Turtles, Toucans, Bats and Red-eyed Tree frogs

11/27/2012 Dan:  Heavy rain again through much of the night. The day dawned bright and sunny with great local bird activity. After breakfast we used a lightly traveled gravel road through the countryside as both a nature trail and as a way to get a feel for how the locals live.

A well-dressed happy young man on his bicycle stopped to say hola, but he quickly discovered we did not speak Spanish. His black dress pants had a few small streaks of mud splatters from his bike. He proudly laid his hand on the black plastic bag tied on his bike behind his seat and told us something we regrettably could not understand. Susan only caught the word “fresh.” I imagined he had caught some prized fish and was taking them to market but he was probably telling us about his laptop computer. He encouraged Susan to take his picture, and he gave her a beaming smile (4 days later we discovered that he delivers fresh baked bread each morning). Baking is unpopular in this hot and humid climate.

Palm plantation (for hearts of palm)

Soon we were passed by a pickup truck whose cab and bed were filled with people who appeared to be headed to work at a small pineapple farm. Pineapple appears to be the main crop in the local area but most of the private land is devoted to cattle ranching.

We enjoyed considerably more sun than the previous two days. Of course, that meant it got hot and humid. The shaded parts of the road felt good but we walked on at a leisurely pace watching birds and absorbing the gently rolling countryside. We passed a home where the roof was about 15'x30' but the enclosed living space was about 15'x10'. A small hut of a home even by local standards.

Susan: Many of the homes in Costa Rica feature large areas under roof but otherwise open. It’s never cold, and the bugs aren’t bad, so it is more enjoyable to sit outside than inside. You don’t need a lot of enclosed space!

Living fence: sticks put in the ground root and sprout!

Dan: As we continued along the edge of this farm a man carrying a backpack sprayer called out to us. He walked up a little road on his farm and tried to see if he could assist us. Soon we discovered that none of us spoke the others language so we parted with smiles.

 

On the walk back to the retreat, a sizeable group of young tourists on a guided horseback ride passed by. One of the equally young guides found a six inch long turtle. After he showed it to his tour group, he galloped back to show it to us even though he spoke no English. He simply had the situational awareness that we were obviously nature tourists who would appreciate seeing the turtle.

After lunch we had a very engaging personal ethnobotany tour with a man named Jaime Alvarado. Jaime is in his fifties and is a lifelong resident of Chilamate. Jaime was the second oldest of 12 kids whose parents relied greatly on the rainforest to provide for the needs of their family. Jaime said he only went to school part-time until the third grade but he had an insatiable desire for reading.

Keel-billed toucan

His grandfather had come to Costa Rica from Corsica and brought with him many books. Jaime said his grandfather had the largest book collection in the Chilamate area. Nearby La Selva Biological Station hired and trained Jaime to be an electrician but Jaime said his passion was always nature. He eventually became a naturalist guide and now supports himself doing nature tours independently. Jaime was proud of the assistance that he provided over the years in helping BBC film crews produce documentaries of his beloved rainforest.

Papaya tree that toucan was eating from

Achiote

The depth of Jaime's knowledge, including scientific names, was remarkable. He was equally impressed by how much Susan knew about tropical botany and what I knew about general ecology and history. Together the three of us had a great time marveling at the beauty and complexity of nature, and pondering the many things we wished we knew.

The afternoon flashed by and our scheduled 2-hour tour lasted much longer because it was so mutually enjoyable. Jaime often asked us questions in the Socratic-style of teaching. He seemed frequently pleased by what we knew or what we were able to deduce with his help or by thinking scientifically. Jaime's tour was a wonderful combination of knowledge, experience, wit, humor, and experiential learning.

After dinner, we had another exclusive $25 per person nature walk into the rainforest at night with Jaime. We had not yet seen the beautiful red-eyed tree frog but during the tour we found 4 of them.  Jaime also found us a tent-making bat under a low-hanging tree leaf, and the only snake we saw on our whole trip: a black and white snake that Jaime said was likely a coral snake mimic.

What impressed me most was Jaime drawing our attention to how long it took for drops of water to fall to the ground from the tree canopy. As Jaime watched the long descent of the drops in his flashlight he smiled broadly and clearly delighted in the experience as if it were his first time. We went to bed that night feeling that we had a small but very real rainforest experience on the muddy trails of Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat.