Destinations: Costa Rica abounds with beauty, flora and fauna
Destinations: Costa Rica abounds with beauty, flora and fauna--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff
GHS
Wed May 16, 2007, 07:44 PM EDT
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The sun peeks above the treetops in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. The town's 7,000-foot elevation in the Talamanca mountains adds a coolness to the morning.
Four members of our Overseas Travel Adventure tour group have risen at dawn to go in search of the elusive, resplendent quetzal, the most famous bird in this Central American country.
Accompanied by our tour guide Rafael, we walk up a dirt road and see a man armed with a camera the size of a bazooka. Expectations rise as he has the camera trained on a quetzal nest in a hollow tree.
We don't wait long before the male quetzal arrives, and for our viewing pleasure, perches itself on a wire. Cameras click wildly. To say this bird is colorful is like saying Mount Everest is tall. Iridescently plumed, the quetzal has bright green wings and a red breast. Though its body is only about 14 inches long, its tail stretches to 2 feet. After kindly posing for us, it disappears in search of food for its brood only to return a short time later with a lizard in its beak. Cameras again click wildly as the quetzal flies to the nest and begins the feeding process. It's our very own Wild Kingdom moment.
Before this tour began, yours truly had limited exposure to and not much interest in bird-watching. I couldn't have identified a quetzal if it had pecked me in the forehead. By the end of the tour, however, I am looking forward to spotting these feathered friends. A great kiskadee, anyone?
Such is the impact of our 17-day trip focusing on Costa Rica's natural parks and tropical forests. For someone whose idea of communing with nature is swatting mosquitoes, this trip offers an eye-opening experience. Literally.
In addition to numerous birds - Costa Rica has 894 species - we see butterflies, including the bright blue, fist-sized morpho - the country has 1,000 species of butterflies - three-toed sloths, two-toed sloths, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys, crocodiles, tarantulas, snakes, iguanas, bats, leaf-cutter ants, anteaters, poison dart frogs, raccoon-like coatimundis, guinea pig-like agoutis and the Jesus Christ lizard - so-named because it walks on water. We also observe jaguars at the Las Pumas rehabilitation center.
On the flora side, we get an eyeful of orchids - Costa Rica has about 1,500 species of these colorful plants - and many species of trees such as the massive guanacaste.
Other visual treats include active volcanoes, rain forests, cloud forests, mangroves, a botanical garden, and beaches on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
As the trip emphasizes learning and discovery, we visit a coffee plantation, a banana plantation, the national theater, a museum, two native tribes, an educational farm where we extract sugar from sugar cane and a dairy farm where we try to a milk a cow and do make our own cheese, which we eat later. We make our own tortillas, too, and eat them as well. For the shoppers in our group, we make a few supermarket stops where we're introduced to Lizano, a terrific salsa, and learn what to look for when buying a pineapple.
Our group later visits a local school where we interact with elementary school children. Dressed in traditional clothing, they dance to Costa Rican music and are adorable. We dance the hokey-pokey and are not quite as adorable.
Afterward, our group is divided into smaller units and each goes to a Costa Rican family's house for a home-hosted lunch.
We also visit the village of Monteverde established by American Quakers in 1951. There, we meet Martha Campbell, the daughter of the community's founder who tells us about life in Monteverde and why the Quakers chose this location to live. It's no coincidence that the pacifist group selected as its new home a country that a few years earlier had abolished its army.
On the adventurous side, our tour group goes river rafting, horseback riding and kayaking. We even climb inside a strangler fig tree. Not for the claustrophobic. A highlight is an adrenaline-charged trek via zip line from tree to tree high above the forest floor. Having experts teach us how to do this safely diminishes the fear factor significantly. While my stomach still has a few knots in it, my wife Beverly whoops like Tarzan as zips across the wire.
For nature lovers and travel enthusiasts, Costa Rica provides a smorgasbord of delights and our trip serves up a plate full. For that, we say muchas gracias to Cambridge-based Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT). A sister company of Boston-based Grand Circle Travel, it specializes in small group travel for the over-50 set. Our troupe numbers 15 with members hailing from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Oregon, Ohio, New Mexico, Georgia, Texas and Kentucky.
We arrive in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital, from Miami following a 2<+>1<+>/<->2<->-hour flight. For the record, the time in Costa Rica is two hours earlier than Boston.
We choose April as our travel month since the rainy season in Costa Rica generally begins in May and runs through November. We say "generally" because some regions are drier than others and some are wetter. Ditto for heat and humidity. We are fortunate to have dry, warm weather during most of our trip.
To travel throughout Costa Rica, a country about the size of West Virginia, we ride in a mini-bus. Thankfully, it's air-conditioned. More importantly, our bus driver, Popi, proves to be a whiz on the road. A skilled driver is a must for Costa Rica, where many of the roads are winding and unpaved, and the typical Costa Rican motorist makes a Boston driver look well-mannered. Then there are the bridges. One we cross has more holes in it than a wheel of Swiss cheese.
As you can see, this is not a vacation for travelers who require constant creature comforts, want to relax by the pool all day and whose idea of exercise is phoning room service. This is a vacation for people who want to see nature up close and personal and don't mind taking a walk on the wild side to accomplish the task. OAT travelers need to be in relatively good shape as the walks can be long, the terrain uneven and the weather hot. Also, beware of deep, wide road drains and a multitude of hotel steps designed by fiendish architects.
During our long bus trips, Rafael acts as a human encyclopedia, providing a wealth of information on Costa Rica's history and its biodiversity. We learn the country has become a hotbed of ecotourism, where travel and environmental concerns strike a delicate balance. Visitors have increased from 350,000 in 1988 to 1.1 million in 2000, and about 60,000 Americans now call Costa Rica home, according to Rafael. Costa Rica also boasts 24 national parks that cover about 21 percent of the country's territory.
While pineapple, bananas and coffee remain top exports, Costa Rica has added high-tech components to its agricultural mix. For example, California-based Intel Corp. operates a microchip facility near San Jose. It also has a plant in Hudson.
We soon discover that Rafael, a tour guide for 15 years with a passing resemblance to actor Ray Romano, not only knows nature, he also has an eye for it, demonstrating superhuman vision for spotting even the tiniest of critters. For us mere mortals, he carries a high-powered scope so we can see what he has just observed with his naked eye.
A tour is often only as good as its tour guide, and the personable and environmentally passionate Rafael made this tour special. Bird-watchers, in particular, will find a kindred spirit. This is a man who truly gets excited when he spots a rare bird. He nearly jumped out of the bus when he saw a group of jabiru in a field. Though it's the largest bird in Costa Rica, this stork isn't a common sight as only about 80 flock around the country. When not teaching us about nature, Rafael gives us a beginner's Spanish lesson. In Costa Rica, the all-around key phrase, used in greetings and other social situations, is "pura vida" or pure life.
As we cut a wide swath through Costa Rica, we visit La Fortuna, a touristy city with touristy hot springs housed in a swimming pool with concrete slides. Relaxing but not exactly a natural wonder.
However, our next stop provides one - the Arenal Volcano, one of the 10 most active volcanoes in the world, and our nearby hotel, the Ecolodge, supplies a wondrous view. Often obscured by clouds, the volcano shows itself after a rainstorm, and we look at its smoking crater while sitting in rocking chairs on our little veranda. All that's missing is an eruption.
On the food front, don't expect many gourmet meals, but, if you like rice and beans, you'll be in heaven. One of the gustatory highlights takes place at Restaurante Rancho Leon, owned by a friend of Popi's and located outside of the city of Quepos. Tables are situated outdoors under a rustic roof. As a comfortable breeze wafts in, we sample an array of delightful dishes including casaba sticks with Thousand Island dressing, smashed plantain patties with a black bean sauce and grouper, which one of our tour members said was the best on the trip. OAT provides most, but not all of the meals. The exchange rate is favorable.
Our accommodations range from earthy lodges to modern hotels to tented cabins on stilts. The latter come situated inside a wildlife refuge where all kinds of animals roam around. A dozen bats find a home on the netting outside our abode.
Optional tours include the zip line, a mangrove boat ride, a walk on 12 hanging bridges located high in a cloud forest and an ecological sanctuary twilight tour where we see some of nature's nocturnal creatures. Stress "some" as sightings are scarce.
On the ride back to San Jose, we see a spot where two rivers from two different sources converge. One river comes from a volcano and is orange-colored, the second comes from a mountain and is clear.
While there's probably a metaphor for our trip somewhere in that image - two different cultures meeting and learning to go with the flow - let's just say we savor a memorable experience jam-packed with incredible sights. Nature has never been so interesting.
Overseas Adventure Travel can be reached at 1-800-955-1925 . Its Web address is www.oattravel.com.
Costa Rica highlights
Besides the visit to Arenal Volcano, a zip line trip in San Gerardo da Dota and a mangrove boat ride, Costa Rica offers numerous adventurous sites and activities to explore.
River rafting on the Rio Tenorio. Rapids are mellow - Class I and II - so there's no need to worry about capsizing, and we have a guide. Just take in the scenic sights and look for wildlife. Along with birds and iguanas, we see bats sleeping on a rock overhang and crocodiles looking for a meal. We hope it's not us.
The bridge high above the Rio Tarcoles where we see a horde of very large crocodiles sunbathing. Locals have given them such names as Mike Tyson and Osama bin Laden.
Manuel Antonio National Park, a 1,700-acre nature extravaganza featuring four beaches, island bird sanctuaries and a rain forest. The park also provides one of only two habitats for the endangered squirrel monkeys, which we sadly don't see. We do see several birds, anteaters and a vine snake, which we interrupt as it's about to have a toad for lunch. A tourist removes the clueless amphibian out of harm's way. The snake appears annoyed.
Costa Verde Hotel where we're told spider monkeys will swing by around 6 p.m., so we order smoothies, sit in comfy chairs by the bar, soak in spectacular views of Manuel Antonio and wait for the monkeys to appear. They later show up on the street outside the hotel.
Trogon Lodge, idyllically situated far off the beaten track with a trout pond where we go fishing (Bev catches the biggest one), a gazebo, hummingbird feeders and a stream.
An unscripted stop in the city of Alajuela to visit the wife of our bus driver. She is surprised to see him and really surprised to see us.
Howler monkeys. If you don't see these aptly named simians, you will definitely hear them. A lot. Their distinctive, eerie bark is not a sound you'll soon forget. At our hotel in Manzanillo on the Caribbean coast, the howler replaces the rooster as the provider of an early morning wake-up call.
A visit to the remote village of the BriBri tribe. To get there, we take a long bus ride over bumpy, unpaved roads. We stop by a river, get into a dug-out canoe, cross the river and get into a bus with no air-conditioning packed with locals. We stand in back and ride over another bumpy, unpaved road as rap music blasts from the bus' speakers. OK, that isn't a highlight but the BriBris are.
Once at the village, we talk at length to the tribe's medicine man. Since the good doctor didn't speak Spanish or English, a member of the tribe translates from the BriBri dialect to Spanish and our tour guide translates from Spanish to English.
Though the BriBri wear modern clothes, the village lacks most modern conveniences. Tribespeople still sleep in huts with dirt-covered floors and animals such a hens and pigs mill about freely. The village only received electricity a year ago. Though the BriBri listen to radio, they don't have phones and have yet to see television. We hear TV is coming. Get ready for culture shock.
Our tour group. An X-factor for an enjoyable tour is the tour group itself and we are fortunate to have a great gang. And yours truly would be remiss if he didn't single out one member whose joie de vivre was exhilarating. A tip of the sombrero to Phyllis from Georgia, a Southern belle who rang our chimes. Pura vida, y'all.
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