Sunday February 15th
Four of our group members headed out today to be research assistants for Jan and Jose on a biology excursion into the mountains. We will definitely miss them very much. As for the rest of use we spent the day organizing our things, cleaning up our living areas and discussing the three free days we had ahead of us in Uvita, which is just outside of Dominical. A couple of us took some clients out on a zip line tour to see the tree house which was a great way to get some guiding experience since so many of us are learning to be instructors for exactly that type of thing. It was a lot of fun and the visitors didn’t have any trouble and seemed to really enjoy the tour. Later, Erica made us pad thai for dinner which was incredible and we went to bed early because we had our shuttle driver Antonio picking us up at the bottom of the hill at nine the next morning.
El Groupo de Expedition (Expedition Group), consisting of Gerry, Eric, Brandee, and Tanner, caught a Costa Rican bus from Piedras Blancas to San Isidro. It was definitely a new way of traveling down here. We’ve been spoiled with our shuttles, this bus ride was approximately four hours long, and at least one member of our group was standing at any given time. Once we got to San Isidro we found a hotel (with hot water I might add!!!) and peaced out for the night.
Monday February 16th
The remainder of the group hiked down the hill in the morning where Antonio was waiting to take us to our tour of an indigenous village by the name of Boruca. Matt, or as the locals call him Don Mateo, arranged for us to pick up Adrian who was going to be our translator/ tour guide for our excursion. Once we reached the town we were warmly welcomed by the women of the tribe and they fed us lunch, chicken, rice and beans of course! After lunch we were off to learn about all the different crafts that are the villages main source of income. The men of the village are known for carving beautiful and very intricate masks of indians and animals. These masks are used to keep bad spirits away. Apparently the story goes that hundreds of years ago when the Europeans were crossing into Central America the indigenous men donned their masks and costumes and essentially scared away the foreigners . Since the indigenous tribe was much shorter back then, they looked like little devils or “los diablitos”. So every year the have a celebration from December 30th to January 2nd commemorating this victory. The masks were really spectacular and we will post pictures of a couple, and each is unique; hand carved and then painted. The women of the village are known for their hand woven purses and blankets, and we had the great fortune to see the process unfold from start to finish. First they picked a cotton-like material from a native tree and began to pull it apart and spin it onto a spool. Then there are multiple plants around the village that can be boiled down and used to make colors. They pick these plants during a waning moon because that is when they will produce the best color. For the example she showed us, she boiled down leaves to make a rich royal blue color and she explained that it looked so good because the moon was perfect. They crush up seeds from a pod to make a red, and perhaps the most interesting was the purple twine was made from seashells that are extremely hard to find. The group agreed that ball of yarn smelled just like the beach! Then they showed us how they weaved the colored string together to make specific designs including animals, patterns and even words. They explained that making a single purse could take up to a month. Though the process may sound slow, if definitely held everybody’s interest and was really educational. The group gave the women a resounding thank you for their time and bid them farewell. We hopped back in the shuttle and went to our hostel in Uvita and hit the hay!
El Groupo de Expedition explored San Isidro and met up with Jan and Jose at “12:00,” though those two are on “Tico time” for sure (so approximately half an hour late). After a visit to Super Mega, where we stocked up on peanut butter and rice, Jose helped negotiate a good deal on a taxi ride to the base of Chirripo, where we all spent the night at the Hotel Uran. However, we also had some disappointing news, as Jose was called away on important ProCAT business. Though, Jan speculates that he just didn’t want to hike up Chirripo. The rest of us passed out early in anticipation for our big hike the next day.
Tuesday February 17th - Thursday February 19th
Tuesday marked the beginning of our three free days in Uvida. We spent our days lounging on the beach and swimming in the ocean. I think the girls definitely might have done a little too much shopping, but the beach side stores were filled with unique souvenirs and great clothing, so it was pretty hard to resist. The first night the whole group went out for a sushi dinner in a tiny little candlelit restaurant and then went next store and did a little dancing. Every night we had a ten o’clock curfew so we grabbed a cab and headed back to our hostel. Wednesday was Keith’s birthday so we took him out for dinner at a restaurant called Tortilla Flats, where the food was delicious everybody raved about their meal afterward. We all had a lot of fun that night, and the next day we soaked up one more day in the sun and headed back to Finca Bellavista, our home away from home, and prepared for what the next day held in store.
Tuesday, Feb. 17th
The Adventures of El Groupo de Expedition
The adventure begins! El Groupo de Expedition started hiking at an elevation of apprx. 5,000 ft, and in 14.5 kilometers (~ 8 miles), and 7-8 hours later, we made it to the field station at the base of the Crestones, at an elevation of ~ 11,000 ft. Needless to say, the hike was intense. The small town at the base of the mountain has men who earn their living by being porters for tourists and researchers up and down the mountain, some of those guys can make it to the station and back in under 4 hours! After arriving at the field station Jan and Gerry set rodent traps and also went to retrieve a camera trap that Jan had set up the last time he was at Chirripo (about three years ago...). However, there were some problems with the way the camera trap was set up, and while the camera was in good condition, it was found on the ground, and no pictures has been taken. Bummer. The rest of el groupo napped until dinner time, when we all helped to prepare our favorite food ever... rice and beans! After dinner we all huddled together for warmth, at that elevation it was actually quite cold, below freezing actually, and we went to bed early.
Wednesday, Feb. 18th
After our necessary cup of coffee, the group headed out on a hike to the Sabana de los Leones (Savanna of the Lions, in Costa Rica they refer to pumas as lions). The highlight of this hike was HANDS DOWN, the amount of poo, or if you prefer scienfitic terms, scat, we collected. I’ve never seen anyone so excited over scat as Jan was. We collected scat samples of puma, coyote, and some type of small carnivorous animal that Jan thinks might be a type of weasel. These samples will be sent to a lab in San Jose where students will go through the process of identifying what their diets consist of in this elevation. After some intense bushwhacking (oh yeah, thanks for telling us to wear long pants Jan... NOT), and on our third wild goose chase, we finally found a camera. We definitely learned the importance of taking good field notes, especially after trying to find cameras based on notes written three years ago, and in shorthand. The camera that we retrieved was placed in a cloud forest right next to a savanna, and while we hoped to find pictures of puma and other cats, we only found photos of tapir, a squirrel, and a bird whose perch was inconveniently located in the field of view (out of 144 pictures, about 100 were of that same bird!). After our field work was done, us CORE students all decided to hike up to the top of the Crestones. While we were told this hike was only about 30 mins, an hour later the slowest member of our group was just starting to summit the 12,000 ft rock spires. It was definitely worth the hike, as the view was spectacular. We were above the clouds and could see all the way to the Pacific coast. After our day of over 12 miles of hiking we enjoyed a delicious dinner of spaghetti and hit the sack early in preparation of summiting Chirripo the next day.
P.S. The four rodent traps that Gerry and Jan set were all full, and all were “preserved” so they could be shipped to a museum in San Jose and used for future reference.
Thursday, February 19
Today El Groupo de Expedition set out to summit Chirripo. This just happened to be a foggy, rainy day. We ate a cold breakfast in order to depart the field station at an early hour. It was 5k to the summit with a pretty steep climb at the end. Unfortunately, we could not see either the Pacific Ocean or the Caribbean Sea due to the thick cloud cover, but the feeling of summiting Costa Rica’s tallest mountain (3820 m) was well worth the hike. On the way down, we did some more bushwhacking to find the third and final camera. On the camera we saw tapir, rabbit, coyote, and one picture that is hopefully a cat. After some more bushwhacking, Jan and Gerry decided to hike the Crestones Ridge Trail back to the station while Eric, Brandee, and Tanner took the more leisurely route down; keep in mind there was nothing “leisurely” about this hike! Everyone rested for a few hours before we reviewed the four rodents caught the previous night. After a delicious supper, we set the traps once again and went to bed.
Friday, February 20
Today was definitely an interesting day, to say the very least. Matt decided to throw a pig roast tomorrow in honor of our last day at the Finca. So, today he hiked us down to his neighbor Don Victor’s house, so we could pick out our pig. Then it was time for the difficult part; we had to kill it. The boys grabbed the two hind legs of the pig and dragged it up a fairly steep hill while the pig protested very loudly. I think for most of us that was, surprisingly, the most difficult part. Admirably, the guys, Keith, Tommy, Max, and Tyson, were very competent and mature and took care of the actual slitting of the pig’s throat, Keith specifically held the knife, and the girls for the most part stood a few feet back. It was definitely a difficult thing to do but it made you realize just how privileged we are and that most people don’t think about where their food comes from when they sit down to dinner. Personally, I can definitely say that I am glad that is not something I have to do every time I want to eat. The guys proceeded to pore boiling water over the pigs skin and shave it down. After that they removed the feet, which I believe Don Victor’s dogs got to enjoy. Then it was time to clean it out; Tyson cut it down the middle with great precision, careful not to hit any of the organs. They removed the intestines, stomach and heart and washed out all the excess blood. As gruesome as it may sound, it was actually extremely educational and very interesting to watch. Finally, they hung the pig up to dry it out overnight so it would be ready to cook early the next day. We walked back to the Finca and everybody jumped into the river to wash off and cool down after a long, hot, and very unique day. After dinner it was time for bed because we all had to get up very early the next day to begin preparations for the fiesta.
Today the expedition group collected the rodent traps for the last time. We caught three rodents out of four which lead to a final record of 11 caught out of the 12 traps we placed. Jan, Gerry, and Eric enjoyed a quick breakfast while Tanner and Brandee decided to get a head start down the mountain. It was a rather long and painful 14.5k down to the base camp where we met Jose. From there we left for Manuel Antonio, a little beach town surrounded by one of Costa Rica’s biggest national parks, where we jumped in the ocean to watch the sunset. We saw squirrel monkeys outside our hostel in Manuel Antonio before we went to a reggae concert in reward of our accomplishments.
Saturday February 21st
Well some of us rose before the sun today to start the work- Max and Keith had to hike back down the hill to help Don Victor load the pig onto the horse, Tyson had to help build the spit to put the pig on, and the rest of us started the bonfire, minus the four members of our group who were returning from their expedition later that day. The day seemed to go by quickly because we were so busy. There was lots of food that needed to be made because we were expecting about 60 people, mostly employees of the Finca and their families because this was their annual employee party. Our driver, Antonio, and his family also came to celebrate with us. We played music in the kitchen and diced up vegetables and made guacamole, playing and working and having a great time. Erica made cake and cookies for everyone again, she was an excellent baker. After the fire had burned long enough and we had a good bed of coals going, the pig was mounted on the spit and the guys began their part of the cooking. The guests arrived and the Finca was more crowded than we had ever seen it before. We helped out around the Finca, doing chores and socializing, trying our best to work on our Spanish skills, while we waited for el chancho, the pig, to roast. It took six hours thirteen minutes and forty seven seconds for the one hundred and seventy six pound eight ounce pig to cook all the way through. =) It was definitely worth the wait though because the food was mouthwatering and it was amazing to be able to relax with our wonderful hosts and their friends that night. It was a beautiful way to spend our last night at Finca Bellavista.
From Manuel Antonio we said goodbye to Jan and Jose and caught a bus to Quepos where we sat for an hour and a half trying to figure out the bus schedule through our broken spanish. We finally caught a bus to Dominical where we had lunch and, unfortunately, missed our bus by a mere 10 minutes. We found out that tico time was not only late but also early. We caught a taxi who rushed us up past the bus which we then boarded and rode to La Florida. We began our ascent up the hill to Finca with a game of 20 questions to keep us occupied. When we got almost to the top of the hill, Mark, our beloved professor, picked us up and drove us back to Finca where we were greeted like kings by the CORE family. We made it in time to celebrate the fiesta and pig roast. We had a wonderful time with Jan and Jose and this was honestly one of the reasons why I chose Western State: to participate in the CORE Program and learn in a true hands-on setting.
Sunday February 22nd
Today we packed up our things, cleaned up our living space and had to say goodbye to the Finca. We are heading to El Castillo Del Sur (www.elcastillodelsur.com) for our ten day surf camp and we are all so excited. However, leaving the Finca was definitely a little emotional, it was a gorgeous one of a kind place and I know we will all miss it very much. More Later, thanks for checking in!
PURA VIDA!!!!!!
-Erin, Gerry, Eric (with help from Brandee)
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