Mountainous cloudforests and a sleepy volcano

Hi, it’s me again[e-1f590]

While everyone in the Netherlands is busy with the upcoming elections [e-1f534] next Wednesday, I am living a more primitive [e-26c8]life at the Pacific, trying to safe as much turtle eggs [e-1f422][e-1f423]as possible.

After behaving like a ostrich for half a year, not wanting to follow the daily news anymore, last week I opened up my NOS app again, curious about how the political campaign was developing. I secretly hoped that people would finally realise that Climate Change [e-1f30a] and Nature degeneration [e-1f334] really is something we all should be worried about. I noticed they’re not[e-1f629]. I still hope for a positive result[e-2705] after Wednesday but in the meantime I feel even more encouraged to keep on doing my best to safe the last bits of nature we have left, giving up a lot of night sleep [e-1f635] to get that done.

But before I’ll tell you all about what it means to save turtles and their eggs, I should start where I finished 3 weeks ago; the Monteverde CloudForest[e-2601][e-1f333].

Monteverde literally means ‘green mountain[e-26f0]’ and is called so because it’s a rainforest area on a elevation of about 1500-1800m a.s.l. For that reason, the rainforest and area are often hidden in the clouds[e-1f32b], giving it a slightly different habitat and therefore called cloudforest. During the 4 days I stayed there, I visited different parts of the forest area. Next to the several species of monkeys[e-1f435][e-1f412] I had seen already at the Carribean Coast, I met a whole family of Coati (a kind of nose bear[e-1f43c]) sniffing around among the trees right next to the path, some funny looking, rather shy agoutis [e-1f43f](a kind of rodent) and also some beautiful birds [e-1f54a] with colourful long tail feathers.

After walking through the parks for 2 days, the third day I did it the way Monteverde is most famous for; getting around at canopy level. Most tourists like to do it by zipline, crossing the canopy by distances up to 1000m in just a minute, but in that way you don’t really see animals. The other way is by crossing over hanging bridges, so you can actually see the trees from the top and also the birds (and some monkeys) that enjoy the fruits and seeds high up the trees.

Because of low season, I was one of the very few tourists at that day taking the hanging bridges, so I could take my time. After 2 hours going slower than a sloth I had crossed the whole trail, went for a coffee[e-2615] and wanted to go around once more. The ticket unfortunately was valet for one entry only, but after talking for 10 minutes with the guards, they let me get in for a second time [e-1f600]

Although I enjoyed the scenery [e-1f3de] of the parks and the lower temperature in the mountain these days, the entry fees of at least $25 for each park is much higher than it should be. (The Cahuita national Park I was the week before only asked for a suggested $5-$10 donation). Fortunately there is a really mystical nice place, free of charge and only 10 minutes walking from the village centre. I only had to walk down a small path towards a little river, completely hidden by the clouds, where I found a very unique tree formation. The tree itself, standing on the edge above the river, has grown it’s roots so well, that it crosses the river both from above throught the air as well as all the way down to and through the river below, creating a magnific Lord of the Rings scenery. Although free of charge and so close to the centre of the village, the two times I went there, I was the only one around. What else do you need to forget about your problems [e-262f] and enjoy live at the very moment[e-1f607]

After these 4 days I left the mountains to get in a more touristic place, next to the Arenal Volcano [e-1f5fb]. Getting there from Monteverde we had to cross an artificial lake (a hydro-electric reservoir) where we had a beautiful close view on the cone shaped volcanic mountain. Also from the town/touristic hub accomodating all visitors, you felt like the volcano was right next to you, giving beautiful views during day and night.

Many wealthy people book a big room in one of the newly build 5star hotels, which provide ‘natural’ hot pools to swim [e-1f3ca]. Luckily I met some locals who informed me where to get to the real hot water from the volcano free of charge. The host from my hostel advised me to go after dark, when it’s less crowded and air temperature much nicer and invited me and the other hostel guests to go together that evening. For 2 hours we enjoyed the natural pool and sounds of frogs [e-1f438] and running water, lighted by only some candlelights[e-1f56f] (and made me miss having Welmoed there with me[e-2764]).

Next day was the last day of my trip before I had to go back to San Jose and get to my next project and I decided to walk a trail getting to the bottom of the last Lava flow of 1968 [e-1f30b] which gave an even better view on the mountain cone. Getting there I crossed some forest again, where I saw several new bird species, like a big kind of tree turkey [e-1f983].

After getting back in town, I treated myself on a nice vegetarian casada (a local food plate [e-1f37d] with lots of vegetables[e-1f33d][e-1f345][e-1f346], salad, beans and tortillas[e-1f32e]).

These 2 weeks of holiday in between my voluntary projects have been really nice, giving me the opportunity to get a wider impression of the nature and people of this beautiful but also poor and ‘not so safe as they tell in the brochures[e-1f4d7]’ country.

Time to start saving turtles, as you’ll read in my next report[e-1f4f0], coming up soon [e-1f551] …..