Time to complete the Bucket List

As we head towards our next trip it has been fitting to read the latest statistics from the World Happiness Report revealed today, and just 24 hours after the International Day of Happiness.

 We had travelled to Costa Rica with the knowledge that the country had been voted top for ‘happiness’ three times in the last decade – in 2009, 2012 and 2016.

 Our trip there certainly made us happy. It was wonderful, made especially so by our tour guide Ed and his enthusiasm for taking visitors around his country; the flora and fauna; and the different climatic zones. One can travel through the wet, cool, mountainous highlands, via the mid ranges that are dryer and warmer, and then experience the extreme heat of the lowlands all in one day.

 There was so much in Costa Rica that I had not expected. I knew that wildlife and plant species were abundant, but the nature reserves and the efforts people were putting into the ecosystem in some areas was impressive and encouraging.

Views in the Puntarenas region

So what of my first blog on the country and the happiness aspect? If guide Ed was anything to go by, citizens of Costa Rica were happy. He was always cheery and laughing and full of get-up-and-go (particularly for our daily 4am starts). The local people we came into contact with all seemed happy and polite, and welcoming to tourists.

 However, Costa Rica is not without its problems, and these are not unique to the country. There is poverty, although we did not see it; and an influx of illegal citizens from nearby countries, some of whom were sleeping on the streets of San Jose. There is child exploitation, which agencies are working hard to prevent. There are high pregnancy rates including amongst younger girls. There is also deforestation, particularly due to increasing numbers of plantations and the infrastructure they require.

 But the country has so much to admire, especially its strive in some quarters to protect its ecosystems. The protected land is vast and requires several organizations to oversee it. The numbers of wildlife species are enormous, with many unique to Central America. A lot are endangered. Recycling bins are everywhere and we rarely saw litter. I noted during a three-hour walk in the rainforest there was not a single piece of rubbish. And the food is good. Although the portions are generally large they are not greasy, and the range of vegetables used is far wider than in the UK. Family life and the extended family support system also appear to be strong.

 But how does Costa Rica fare in the latest Happiness Report? It seems its rating is declining, dropping from 12th in the last report to 13th, although it is doubtful a tourist would detect that. Instead it is Finland that is top dog, having been number one in the last two reports. Maybe one day we will put that to the test. In the meantime we are heading to Hungary, currently in 62nd position but on the up since 2012.

So yes, the Costa Rican people we met appeared happy, but this must not mask the fact that they have their troubles just like any other country. It is the way these matters are handled which is most important. And now to Budapest!

 Copyright text and photos: Sue Barnard 2018

 

Day 8 we left the Arenal Manoa to travel for 4 hours to the cloud forests of Monteverde.

On the way we spotted some interesting birds including the endangered White Fronted Nun bird and the Crimson Collared Tanager.

The roads were good until the last hour or so of our journey when the tarmac stopped and the ride got bumpy. The bumpy roads obviously did not agree with our small bus as it refused to start after lunch on the outskirts of Monteverde so we walked for 10 minutes to Don Juan’s Coffee plantation for the coffee tour.

It was surprising to hear that there were only 3 coffee plantations left in Costa Rica and that coffee was no longer an important export. In fact, Don Juan’s plantation now only made a small amount of coffee that was sold locally and was instead a tourism business. We meet Don Juan who often turned up to greet tourists.

The coffee tour took us through the history of coffee coming to Costa Rica and the whole process of growing, drying and processing the coffee beans.

Years ago all the coffee beans were sent to San Jose by ox cart which took 2 months each way from Monteverde and the raw beans were exported for processing, often to the United States.

There was a league of the countries that per head drunk the most coffee and surprisingly top of the list was Finland with other Nordic countries, Iceland, Denmark and Norway also featuring in the top 5. The USA which one would have thought would be fairly high on the list was 25th and the UK was 44th.

Another surprising fact was that there is more caffeine in a normal cup of coffee than in an Expresso. Apparently, with an Expresso you get a quick shot of caffeine that seems high but wears off quickly but in a normal size cup of coffee the reverse happens and the effect is slower but last longer.

The tour was very interesting and showed that when making coffee how easy it is to get it wrong as we have all probably experienced.

Luckily our driver, Heraldo, had nursed the engine back to life and we went into Monteverde to our next hotel, The Monteverde Lodge and Gardens.

Day 9 started with a canopy walk in the cloud forest. When we left the hotel, Ed our guide, said wear long trousers and a coat as it was much colder in the cloud forest. Good job he did as it was not only a bit colder but it rained. The canopy walk had 9 bridges some of which were 31 metres above the ground.

We were hoping to see hummingbirds, snakes and many other birds but due to the rain many were not on show and those that were were often hidden by the canopy.

The cloud forest was really living up to its name as the following photo shows.

At the end of the canopy trail there was a hummingbird park where they had set up some feeders to attract the hummingbirds. Luckily, by that time, it had stopped raining so there were many hummingbirds feeding. As mentioned in a previously post, hummingbirds being so small and quick are very difficult to photograph but this would be our best opportunity.

Even when up close with the hummingbirds, the wings are just a blur as they hover and flying backwards as the following video shows in real time.

After lunch, we had an afternoon at leisure before we have our farewell dinner tonight with our group of travellers as some will be going on tomorrow for a few days at a Pacific coast beach resort and the rest of us will be coming back to San Jose with our guide and then a flight home that evening.

Costa Rica is very interesting culturally with lots of wildlife and whereas there is no guarantee of seeing the wildlife, we did quite well in the short time we were here.

That is our travelling over for 2018 but we have already booked all our trips for 2019, first to Romania, then we return to the Northwest Passage to try and complete this year’s trip and finally Colombia.

2020 is in the planning faze with Australia, and New Zealand on the list.

When someone has a passion for something, there is no hiding it, and during this tour it is evident that passions are running high.

The focus of this holiday adventure (for that is what it has become) is ecology and part of this includes food. Some people might have heard that Costa Rican food has an emphasis on rice, beans and tortillas. While meals, and even breakfast, may include this, there is far more to be enjoyed if one is inquisitive.

The start of this trip included a group get-together at Al Mercat restaurant in San Jose, where owner-chef and Le Cordon Bleu-trained José kick-started the evening by enthusiastically telling us how he buys his produce daily from local farmers, and then showed us various gourds, fruit and vegetables that would become part of our meal. Starter dips included thinly sliced yucca and malanga (a root vegetable), which were rather like large crisps, but baked without any trace of fat. We had never seen such attractive, colourful and tasty crisps. These were consumed with a fresh herb dip; a cheese described as their equivalent of Parmesan; and turmeric mayonnaise.

Cerviche followed incorporating finely chopped squashes – varieties of which are not seen in the UK. Also included was chayote fruit that looks rather like a large green pear, but tastes of cucumber. We were treated to restaurant-made chorizo sausages, served on a sauce with freshly grated cabbage, carrots, and sliced beetroot. The chef’s enthusiasm for food had not gone unnoticed for he had been flown to the UK recently by a customer, just to prepare food for a birthday party.

John has mentioned in earlier blogs Mr Rudolpho, the pineapple grower, and Jean-Pierre the chocolate producer. Both of these gentlemen are using food to give a point of difference to their businesses. Small-scale pineapple farmers cannot compete with the big players based here and whose names we see on UK retail shelves. Likewise, chocolate producers find it difficult to break into international markets. But people, such as these, will not be defeated. Both the above have turned to tourism, offering small, intimate, lodges, coupled with insightful food tours. In Mr Rudolpho’s case he is producing the most succulent and juicy organic pineapple we have ever tasted. We drooled as we bit into the warm, freshly-cut fruit harvested for us as we stood in the plantation.

For Jean-Pierre yet another chocolate was not his preference. Instead, he had carried out extensive research into when cacao beans were considered first used as a drink (at least 4,000 years ago), how they were prepared and how recipes changed after Columbus came to Costa Rica in the 1500s. Contemporary Spanish diaries have recorded this. Jean-Pierre is now producing chocolate bars labelled to meet international standards. Some have interesting additions, such as rice, and chilli, which visitors can purchase.

Our guide too has made adaptions using food. As we are aware, businesses were hit hard during the financial crisis of 2008, and tourism was one of the first to feel the effects. Instead of drowning in sorrow he and his wife started making cakes for local people, under the tuition of his mother, in order to make ends meet and they continue to do so to this today.

All of these individuals have clearly shown their passion when it comes to food, but there is another element that is a driver. Employment offers many benefits including insurance, pensions and health care. For the unemployed, support is extremely limited. In Costa Rica there is more than 10% unemployment, and an even higher level of poverty. Costa Ricans have to be resourceful. A passion for good quality food has enabled some to blossom, and for those tourists lucky enough to experience it, it is offering something special.

Copyright text and photos: Sue Barnard 2018.

Day 6 we got up a 6am for a walk in the rain forest and some wildlife spotting. There are some spectacular birds of all sizes and colours with the Hummingbird being one of the most spectacular but most difficult to photograph due to its size and speed.

The Toucans are also spectacular but being a bit larger they are easier to photograph.

After some breakfast we left the Hacienda LaIsla and headed for the Arenal Volcano where we were going to take a trip on the manmade lake that produces most of Costa Rica’s hydroelectric power. On the way, by the side of the road was a family of White Nosed Coatimundi which are related to the raccoon.

We then reached the lake for our boat trip in the shadow of the Arenal Volcano. Its last major eruption was in 1968 but has been active between the 1970’s and 2010 with volcanologist predicting that it will become active again, without giving a timeline.

The lake was another haven for wildlife, in particular birds, and we saw Kingfishers, Egrets and an Osprey, amongst others. The Osprey had just caught a large fish which was clearly visible as it disappeared into the distance.

An Anhinga bird was sitting in the sun dry its wings as these birds are apparently not fully waterproof as they do not have the oil gland required for waterproofing, which seems strange for a bird that fishes.

We then travelled a short distance to our next hotel, the Arenal Manoa, which has good views of the volcano. The hotel is set out over a large area with each room being an individual chalet. The hotel has extensive gardens with lake that has caiman in it.

Day 7 was another 6.30 departure as we were going on a three hour hike around the Arenal volcano on the 1968 trail.

We went early in the morning as the trails can get busy later and it is the time when the wildlife is more active. One of the intended reptiles we wanted to see was the Golden Eyelash Pit Viper which is one of the 27 poisonous snakes in Costa Rica. They are difficult to find but right at the end of our 4 mile hike our guide spotted a couple of juveniles in some trees.

Apparently, you can generally tell if a snake is poisonous as it has a triangular-shaped head although there are some exceptions.

We then had an afternoon to relax, the first since we got to Costa Rica, and tried the hotel’s volcanic thermal pool, which was very pleasant.

Tomorrow we have a long journey to Monteverde to visit the cloud forest.

Day 4 we left Mawamba Lodge by boat and went back the same route to pick up our small bus with driver.

Notwithstanding that the rainy season had just ended, the small rivers that we had to take were extremely shallow and the boats would only be able to use this drop off point for a short time as the outboard motors would be hitting the bottom.

We retraced the route of a few days before for an hour and a half and then proceeded a different way to reach our hotel in Sarapiqui. The hotel is the Hacienda LaIsla Boutique Lodge which has quite an extensive garden for wildlife spotting. Here they grow cocoa which they make into chocolate the traditional indigenous way pre-Christopher Columbus.

Our first visit that afternoon was to the organic farm of Mr Rodolpho called Finca Sura which is to show tourists the diverse crops that grow in a tropical climate. He originally grew tropical plants on the farm for international export but after the crash of 2008 changed his business to the current tourist format.

His main crop is now pineapples which were the best we have tasted but he also grows vanilla, pepper, sugar cane, cinnamon, ginger, and palm heart amongst many others.

The farm is part of the eco tourism that Costa Rica is promoting in addition to the wildlife. We were also able to press sugar cane which had cinnamon and some of Mr Rodolpho’s moonshine added which was a very nice drink.

As nothing went to waste at the farm, any left over pineapples were fed to Mr Rodolpho’s Vietnamese pot bellied pig, Matilda.

Day 5 the owner of the Hacienda LaIsla, Jean-Pierre, gave a tour of his cacao plants and explained the growing of harvesting process before giving us the history of chocolate pre the Spanish arriving in the region in 1502. He then went on to make in the traditional way the chocolate drink that the indigenous people would have made pre 1502 (as documented by the Spanish) and the drink that Spanish made as they did not like the indigenous version.

The process involved the seeds of the cocao being sucked in the mouth to take off the outside layer and then dried. Once the bean was dry it was crushed until it became a paste. The paste was then mixed with maize, cinnamon and chilli and cold water to make the chocolate drink. It may sound disgusting but tasted good. The Spanish thought it was disgusting so they changed it and eventually made the drink with sugar cane added and using hot water. Again this tasted good.

In the afternoon we visited a leaf cutter ant farm. This is another eco-tourism project where the owner, Leo, has been studying two colonies of ants in a purpose built environment. He explained how the ants fitted into the eco system and the life process. The queen lived for 25 years and the colony, which contained 5 to 6 million ants, died when she did. The ants collect the leaves from up to 240 different plants to use to make a fungus that they eat. There is a structure with workers who cut the leaves, smaller ants whose job is to do quality control and large soldier ants who protect the colony. The Queen only mates once and does not have to do so again for the rest of her life as she stores the sperm. The poor old males die after mating and all the other ants in the colony are not able to mate but just do their allotted tasks. Who said it was a man’s world?

Another interesting visit. You learn something everyday.

Day 2 was an early start so that we could leave San Jose before the morning traffic. The Police seemed to have every road out of San Jose blocked and they were stopping cars and trucks. We saw them stopping an illegal taxi driver and were told that his car licence plate would be removed and he only got it back after paying his fine. Our guide’s comment was ” the police making everyone’s day miserable” as it seems that the Costa Rican public like using the illegal taxis as they are much cheaper even than Uber.

After taking breakfast on the way to catching the boat we arrived the embarkation point which was a lot busier than we expected and were greeted with the following sign:

We boarded the boat 40 minutes later and left for the 1 hour trip to Tortuguero. The river was very low even though the wet season was just finishing so the driver had to drive carefully to make sure he was in the channel and to avoid going aground. We saw a caiman (small crocodile) on the way sunning itself on the river bank and a few vultures and arrived at the Mawamba Lodge in time for lunch.

After lunch we were going for a walk down the beach to Tortuguero village and ran into one of the Lodge’s resident large male green Iguanas:

These Iguanas are good climbers and swimmers and we saw many of them in the trees. The female is much smaller and a dark grey colour.

The main street of Tortuguero village was not very long but was much more commercialise than we expected. On the way we visited the Sea Turtle Conservancy which was set up in the 1950’s by an American, Dr Archie Carr, to stop the locals killing the green, hawksbill, loggerhead and leatherback turtles that lay their eggs on Tortuguero beach. It seems to be working through an education programme which also uses the young locals to act a tour guides when the turtles are on the beach laying their eggs between July and October. We were just too late to see any hatching turtles but the remains of the nests were evident on the beach.

Day 3 we took 2 boat trips into the Tortuguero National Park wildlife spotting. As we are in the rain forest, it decided to rain heavily on our first boat trip which, although not pleasant for us, did not put off the wildlife. We were lucky enough to see all three types of monkeys, Howler, Spider and White Throated Capuchin as well as many birds including the Scarlet and Great Green Macaw. We also saw many more Caiman, a 3 toed Sloth and fresh water turtles. When we got back for lunch after the first boat trip, there was even a spider monkey in the bar area of the hotel for good measure,

The Mawamba Lodge also has a butterfly and poisonous frog enclosures where they have the likes of the Great Owl Butterfly and the poisonous, but extremely small (size of a finger nail) red and green Poison Dart frogs. The frogs secrete a poison from their skin so if you ingest even through a cut on your hand, the consequences are dire and can lead to death. The is also a small area they have for the red eye tree frog which seems to appear on every holiday brochure for Costa Rica. These were again quite small but very attractive. I will post a picture of one in the next blog.

The Costa Ricans seems to be doing a lot to try and conserve this area by not letting any more people settle here or hotels be built so hopefully this area will continue to support the wildlife even though some species are thought to be endangered.

Tomorrow morning we move on the the Braulio Carrillo National Park.

After 18 hours door to door we reached our hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, That said, the journey was fine with 10 hours flying time between Gatwick and San Jose.

There are only 9 people on our tour including ourselves so a nice number. Our tour guide, Ed, is a very lively Costa Rican and has so far displayed a good and interesting knowledge of his country on our first day. With our driver, our group is 11 in total.

Our first day, Sunday 2nd, consisted of a visit to the Irazú Volcano, the old capital of Costa Rica, Cartago, and the National Museum. We were very lucky with the visit to the volcano, one of many in Costa Rica, as the weather was clear and 27 degrees centigrade which is not always the case as Costa Rica is just coming out of the wet season so low cloud and thunderstorms still occur at this time of the year.

From the top of the Volcano, which is still active, we could just make out the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica.

We then went to Cartago for a traditional Costa Rican lunch, rice and beans, which for those following this year’s “I’m a Celebrity” does not sound too appetising. The dish we had is called a Casado and can be rice and black beans with chicken, beef or fish plus sweet potato and salad. We tried the fish version and with a local beer, Imperial, was really excellent.

The main Catholic Church in Cartago was famous for it black Madonna which legend says has miraculous healing powers. Not just the Madonna but the church also has water with healing properties. The local people still seem to believe this as they were queuing to touch the stone and ask for their ailments to be cured. They then made a donation of a small silver jewellery piece of the part of the body that was healed so there were cases full of legs, lungs, arms, heads and whole bodies.

Finally we visited the National Museum that charts Costa Rican history from migrants coming from Asia across the Bering Strait, through Christopher Columbus, the Spanish to modern day. An interesting journey when you hear about most of the indigenous population being wiped out by common diseases from Europe, the slave trade and a country that had disbanded its army. There are many interesting animals and bird here some of which were shown in the museum like the Zoplite Rey ” King Buzzard” below.

We leave for the Caribbean coast and Tortuguero tomorrow morning through the Braulio Carrillo National Park and will make part of the journey by boat.

Delve into a travel book or surf the Internet and it will quickly become clear that Costa Rica has an abundance of wildlife, flora and fauna. But dig deeper and one can find something rather different to the usual destination details. Costa Rica, according to the UK think-tank the New Economics Foundation, has been voted the top country for ‘happiness’ three times in the last decade, in 2009, 2012 and 2016.

Initial thoughts spring to mind of smiling faces of Costa Rican women (known colloquially as ticas) and men (ticos). That will be welcome, but the research captures a broader view. It bases the findings, recorded in its Happy Planet Index, on four elements: how satisfied citizens feel with life overall (their ‘wellbeing’); ‘life expectancy’ (the country boasts a ‘blue zone’, one of only five in the world where residents thrive over the age of 100); ‘inequality of outcomes’ (a calculation based on the two previous categories); and ‘ecological footprint’ (the impact residents have on their environment).

One of the biggest factors influencing Costa Rica’s frequent leading position is its environmental protection. This includes almost all of its electricity coming from renewable sources, and the country being committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2021.

Other factors aiding a more positive environment include the greater expenditure the country has put towards education, health and pensions since abolishing its army in 1949. It now boasts a 97.8% literacy rate; and increased women’s education has been attributed to the declining birth rate. A culture of building social networks of friends, families and neighbourhoods has also been attributed to enhanced happiness and is strong within that ‘blue zone’.

It is noted that while wealthier countries may be seen as successful, they do not necessarily come out tops for happiness. The 2016 Index shows Mexico and Colombia in second and third places behind Costa Rica for happiness, while the UK was 34th and the US 108th.

It will be interesting to see if we detect happiness being noticeably different when visiting Costa Rica compared with other countries through which we have travelled. Of course, heading to the country with an awareness of this might influence our view, but it will give us an additional focus when learning more about the culture. For sure, seeing the immense amount of wildlife, plants and different scenery, particularly in the national parks and rainforests will make us happy, but it could be enlightening to find out if happiness reflects strongly amongst the population and for us to gain some insights about how to live well past 100 years!

Not long to go now before we leave for Costa Rica with the first stop being the capital, San Jose.

The high season starts in December and runs through to April with the most expensive period being over Christmas and Easter. No visa is required for UK passport holders and the currency is the Costa Rican Colon although US Dollars can also be used.

The country appears to be split into four main regions being the Pacific Dry Forest, Pacific Rain Forest, Mountains and Caribbean Atlantic Lowlands with countless mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, butterflies and invertebrates so we should be in for a treat of culture and wildlife.

After two nights in San Jose we leave by road for Caribbean lowlands and a remote lodge in the Tortuguero National Park where we should have our first chance to see the wildlife.

After two nights in Tortuguero we move on to Sarapiqui by boat and road to visit an eco-plantation, see more wildlife and finish that day at our hotel in the foothills of the Braulio Carrillo National Park.

After visits to the likes of a chocolate factory and leaf cutter ant farm, and two nights in Sarapiqui, we move on to Arenal and stay close to the Arenal Volcano and lake. We visit the Arenal Volcano National Park for some hiking along trails that follow the 1968 lava flow which give the opportunity for seeing wildlife.

We then travel to the mountains and misty cloud forests of Monteverde for a rain forest adventure.

After two nights in Monteverde we travel back to San Jose for our flight home.

The country looks beautiful from the pictures on the internet with such a wide diversity of wildlife so we are really looking forward to everything Costa Rica has to offer.

Hopefully the internet connections will be good enough to post blogs as we travel around but Lonely Planet suggest the internet is slow. Time with tell.

We are off to Costa Rica on the 1st December for our second trip of our quest titled “Time to complete the bucket list”. 

More to follow over the next month as we get ready to travel.