Dateline – La Fortuna, Costa Rica
And off we go from the urban sprawl of San Jose and into the wilds of the country. Costa Rica, as a nation, is only a bit larger than my VA housecalls catchment area or about 40% the size of the state of Alabama. However, given its unique topography with a high volcanic mountain chain separating two major oceans, neither the roads not the climate is straightforward. La Fortuna, where I am for the next day or so, is only about fifty miles as the crow flies from San Jose. To get here requires about four and a half hours of drive time over windy mountain roads and across the continental divide. We went from urban center (warm and humid), to relatively temperate mountain heights (much cooler and drier and perfect for coffee, strawberries, and dairy cattle), to tropical rainforest (warm, wet, and much more humid), each with their own types of vegetation.
The climb up the mountains to the east of San Jose was an exercise in maneuvering a small bus around roads originally designed for oxcarts and therefore narrow and winding with the contours of the land. They were built for the coffee industry in the early 19th century and were simply paved over in the 20th. the bridges, in particular, are pretty much one lane. Our driver seemed adept and no major mishaps occurred but the skills, acquired in San Jose, of checking carefully both ways, and then dashing across the street to avoid the driver that appears out of nowhere and comes careening through continue to serve me well. We had two stops up in the mountain heights. The first for snacks and potty break for those in need and the second at a working coffee processing cooperative, Mi Cafecito. It’s a small operation, a cooperative for local growers which puts out a relatively small amount of quality product. As it was Sunday, the plant was not in operation so we could climb all over the various machines used to process the berries and then the beans, followed by a taditional Costa Rican lunch.
After lunch down the mountains on the Caribbean side including a stop at a particularly scenic waterfall and then, as our sharp eyed driver spotted a sloth, an unscheduled one to watch mama sloth at the top of a tree cuddling her baby. We also passed a tribe of howler monkeys in a food coma but we didn’t stop for them. I’ve been informed there are many more simians to come. A sloth in the wild was my goal for mammals this trip so I can tick that off (also saw a white nosed coati that was staring inquisitively at passing traffic). On the avian side, I’m hoping for toucans (again) and a quetzal. No luch so far, just a flock of green macaws in the distance making a hellacious racket.
We are staying in the town of La Fortuna tonight and tomorrow night which is at the foot of the Arenal volcano. It’s like tourist resort towns anywhere. T-shirt shops, inexpensive restaurants, ice cream places, souvenir and trinket stands. I’ve booked a couple of outings for tomorrow. (More on that later). In the meantime, I wandered around town (which didn’t take long – it’s not very large) and then it was time to get back on the bus for dinner. Dinner was up in the hills at a private home which prepares meals for tourist groups – La Cocina de Dona Mara. Dona Mara herself was a lovely motherly woman of about sixty who had us make her own tortillas and bake them on her wood fired griddle before treating us to a delicious dinner of spicy shredded chicken, black beans, rice, carmelized plantain, some root vegetable I didn’t catch the name of, and a sort of stir fried vegetable medley. it was all delicious. I flunked tortilla making 101 when mine stuck to my hand when dropping it on the griddle so it came out as a lump rather than a flat piece of dough and had to be scraped off and remade.
Fully fed and, as there isn’t a whole lot of night life, in rural Costa Rica, I’m going to do some reading and go to bed relatively early.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 