Beginning of a Visit toTortuguero National Park

It has been fun to live in a rainforest for 3 days; a place that we had approach by a boat, a one hour ride through jungle rivers, large and small. We haven't seen our bus for three days. I love this living! The animals and birds are exquisite, the life is slow and nonchalant, the air is warm. We've had sun for two days here, however today it is raining as hard as it can rain.  The people here are so connected to nature and ecology, saving our Earth from pollution, caring for all living things. Waking up to the sound of Howler Monkeys in nearby trees was enchanting!

I was so happy to step foot on that boat, full of all our luggage and our group with one driver and our guide. The sounds of the river, the 4 stroke engine, and the wind whistling by my ears as we wound around bend after bend was both comforting and refreshing to this boat-loving principal.

I loved seeing the emergent layer of the rainforest that I taught my second graders about for almost 20 years during our Grade 2 "Trip Around the World."

Around one of the first bends, there was a crocodile, basking in the sun. Huge, dry-looking and docile.

This is an anhinga, related to the cormorant, therefore possibly the loon? The natives call it a snake neck. Here it is, as cormorants do, drying out its wings. Notice the look-like plumage on its upper wings.

We are staying in a place that reminds me a bit of a summer camp.  We can only get wifi in one open air pavilion, directly across from the open air dining hall, which is down the path from my room.

As we approached the boathouses and welcoming sign, I knew this would be a wonderful 3 days.

DaSilva Biological Research Center (Rainforest)

We visited this center in Sarapiqui. This is a center where scientists come from all over the world to observe and collect data on animals and plants of all kinds.We spent the afternoon there, had supper there, and then went out on the trails with long sleeves, long pants, pants tucked into our socks, and hiking boots. Hats, too. Oh yes, such a glamour walk!! I thought we had to tuck our pants into our socks to avoid bug bites, but I later learned that this was because some of the venomous snakes can detect our body heat if skin near the ground is exposed! These hikes, both by day and night, were wonderful.

Some Pictures by Day:

This is a Three Toed Sloth. Notice the greenish hair. This is a type of algae that gets into the fur fibers,  mostly on the three toed sloths.

There are his toes!

We have seen loads of iguanas.

I really loved these humming birds! I was able to get this picture by putting my camera up to the lense of our guide's telescope.

And here is an adorable humming bird sitting on eggs in her nest!

Some Animals by night at Sarapiqui:

A Tribal Visit

We visited the village of the Maleku Tribe.

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This is a tribe of people who are native to Costa Rica for thousands of years. Like our native people in the USA, this tribe has slowly lost land and assistance and it's people are concerned for their future. This man, one of the elders of the tribe, spoke to us of his concerns. His nephew translated for us. These women were with them, but I am not sure if they are related or not.

The land is beautiful there.

They did a celebratory dance for our group, as this man talked to the great spirit as he knelt before the campfire.

They then danced in a circle, and asked Katy White to dance with them after handing her a rain stick!

We all bought some handmade artifacts from them. It was a very new and interesting experience!

Arenal Volcano

Today is day 6 of the trip. We have been in rain and in the clouds and the mud for the past 4 days. We all feel like prunes! The inside of our bus is hung with wet clothes everywhere in the hopes of going from dripping wet to damp!

This morning when I awoke, I thought I could see sun shining through the curtains in my room. I walked out onto my patio to dry air and THIS right in our back yard! What a wonderful surprise!

Arenal Volcano is 70,000 years old, which is young for a volcano. It is Costa Rica's most active volcano. From 1968 til 2010 there was an eruption every 2 hours from this volcano, with hot red lava flowing and ash in the air. Arenal Volcano has 4 craters. Crater A was formed on Arenal in 1968 and Crater B was formed a few months later, followed by C and D. I took this picture below from a book.

Today the volcano is very quiet, however there is always a cloud of steam and gasses that can be seen in two places - at two of the craters - high on the volcano. This was very exciting to see!

Pre-Columbian tribes considered Arenal to be the "Home of the Fire God." The volcano ceased all activity in the 13th century and stayed inactive until 1968 when an earthquake re-awakened it. 290 volcanoes in Cost Rica, only 5 active ones, however there are more active volcanoes under the sea here. 

This baby cow was right by my patio, too, grazing with his Momma Cow in the green grass with Arenal Volcano overlooking the pair!

From another angle, we saw what the Costa Ricans call "The Sleeping Indian". This reminded me of our beloved but gone, "Old Man Of The Mountain" in NH. You can see the forehead and silhouette of the man. This is the brother volcano of Arenal, which leads into Arenal, farther on the right.

I feel so fortunate that I decided to take this educators' tour... To see and understand another culture and country and to meet lovely people.

Monteverde

The MonteVerde region of Costa Rica is known worldwide for its unique cloud forest reserve that helped promote Costa Rica's reputation for ecotourism. MonteVerde's setting is mountainous, with an elevation of 4600 feet.  The roads are hilly, narrow, many dirt, or I should say, mud! It's incredible that our full-sized bus can maneuver these roads!

Monteverde also has lush rolling hills that are fertile pastures for the many cows we have seen along the roadway slopes.  These cows are the source for the area's famous cheeses.

We had a 2.5 mile hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Quite the workout of very hilly paths with lots of steep ups and downs.  A cloud forest are different than rain forests in that they are always found in elevations higher than 3500 feet. They are typically enveloped in clouds and mist.  

Our guide for the entire stay, Jimmy, has a lot of knowledge of trees, plants, birds, insects and mammals of the area. Below he was holding a millipede and was showing us how to tell the diff emcee between males and females as well as millipedes and centipedes.

This plant is called a piper. I loved the heart-shaped leaf. Their leaves can grow to 20 inches. There are 94 different species in Costa Rica! Great find around Valentine's Day!

Some of the flowers are just beautiful!

We've also seen some lovely birds as we travel around and about Monteverde. The first two below are Mot Mots. The 3 birds together are wild turkeys, and the last, my favorite, is a Chestnut Mandabile Toucan!

We were also fortunate to see some Leaf-Cutter Ants.  Fascinating! They farm their own food by gathering leaves and transporting them to their underground nests. Each leaf piece that they cut and carry can weigh as much as three times their body weight and they will carry these pieces along trails that are as long as or longer than 650 feet!

For those of you who are thinking we are down here in the warmth and sunshine, we are not! We have had two straight days of rain, rain, rain. We are all wearing multiple layers and most of us have very damp clothes! Our ponchos have been our best friends for 2 full days!