cr1

Costa Rica

Day 2: Saturday, June 17th, 2006:

I had my alarm set for 6:30am since we were all going to breakfast before the group students staying in the lodge before our kayaking outing but the very noisy Bill and Carolyn couple next door woke me up with their incessant bickering at 05:50. It's obviously not quiet or private at this hotel, the walls are absolutely paper thin and the patio doors open very loudly. I am inclined to think Bill and Carolyn care just naturally loud, I finally get out of bed and make coffee, then open my patio door to let in the light and smell of day. Bill was out there already and said "Hello. I hope we didn't wake you." I was too polite to say "Yeah, you totally woke me with the bickering" and instead out came "oh, no..."

We each have a single log-made rocking chair on our concrete patios that is adirondack-like and surprisingly comfortably. I was about to sit down in mine and sip coffee before heading up for breakfast when I saw a really cool stick bug on the rocking chair, just hanging out in the morning breeze and I'm examining him when Carolyn comes out of their room and says "Oh, the bug lady has found another bug." I won't sport with your intelligence or knowledge of my patience and magnanimity with the human condition to tell you what I was thinking..

We are slated to go kayaking in a large lake nearby today, and I was hoping for single mans since I'm not an in-experienced paddler, but Marcos told us at breakfast that they're all 2 man, mostly since there is a lot of wind across the lake and most of the geriatrics on these trips have complained that it's too much work to do it alone. So Marcos agreed to man a kayak with me, which is great for me since he's a rather muscle man who I think can do most of the work while I occasionally dip my paddle in the water and watch for wildlife. After hoofing it the 100 meters to the main lodge building and seeing a lot of birds out in the bushes I ended up eating with Bill and Carolyn and discovering that they are capable of putting aside their marital misery and talking about where they are from and other polite chit-chat and they can refrain from being obnoxious for a half an hour. Somehow I found this surprising, but was willing to admit that I tend to give nobody the benefit of the doubt, dislike everybody on immediate exposure and then discover, slowly, that I don't actually mind them, or even that I like them with further exposure. I still think I have a good read on people, even with my initial dislike, which is correct. But I seem to react more to my initial impatience than anything else. Ha ha. Snarky, opinionated. I'm okay with that. I used to feel repentant and wish I were a patient, nice person, but nowadays I'm ok with both my snarkiness and my general cynicism. I think it adds to my neurotic charm.

When I was mainly done with a breakfast that was only as *okay* the dinner the previous night (minus Joy and Gerry's laboriously bland story telling and polite condescension to treat me like a medical assistant "Shelby is a Physican's assistant" she said in her best kindergarden-teacher voice to her granddaughter) Marcos showed up in front of the picture window at breakfast to peel some bananas and lay them in this metal grate thing made for the birds specifically. I was totally vindicated with my black bird who flew by and the red wings because before long a scarlet-rumped tanninger showed up and that was the very bird I had seen the previous night. Again, there really are props here to Marcos since he actually had a degree in natural history and could keep up with John (and that says a LOT) we also saw yellow-crowned euphonia and a couple rufus-tailed hummingbirds at the bananas or the near by flowers.

I took *NONE* of these photos, I found them by searching for images on the internet. R-L: The gorgeous yellow-crowned euphonia; the scarlet-rumped taninger; the rufus tailed hummingbird.

Pretty birds.

After breakfast we drove the geri-wagon down toward Arenal Lake where we were getting ready to kayak the lake. Last to go in my life-vest, I headed down to the lake and ended up in a kayak with Marcos which is great because he's got these large biceps busting out of his shirts and I assume he's going to be good as a back-seat navigator. I was not wrong, it's good to have the strongest member of the group steering me. I think I held my own, thank you, but the wind was actually fairly strong for paddling. I kept obsessing about the fresh water bull sharks in Lake Nicaragua, very near here. I couldn't find any evidence of sharks in Lake Arenal, but the proximity to them is very alarming. The weather was fluctuating with sunshine and bursts of rainfall as we paddled along the shoreline scanning for wildlife in the trees. We hear more than we actually saw of the howler monkeys, although one was hanging out just visible in the treetop. John was the only one with specs on, since i was too paranoid mine would get wet or I'd drop them or something, so the rest of us only had our naked eyes. No cameras, either- we got soaking wet. On the way back, funny enough, there was a TV crew around for some reason I never really understood and they filmed us getting into our life jackets and paddling around a while before interviewing Marcos while we were on the water, then heading back to the launch area.

On the shoreline we saw Amazon and Belted kingfishers- the amazons, obviously, we don't see in north america. There were also tons of white swallow darting in and out of their dens on the banks. We paddled into this little alcove to look at them and looking down into the 2" deep water next to us, there was a lone green iguana sitting right on the bank staring at us. All these kayaks coming in for a look and he didn't even budge. Very cool. We were out for about 1.5 hours which went by pretty fast, actually, and it was fun. My arms, abs, back and thighs were getting pretty sore out there from paddling by the end, so it was really great to have Marcos in back with his biceps, paddling away. I slacked a bit, arms actually shaking a little. Back at the dock, we de-kayaked and only Joy and Gerry actually needed a tow back. At the launch, the guys spotted a 2-toed sloth in the trees above us with a baby on her stomach. I wished I had my camera and my specs- but even with the naked eye it was a real treat since i just love those sweet-faced sloths. They are just the most sweet looking placid animals. So slow, so gentle looking. While not rare, Marcos said they're unusual to spot because they are well camouflaged and are generally way up in the canopy. It's a shame CR is developing so fast they're suffering severe habitat loss. I love them.

I air-dried superfast in my north face shearwater capris and ended up disappointed that I left my camera at the hotel. The underwear-free style I didn't care for- it felt strange, but boy I love those pants. Back en route to the hotel we stopped off at a local tourist trap German Bakery where J&C split an apple strudel and I ate a ham and cheese croissant. Back at the hotel we had some downtime before we went up to the lodge for lunch.

After lunch we had an hour and a half where I caught up in my writing and organized myself a bit before the rainforest walk with Marcos. The walk was cool but very frustrating because it was just soooooo slow. I did learn some things, however, listening to the rambling. Rainforests are not jungles. The difference is that a jungle is so thick a human is not capable of walking through it without a machete to chop through the thick branches and foliage. Rainforest, of course, once you're in, is not machete-necessary- it's hikeable. Most of the life, of course, is up in the canopy- birds, mammals, etc and sadly the tree frogs are going extinct and nobody knows exactly why- although acid rain and pollution are likely culprits. There is just a perfusion of flowers everywhere and Carolyn pointed out that the pink shrubs covering the walls of the forest are actually impatients! There are also a number of species of wild orchids around- and orchids are the highest evolved of all the plants (cool, eh?)

In a snail's pace through the forest, more listening to Marcos' spew, we didn't see much until about 1/2 way into the walk when we came upon some man-made huts in the jungle with a lingering smell of wood burning smoke. 3 natives of the Maleku tribe awaited us. There are only about 250 members of the tribe remaining after a war with Nicaragua which killed off most of the their population. They subsist now in the mainstream, but still some make the traditional handicrafts such as carved masks and ceremonial horns. I bought a mask, made of traditional balsa wood, carved very inexpertly and crudely, and painted bright primary colors. The masks have ceremonial meaning, od course, and I managed to buy one of the two that had both a coral snake: the symbol of those who care for the health of the tribe, or function as a healer; along with a toucan whose beauty is supposed to represent the beauty of women. Together, a symbolic mask for a female healer. I loved it. I should really collect more of these exotic things.

Pics: the hut, an owl butterfly, the painted carved crafts, the 3 tribesmen who wished us "kapi kapi" the indigenous greeting. John and Charlene were so time intensive buying just the right rainstick that they got stuck at the village with Marcos on the way back while the rest of us bought our stuff and ploughed out of there back to our rooms for an hour of relaxing time before dinner. Food is not the eco-lodge's strong point, but it's basic and usually not bad. I generally eat way more spice and flavor than most all costa rican food in general, so I think that's part of it. DInner tonight was a paella full of shellfish and shrimp, so needless to say I didn't eat much. After dinner, I honestly crapped out after a brief attempt at keeping up the diary and was fast asleep for a very restful night by 10pm. It's pitch black up there at night, and all you can hear are the sounds of the various rainforest bugs singing in the night.

Sunday, June 18th

Bob and Carolyn were blissfully silent in the morning, so I woke up at 6:20am before my alarm, made coffee, dressed and got all situated on the deck with journal and pen in the morning cool fog before I even heard a peep out of them. Breakfast at the main lodge was the usual: rice, beans (plain, no spice or real flavor) and eggs, so I can mix those all together and make a decent meal by adding a pint of tabasco and salt. I got a nice spot in front of the picture window and Marcos added some new bananas to the bird stand and I got a great view of a couple euphonia and my scarlet rumped tanningers before leaving.

The Euphonia eating at the banana perch situated right outside the picture window.

After breakfast I got a blissful seat at the very back of the bus where I shut out Marcos' constant drone of verbal diarrhea, read my book and fought the urge to forcibly remove the wad of gum from Ellen's throat as she sat there, open-mouthed chomping like a farmyard animal. We arrived in the Rio Tenorio riverbed and donned life vests in the 90 degree heat with 80 percent humidity for a float down the crock-infested class 2 rapids.

Far above: left: the rainforest; a boat-billed heron juvenile. Above row: left: getting instructions, right: bats!!

Left: the nest of the boat billed heron pictured above.

Below: right: on the raft; a baby crock getting some sun! Second row below: left: the rio; right: a crock on the bank

Rio Tenorio is a trip west from the Lake Arenal region toward the Guanacaste province- which is on the coast of Costa Rica and represented a departure of ours toward the more hot and humid areas of the country. We will still be back up into the hilly region before the day is completely out, however, and will be back up in the clouds in a day. The river, while I'd never call these "rapids," was hot, sticky, humid and interesting with its bats hanging out under the rocks, baby crocks, big crocks, birds, and the constant presence of one of the guides in a tiny one-man canoe he was constantly doing showboat-tricks in. I was absolutely dripping with disgusting sweat by the end of the river, and Lynne the miserable Snot giving me a hard time about snapping a simple shot of me, John and Charlene because she "couldn't turn around" we still managed to see some cool things.

Jesus basilisks were just everywhere, squirrel cuckoos, turquoise crowned mot mots (LOVE them!!!), boat billed heron, black crowned night heron, green kingfisher, spot-breasted oriole, long nosed bats, stork, swallow-tailed kites, osprey, cattle egret, green heron, tiger heron, howler monkeys, grove-billed ani, woodpecker, red winged blackbird, white throated magpie jays. Cool.

After the boat ride, we stopped at a local wild animal shelter with really cool animals. All of them were either rescued from people who were confiscated from private homes, survived trauma or habitat loss. It was really cool to see. Loved it. The little cat below, about twice the size of a housecat is called a Margay. What a cute little face! We loved him.

The monkey on the left is a capuchin monkey. We stopped for lunch, spotting a keel-billed toucan in a tree and stopped for a few snapshots of that then headed back to the Eco Lodge. My towel creation of the day on arrival was a lovely bird in the limb of a tree with a baby in a nest. You gotta love these chambermaids. They're wonderful. I took a long cold shower to get the sweat off my whole gross body in that gorgeous stone bathroom while the layer of grime, sunscreen and and sweat made rivulets headed down the drain. Not a scorpion in site. I showered with the back deck sliding doors shockingly wide open and totally enjoyed the cool breeze and smell of the outside mountaintop. Since we're leaving the Eco Lodge tomorrow after our 3 night stay, I packed up things for the departure and generally organized my stuff. Then I went up to the lodge for 45 minutes to check on my email, I sent a message to David, got one from Emily Kemp at CHO asking some things about my application and learned I'm working 2 saturday shifts in the ER in July. Before dinner, we had a casual "spanish" lesson with Marcos over some traditional tapas-style appetizers that was basically an hour and a half of time I felt like was wasted. The tapas were okay- basically salsa fresca with chips, this black bean paste stuff and some other things that were ok. Apparently if you go out to any bar in CR at "happy hour," this includes appetizers on the bar. After a dinner of painful conversation with Joy and Gerry I went quickly back to my room for some critically needed alone time to decompress from this constant forced company stuff.

I read and chilled out in the cool night air and relaxed trying not to dwell on another long day of travel tomorrow.

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