12-27 and more and more time on the bus…headed toward our second hotel at La Fortuna.
We met some fellow travelers:
Saw more green countryside and nurseries:
A country church:
And then we got to the little switchback roads in the mountains.  At one slow point, there were a couple white-faced coatimundi--a little like raccoons crossed with cats, but, well, something else.  Lots of photos while we waited on a bus ahead of us to make the turn at what is called Devil’s Elbow:
It's hard to really picture how 'interesting' this highway is.  Here's a couple views of the road:
This doesn't quite show that half-mile gorge just over the edge.  But we made it just fine.  Along the way, we found various wildlife--at least Erick would spot birds, everyone else would be dazzled, but I pretty much never can spot the birds.  I did see the "laughing falcon" perched by himself on a tall dead bare tree, but got only a very blurry photo.  And I could see this toucan, color-coded for the bird-challenged:
 And I can spot the 3-foot iguanas curled up in this tree or that (this at a car-stop that uses the iguanas to draw folks in for ice cream and souvenirs):
later, bob

For 12-27-11  Headed toward lunch

More country-travel...
A strawberry stand (a local specialty)...
And a typical lunch—rice, beans, carne o pollo, a fried ball of yucca, a chunk of baked, sugared plantain, some perhaps chunks of potato, and a bit of salad...un casado con carne (o pollo):
later, bob

For 12-27-11, Poas National Park

Not, for Costa Rica, a bad road—hillsides thick with ferns that look like a curtain that might hide whole hidden worlds, lost valleys; nurseries with gray mesh covers (some on foot-high hoops, some tent-like 5 foot high) that Erick said were to protect export plants and fruits from volcanic residue; and farmhouses with bright green fields and fat Holstein cattle on rolling hills. In places, it could almost be parts of the Ozarks, but then the trees twist in odd shapes, filled with bromeliads and mosses, and a thorny bush with bright yellow flowers that Todd said looked like Scotch broom from Washington state, but with more aggressive thorns. And the countryside filled with trees that here and there look like they should fill postcards--iconic, striking, framed against rich green.  And there, a crumbling wall of a once tiny house, bright pink outside, as if human places need to set themselves off from the ubiquitous green.

At the national park itself, much like the U.S.—a huge, scarce moving line of cars waiting to get in. Eventually parked, there was a gentle half-mile hike up the hillside. On the way, Erick pointed out the plant that lore says was once used as an umbrella in the rainforest:
I noticed a shiny tree that looked to me like a magnolia, but Erick said is more closely related to rubber plant. And lots of mountain flowers:
And there, the volcano itself:
The vapors roil out of three crevices beside the acidic lake, changing the area for miles:


And, oh...Beth on the trail:
And me in my new CR hat:
later, bob

For 12-27-11, visit to Inbio Parque

Our first morning out, very early, we got all packed up, loaded on the bus, and off to the InbioParque, a research and education facility on the edge of San Jose. A good film to start us off, with some of the geo-history of Costa Rica, including the plate movement and volcanoes that closed the gap between the two future American continents to form Costa Rica and Panama—about 3 million years ago. The extreme environments and the land bridge between the two separate groups of plants and animals explain much of the region’s intense biodiversity. I.e., Costa Rica has about 0.030% of the earth’s land surface, but about 4% of the species, over 500,000, a lot for a tiny stretch of land the size of Virginia.

Another presentation told us more about the place’s specific work. Check this out at http://www.inbio.ac.cr/ [for the research and educational mission] or http://www.inbioparque.com/ [for visitor info].

And then we were off through the Parque’s representative environments—the dry forest, a wet forest, etc. The immediate hit was the small herd of white tail deer, all very tame, and a good deal less populous here than in Missouri. And we were introduced to the “Naked Indian” tree, which has green, chlorophyll-filled bark to utilize all the sun it can. Our guide talked about how a tiny wasp delivers a seed of the ficus, which slowly grows around a host tree and strangles it (though we learned later that this is slander against the poor ficus).

We also learned to identify the cecropia tree [which I remember so prominent on the landscape in the Amazon in Peru], and told to always check for sloths high in their branches.

We unfortunately progressed through the snake house and got to meet several of the local vipers. If you get close enough to one of these toxic coiled springs, you might see the different head shape, the cat-slit pupils…or, you could just notice how several are coiled on branches, ready to casually kill us all…I didn’t take any pictures there. Maybe someone else did.

The frogs in their terrarium were too well-hidden to find, and the caymans submerged in their gated pond. (Strange facts--due to global climate change, which isn't political here, but very directly observable, forgs worldwide are endangered, both from habitat shifts and a fungus which grows more readily on their skin in this altered climate; caymans tend to have a disproportion of males hatched now, creating more dangerous places where big males defend their territory; and turtles, whose gender is determined by temperature/depth of the eggs buried on beaches, now have an extreme disproportion of females.) But the butterfly house was fun. We learned there are 2,000 species of butterflies and 12,000 species of moths here—and they just don’t pose well for photos. I think I snapped a dozen blurred images of the spectacular blue butterflies, but nothing very sharp:
And off we rushed, headed north, through the odd edges of the global culture
And a much needed stop at a coffee shop overlooking the coffee field itself
And on, toward the Poas Volcano.

later, bob

For 12-26-11, San Jose

No surprise, but the rest of the group did finally show up, though with a couple blocks walking to get around the parade. Our guide is Erick. I’ll find a photo of him sometime.


This is quite a hotel. Right in the center of San Jose, off the main plaza, beside the National Theater, etc.

We had our first (of every) rice meal that night.  Not exciting, but everyone got together for the first time.

I’d eaten a bit on the street—a vendor came by with slices of, um, something in plastic bags. For about a dollar, I got a sack of these, with an orange-flesh lime, a spoon full of salt, and on request, hot sauce poured in. They were great. Later, Erick told me they would have been either green mango (I’m guessing not, since I didn’t melt down from allergy to that) or a green yuplon. Ok, so this really isn’t Texas.


But the Gran Hotel is a nice place—art pieces, old style chandeliers, and roped off in the lobby, the “Kennedy furniture,” a sign telling us this was the same furniture JFK used during a visit in 1962.
Before dinner, six of us had gone to the Museo de Oro—a collection of pre-Columbian gold objects preserved by a bank, along with exhibits on indigenous life. But my camera battery was dead, and Brian took a lot of good photos. Maybe he’ll blog that.

later, bob

San Jose, 12-26-11

A strange sort of parade--about an hour of various forms of police--regular patrol cars, with shrill sirens, the armored motorcyle units, several sorts of vehicles.  Some folks advertising this or that, some energy drink that little-clad women handed to the crowd, some packet of green stuff another set handed out (looked like parsley--?), some folks that handed out fold-to-a-hat cardboard, which everyone seemed to want (again--??), while hawkers swarmed through the crowd selling sombreros, plaintain and yucca chips, canned beer, papaya freezer sticks, plastic chairs. 

And for a tropical country, it wasn't hot.  A stiff wind blew through the canyon of city-central buildings, and the crowd shriek, delighted, when someone's hat flew off into the street.  Without the wind, there was that smell of beer, when you aren't drinking beer.  And much, the crowd watching the crowd...

But then, the main attraction--the horses arrive.  One of the first was a singer, dazzling the crowd, amped into the loudspeakers on the truck behind him...

And guys doing the fancy rope tricks...

Group after group of horses, many doing that fancy prancing, sometimes in unison.

And then a few riders that stood out...

And the good old boys who maybe just got a holiday in town.
Even after the group arrived, and we had our orientation meeting, the horses were still parading down the street--a good four hours, I'd guess.  Pam would have like this parade.  Hope she was watching.
bob

San Jose, Costa Rica       12-26-11

Hi, everyone.  I arrived in San Jose this morning about 8:30--a quick hour flight from Panama City--leaving me 6 hours to wait for the group.  I made it to our hotel, the Gran Hotel Costa Rica, just before the big parade closed off the main streets.  I'm still not quite clear on what the festival is, but Erick told me later it's some kind of rotating festival through the country that has a parade and a carnival.   Here in San Jose, the last festival of the year--well, it's a big deal.  Lots of police (but didn't manage to get Jeff a hat)...



And since this is a horse parade, lots of cowboys...

And smiling cowgirls...

...dressed for work on the ranch...

Some cow-bits...
Some rednecks...

And other folks...
Seems like I could've been in Amarillo or Santa Fe.
 Oh, and then there was a parade--
later, bob