We left our jungle cabin in Costa Rica more than two weeks ago so it´s high time I recount our time volunteering...
We posted a lot of pictures on Facebook of all the cute and fuzzy critters we worked with at the Jaguar Rescue Center. This definitely was a highlight of volunteering, but our time in Costa Rica wasn´t all baby sloths and monkeys. We worked our asses off, faced the challenges of living off the grid, paid ridiculous amounts of money for basic groceries, and at times, were genuinely concerned for our safety.
To paint you a picture of our time in Puerto Viejo, I´ll walk you through a typical day in the life of Joy and Chris´s time in the jungle.
Each morning at 5:30 a.m. we were awakened by cacophony of howling monkeys, barking dogs, and crowing roosters. Annoying? Yes. An effective alarm clock? Absolutely.
We´d lie in bed until about 6 a.m., convincing ourselves that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep, which never happened. We´d withdraw ourselves from our mosquito-net coccoon and prepare for the day. First we´d boil water to make coffee using our weird coffee sock, then we´d open the shutters in our kitchen to welcome in the morning sights and sounds of the jungle.
We´d enjoy our coffee and breakfast on our deck each morning. We were greeted by toucans roosting in the trees in the distance, lorakeets squawking, and howler monkeys calling out from the emerald green tree tops. Oh, and we always got a kick out of neighbors who had no problem singing and talking loudly at 6 a.m.!
After breakfast we´d pack up our lunch, our garbage (may I remind you, you can not flush toilet paper down toilets in most of C.A. so all t.p. goes in the garbage... sweet), and recycling from the night before and head down the mountain for our 25- minute walk to work.
We prided ourselves on our promptness. We were to be at the center at 8 a.m. and usually arrived 15 minutes early. The minute we arrived at work we´d throw down our back packs, and start the daily grind.
In the morning we´d grab a rake and start cleaning up the jungle leaves in the yard, a Sisyphusian task that we nonetheless found ourselves enjoying and apparently we were pretty good at it too -- is raking a viable skill to add to my resume??
If we weren´t raking in the morning, we were cleaning out animal enclosures. This was actually the first chore we did at the center... First day we met our super cool and chill boss, Joel; he told us to grab a rake, some disinfectant, and a few rags, and showed us the sloth enclosure.
In addition to two, three-toed sloths, living in the enclosure were a five-foot iguana and a rather large and one-winged hawk named Wingie. Entering into a cage with a bunch of wild animals was rather daunting, but no better way to learn than by diving right in, no?
After cleaning and spiffing up all the cages for the first tour at 9:30 a.m. we either continued raking for TWO hours, baby sat sloths, or kept the baby monkeys company.
Because the larger female monkeys preferred male humans (the females are alphas and considered human females a threat) Chris was on monkey patrol more often than I was. I was OK with this. I was a supreme sloth baby sitter. I know what most of you are thinking... how hard could it be to baby sit sloths?? Well, let me tell you it`s rough!
Two kinds of sloths live in Costa Rica, two-toed and three-toes sloths. Three-toed sloths are very docile and slow moving. They never attack humans and even a full-grown wild three-toed would pose no threat to a human. Two-toed sloths on the other hand are a whole other story! They have strong claws and razor sharp teeth that they use to defend themselves. They hiss, and move surprisingly quickly. Now imagine trying to pick up one of these bad boys using only your bare hands and a blanket!
At the end of our three weeks volunteering I was a master sloth wrangler. I learned quickly who were the trouble makers. Little Lola, a six-month old, five-pound two-toer caused the most problems. She was fast and curious and did not like being messed with. Shocking that such a small cute critter could be so terrifying! Then there was Andrea, a heaping chunk of a sloth who was ready to be released into the wild. During the day she´d sleep lazily in the sun, but when it came time to bring her into her night time enclosure she was PISSED! I was never able to wrangle her myself.
So while I was watching sloths, Chris spent a lot of time with the 12 baby howler monkeys. These little guys and gals were quite a handful! They´d crawl all over Chris´s head, constantly attempt to escape, and thought nothing of pooping and peeing on him! He managed to adapt quickly and in just a few days was best chums with the two biggest monkeys.
When the last tours of the day were over at 12:30 p.m., it was baby monkey jungle play time. The monkeys knew when it was play time and would gladly jump on the shoulders of volunteers to head out to their jungle tree.
Chris and I got to do this several times and it truly was an amazing experience. One day a wild monkey climbed down a tree, sat in my lap and started eating fruit from a tupperware container! Turns out she had been released into the wild a few months ago and was still used to humans, which hopefully will change, since trusting humans could lead to trouble.
So once the monkeys were out in the jungle, we`d head back to the center and clean enclosures, feed the animals, and make sure everything was ready for the next day... then we´d head home dirty, stinky and sweaty and prepare to start the whole thing over again.
So that´s about it for a typical day at the center. We did this four days a week for 8-9 hours a day. Would I do it again? In a second. In addition to working hands on with animals, the people we worked with were awesome: our fellow volunteers, our boss Joel and his buddy Eugene, and the other staff members who worked their asses off.
Chris and I did have mixed feelings about Puerto Viejo. Our mountain cabin was beautiful and I grew to appreciate the peace and tranquility of living deep in the jungle. Having very sweet considerate neighbors who went out of their way to watch out for us was also nice. What wasn`t so cool was the combo of high crime and high prices in the surrounding area. The two just don´t mix.
So that´s about it for our volunteer experience. It left a huge impression on us and will definitely be a higlight of our trip.
We really need to be better about posting on our blog more often. I feel like I´m leaving out so many stories from Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe we´ll write a short story about our experience.
Chris has posted about our last few weeks in Nicaragua, so we´re pretty caught up... we´re heading to Leon tomorrow and then will spend a few days on the isolated beaches in NW Nicaragua. Have I mentioned how much I love peace and quiet? :)
Adios mis amigos!!!
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Best and The Worst
We´re in Managua right now getting ready to head to the airport to meet Mandy and Eric, who will be in Nicaragua for a little more than a week. Our plan is to spend four nights hiking, maybe climbing a volcano, visiting waterfalls and relaxing in Isla Ometepe, and then we´re heading to Granada for four nights. We´re so excited to see these guys! We´re gonna have a blast. Unfortuanately, Poor Mando and Eric are gonna have a long travel day... they´ll get off a plane, get into a cab for a 2 hour ride to the ferry dock, then get on a ferry to the island, which will take an hour, and then get into another cab for a bumpy bumpy hour-long ride to the cabins where we are staying. I´m sure it´ll be worth it though!
So... back to Managua. We´d heard bad bad things about the city ... high crime ... dirty, etc. We had no idea how the city was laid out so we picked a hotel based on Trip Advisor reviews. The price was right at $30 and it had a pool. We arrived at the Managua bus station after a very very easy ride from Rivas. We had been told the cab ride would be $10 but the driver tried to charge us $20! What? That´s a lot of money for us! We eventually talked the guy down to $15, but still. Our hotel was far away from the city center and the airport. I was a little disappointed with our choice. Once we got our hotel we were pleasantly surprised. The place is in a quiet residential area, is very quaint and clean and has a fabulous pool. Oh, and we have cable, which is a treat!
We did have two very different and interesting culinary experiences yesterday. The first meal was, with out a doubt, the WORST meal we have had in our entire trip. Chris and I are honestly relieved that we didn´t get horribly horribly ill!
We hadn´t eaten much all day and just wanted something quick and cheap for lunch. There were no restaurants open so we headed toward the super market. In front of the market was a concession stand looking place selling "enchiladas." Sounded good to us. We ordered two for a total price of 30 Cordobas ($1.50). To our horror, the woman opened up a metal cabinet, pulled out two room-temperature fried tortilla things. She covered them with coleslaw and a soggy tomato piece. She then proceeded to clean off two dirty forks by pouring a cup of water on them and rubbing them with her hands. We should´ve walked away then and there, but we were gluttons for punishment. She handed us the two fried masses and we prepared ourselves to eat the horrible things. They were worse than they looked. Trying to crack open the fried tortilla was like cracking open a crab shell, once we did open it we were greeted by some stringy mystery meat and dry rice. We didn´t even bother with the weird white slaw and tomato.
Honestly, I can´t believe we finished eating the fried nightmares but we did and the experience will stick with us for a long long time.
Fortunately at dinner we had probably the best meal of the trip, and ironically, it cost almost the same as the worst.
We weren´t very hungry last night after the trauma with the football enchiladas, but we had to eat. Chris remembered seeing a sign down the street from our hotel for Nacatamales -- normal tamales except larger and served in a banana leaf. We decided to check it out. Walking at night near our hotel was not a problem, which was a huge relief. We found the sign for Nacatamales. It was posted on the porch of someone´s home. We didn´t want to disturb the family, and we were about to walk away when a man with one leg on crutches came out and welcomed us into his home.
The restaurant was nothing more than two plastic tables and four chairs in the entry way of the family´s home. Two shy little girls smiled at us from the kitchen and their grandfather waved at us from his chair in the living room. We ordered two tamales and two gaseosas, the specialty of the house. We made small talk with the little girls and their sweet cowboy-hat wearing grandpa. The cook of the restaurant was the grandma. She happily cooked us up our food and treated us as if we were guests in her house. Then she brought out the food. WOW. The delicious tamales were perfectly cooked and filled with stewed chicken. We felt honored to have been welcomed into the family´s home when they were clearly not prepared to serve food. We will never forget this experience, just as we unfortunately won´t forget our enchilada experience earlier in the day.
All in all, other than the expensive cab, we´ve enjoyed our short time at our hotel and our quaint neighborhood in Managua. If we ever come back to the city, we´ll definitely be staying at this hotel (Hotel D´lido of anyone is ever in the area and needs a cool place to stay!).
That´s it for now. Off to the airport.
¡Ciao!
So... back to Managua. We´d heard bad bad things about the city ... high crime ... dirty, etc. We had no idea how the city was laid out so we picked a hotel based on Trip Advisor reviews. The price was right at $30 and it had a pool. We arrived at the Managua bus station after a very very easy ride from Rivas. We had been told the cab ride would be $10 but the driver tried to charge us $20! What? That´s a lot of money for us! We eventually talked the guy down to $15, but still. Our hotel was far away from the city center and the airport. I was a little disappointed with our choice. Once we got our hotel we were pleasantly surprised. The place is in a quiet residential area, is very quaint and clean and has a fabulous pool. Oh, and we have cable, which is a treat!
We did have two very different and interesting culinary experiences yesterday. The first meal was, with out a doubt, the WORST meal we have had in our entire trip. Chris and I are honestly relieved that we didn´t get horribly horribly ill!
We hadn´t eaten much all day and just wanted something quick and cheap for lunch. There were no restaurants open so we headed toward the super market. In front of the market was a concession stand looking place selling "enchiladas." Sounded good to us. We ordered two for a total price of 30 Cordobas ($1.50). To our horror, the woman opened up a metal cabinet, pulled out two room-temperature fried tortilla things. She covered them with coleslaw and a soggy tomato piece. She then proceeded to clean off two dirty forks by pouring a cup of water on them and rubbing them with her hands. We should´ve walked away then and there, but we were gluttons for punishment. She handed us the two fried masses and we prepared ourselves to eat the horrible things. They were worse than they looked. Trying to crack open the fried tortilla was like cracking open a crab shell, once we did open it we were greeted by some stringy mystery meat and dry rice. We didn´t even bother with the weird white slaw and tomato.
Honestly, I can´t believe we finished eating the fried nightmares but we did and the experience will stick with us for a long long time.
Fortunately at dinner we had probably the best meal of the trip, and ironically, it cost almost the same as the worst.
We weren´t very hungry last night after the trauma with the football enchiladas, but we had to eat. Chris remembered seeing a sign down the street from our hotel for Nacatamales -- normal tamales except larger and served in a banana leaf. We decided to check it out. Walking at night near our hotel was not a problem, which was a huge relief. We found the sign for Nacatamales. It was posted on the porch of someone´s home. We didn´t want to disturb the family, and we were about to walk away when a man with one leg on crutches came out and welcomed us into his home.
The restaurant was nothing more than two plastic tables and four chairs in the entry way of the family´s home. Two shy little girls smiled at us from the kitchen and their grandfather waved at us from his chair in the living room. We ordered two tamales and two gaseosas, the specialty of the house. We made small talk with the little girls and their sweet cowboy-hat wearing grandpa. The cook of the restaurant was the grandma. She happily cooked us up our food and treated us as if we were guests in her house. Then she brought out the food. WOW. The delicious tamales were perfectly cooked and filled with stewed chicken. We felt honored to have been welcomed into the family´s home when they were clearly not prepared to serve food. We will never forget this experience, just as we unfortunately won´t forget our enchilada experience earlier in the day.
All in all, other than the expensive cab, we´ve enjoyed our short time at our hotel and our quaint neighborhood in Managua. If we ever come back to the city, we´ll definitely be staying at this hotel (Hotel D´lido of anyone is ever in the area and needs a cool place to stay!).
That´s it for now. Off to the airport.
¡Ciao!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Creepy Critters of Central America
Throughout our travels in Central America, we have been warned by many people about insects and animals that can cause horrible pain, debilitating illness and death. So, in order of smallest to largest here is a partial list of critters that can terriorize most those who visit & stay in the jungle:
- mosquito: small itchy welts are the least of our worries with these guys. They carry malaria, and what seems more common in these parts -- at least among travelers -- dengue fever. Apparently the first time you get the fever you usually just get horrible pain in your bones, a fever, delirium and other flu symptoms. Get it a second time, and, most likely, you're toast.
-chi chi fly (beach mite): this little guy is indiginous to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Usually the bite they give you is harmless, but once in a while, they'll burrow under you skin and the bite will turn into what looks like a mini volcano. It's almost a right of passage for locals to get bit by the chi chi. A local guy from Bastimentos, with said affliction, was staying at our guest house so the house's owner could take care of him. The guy hobbled around in excrutiating pain, constantly talked about how he hadn't slept in days and how the shots he was receiving weren't helping. He was going to try the local remedy of burning out the mite. This required applying a burning hot banana peel to the wound. In the mean time, he was taking copious amounts of hardcore pain killers. Nice!
-punching wasp: Lives in the Panamanian highlands. The sting they deliver feels like you're getting punched. Hard. Hard enough that you're supposed to lie down when you get bit because you're going to fall down anyhow. These wasps aren't deadly.
-shooting ant: Lives in Costa Rica. A bite from one of these ants feels like you're getting shot with A GUN! What the hell?! I'm not sure how that is possible. Haven't many anyone who was bit by these guys. Perhaps a jungle legend?
-black night wasp: A woman who volunteers at the rescue center told us about this little jem of a bug. Her friend was stung and her face went slack & she couldn´t feel her arm for a couple hours. Who doesn´t want to spend the evening with stroke-like symptoms.
-scorpion: they are all over the place down here and not the big ones, but the small deadly ones. Joysie found one on our window sill in the jungle hut on the second day. Fortunately, it was just a skeleton. It´d been dead a while, but we still tucked in our mosiquito netting at all times.
-spiders: various kinds. Some deadly, some not so much, others just hurt (trantula bites, mainly)
-SNAKES: At the Jaguar Rescue, Sandro, the owner, is a snake guy, so there´s emphasis on snakes during the tour. There are roughly 140 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, roughly 15 are poisonous and of those 15, 7 of them live near our jungle cabin. I don´t know all seven, but the most common are also the most deadly. Ferdilanz (sp), a nasty brown, cream & white colored bugger is both agressive and territorial. It will bite if you come to close. The Bushmaster, a big sucker (6 feet long), deadly but not as territorial. It won´t chase you like the Ferdilanz. The JUMPING Pit Viper it poisonous and can jump at you. Yay!
This list will get added to as we remember and as others recount their own insect, arachnid and reptialian nightmares.
Sleep well kids.
PS - We just arrived after three weeks in the jungle to San Jose, Costa Rica for a much needed stay in a hotel with running water, hot water, TV and a pizza joint next door. Whoo hoo. Tomorrow, 3-22, it´s off to Nicaragua where we resume budget travels, Joy continues to live with cold showers and we meet up with Mandy & Eric on Friday. Can´t wait.
PSS - The next post will include a detailed account of our work at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn´t all babysitting monkeys and feeding bald squirrels. It was hard work, and I´ve got the blisters to prove it. Stay tuned.
-
- mosquito: small itchy welts are the least of our worries with these guys. They carry malaria, and what seems more common in these parts -- at least among travelers -- dengue fever. Apparently the first time you get the fever you usually just get horrible pain in your bones, a fever, delirium and other flu symptoms. Get it a second time, and, most likely, you're toast.
-chi chi fly (beach mite): this little guy is indiginous to Bocas del Toro in Panama. Usually the bite they give you is harmless, but once in a while, they'll burrow under you skin and the bite will turn into what looks like a mini volcano. It's almost a right of passage for locals to get bit by the chi chi. A local guy from Bastimentos, with said affliction, was staying at our guest house so the house's owner could take care of him. The guy hobbled around in excrutiating pain, constantly talked about how he hadn't slept in days and how the shots he was receiving weren't helping. He was going to try the local remedy of burning out the mite. This required applying a burning hot banana peel to the wound. In the mean time, he was taking copious amounts of hardcore pain killers. Nice!
-punching wasp: Lives in the Panamanian highlands. The sting they deliver feels like you're getting punched. Hard. Hard enough that you're supposed to lie down when you get bit because you're going to fall down anyhow. These wasps aren't deadly.
-shooting ant: Lives in Costa Rica. A bite from one of these ants feels like you're getting shot with A GUN! What the hell?! I'm not sure how that is possible. Haven't many anyone who was bit by these guys. Perhaps a jungle legend?
-black night wasp: A woman who volunteers at the rescue center told us about this little jem of a bug. Her friend was stung and her face went slack & she couldn´t feel her arm for a couple hours. Who doesn´t want to spend the evening with stroke-like symptoms.
-scorpion: they are all over the place down here and not the big ones, but the small deadly ones. Joysie found one on our window sill in the jungle hut on the second day. Fortunately, it was just a skeleton. It´d been dead a while, but we still tucked in our mosiquito netting at all times.
-spiders: various kinds. Some deadly, some not so much, others just hurt (trantula bites, mainly)
-SNAKES: At the Jaguar Rescue, Sandro, the owner, is a snake guy, so there´s emphasis on snakes during the tour. There are roughly 140 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, roughly 15 are poisonous and of those 15, 7 of them live near our jungle cabin. I don´t know all seven, but the most common are also the most deadly. Ferdilanz (sp), a nasty brown, cream & white colored bugger is both agressive and territorial. It will bite if you come to close. The Bushmaster, a big sucker (6 feet long), deadly but not as territorial. It won´t chase you like the Ferdilanz. The JUMPING Pit Viper it poisonous and can jump at you. Yay!
This list will get added to as we remember and as others recount their own insect, arachnid and reptialian nightmares.
Sleep well kids.
PS - We just arrived after three weeks in the jungle to San Jose, Costa Rica for a much needed stay in a hotel with running water, hot water, TV and a pizza joint next door. Whoo hoo. Tomorrow, 3-22, it´s off to Nicaragua where we resume budget travels, Joy continues to live with cold showers and we meet up with Mandy & Eric on Friday. Can´t wait.
PSS - The next post will include a detailed account of our work at the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn´t all babysitting monkeys and feeding bald squirrels. It was hard work, and I´ve got the blisters to prove it. Stay tuned.
-
Monday, March 7, 2011
Jungle People
Hola Kids,
Pretty sure little Joysie left off as we made our way into Puerto Viejo/Cocles for our three-week volunteer opportunity with the Jaguar Rescue. A few facebook posts later and you know our lives our filled with the babysitting of sloths and monkeys, the cleaning of sloth, monkey and mice enclosures along with a freakin' ton of raking. I've not raked so much since my Dad forced yardwork on me at the green age of 9.
However, for those non-facebookers I'll give you the lowdown on week one in the jungle with our new jungle-dwelling friends.
We arrived last Sunday to a torrential downpour, but the travel day from the Bocas Del Toro archepeligo to our cabin in Punta Cocles was certainly one of the easiest. On a boat from the Isla Bastimentos at 8 am and inside our cabin by 2 pm. Not bad considering we took two boats, one shuttle, one taxi, one walk across a border,one bus straight to the main drag of Puerto Viejo, another taxi to the jungle road and one 1/2 mile walk UP into the forest to said cabin. OK, I've mentioned a couple towns. Puerto Viejo is the main town about 3km north of the resuce center and Cocles the town from where our jungle road leads into the forest. That's right! We're about an hour walk from the nearest ATM. Pretty cool.
So, just how jungly is the jungle cabin. It runs completely off the grid in all senses. We have rain water for washing dishes, the crapper and the shower. We have solar power for lights and outlets. Our refrigerator is that nifty invention called the cooler and each night is an entemologist's fantasy. BUT, we do have a couple neighbors. The first we've not met, though we're greeted each time we pass by three of the biggest dogs that certainly want to rip out the juglars of all nomads as we. The second, Jose and his wife, Grace, are the best neighbors ever. Upon arrival Jose, speaking only Spanish, showed us around the place, lent us two bicycles and helped us back down the hill and to the grocery store for provisions. Jose has been awesome. He's showed us where to look for the Toucans, sloths, monkeys, watusa's, Lorakeets, etc., as he owns a couple hundred acres of the forest surrounding our cabin. Plus, he speaks no English and speaks Spanish to us as if we're native. Great practice.
Last Monday, a day after Joy and I settled into the cabin, we picked up our buddies from Norway, Bjornar & Hege, in Puerto Viejo. They were grateful for the use of our second bedroom in the cabin, and we escorted them to the grocery store for the provisions of which would be the staple of our 6 nights together in the jungle - easy cooking food, ice, beer & rum. More on this later.
That night the downpour continued, BUT since this little jungle casa is off the grid on rainwater, we were psyched because our two water tanks overfloweth. PLUS, as we would learn in subsequent nights, the rain keeps the amount of flying insects to a minimum. We hadn't seen those guys in a couple days, so we naturally stayed up way too late. Shoot, Joy and I have to be OUT of the cabin and hiking by 7:15 to make it to the center by 8 am.
Our first day consisted of taking a tour of the center. Pretty easy, and Joel (pronouced Joe-El), our new boss, told us to come on back 3/2 for our first day. Joy and I ate some food at a local Soda that afternoon and hopped back up to the cabin to relax watching the tocuans. Bjornar & Hege soon followed with vegetable stew fixins.
It was this night, after the rains, that the insect activity picked up several notches. The evening started off harmless enough watching millions of fireflys light up the forest just off our deck. (The cabin is perched on a hill on stilts and has a priceless view of old growth jungle with sweeping views of a small valley). The shadows of the hundred plus-foot trees were blinking with thousands of fireflys. However, it was when one of those fireflys made its way onto our deck that we realized jungle insects are WAY BIGGER than those back home. This little fella was about two inches long with not only the typical firefly glowing rearend, but two glowing "eyes" on the back of his wings that made him look like a limosine exiting a dark tunnel. Gotta be a way for him to make his predators think he's a bit bigger, though this was no firefly in a jar from my childhood.
For the next several nights it was an insect parade - mountain cockroaches (they fly and are the size of a frizbee), a giant black beetle that we call the cow-bug of the forest (they fly, but slowly, albeit always for the head and they HISS), praying mantis (fly), giant grasshoppers (fly), green leaf-shaped grasshopper (fly), surfboard bug (flys and has a stripe down his back that looks make him look like he's carrying a surfboard), spiders, BIGGEST BLACK ANT I'VE EVER SEEN, etc., etc.
Now, you might see why our nighly provisions always included a bit of beer and a bit of rum. With a buzz, it's just a bit easier to take the onslaught of insects to the face, neck, crotch, legs and feet. ALSO, we've learned that mosquito netting TUCKED INTO the bed is a neccesity. That lesson is learned quickly after one of those suckers snuggles up with ya.
Now, Joy and I would endure as many insect-laden nights the world needs to dish out for the opportunity of volunteering at the rescue center. By the end of our first week we've each worn baby monkeys like clothing as they are walked out to the forest for their daily playtime sessions, we've each had the chance to babysit the injured sloths as they climb around on their display for the visitors, we've each had the chance to learn more in one week than a lifetime about venomous snakes of central america, lizards, spiders, caman, hawks and owls. Plus, all the people at the center are just as passionate. And, it's not all monkey-sitting. Each morning we rake about a hectare of the rainforest because the place is also like a garden, and the owner & herpatolgist (reptile scientist), Sandro, is almost obessive about leaves on his grounds. Most volunteers, save for my first day when I was lulled into a sense of security with 6 hours in the monkey house, spend the mornings raking leaves from the floor of the forest. It's like rolling a giant rock up the hill, but it make our afternoons for animal watching, feeding and enclosure cleaning that much more rewarding.
A couple days ago Bjornar & Hege have continued their travels and we keep track of them via Facebook in the midst of civilization with their hot showers, their bug-free beds, their refrigerators and Joysie & I will spend the next two weeks living like jungle people with our jungle buddies. We treasure our first week in Costa Rica, and we were happy to share the somewhat startling introduction to rainforest living with our new, fast friends. More to share soon.
Love,
US
Pretty sure little Joysie left off as we made our way into Puerto Viejo/Cocles for our three-week volunteer opportunity with the Jaguar Rescue. A few facebook posts later and you know our lives our filled with the babysitting of sloths and monkeys, the cleaning of sloth, monkey and mice enclosures along with a freakin' ton of raking. I've not raked so much since my Dad forced yardwork on me at the green age of 9.
However, for those non-facebookers I'll give you the lowdown on week one in the jungle with our new jungle-dwelling friends.
We arrived last Sunday to a torrential downpour, but the travel day from the Bocas Del Toro archepeligo to our cabin in Punta Cocles was certainly one of the easiest. On a boat from the Isla Bastimentos at 8 am and inside our cabin by 2 pm. Not bad considering we took two boats, one shuttle, one taxi, one walk across a border,one bus straight to the main drag of Puerto Viejo, another taxi to the jungle road and one 1/2 mile walk UP into the forest to said cabin. OK, I've mentioned a couple towns. Puerto Viejo is the main town about 3km north of the resuce center and Cocles the town from where our jungle road leads into the forest. That's right! We're about an hour walk from the nearest ATM. Pretty cool.
So, just how jungly is the jungle cabin. It runs completely off the grid in all senses. We have rain water for washing dishes, the crapper and the shower. We have solar power for lights and outlets. Our refrigerator is that nifty invention called the cooler and each night is an entemologist's fantasy. BUT, we do have a couple neighbors. The first we've not met, though we're greeted each time we pass by three of the biggest dogs that certainly want to rip out the juglars of all nomads as we. The second, Jose and his wife, Grace, are the best neighbors ever. Upon arrival Jose, speaking only Spanish, showed us around the place, lent us two bicycles and helped us back down the hill and to the grocery store for provisions. Jose has been awesome. He's showed us where to look for the Toucans, sloths, monkeys, watusa's, Lorakeets, etc., as he owns a couple hundred acres of the forest surrounding our cabin. Plus, he speaks no English and speaks Spanish to us as if we're native. Great practice.
Last Monday, a day after Joy and I settled into the cabin, we picked up our buddies from Norway, Bjornar & Hege, in Puerto Viejo. They were grateful for the use of our second bedroom in the cabin, and we escorted them to the grocery store for the provisions of which would be the staple of our 6 nights together in the jungle - easy cooking food, ice, beer & rum. More on this later.
That night the downpour continued, BUT since this little jungle casa is off the grid on rainwater, we were psyched because our two water tanks overfloweth. PLUS, as we would learn in subsequent nights, the rain keeps the amount of flying insects to a minimum. We hadn't seen those guys in a couple days, so we naturally stayed up way too late. Shoot, Joy and I have to be OUT of the cabin and hiking by 7:15 to make it to the center by 8 am.
Our first day consisted of taking a tour of the center. Pretty easy, and Joel (pronouced Joe-El), our new boss, told us to come on back 3/2 for our first day. Joy and I ate some food at a local Soda that afternoon and hopped back up to the cabin to relax watching the tocuans. Bjornar & Hege soon followed with vegetable stew fixins.
It was this night, after the rains, that the insect activity picked up several notches. The evening started off harmless enough watching millions of fireflys light up the forest just off our deck. (The cabin is perched on a hill on stilts and has a priceless view of old growth jungle with sweeping views of a small valley). The shadows of the hundred plus-foot trees were blinking with thousands of fireflys. However, it was when one of those fireflys made its way onto our deck that we realized jungle insects are WAY BIGGER than those back home. This little fella was about two inches long with not only the typical firefly glowing rearend, but two glowing "eyes" on the back of his wings that made him look like a limosine exiting a dark tunnel. Gotta be a way for him to make his predators think he's a bit bigger, though this was no firefly in a jar from my childhood.
For the next several nights it was an insect parade - mountain cockroaches (they fly and are the size of a frizbee), a giant black beetle that we call the cow-bug of the forest (they fly, but slowly, albeit always for the head and they HISS), praying mantis (fly), giant grasshoppers (fly), green leaf-shaped grasshopper (fly), surfboard bug (flys and has a stripe down his back that looks make him look like he's carrying a surfboard), spiders, BIGGEST BLACK ANT I'VE EVER SEEN, etc., etc.
Now, you might see why our nighly provisions always included a bit of beer and a bit of rum. With a buzz, it's just a bit easier to take the onslaught of insects to the face, neck, crotch, legs and feet. ALSO, we've learned that mosquito netting TUCKED INTO the bed is a neccesity. That lesson is learned quickly after one of those suckers snuggles up with ya.
Now, Joy and I would endure as many insect-laden nights the world needs to dish out for the opportunity of volunteering at the rescue center. By the end of our first week we've each worn baby monkeys like clothing as they are walked out to the forest for their daily playtime sessions, we've each had the chance to babysit the injured sloths as they climb around on their display for the visitors, we've each had the chance to learn more in one week than a lifetime about venomous snakes of central america, lizards, spiders, caman, hawks and owls. Plus, all the people at the center are just as passionate. And, it's not all monkey-sitting. Each morning we rake about a hectare of the rainforest because the place is also like a garden, and the owner & herpatolgist (reptile scientist), Sandro, is almost obessive about leaves on his grounds. Most volunteers, save for my first day when I was lulled into a sense of security with 6 hours in the monkey house, spend the mornings raking leaves from the floor of the forest. It's like rolling a giant rock up the hill, but it make our afternoons for animal watching, feeding and enclosure cleaning that much more rewarding.
A couple days ago Bjornar & Hege have continued their travels and we keep track of them via Facebook in the midst of civilization with their hot showers, their bug-free beds, their refrigerators and Joysie & I will spend the next two weeks living like jungle people with our jungle buddies. We treasure our first week in Costa Rica, and we were happy to share the somewhat startling introduction to rainforest living with our new, fast friends. More to share soon.
Love,
US
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