Can you see the animals???

For every animal we spot there are probably dozens that we have passed by. On the way to Tortuguero last weekend we saw crocodiles in the long grasses by the side of the river (can you see him in the first photo?). Our guide pointed them out. I'm sure I would have passed right by them without noticing. This weekend we went to a Medicinal Plant Workshop in a placed called Punta Mona - near the Panama border and about 5.5 km south of the last road in Costa Rica. In addition to the plants we saw toucans (can you spot him in the trees) and and very skinny snake in a palm frond - Gordie pointed that one out to me. No way would I have spotted him. Makes you wonder just what else is passing you by.

Punta Mona

A couple of weeks ago we had an opportunity to participate in an all-day Medicinal Plant Workshop at Punta Mona. In addition to the course material, the meager cost of $30 included a 30 minute boat ride there and back as well as lunch. I have always wanted to visit this 85 acre permaculture farm that’s about 5.5 km beyond the end of the road in Manzanillo. Normally it would require a hike through the jungle for a few hours to get there. So the boat ride sounded really good to me.

We were met at Punta Mona by our instructor, Sarah Wu. She and the founder, Steve, showed us around the farm before we began learning all about 35 different medicinal plants which are readily found in this area. Punta Mona is an “off the grid” sustainable community. They grow more than 100 tropical fruits, vegetables, herbs, and medicinal plants for their own consumption on the farm. Conservation of energy and reduction of waste are practiced daily complete with composting toilets. Solar panels provide electricity and rainwater is collected for drinking and washing. They even have solar internet! Lunch was delicious and included a salad made with numerous greens from the various plants and trees that grow there. The information was great and even greater were the cuttings of several different medicinal plants for our own gardens. I’m watching every day and hoping for lots of potent greens.

100 eggs and counting

I was determined not to leave Costa Rica this time without seeing the amazing spectacle of giant sea turtles laying their eggs. Due to bad timing and previous commitments we had missed the turtle laying season in nearby Gandoca earlier in the summer. So, when ATEC, a non-profit eco-tourism association in Puerto Viejo that promotes local, sustainable travel in this area (http://www.ateccr.org/), offered a 2-day trip to watch the Green Turtles nest along the beaches of Tortuguero National Park, we jumped on it. We arrived at the dock in Moin, outside of Limon, early Thursday morning, for our 4-hour guided tour to the small village of Tortuguero on Costa Rica‘s northeastern Caribbean coast. The waterway we traveled ran parallel to the ocean and consisted of natural rivers and connecting canals which had been built years ago by the banana companies to bring their products down to the Port of Limon for shipping. Although our group of 12 represented the countries of Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the US, everyone spoke either Spanish, English or both, Our bi-lingual guide, Ricardo, pointed out crocodiles, caiman, monkeys, sloth, and an amazing number of bird species along the way. Half way there we stopped at an outdoor restaurant on the river bank and enjoyed a delicious family-style fried chicken lunch. Then back to the river and on to Tortuguero.

Our lodge, All Rankin’s Family Lodge, was a few kilometers north of the village. The lodge had its own riverside restaurant, bar and hammock patio, and each couple had their own cabina with a cozy porch. After a brief rest at the lodge, Ricardo brought us back - by boat, of course - to the small village of Tortuguero where we had a couple of hours to explore on our own. Even without turtles, this charming village would be worthy of a trip. Then it was back to the lodge and a fantastic marlin dinner (there was actually a choice of meat, chicken or fish but how could we pass up fresh marlin). And now it was time to see if we could spot a Green Turtle nesting on the beach.

The beach at Tortuguero National Park is the most important nesting site of the endangered Green Turtle in the Western Hemisphere. It now includes over 46,000 acres and protects 22 miles of nesting beach. It is impressive, and heartwarming, to read the story of the Green Turtle’s near extinction in the 1960s and the conservation efforts that followed, especially the work with local townspeople to help them see the sustainable value to their community of having the live turtles on the beach rather than exporting them for food and other uses. (50,000 plus tourists visit the area annually). The results are evident with 50,000 plus tourists visiting the area annually. Many villagers go through a government sponsored training program and are issued permits authorizing them to guide tourists on nightly turtle watching excursions. Our guide, Eddy, was one of them and the pride and professionalism they show is evident.

Every precaution is taken to ensure that the nesting turtle is not disturbed. We were in a group of 9 and there were 3 additional groups of about the same number in our designated area on the beach. Each area had a designated “ranger” who radioed to the individual guides when a turtle was spotted moving up to dry land. If the turtle senses something is wrong, sees a flash of light, hears an unusual sound, or anything suspicious, she will turn around and go back out to sea. Therefore, only the ranger and the guides are allowed to have flashlights - with red lights. And, no cameras are allowed at all (thus my turtle story features crocodile photos). Once the turtle is on land, finds a suitable spot to lay her eggs, digs a large hole and begins to actually lay her eggs, then the guide will bring the tourist groups by to watch this amazing act of nature. We has 2 different turtles dig their nests near us. Our 3 groups took turns going up to the nesting hole to watch this process. We then watched as the giant turtles covered their 100 plus eggs with sand, packed it down and moved their way out of the nest hole and back to the ocean.

As if this were not enough, after a hearty breakfast the next morning, Ricardo brought us for a 2-hour boat ride through the twisted canals of Tortuguero National Park, pointing out even more birds and animals. Before we knew it, it was time to return to civilization, the huge turtles, the quaint village, the adventurous boat ride, interesting people, all but a memory - until next time.

For more information about Tortuguero I suggest you try this link: http://www.tortugueroinfo.com/usa/sea_turtles_tortuguero.htm

Never know what you’ll run into ‘round here

A couple of days ago we were riding the motorcycle back home after a day at the beach. The road to our house, Carbon Road, is beautiful with lush jungle on both sides and occasional houses along the way. Gordie spotted some “critter” in the road and stopped. To our delight it was a 3-toed sloth who was just starting his way across the road. Lucky for me he was slow as it gave me time to find my glasses and my cell phone so I could take his picture before he went back up a tree for another week.

Today on the way home from the beach I had an encounter of another kind. We stopped at the local hardware store in Hone Creek to pick up a handle for a shovel. As we approached to door I noticed a car from the Jaguar Center, a local rehab shelter for lost and injured jungle animals. The gal from the center had a 1-year old Congo (howler) monkey with her. When I went over to talk with her, little “Angela” climbed out the car window and sat on my head with her tail around my neck - a breathtaking experience. Guess you could say we were not fast enough with the camera, so the photo you see here, a few moments AFTER the perfect photo op, was taken when her “daddy” came out of the hardware store. To say the least “Angela” was very excited and couldn’t wait to go see him. Fortunately I did stop her from leaping off my head and promised to go to the Jaguar Center to visit sometime soon.

Puerto Armuelles

Since we are not yet residents of Costa Rica, the immigration law requires that we leave the country for 72 hours every 90 days. My time was just about up, so it was time to hop on a bus to the Panamanian border, walk over Rio Sixaola viia the old railroad bridge, hop another bus to Changuinola and from there catch the bus to David, on the Pacific side of Panama. David is Panama’s second largest city and was our “home away from home” for 3 days. We stayed a the Hotel Occidental this time. In addition to a perfect location across from Cervantes Park, there was air conditioning and a spacious balcony overlooking the Park. We had heard that WiFi was now available - for free - throughout most of Panama - true. On the second day we decided to take a day trip to somewhere new. We picked Puerto Armuelles, a small Pacific coastal town of 25,000 people that is about 60 miles from David. Puerto Armuelles is just 5 miles from the Costa Rican border as the crow flies. For humans it’s a little further, 21 miles to Paseo Canoas. The $3 bus ride from David took about 2-½ hours and brought us through several smaller towns including the border town of Paseo Canoas, which quite frankly looks a lot like many of the US/Mexico border towns.

We arrived at the Malecon, or seaside park, just in time for lunch. Across from the Malecon was a charming little restaurant with patio dining, Restaurant & Pizzaria Don Carlos. We were greeted by the owner, Alberto, son of the late Don Carlos, who spoke perfect English and gave us a little history about the restaurant, the town and the Malecon, even sharing pictures he had taken through the years. For $6 each we enjoyed delicious whole red snapper (pargo entero), with sides.

Puerto Armuelles was once a thriving banana port with a separate deep water port for oil. Yes, oil. I found out from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Armuelles,_Chiriqu%C3%AD) that in response to the oil embargo in the 70s, crude oil was shipped by super tankers to Puerto Armuelles where it was loaded onto smaller tankers that would fit through the Panama Canal to cross over to the Atlantic and on to the refineries of Texas and the Gulf Coast. Then in 1982 a pipeline was built crossing from Puerto Armuelles over the mountains to Chiriqui Grande on Panama’s Caribbean coast (the destination of our next trip to Panama). A feasibility study for building a $7 billion refinery in Puerto Armuelles is currently being completed by Occidental. So, the economic future of this little seaport town may be changing in the years ahead.

Payback

This past month has gone by very, very quickly. As a matter of fact, the past 3 months have flown by. I am waiting for a bus to take me to Panama to meet my 90-day visa requirement. Even with the recent changes to the immigration laws in Costa Rica, it is still necessary for North Americans to leave every 90 days. 90 days. I can’t believe I have been down here that long already.

While we were in the States a “beach” friend of ours from Puerto Viejo, made sure all of our utility bills were paid and paid on time, while another , a “jungle” friend from Carbon Uno aka Hone Creek, kept an eye on our house in the jungle. So, when we came back down it was “payback” time. The beach friend went to the States for 6 weeks to visit family and the jungle friend became ill and left for a month as well. As luck would have it, these times overlapped so Gordie spent his time at the beach watching a house with 2 dogs and I spent my time in the jungle watching 5 dogs. We'd meet during the day and enjoy a swim and sometimes lunch, then back to our respective "jobs." Both friends are back now so it's back to “normal” in our lives as well. So, you can expect to see more stories in the days to come. It is so nice to have friends you can count on. We consider ourselves blessed.

Who's afraid of a poison-dart frog

There is an amazing botanical garden on the way into Puerto Viejo that we like to visit called Jardin Botanica La Isla. We went there this past Sunday to buy some new plants for our window boxes. Luckily I brought the camera with me because there was an abundance of tiny red Poison-dart frogs hopping throughout the bromelaids, just waiting to have their photos taken. I was so fascinated by these little guys that I borrowed a book from a neighbor, A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica, Twan Leenders, published by Distribuidores Zona Tropical, S.A. copyright 2001. I have summarized the following details from my research for those of you that find the whole topic of Poison-dart frogs fascinating. For those that who hated biology you may want to stop reading now and just enjoy the photos. Here is what I have found out about these tiny frogs:

There are 133 species of frogs and toads in 8 families found in Costa Rica. The Poison-dart frogs are in the Dentrobatidae family. The Dentrobatidae family includes 8 species in 3 genera: Colostethus (3 species), Dendrobates (3 species) and Phyllobates (3 species). The Poison-dart frogs made famous by Hollywood movies are from this latter genera, a South American species called Phyllobates terribilis. The toxin on the skin of this species is the strongest animal toxin known to biologists and is sufficient to kill 10 adult humans. It is this toxin that is used in blowguns used by indigenous people from the Choco region of Columbia for hunting (for monkeys, sloths and other food - quite sure they don't hunt people although I am sure it could be tempting). The secretion from the frog's skin contains a strong neurotoxin. They cover the darts and arrows with this secretion. When the dart or arrow pierces or even grazes the skin of the target animal the neurotoxin can cause total paralysis, or even cardiac arrest, within minutes. The book, A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica, goes on to state that recent studies have indicated that the source of the chemical compounds (alkaloids) responsible for the toxicity of the skin secretions may be from the TINY ANTS that make up a large percentage of the frog's diet.

The frogs at Jadin Botanica La Isla that are in my photos are also known as Strawberry Poison-dart frogs but they are not the ones used by the Columbian tribes in their blowgun darts. These adorable creatures are from the same Dentrobatidae family but are from the species Dendrobates pumilio. They are found throughout the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. Although they are very small measuring from 3/4 to 1 inch (19 to 24 mm), their bright red-orange coloring and smooth skin makes them hard to miss. They lay their eggs in the concave part of a leaf or shallow depression in the ground, which explains why the ones at the garden were romping throughout the bromelaids. Their diet is largely comprised of tiny ants and they can reach 5 to 6 years of age. Their skin toxin is not deadly to humans but the author of my research book gave an anecdotal account of an encounter he had after touching their skin. After he had handled one of the frogs, he wiped the sweat off his face with his hand and thinks he must have accidentally ingested some of the toxin residue as he he had trouble swallowing and breathing for the next 30 minutes.

I hate tiny red ants. They bite me. It hurts for days. Nothing stops the itch. I am thinking about adding lots of bromelaids to my yard. I believe there are benefits to having a yard full of tiny red Poison-dart frogs instead of tiny red ants.