This morning was a free morning but there were several optional excursions available. They included a hike to the volcano, river rafting or the one Joan, Butch and I signed up for. It was a tour through Arenal Natura Ecological Park with a great guide named Roy. We toured a butterfly garden, a crocodile lagoon, snake garden, frog garden, orchid garden, also saw turtles and two caimans, Sophie and Marvin. Before we even entered the park, Roy pointed out a sloth in the tree out front. It was a large male two toed dude, but he wasn't moving around much and it was hard to get a good look at him. Also in the front of the park, there was an abandoned hummingbird nest with two eggs. Roy guessed there was too much traffic in that area and people drove the mom away. Kind of sad.
 |
| Hummingbird nest and eggs |
The park was beautiful inside. We especially enjoyed the butterfly garden, where Butch acquired a hitchhiker that stayed with him almost the entire time we were in that area.
 |
| This guy stayed with Butch for most of our time in the Butterfly Garden |
Another highlight in this area was getting good looks at the beautiful Blue Morpho. Previously, I posted pictures of them with their wings up but in here we were able to get pictures of them with their wings down.
 |
| Blue Morpho posing for us |
The Blue Morpho on the outside looks like this:
 |
Blue Morpho
|
There was another butterfly that looked very similar called the owl butterfly. You can tell the difference by looking for the snake face on the owl butterfly's wing.
 |
| Look at the area highlighted in blue --see the snake face? |
We also saw crocodiles at the park, which was something we hadn't seen in the wild. Not sure I'd ever want to run into one of these dudes in the wild anyway!
 |
| He's only pretending to be asleep! |
The snake and frog gardens were quite interesting. Everything was so tiny and often very poisonous. There were times that Roy couldn't even find the critter in an aquarium even though he knew what he was looking for. They are small and can hide very well. I guess I thought all poisonous snakes were big like our rattlesnakes, but there were multiple vipers that were so tiny I don't know how'd you see one before it bit you. Also a lot of the tree frogs were poisonous as well. Here's a cute little tree frog. Love the colors:
 |
| Taken through the glass -- not great but you can see its pretty colors. Very tiny little dude. |
The foliage in the whole park was beautiful, but this flower was stunning.
 |
Brugmansia suaveolens flowers; related to Datura
|
The flowers above were identified by my sister-in-law, Monte, as Datura or
Brugmansia suaveolens, a relative of Datura. We have Datura in Arizona, but the flowers are white. The plant contains tropane alkaloids, many of which have medical value but are now artificially made. When I investigated the plant, I found that the
Placidula euryanassa butterfly uses this plant as one of the main foods for its larval. Studies have shown that the tropane alkaloids can be stored by the larva, passed on through to the pupal stage, and then to the adult. For the adult, they act as defensive mechanism because the alkaloids make them less palatable to predators. Datura is generally considered to be a poisonous plant, with the seeds and leaves being the most dangerous. Ingestion can result in a variety of reactions and even death. The hallucinogenic effects have been well documented and sound pretty terrifying. Must be why it's called loco weed in Arizona.
I think these are two of the
Placidula euryanassa butterflies from our tour today.
After everyone got back to the hotel, which took longer than anticipated for those who had gone rafting, we boarded the bus and left for a trip to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, leaving later than Victor had planned. We are now traveling on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Lunch was on our own and the place we stopped in San Ramon, which is in the Alajuela Province, had a buffet which was good, even though none of us really knew what we were ordering and the folks serving us didn't speak English. Next door was a great shop which drew many of us in. Consequently, we were again later leaving San Ramon than Victor had planned.
We had been warned by both Julio and Victor that today was going to be an intense day of traveling. What that meant was we were going to be on very windy mountain roads and if you tended to get carsick, you were advised to take something for the ride. Victor said we would be on several roads that they gave nicknames to such as the "Oh My God Road" or the "What Am I Doing Here Road". Another clue we were in for the ride of our lives is that Victor said that he wouldn't be talking on the microphone so people could sleep if they wanted to. What that really means is he is riding up front with Julio acting as co-pilot, watching for obstacles, other vehicles coming toward us and that we didn't fall off the edge on the passengers' side of the bus! The roads remind me a bit of Harding Way near Butte, the Going-to-the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park or the hedge rows in England -- or a combination of all 3! There were lots of hairpin turns, switchbacks and one lane narrow roads and bridges. Additionally, there was a lot of road construction and in one place we had to wait for 45 minutes for the road to reopen after a scheduled construction closure. All of this would have been "exciting"in a car, but in the big coach we were in, it was hair raising. We stopped for a potty break or something and I commented to Victor on the road and how challenging it was for Julio. Victor said it can be worse if it rains and gets foggy. Well, guess what? We got back on the bus and started traveling again when it started to rain!!
We drove through Esparza in the Puntarenas Province, which is the city where Victor lives. That's about where the rain started. The rain, which will be welcomed by the locals, was unexpected as the dry season is from mid-December until the end of April. The rainiest months of the year in western Costa Rica are the months of September, October and some of November when it can rain for 3 or 4 days non-stop. Coincidentally, those are the low tourism months. The average rainfall/year on the west is 80 inches while over near Tortuguero on the Caribbean side, they get 160 inches per year. This side of the country gets really dry looking and there are wildfires in the dry months. Some of the road construction we encountered was due to Tropical Storm Nate that passed through the area last October bringing lots of rain and washed out roads in this area.
Eventually, we survived and arrived at our lodging for the next two nights at the truly amazing El Establo Mountain Hotel in Monteverde, Costa Rica. This hotel is built on different levels up the side of a steep mountain. There are 9 levels and our group's rooms were on the 5th level. The bus wasn't able to navigate the steep, narrow road to get to level 5, so our big luggage was taken up to our rooms by the hotel staff. Additionally, unless you want to walk up or down to the restaurant, registration etc. there are hotel shuttle vans that will take you where ever you want to go on the grounds.
Because of the location of this hotel on the side of the mountain, the views are amazing. It was cloudy during our stay, but we were told that if you get a day without clouds you can even see the Pacific in the distance.
 |
| Our rooms are on level 5, these are blocks of rooms above ours |
 |
| View out our window |
So with all the delays during the day, we arrived at the hotel about an hour late. Ordinarily this wouldn't matter, but today we had a guest speaker waiting for us. Everyone just dumped their stuff in the rooms and headed down to a conference room next to the restaurant to hear an amazing story.
94 year old Marvin Rockwell told us the story of how he came to Costa Rica from Fairhope, Alabama in 1951. As a Quaker, a religious sect that has strong beliefs in nonviolence and equality, he and three others refused to register for the compulsory peacetime draft that President Truman instituted to meet the Soviet Threat -- (remember, this was the Cold War period). The 4 guys were arrested, tried and sentenced to prison for 18 months. After serving about 1/3 of the sentence, he was released and the Quakers in Fairhope were already exploring an alternative to living in the US, where their tax dollars were funding militarism. Mr. Rockwell and 43 others, which included members of 11 families and his parents, embarked on the journey to Costa Rica (remember Costa Rica had dissolved their military in 1948). The Rockwells drove to Costa Rica and it was a 3 month trip.
The group settled in an agricultural region in the mountains, which eventually became Monteverde. Upon their arrival they improved the roads, introduced hydroelectricity and built a bilingual school. They established the area's first corporation -- a cheese factory and created the first forest reserve in the area.
The Quakers intermarried with the locals and Mr. Rockwell and his wife had 3 children and adopted 2 others. His wife was also present and told us their love story.
Marvin Rockwell is the oldest surviving migrant from Fairhope. He has seen many changes through the years. One example is that cheese factory they started, which once produced 350 pounds of cheese per week, now produces 8,000 pounds per day and was purchased by a Mexican corporation a few years back. One of the biggest changes they have witnessed is the influx of visitors, which has caused a shift from an agricultural based economy to a tourism based economy.
It was very interesting lecture and provided insight into how Monteverde came to be and more information on the history of Costa Rica in general.
It was another busy day, so after dinner, we headed to our rooms for a good night sleep.
Comments
Post a Comment