***FYI: Photos will be added when I can access a cord to upload pictures from my phone and camera to my computer***
¡Buenos días, mis amigos!
Today we left San José, bright and early! We departed around 7am for Tortuguero by bus. This included a 4 hour bus ride, but it didn’t feel long, as we had much to see and talk about on the trip. From San José many mountain ranges and volcanoes are visible through the clouds; Mario pointed them all out as we made our way out.
A little bit outside San José, we passed through the gorgeous Braulio Carrillo National Park. We drove through the mountains of the park, encountering dense, diverse vegetation, small waterfalls, and interesting drivers. Mario explained some of the history of the country, some of the protections of the national park, and his experiences with wild drivers in San José and the surrounding areas. We even got the chance to stop and take some pictures!
Another stop on the way to Tortuguero was a banana plantation next to the road. Mario knew so much about how the bananas grow and are farmed; it blew me away! He demonstrated with his hands how, when they’re growing, the bananas are kept in the darkness of a plastic cover over the bunch, so that they’ll expand in search of light (instead of curling up). This expansion helps the bananas lay flat so more can be harvested and stacked together. The plastic bag covering the bananas also protect the bunches from bugs and bruising while they grow. Mario asked the driver to pull over so he could show us the banana train, where bunches are hung on a network of racks where they are pulled by workers to the center/farm to be prepared for transportation and handling. The workers, he said, are kept on a strict diet so they are in good physical condition to labor out in the heat and humidity.
After stopping to see the train, we piled back into the bus and discussed how the workers on these plantations lived and worked. For many working for large corporations like Dole and Chiquita, they live in towns owned by the companies. This was not unlike the coal towns from the early 20th century in the US, where the mine would pay in specialized currency on usable in the town. We discussed these parallels later at dinner, where Mario explained that the conditions of the the workers used to be grim, like in the case of the miners, but after the civil war in the late 1940s, social welfare laws/regulations were passed to protect these people. Since then, he said, conditions improved considerably.
We passed other plantations, such as papaya plantations, but we’ll stop and dive into those on our way back from Tortuguero. Once our drive was over, we boarded a boat. Tortuguero cannot be accessed by land; you have to either fly in or take a boat, so off we went. On the way there we saw incredible animals and plants, including a caiman! Everywhere we looked, there was something new to see, a testament to the biodiversity of the area. In our on-campus lectures, we had been told by Dr. Costa to pay attention to how much vegetation we could see in one area, and what relevant advice that was! In Ohio, where you could look at a a width of 10 feet and see 4 or 5 different species, here I could hardly even count how many there were. Mario had quizzed us on the bus about the causes of Costa Rica’s amazing biodiversity, and it was a true treasure to get to see the results of the tectonic history, diversity in climates and elevations, and incredible evolution and competition all at play.
Once we arrived in Tortuguero, in our hotel, Rana Roja, we ate lunch and had some free time to get settled. For many of us, this meant cooling down at the pool!
At ~4pm, we all met with Mario, who took us for a nature walk around the string of adjacent hotels, where we saw incredible plants and animals, whose scientific and common names Mario knew. He also went into depth about how the creatures lived and grew. Since the boat ride, he had been pointing out nests for the largest type of oriole in the world, and on the walk, we finally got to see several flying about and nesting in nearby trees.
Another interesting animals was the red poison dart frog, which one of the hotel workers found for us (we ended up stumbling on a few later in the evening). Mario explained that there were different levels of poison, which is why the guy who found it was able to show it to us in his hand. It never ceases to amaze me that such beauty can also be so dangerous to us.
If you’re looking for a new fashion accessory, there a leaf that is right for you. It stuck directly to our clothes (when Mario showed us how to put it on), and even in Kaitlyn’s hair! My favorite plant, however, had to be a red flowering bush with fruit called, “Hot Lips.”
After the nature walk, we had a few moments to rest; most of us took this time to continue to walk around, gaze at the plants, and study the crabs that burrowed next to the sidewalk. This was followed by dinner, then a frog hunt with Mario.
We walked around the outdoors looking for and identifying different frogs in the dark with our flashlights, finding individuals such as an olive tree frog, a red-webbed frog, and many others.
As we retreated to our rooms for the night, we stumbled upon the red-webbed frog, and Margaret, leaning in to get a better picture, received quite the surprise. Our amphibian friend jumped quickly from the railing where we first saw him to Margaret’s phone/hand, from her hand on to her shoulder (got a little bit caught in her hair), and eventually from her back/neck area, to the railing on the other side of the walkway. Margaret stayed frozen and totally calm so as to not scare the little guy.
Tomorrow we stay in Tortuguero for a boat ride through the canals in the morning, and in the afternoon, we’ll go into town to talk to the locals and attend a lecture.
¡Pura Vida!