver, Marcos.

Today’s primary adventure was a trip to the Poas Volcano. The hour long bus ride wound across the valley through three different cities, then up the volcano to 8800 feet, about a mile above the valley floor. Along the way we passed through miles and miles of coffee plantations. We learned a lot about this beautiful crop. For example:

All coffee grown in Costa Rica for export must be Arabica.
In the ‘30’s (?) the government gave away land and coffee plants to families that wanted to start a farm. The goal was to create a major coffee industry, but to have it be owned by many citizens, not by a few large landholders or companies.
The best coffee is grown between 4000 and 6500 feet elevation and it loves volcanic soil, making these slopes of Costa Rica ideal for the crop.
Costa Rica grades their coffee in three levels. Level 1 is the finest and commands the highest price. Level 3 is not allowed to be exported, and is generally what the Costa Rican population drinks. Level 2 is also exported, but is a lower grade than level 1. Much of Level 2 goes to Columbia and Brazil, where it is mixed with their lower grade beans to bring the overall quality up, and thus the price.

Poas Volcano

Dec 29 Tagged with: flora, hike, volcano

Dec 292008

Poas Volcano is in a cloud forest, so the last half hour or so of the drive is through dense mist.

Once at the volcano we were given the choice of a half mile walk up a fairly flat road from the Visitors’ Center to the crater, or a more interesting hike through the cloud forest to get there. Eric, Kevin and I opted for the hike, and Sarah’s wisdom lead her up the gentler path.

The three guys, having chosen the path less traveled, ended up on a pretty rigorous two mile hike at 8800 feet of altitude, with no acclimating beforehand. Not knowing that half the hike was a pretty steep and steady climb, I blasted out of the gate – regretting that strategy about half a mile later. We got a nice view of a smaller crater up higher, but the main crater was buried in a cloud when we finally arrived there.

In the meantime, Sarah had had a jolly walk to the main crater, seen it in its splendor before the clouds covered it, gave up waiting for us and strolled back to the bus.

Botos Lagoon. This is the small crater up higher than the main one. The view lasted about 2 minutes though a hole in the clouds.

Here’s what the main crater looked like: a cloud.

Pictures from our hike through the cloud forest:

Fungus

Flowers. Sorry, I don’t know what type they are.

Sombrilla de Pobre, or “poor man’s umbrella,” is the common name for this Costa Rican plant – for obvious reasons.

A Long Day of Travel – Including Some In The Air

Dec 30 Tagged with: flora, hike, In the sky, tour

Dec 302008

Today was four hours of riding in the bus, broken up with a number in interesting stops. We left San Jose at 7:00am, traveling east through the Braulio Carrillo National Park, over the Continental Divide to the Caribbean Sea.

Our first stop was in the Braulio Carrillo National Forest for an aerial tram tour of the rain forest.

Before the tram ride, we had a guided nature walk through the bottom of the forest. At the head of the trail there was a three toed sloth and her baby which we observed for a bit before heading into the forest.

On the nature trail

Leaf Cutter Ant Crossing.

We learned quite a bit about the biodiversity of the region, including the difference between a vine and an air root. Vines grow up from the ground, air roots come down from the plants in the trees. Tarzan swung on air roots, not vines.

“Monkey Vine”

Coolest insect: a bullet ant. My photo didn’t come out very well, but they’re about an inch and a half long and have an almost paralyzing bite. I didn’t get close enough for the shot. Duh.

These fungi are about 3/4″ across. Check out the tiny red flies on them.

Don’t eat it.

The cable-suspended tram travels a one and a half hour round trip through all three levels of the canopy. You travel close to the ground, then through the middle canopy, and then for most of the return trip you travel at or above the top of the canopy. It was incredible seeing the complexity of the environment, and trying to grasp the interwoven relationships of all the creatures and flora that inhabited it.

Heading out into the rain forest at the lower level.

The trip back over the canopy.

Lunch And Butterfly Garden

Dec 30 Tagged with: fauna, flora, food, Marcos

Dec 302008

Today was Marcos’ birthday. He’s our bus driver, and according to our guide Paul, “The second best driver in Costa Rica. The first best is in jail.” Many times Marcos proved his skill at maneuvering the huge Mercedes bus.

Happy Birthday, Marcos!

I wish I wrote down the name of the place we stopped for lunch, the food was great plus they had a nice butterfly garden out back. It’s near the town of Guapiles, and it’s exactly here: N 10.20316667, W 83.77471000.

Butterfly

Morphos wing detail

The plant is called “Labios de Puta”, or in more polite English: “Hot Lips.” It makes more sense before the blue berries appear.

Passion Flower

Bananas, Bananas, Bananas

Dec 30 Tagged with: banana, flora, tour

Dec 302008

Around 2pm we stopped at a Del Monte banana plantation and learned about the entire banana pipeline, from growing through picking to sorting and packing.

While on the tree, the bananas are encased in blue plastic bags. The bags protect the bananas from predators and damage, and also keep them from being sprayed by the insecticides.

Wild bananas (not at the plantation)

Tame bananas (at the plantation)

Once cut from the trees, they are hauled in trains of about 30 bunches suspended from an overhead cable system. The guys who do the pulling are among the more highly paid workers, and when you watch them do this grueling work you understand why.

Hauling bananas

Once at the processing area, the ‘hands’ are separated from the main stalk and floated down a pool to workers who cut them into smaller bunches and sort them for quality. Level 1 bananas are exported to the US and Europe, Level 2 bananas (which are smaller and may have small scars) are sold for baby food or pig food, and Level 3 bananas are discarded. You can buy a banana in Costa Rica for a few cents.

Banana staging

The ‘hands’ are cut off the stalk and thrown into a water stream, where they’re cleaned as they float to the next step.

These women cut the hands down to smaller bunches and sort them. It was amazing how fast they were.

Next to the processing area a few vendors were selling miscellaneous items, including fresh coconuts. I would guess this little guy got his share.

Tortuguero River Tour, Part 1

Dec 31 Tagged with: bats, bird, fauna, flora, iguana, monkey, river, spider, tour

Dec 312008

After breakfast this morning we visited with the resident spider, who lives on a 3 foot wide web just outside the breakfast area. She was the same type as I saw last night, which leads me to assume that they’re not too dangerous. She was busy repairing her web from, one must imagine, a busy night.

Fixing her web.

Split into three groups of about 15 each, we loaded into open tour boats for our first visit with the Tortuguero wild life. In a short amount of time we had already spotted more birds that I could keep track of, giant iguanas, spider monkeys and howler monkeys. The tour lasted about two hours, so we had time to go deep back into some of the canals and listen to the sounds of the rain forest.

Fellow travelers, monkey spotting.

White-Faced Spider Monkey

Howler Monkey

Iguana on a log.

Bigger iguana, in a tree.

Find the hidden lizard. Somehow our guide did.

Easier to see closeup.

Bats. They live on the underside of this tree’s trunk during the day.

Green Heron.

White Heron.

Back to the lodge for a break, then some more sights.

Tortuguero River Tour, Part 2

Dec 31 Tagged with: fauna, flora, rain, river, sloth, tour

Dec 312008

Lunch was back at the lodge, and then another boat tour of the river and channels. We started out spotting a sloth and her baby hanging in a dense tree almost over the water, so we were able to get very close in the boat. Even though there were fifteen or more of us, she didn’t seem concerned at all about our presence, and the two of them continued eating.

Mother sloth with baby.

As we were traveling up one of the canals, it began to rain. By the time the boat’s pilot had pulled out the ponchos and passed them out it had become a tropical torrent. It was warm out, but everything not under a poncho was instantly soaked, and before a few minutes were up, those of us on the right side of the boat had our feet in about three inches of water. Kevin, being on the port side, was able to keep his shoes dry.

It’s called a Rain Forest for a reason.

Luckily I had my waterproof point-and-shoot camera with me, so I could take riveting shots like this.

The wildlife viewing isn’t so good in that kind of downpour, so we headed back into the lodge.

Once dried off, napped and cleaned up, we headed into the bar before dinner for some cards, New Year’s Eve libations and live Calypso music.

New Year’s Eve

Dec 31 Tagged with: fauna, flora, flower, iguana

Dec 312008

After dinner, Eric and I went on another frog hunt – no frogs this time, even in the lodge’s ‘Frog Garden’, but we did encounter a couple of iguanas and another giant spider that took a particular interest in Eric. We were able to take close up pictures of a small iguana that was standing on a flower using a flashlight to light her up with. She wasn’t bothered at all by our presence, even though we got within a foot of her for some of the shots. She was still there at 5:30am the next morning when I stopped by to see her.

Iguana on the road, caught in our flashlight beam.

Posed iguana, lit with a flashlight.

In her face, and she didn’t mind at all.

The mysterious backlit version.

Rain soaked flower, lit with a flashlight.

Close up of rain drops.

Not being be NYE partiers, we hung out on the porch reading and watching the rain before packing it in well before midnight.

Zarcero

Jan 03 Tagged with: flora, On the road

Jan 032009

Today was another day of mostly travel, we went from Fortuna to Puntarenas on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The normal route that the tour uses wasn’t available because of a “problem with the bridge,” so we had to take a longer way around. We had a few stops along the way, the first at 9:30 in the town of Zarcero to stretch our legs after an hour and a half drive. Zarcero is famous for the topiaries in the park, which were nice but didn’t really bowl me over.

Much better was getting an ice cream fix at 9:45am.

Topiaries