Can you find the hidden object???
What a day, what a day!!! Awesome, awesome!! So much to see and do! Gotta love it!! We are now at Tirimbina Wildlife Reserve. This reserve was actually started by a man from Wisconsin quite a long time ago. What foresight for someone from the states!! This is a quite large wildlife reserve with a small cacao (think chocolate) plantation within it.
Today started with one of my favorite things. . . . hiking in the rainforest! You just never know what you will see . . . and we have been fortunate to see a lot so far (many of the things on my mental list—toucans, monkeys, sloth, frogs). . .. but I have been wondering when we were going to see some snakes. . . . and today was the day!!!
As we went on our hike today we started snake day with seeing (barely) the hog-nosed pit viper! This made me a little happier, but it was in a den and all we could see was a small part of its back (and, yes, it is poisonous) as it was digesting food! The guide said that the previous day it had been lying on the path and you could actually see the bulge where it had eaten something! So, I was still hoping for more! We continued on our way and saw more bullet ants (black, about 1-1/2 inches long with a BAD bite—fortunately I didn’t find that out personally!!). They are some SCARY looking ants!
We continued on our way . . . . saw more insects, plants, a REALLY big tree on our way to the chocolate tour. At the chocolate tour we learned the history of chocolate (it was drunk for a LONG time before it became candy!) and saw the cacao tree that it came from and a demo of how it is made! It starts in a big pod (you can see these in the pictures) that grow directly on the tree (purple pods have a fungus. . . .bad, bad, bad!!).
The process goes something like this: You crack the pod and find the seeds inside with a white gooey stuff on them (again, more pics of this) which actually tastes pretty good—pretty sweet. The seeds are removed from the gooey stuff and left to ferment. . . yep, ferment! Sounds yummy, right??? When it gets fermented just right it is dried, then ground, and tastes pretty bitter. Then hot water can be added and mixed to dissolve the powder and make cocoa or less water, add some sugar. . and voila, you have chocolate candy! Good chocolate should have over 70% cacao (Hersheys and Nestle do not qualify!!)! Our guide also happens to be a chocolatier (he has trained to make specialty chocolates and is just beginning to sell to the public—good stuff!) so he was very excited about this part of our trip!
Although cacao has long been a product of Costa Rica, it is not really well suited for its humid climate. As a result a very bad fungus has attacked the cacao plantations and many are struggling or even no longer functioning! Many of the cacao pods that we saw had this fungus. After the demonstration (and tasting at all phases of this process), we got to go see the trees. . . and along came snake #2! Well, actually it was just sitting on the side of the tree. . . .an eyelash viper (yep, this one is poisonous, too!!). Very green and with incredible camouflage. I had to really look to find it! Cool, cool, cool! But more to come!
After this we quickly hiked back for lunch and then had a presentation about the indigenous tribes of Costa Rica, quickly looked through a museum, heard from a Maleku (one of the indigenous tribes) father and daughter, and then participated in a couple of their crafts! First we carved a gourd with this small razorblade type tool. . . .this is NOT an easy task. . .especially for someone as non-artistic as me! The woman was incredible! She was outlining hummingbird designs for some folks in minutes! I did mine all by myself and considered it pretty good for me! It surely gave me a much better appreciation for their art work!
Then we were given a small piece of burlap (bookmark size) to decorate using naturally dyes as paint. . .. and we got to use our fingers!!! How cool is that!! However, we only had yellow, red, brown/black, and olive green to work with! This time my lack of artistic abilities was really evident and this did not turn out so well!
We also learned some things about their culture which were rather interesting. If a man wanted to marry someone, he asked his father to ask the girls’ father and offered a gift of sorts and the deal was made. However, the father of the girl really couldn’t say no! So, the women really had NO say in the matter whatsoever. However, he did say that later if they decided to part ways, it was no big deal! Interesting, indeed!
Well, if this isn’t enough of a full day. . . . I decided to join some of colleagues on an optional night hike! This was an INCREDIBLE experience! We started off really lucky! The first thing we really saw was a kinkachu (I really need to check the spelling of this and hopefully I will remember before I post it. . .). This is an incredibly cute little critter that kind of looks like a cross between a monkey and a teddy bear! Adorable it was!!! And we got to see it twice (and the 2nd time we saw 2) and up fairly close as it was on the railing of the hanging bridge. Oh yeah, speaking of hanging bridge, we went over some really long, somewhat scary hanging bridges (no more than 5 at a time please, and please stay 5-6 feet apart. . . sounds so encouraging, doesn’t it!!).
On we went looking at various spiders (yuk---one dropped down between me and another woman. I had to push her out of the way so it wouldn’t land on either of us! Ooohhh.) and other insects and a number of little frogs called dink frogs (yes, that is there name!). And we saw a vine snake on a log and watched for a while. We then came across a tarantula. . .. however, before I got to it, it had went back in its hole! But, having the wonderful guide that we did, he got a stick and tricked the big guy into coming back out of his hole so we could get a good luck at him! Oh my, , , he was huge, brown, hairy!!!!! It was incredible watching the guide lure him out! Oh, could this get any better. . . .
Yep, it could! Our guide found another frog to show us.. . right near a river. . . and then we saw a huge freshwater crab. . .pretty neat. . .and then just as we were ready to move on, I spotted something slithering in the water. . .. yep, another snake!!! It was a 4-5 feet long Feur de Lance. . .considered one of the most aggressive poisonous snakes in Costa Rica. Fortunately we were on a bridge and it was in the water and it swam right up to us and under our bridge. . . . it was definitely a snake day! Then as we continued on our way we saw another smaller one (the same) on the side of our path but he slithered off into the forest and didn’t bother us at all! 5 snakes in one day!! How incredible! Another thing off my list!
On our way out we had another kinkachu sighting (this time on the bridge) and we saw a porcupine up in the tree! Even the guides were impressed with our luck that night!
What a day!! I do LOVE this place!!!
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