Costa Rica - part I

our first Central American वकाशन

After my heart surgery, I wanted to be away from my daily routines and lifestyles to find my confidence all over again। Mid-November we just decided to click around and find a place where we could find our love for life again. Costa Rica just happened. It fit well with our need for cheap tickets and the idea of a tropical place, thriving with life. Besides, we had family visit the place before, heard and learned about its' biodiversity, heard a lot about pure O2, and the existence love of my son's wildlife species - crocodiles and monkeys. Alright, alright - we did not see a crocodile but we saw the "grand" Caiman. Sanjeev was ecstatic. Before going there, Sanjeev spent a whole lot of time asking me about volcanoes as we were visiting Arenal - the much visited volcano of CR. His main concern was regarding whether the lava will flow down to us. The reality - was much different but respectful nevertheless.

To tell the story chronologically, we landed into San Jose -a valley city, polluted, but full of life. To soak in the day's travel aches, we realized that the hotel we had booked in was different from the hotel we really wanted to book for the night - oh well :) but believing in pura vida we braved the night and then traveled to Arenal the next morning on the Interbus. The Interbus is really fantastic a travel option - esp if you are a couple with/without a kid as driving is not what we wanted to do. I have noticed that time and again - I do a lot of the planning for a trip prior to reaching the destination and then chill out. That usually also implies that dear nandu ends up being the organizer at the destination, which he likes to do and that is the balance - cest la vie :) Ok..back to the Interbus. The driver George urf "Jorge" also had a mitral valve surgery in June and showed us his warfarin tablets and his id that he has to carry for emergency. He was really cool giving us the landscape commentary, spotting animals, birds and telling us about the the farming community. We stopped a short distance from San Ramon at a little chalet that had wonderful hot bean tamales ready for us to fill our tummies mid-morning. Well you see, the morning breakfast was something better not said ;) Jorge taught us the right way to say "Pura Vida" and it was fun responding :) Anand soon realized that I may actually manage the trip with my broken Spanish - it truly improved through the trip and I was quite impressed myself. Why me! My son was looking up to me to - "Amma you know espanol!" Until then he had thought only he could do it!

Oh again - back to the story. we reached our abode in Arenal called Erupcionnes Inn, a little farm and B&B, a little after noon - famished. But food came a while later to our minds - the scenery and the air was breath taking - yes you could take a breath and take another one without any guilt or reluctance! The air at the farm by on the volcano slopes was refreshing and smelled of dirt and leaves. Birds in plenty, cows in more than plenty and three horses galloping around were enough to get us to forget food. I right away say at least 6 species of birds by the little creek in the farm, promising myself that I will definitely get to recognize and know their names. Sanjeev took out his newly acquired "really crude" (poor guy does not know that yet!) camera and took shots of the animal sand the cloud hidden volcano. The reality for him had sunk in - the lava will not reach his toes, the volcano is active but life can be safe around it. We heard the rumble of Arenal - lasted all of 4-5 minutes, sounding like a bunch of rocks tumbling down our chicago condo's garbage chute (get it?) Can you imagine the lifeforms that are supported by this volcano?

We made our way then into La Fortuna the little pueblo near Arenal on the public bus,along with Kiren - the swiss young lady who was working at Erupcionnes. Found out that La Fortuna has a population of 5000 of which 4000 are tourists!! We ate at a dhaba styled hotel and ordered the traditional Casado meal of CR. Stomach filled souls then went into the super mercado for essentials, yummy ropical fruit drinks, and whole milk yogurts. We relaxed that night listening to lashing rains, reminding us of Suratkhal, the rumblings again, and a little funny lonely feeling that can exist amongst urban dwellers - esp. when no other rooms in the inn was occupied that night and the owners home was around 2 furlongs away past a creek :) - well anyway - we slept well after making sure no food was out as the place was prone to ants making their routes for food.

The next mornng we had a generous breakfast with fried plantains - courtesy of Jessie, Kiren, Maria, and Nicole ( the 3 year old dost of Sanjeev) and Eagle tours came right to the doorstep to take us to the Cano Negro (CN) Wildlife Refuge with promises of species we were waiting to understand and see. The ride to that place was filled with plantations of bananas, pineapple, papayas (two varieties), grapefruits, oranges, limons, mangoes, and sugarcanes. Some of them we had seen on our way to Arenal but what was interesting was our guide (another "Jorge" again) who gave us a pretty clear picture of the demographics and the power play in CR. We learnt that a lot of the plantations are US/Mexico and Europe owned establishments, the farmers there are immigrants and refugees from Nicargua and most CR natives are either pursuing small businesses or thriving on the tourism industry. Nearly 20% of CRicans are actually Nicaraguans. Jorge talked about his mom being from Nicargua and he hoping for a future as a naturalist/biologist. Most towns we passed remined us a lot of Karnataka soil - red/clay soil and wet muddy areas like those in central and western Karnataka. The tour van made un-planned stops to see a laughing falcon, caracaras, crested currasows and roosting iguanas.

On the dirt road near the CN lake, Jorge face light bright. He talked a ton with Juan Manuel the driver (oh - I'l talk about him a lot later too) and then proudly confirmed that the bird in the distance was the great "Jabiru". he said that in the last 15 yeas, he himself had seen this great stork family bird all of 3 times, including this sighting. It was like an old man stork - slowly stalking in the marshes, picking its food. There are only ~80 jabiru pairs in the world today. they are fast loosing habitat to large plantations replacing wetlands in the central american region. Anyway, bird sighting was fun and it catches on. Early on it seems like "oh yes - there is one more, there is another one".. blah blah.. but then all of a sudden it dawns on you - this place is teaming with birds and animals - we must have seen atleast 40 species on the Cano Negro Trip alone. We saw the Laughing Falcon, the Great Caracaras, Roseate Spoonbill, Aninhgas, Jacanas, Guan/Pava, Vultures, Egrets, Great White stork, Ani, Tiger Heron, Blue Heron, Potoo and I have to stop now and refer to my Costa Rica Wildlife book for more! The Cano Negro trip had a lively moment for all on the boat - you see Sanjeev had to empty his bladder and we were still about 45 minutes away from the lodge where the boat docks for our trip back. Jorge and Marcinello the boat rider gave us a nod for Sanjeev offering his.. to the lake - oh well good thing he eats mainly organic and healthy fruits ;) Earlier before boarding the boat - he could'nt help but drink up a ton of horchata and eat a load delicious empanadas! Man! the howler monkey had found his match!

We came back that night soaked with sounds of the Cano Negro forests and achy backs after the long road trip and settled back with little to do other than listen to the sounds of Arenal and drink our corvocado yogurts. We thought it was going to be yet another lonely night in the inn devoid of guests. Well, really not. Looking out of our windows all of a sudden we spotted people - many of them, seemed familiar with giggling shrill voices. Our dear friends from Chicago who were also touring Costa Rica landed at the same place and bunked out in the next cabin that night. Might surprised we were and Sanjeev was ecstatic, but not sure how that had happened! I had sent our Erupcionnes Inn address to Anita earlier that week. They tracked us down. It was fun to exchange notes and jokes through that night and the next day. I can't say enough on how much I was also relieved to have Ani there as I had this growing anxiety about Sanjeev's cold/fever caching on slowly and she really helped me tap away my fears and brae the rest of the trip - you see we still had Monteverde to encounter :)

Despite its volcanic activity and and nearby farm land cultivation, Arenal supports a tropical rainforest and low lying cloud forests full of life. The hot springs - ohh la la that come from this volcano took Sanjeev's cold and my emerging tiredness far away - we dipped in it on the third day. We spent almost 5 hours there, dipping in pools with temperatures varying from 150 deg. F to 68 deg F; with jacuzzis, whirlpools, fountains and just plain water. Anand never glowed more - we all tease him about it a lot! Then we made it back to Fortuna for a sumptuous Costa Rican meal before heading out to Arenal Tropical Forests for the hike. Well I was warned - it was a strenuous hike and I had my misgivings about not being able to do it. So I stayed in the van while Anand and Sanjeev braved the pouring rain, slushy muddy hike up the mountain with a great guide and a wonderful set of tourists who offered to carry Sanjeev up through difficult terrain.

I couldn't sit and do nothing. So I went up to the driver (the same Manuel again) and asked him to take me up the path to the viewpoint where we we anyway going to meet the group later. He stopped midway and led me down the path hoping to catch the group on their tail end - but all we could hear were radio talk from a village far below and the pouring rain. The group seemed nowhere and it was getting dark. I honestly prayed that Sanjeev comes back fine from this trek - did not know how soaked he could really be. Maneul then took me on a short walk uphill and then downhill to a point where we could look down at a small valley b/w the mountains - it was the lake of the volcano, not the grand Arenal lake, but a small crater kinda lake - it was a beautiful thing - could hear howler monkeys howling and the birds chirping as the sun set and the clouds kept rolling into the valley. This was जन्नत! - heaven! The Volcano was still shrouded in clouds - of course - it was raining. (I later did my own research on the web and have come to believe that the small lake I saw was "laguna la palma", a land locked lake that is still teaming with life and chemicals ;)

I stopped Manuel - hoof marks of cattle up this high? Oh yes! he said the cattle there really climbs high for their grass. We returned and waited and waited for the group - other groups came through the easy hike and settled into their vans. But our group - with the difficult hike choice they had made, they really were late and I was getting nervous through the darkness and rain. It was amazing how the mind can play and I kept getting inspiration from the pure nature and vida around me. It was really an awesome experience all in all. They came at last. King Sanjeev with an umbrella, on the back of Nate a Canadian visitor and Anand a tired soul all drenched and wary. But Anand couldn't be happier - he had learnt a lot about the symbiotic life of these forests though the wonderful naturalist/guide. We had the option of going back to the hot springs and soaking again - but instinct told me that we had had enough - especially Sanjeev. Besides the next day was another trek up the mountains to Monteverde.

But wait - this day's story doesn't end here. That night as if to gift us a parting memory, Arenal cleared up - the clouds let go of their mountain for a brief 5 minutes and we saw the glow and spurt of an active Volcano. Anand woke up Sanjeev to see it and we can only hope that he remembers it as years go by.