Monteverde: a biological paradise. . . with coffee and chocolate

Tarantula of the night

With much excitement and only a little nervousness about snakes, we trekked to Monteverde.  From our house in Nuevo Arenal, we drove a half an hour on the beautiful paved road around Lago Arenal to Tilaran before embarking on one of the most famously rough roads in Costa Rica, leading to Monteverde.  After having navigated this road last October, at the height of the rainy season, in a small sedan, I knew it'd be no match for our 4x4 Montero.  After an hour and a half of rough dirt roads with sweeping vistas, high clouds and bright blue skies we arrived in Santa Elena, gateway to Monteverde.

After checking out a couple of potential hotels that could possibly house a crew our size, we made a unanimous decision to rent a cabin at Los Pinos for two nights.  This really is a beautiful spot whose many pine trees brought back memories of northern California.

Oranges!

One of the highlights of this particular place is a VERY large hydroponic garden, impressively run by just two men.  In one of the covered areas alone we estimated about 10,000 lettuce plants.  Apparently they use just a little fertilizer and natural insect repellants including chile oil and garlic extract, among others.

Lettuce, anyone?

The produce was amazing.  They sell to many local restaurants and families, and they happily offered us some beautiful lettuce and cilantro.  We saw a few other folks but my dad was apparently the first person to visit who was more interested in the (three) water pumps than the produce itself.  In addition, there was an elaborate rainwater collection system to supply part of the water needed to grow all the produce.  What a great use of resources.

Hank asks questions about the water pumps

Several capuchin monkeys were inhabiting the pines and seemed to be either antagonizing several large, very loud and unidentified birds, or they were trying to steal eggs from their nests.  The entertainment value was great, though.  Of course, the playground was popular with our crew also, not only for its equipment but for some of its denizens.

Playground pajaro bobo (mot-mot)

Playground leaf-footed bug (we think)

Playground Jones boys

Santa Elena is at almost 5000 feet in elevation and is a hotbed for ecotourism given its proximity to many large reserves famous worldwide for their biodiversity and opportunities for wildlife and plant viewing.  For this trip, we opted to bypass the most famous reserve, Monteverde, for an even larger and equally interesting reserve, Bosque Eterno de Los Niños (Eternal Rainforest of the Children).  This is actually the rainforest in Costa Rica supported by donations collected by children all over the world.  While in preschool, each of our kids literally collected money for the rainforest in Costa Rica and supported this fantastic place.  For more information about this wonderful forest reserve and how to help, go to:  http://acmcr.org/childrens_eternal_rainforest.htm .  There is much active research and volunteer opportunities are available.  There are ongoing efforts to learn more about the return of the jaguar to this area, for example.  Anyway, the extent of our exploration included an exciting guided night hike as well as a hike the following day.

Bosque Eterno de Los Niños

We were impressed by our guide's ability to coax tarantulas out of their holes that he was able to identify, simply by gently inducing vibrations on the ground with a small stick.  He had an uncanny ability to spot sleeping birds as well as frogs and insects.  We did not spot a translucent glass frog or a sloth but were not disappointed in any way.

Female rhinoceros katydid with large ovipositor

Fortunately we managed to avoid any major injuries, bites or stings during our hikes.  For this family it was no small miracle.  One of the highlights of our day hike was listening to the call of and eventually spotting the elusive and increasingly endangered three wattled bellbird.  Here is a (borrowed) link to a video of this crazy bird and its call:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnu8QbpImWw .

Good times

Plenty of leaf-cutter ants, blue morpho butterflies and a pizote kept us entertained.

Children's Eternal Rainforest with ominous clouds

On Mother's Day this year in our family, there were no sappy cards or bouquets of flowers.  Instead, we had a great coffee and chocolate tour at Don Juan's plantation.  None of us had ever seen either of these processes in any detail but everyone really enjoyed themselves, especially eating the dried cacao nibs straight from the shell.  The kids didn't mind drinking coffee either!

Happy Mother's Day

Coffee bean pickers.  If they were professionals and worked very hard, they could make about $25 in a day.

Henry helps process some sugar cane to make cane juice.

Cacao!

Madeleine, in action, processing cacao to make chocolate

The moms in the crowd decided on "typical" food and were quite satisfied by large casado plates at Sabor Tico, on the edge of town.

Sabor Tico, with every one still buzzing on caffeine.

Our paths crossed yet again with our friends Valerie and Dan, this time in Monteverde.  We've had a great time hanging out with them the last couple of weeks and will miss not seeing them again anytime soon.  We finished off our stay with a visit to an almost surreal hummingbird garden that lived up to its billing.  An uneventful ride home returned us to our own small bit of paradise.