Two weeks ago: Adventure to Chirrio Mountain

My parents visited a couple weeks ago and we had an absolutely fantastic time for almost 5 days! We saw sloths, quetzals, and some amazing plants in the forests. We did zip lines (hooray for mom!!) and lots of walking. They got to meet my host family and some of my friends that I have made here, plus my Dad had a blast helping out in the chemistry classes here at school. I hated saying good-bye, but they had a great visit and it was wonderful to share this with them!

This last weekend Anna and I took the 9 11th graders to Chirripo Mountain in the more southern part of Costa Rica. Chirripo Mountain is the tallest point in Costa Rica, with a cloud forest but in a different mountain range. Monteverde is in the Tileran mountain range and Chirripo is in the Talamanca mountain range. The class had been fundraising for the past 4 months to try to raise the $500 it would cost for us all to stay there for 3 nights, food for 11 people (6 of them growing boys) and the donation to the reserve we were going to be working with. Each of us had to pay $40 for our transportation, which in the grand scope of things was practically nothing for how far we went and what we did.
The date of the trip was perfect because here May first is “Workers Day” and there is no school or work for most people. That way the students only missed one day of school, Thursday. At 5:30 am we met our car and began our adventure. In private transportation, it takes 4 hours to get from Monteverde to San Jose, from there you go up the mountains and through the pass (reaching 10,000 ft at the highest) and down to San Isidro. There we bought $180 worth of groceries, hoping it would last us the 3 days we were staying, and then began to climb Chirripo itself. The road was winding and relatively narrow and once we entered the official National Park the road was rather rough. Almost as bad as the road up the hill to Monteverde, made worse by the pouring rain and steep drop-off to our right. After stopping three times to ask if we were still headed in the right direction toward Casa Mariposa (our lodging) we finally got to this little house looking thing on one of the steepest parts of the hill. Anna went inside to ask if we were in the right place and sure enough, this was our stop.

From the front door. Two rooms on both the right and the left.

Wonderful kitchen

Down the stairs to the river was a little waterfall with chairs and flowers

This modest little house was heaven on earth! With high ceilings, comfortable beds, literately in the middle of the forest, at 5,000 feet, it was a perfect place to spend three days away from school and work, even with 9 high school kids. There was a small kitchen where we could cook our meals, windows open to the forest to allow easy viewing and hearing of birds and other animals, and a sitting area where it was wonderful to read, play games or chat. How the boys dressed to go on our hike in the forest. An interesting first impression.

We unpacked our stuff into almost all the rooms in the place, the 6 boys together in a bunk room, then three other rooms for us girls and I got a room to myself! A REAL QUEEN size bed all to myself!!! I was in heaven. All the food got stored in my room, so the boys couldn’t just help themselves any ‘ol time. After settling in the manager from the Cloudbridge reserve, Eric, came down to meet us and we went for an orientation walk/hike in the reserve. He showed us the three simple buildings in the reserve and then we hiked up to the waterfall, with about three different views. Daniel (one of our crazier boys) jumped into the 12 C water for a bit of entertainment and then we hiked up to the upper viewpoint and saw the labyrinth that one of the owners had made. It was really pretty up there.
Returning to the house by about 6:15, the sun was setting and the boys set about cooking dinner in the kitchen, which was defiantly a sight to see. A couple of the boys took it upon themselves to cook some beef and chicken, with some good spices and Lizano salsa. A huge green salad and some potatoes cooked with garlic (although they got a little carried away with the butter and oil so they were pretty interesting). For the most part it was really good!
Getting stuck with all the dishes that the boys used in the kitchen wasn’t too fun, especially when one of them burned almost 2 inches of rice to the bottom of the pan. Most of us tried to get to bed early because the next day was going to be a full one!
Up at 7:15 to make breakfast (gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs and cereal), get dressed and pack up a lunch, we walked up to the reserve to begin a day of hiking and surveying plants and insects. Split into two groups we headed into the reserve for some of the most intense hiking I have ever done. As we went up and down and up and up and up and then down, down, down, we looked for insects for the graduate student doing research with insects. I had a blast. I tried to catch one of the dragonflies, but they were too smart for me (I did catch a picture though!).

I did catch a couple really pretty butterflies and this fuzzy red fly-like insect. I had so much fun! Although I was completely exhausted by the time we finally got back to the lab and kitchen buildings to eat lunch. Although I usually don’t eat tuna with only mayo (no mustard or pickles) but that was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had! I was starving!Haven't identified this one yet, but it sure is beautiful.

Luna, the reserve coordinator's dog. SO sweet!

We chatted about the different things we saw and trails we blazed, drank water and just lazed about for an hour or so. Then we went to the lab house where we used their limited supply of insect and plant books (some had been compiled by past researchers there) to identify the plants and insects that we had found. It was so much fun! I found myself wishing I had the text books I had used when I took my insect biology course. They only had field guides and some were only for North American insects…Costa Rica is a little too far south for that book. We did our best, I just had fun playing around and everything! The students didn’t think it was such a cool thing, but I had a blast.
We finished around three and walked back to our little home. We took turns in the shower and then we had the afternoon to relax. I took a nap in my big comfy bed. At about 6 I was awoken by one of the students serenading me with a very obnoxious version of “You Are My Sunshine”, accompanied by his interesting guitar playing. Needless to say I was a little out of sorts when I finally woke up.
The boys once again made dinner, but this time with them cleaning the pots and pans that they used. We had two varieties of pasta with another large green salad. After dinner we just had time to relax and go to bed early because the day had been long and exhausting for most of us. I think the kids stayed up talking, but Anna and I went to bed at a very decent hour.
In exchange for giving us our last night at the hotel for half price (so we could afford to stay for 3 nights, 4 days) we were enlisted to help the owners, Jill and John, with the little fair happening in town on Saturday. The community of the nearest town, San Luis de Rivas, was only about 300 people and most of them were very conscious of the fact that they lived in a National Park area and everything they do has the possibility of affecting the environment. Jill had been working on several projects for the event. She had talked to a company that makes a lot of soaps that don’t have ammonias or other chemicals that damage the environment. There was a basket of bottles of concentrated soaps from that company for clothes, dishes and hand that they were raffling it off at the fair. A graduate student who was living in the area and doing research had prepared several water samples with different contaminants that might be found in the water there and had measured the level of phosphates, nitrogen, ammonias and other chemicals for the community to see how certain substances affect the water quality. She had samples that had been tainted by soaps, ammonias, sediments and so forth. Also some recycled products were being sold. Jill has perfected the art of making plastic fabric, which she makes reusable shopping bags out of. She takes used plastic bags (garbage bags, bread bags, shopping bags, pretty much any kind of plastic bag), sandwiching about 5 layers of them between sheets and ironing them, melting them into one very strong piece of “plastic fabric” that can be sewn together and used in many different applications. She taught us how to do it before we left. Here in Monteverde we use plasticized cardboard cartons (everything here comes in these), a little electric tape and a small square of Velcro to make little wallets that are unique, sturdy, recycled and just plain fun! They were a big hit there. The whole thing was fascinating and the community responded really well to everything. It showed that they really did care about what happened to the land that they lived on.
Unfortunately we had to leave the next day. Our time there had been fun, relaxing and informative. The drive back was long but uneventful for the most part. I had a wonderful time on the trip though. I saw another cloud forest, I saw new plants and new plants, I saw such a wonderful opportunity for me, and the students. I had so much fun!!
I apologize for the tardiness of this blog, but between school work, substituting and taking Spanish classes 5 days a week at the language institute I don’t have very much free time. Hope all is well at home and I miss everyone! I’ll be seeing you all in three weeks or so. I return to Oregon on June 8th.

Hugs!!
K