Road Trip 3-Playa Verde

Fortunately, after getting off the boat, the next stop was lunch—everybody was famished.  Part of our excursion was a typical Costa Rican lunch—black beans, rice, plantains (I think), coleslaw, chicken or pork, salsa, and lemon aid.  I am sure we all had this pictured in the hungry part of our brains.

We hurriedly drove to this house that had a yard full of flowers.

       

Apparently it was like a local Bed and Breakfast because they rented these little Cabanas.

We noticed they had a rug hanging on the line like it had just been cleaned.  It was beautiful.

We all sat at this long table and they brought our lunch to us.

While we were all eating, a parrot that was evidently a local resident, although it could fly, came and was wandering around under our table waiting for someone to drop some food.

Well----several days before, I had stubbed my toe while taking our morning walk.  Gail had brought a first aid kit along with us from Arkansas that had colored band aids in it.  I had put one of these band aid--a green one--on my toe.   That parrot saw that band aid and went for it like it was a five star menu item.

I had to finish my lunch with my foot up in the air on the seat of Gail’s chair.

After lunch we again headed for Tamarindo.  However, we had one more stop to make--the town of Gaitil.  This is small town in the middle of the mountains where they make pottery.  The local people here are Chorotega Indians who are native to this area and have been making pottery since Christopher Columbus was here. 

 (Christopher Columbus discovered Costa Rica and named it “Rich Coast” because he saw all the gold the people were wearing.)

This is one of the homes in the town with their pottery shop out front.

The Chorotega people go into the mountains and gather the raw materials they use to make the pottery.  The material is then pounded into dust that is mixed with water.  

The pieces are then shaped completely by hand.  Here, he is making handles shaped like frogs.

They use the colored rocks from the mountains to make the paint they use on the pottery.  They mix the dust from the rocks with water to make the paint.  They do this with their feet similar to making wine.

Each piece is hand decorated.

The pieces are then fired in a kiln.  There are no thermometers on the kilns and the temperature is controlled by the different kinds of wood used.

When the pottery is finished it is very hard and very beautiful.  Each piece is inscribed on the bottom with the name of the artist that made it and the person who painted it.

Gail bought a beautiful coffee cup.  It is signed by Jesus and Susan.

She also walked down the road to another shop and found a necklace that was handmade from watermelon seeds.

Eventually everyone found their way back to the bus and we once again headed for Tamarindo.  However, someone (not sure who that was Lynne Reilly) in the back of the bus hollered out to Juan that they were hungry for watermelon.  So Juan found us a roadside fruit stand.

It was wonderful and fully satisfied everyone. 

Believe it or not, we did all of this in one day—a wonderful experience.

Road Trip 2-Playa Verde

As we arrived at Palo Verde, our guide, Juan Carlos, had just finished telling us about the education system in Costa Rica.  In 1945 the president decided there was no need for Costa Rica to have an army.  He felt the money being spent on an army could be better spent on education.  Because of that decision, ninety five percent of the people in Costa Rica today are able to read and write.  Everyone is required to go to school through eleven grades and the government provides all materials as well as uniforms.  They are taught Spanish as the main language but then must choose either English or French as a second language.  Juan said the boys choose English and the girls choose French since it is sexier.

The first thing we saw as we arrived at Palo Verde was a long bridge extending across the river.  It looked like two different bridges that had been joined together.

Very soon our river chariot arrived.

We all got aboard and our captain headed out on to the river.  Almost immediately we saw a crocodile relaxing in the mud along the shore.

With my telephoto lens, I was able to get pretty close.

And a little closer to another one,

And a little closer,

And really “up close and personal” to this one.

We saw a total of twenty five crocodiles.  They are all salt water crocodiles since this water is a combination of fresh and salt water.  

In addition to the crocodiles we saw lots of other animals and birds. 

For example, we were boating along and Juan had the captain of the boat stop and told us to look up into the tree.  Nobody saw anything.  Juan tried to tell us where to look.  Nobody saw anything.  Finally, Juan took out a mirror and directed the ray of sunlight into the crotch of this tree.  There it was—an anteater asleep.  With my telephoto lens I was able to capture this picture.

You have to look close at the picture to see him and I don't know how Juan was able to pick him out at all in that tree.

We traveled further down the river.  This was a beautiful river ambling through the mangroves.

Juan showed us how these mangroves actually “walk”.  That is, they sprout new roots closer to the water and discard the old.  You can actually see their tracks in the soil along the side of the water.

We traveled further.

Juan had the captain stop the boat again.  This time he got out the mirror right away and pointed to this tree trunk.

It was covered with bats.  These are called "Long Nose Bats" and are the only mammal that flies.  I was able to get up really close with the lens of the camera--ugly little guys.

As we traveled further along the river we saw many, many different kinds of birds.  There were several species of Herons—Blue Heron, Green Heron, and Tri-color Heron, for example.

We saw what Juan called the “croc eater”.  It is the bird the crocodiles fear the most because it eats their eggs.

We also saw a number of Osprey eagles.  They are great fishermen.  Every time we saw one it had just caught a fish and was taking it home or it was getting ready to catch something.  They are the only bird that can rotate their “hands” like humans which helps them when they catch a fish and immediately go airborne with it.

One of the most colorful birds we saw was the Rosetta Spoonbill.  It has a bill shaped like a spoon and moves it’s head back and forth using it’s bill to collect small objects from the water.

We saw a whole clan of Howler monkeys and some magnificent water lilies.

The river was gorgeous as we made our way back to the pickup point.

We were ready to head back home.  But first……….

Road Trip-Playa Verde

Last week several of us from the condo complex, plus a few other folks, took a trip to the “interior” to Palo Verde Natural Preserve.  We took a “Tourismo” van which holds about a dozen people and is very comfortable.  Our tour guide was Juan Carlos, a young man extremely knowledgeable about the plants and animals, and Costa Rica overall.  He was also very adept at imitating the sounds of the various animals we saw.  He was a handsome young man, spoke very good English, and had a scar on his cheek, one on his chin, and one on the back of his head from bull riding.

It was another sunny and hot day.  In fact I noticed our driver took extra precautions.

He used the towel the entire trip to keep the sun from getting too hot on his arm and leg.

As we were driving along, Juan all of a sudden asked the driver to stop.  He got out of the van and ran back along the road.  Pretty soon he came back with this pretty, but unusual looking flower-like thing and asked if we knew what it was.

After much discussion we finally guessed that it was a cashew.  The cashew is the only fruit whose seed grows outside the fruit.  The seed is surrounded by a double shell containing an allergenic resin that can irritate the skin much like poison ivy.  Properly roasting cashews destroys the toxin, but it must be done outdoors as the smoke (not unlike that from burning poison ivy) can cause severe, sometimes life-threatening, reactions by irritating the lungs.

As we were traveling along the road, Juan pointed out these mountains in the distance that were part of a National Preserve.  He said they had many caves with beautiful stalagmites and stalactites.

He also told us there are 112 volcanoes in Costa Rica and seven of them are still active.  The tallest one is 14,000 feet high.

Another interesting item was the fence rows.  The farmers would use young trees for the fence posts.  This way the trees would grow and create a permanent fence and contribute to the environment all at the same time.

Costa Rica’s major exports are bananas, pineapple, and coffee, in that order.  These are all mostly grown inland and on the east coast where there is a more temperate and moist climate.  Two of the popular crops grown in this area are sugar cane and teak.  There is so much sugar cane that they make a molasses from it and use that to coat the gravel roads to keep the dust down.  We saw many sugar cane fields and many teak forests.

Teak is a beautiful wood.  It is very strong and is also waterproof.  Because of this it is used for just about everything from telephone poles to cooking utensils.

The first stop we made was the town of Nicoya to see the oldest Catholic cathedral in the country.  It was originally built in 1522 by the Spaniards.

The interior of the church is made of teak and mahogany wood (the darker wood at the corners is mahogany).

The front of the church now has a clock that was recently installed.  However, originally the time was calculated by the shadow of the peak of the front door falling on a sundial created in the interior tile floor.  That is why the front door has the specific shape.

As we left the church we went past a cemetery.  In Costa Rica people are buried above ground because of the heavy rains.

After leaving the church we drove on to Pala Verde because it was important we get there at low tide.

To be cont………

FOOTNOTE—Gail and our friend Lynne Reilly kept notes all day long and graciously allowed me use  of them in creating this blog entry.   There is no way I could have remembered all this stuff by myself.