Blog 11 Antlions and Armadillos

The antlion and the armadillo have absolutely nothing in common except their names start with “A.”
But they both live here iin Costa Rica and they’re pretty interesting animals. The antlion is, as it’s name suggests, a ferocious creature that eats ants. It does this by digging a perfectly conical hole in soft ground. When an ant wanders by, a little too close to the edge and slips in (and there are a lot of ants around to fall in), it can’t get out do to the steep slippery slope and the antlion leaps from the sand at the bottom of the pit and grabs the ant. I love to take pictures of animals, and real nature photographers are a patient lot waiting sometimes weeks for the perfect shot. I am not that patient and did not get a photo of the actual antlion (even after trying to fool it with a tiny rock dropped into its pit) but I have the next best thing: a photo of its perfectly sculpted trap (with submerged antlion out of view at the bottom). These pits are all over the ground in areas of properly sized soil.

Armadillos even though they are strictly nocturnal, are easier to photograph (especially if your camara has a flash) because they grub around in the dry leaves looking for insects and there is one that lives in Marie’s garden and roots around in her plants nearly every night, much to her dismay. Itsy, the little dog, (see photo as reminder) loves to chase this cute thing but I usually discouraged her since I was always looking for a good photo of the little armored tank.

This one shows the strong front claws that the armadillo utilizes every night for digging and the pebbly texture of its plated skin. Sometimes armadillos become roadkill due to a particularly maladapted (for cars at least) defensive trait: when they are startled, they jump straight up in the air, two feet high or more which is unfortunately just about the same height as the front of most cars. If they laid low instead, they just might survive the vehicle encounter with no more than a momentary shadow above as they move about in their nightly search for dinner.

Post 10: The Trees

Guanacaste tree (I think) in cow pasture

When you visit Costa Rica, it’s impossible not to notice the trees. Some are massive, arching over the entire highway while others form canopies of colors when they burst into bloom. Others like the figs dangle aerial roots that reach from branch to ground and then root, creating a forest of trunks from a single tree.

Cenizaro tree in another pasture. Notice that its width is more than three times its height!

Trees in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica help define the land, the people and the habitats of the animals that reside here. Many of the trees mix together to form tangled jungles but other trees stand out either by sheer size or paradoxically, during the dry season, their blooms.
I went on an expedition this morning to try to find a huge tree that I can see from the house that towers above all of its neighbors on the nearby peninsula. It presides over the slope, a great spreadying canopy of green among many smaller deciduous trees. Since Wendy has been tutoring me on native trees including their historic uses and medicinal values, I was especially curious to determine what type of tree this was, though I already had my suspicions.
With small dog Itsy as my companion, I hiked via trail over the hill and once I could glimpse it, I left the trail and worked my way down a steep slope towards it, following faint animal trails. Though I wore boots and carried a big stick, I moved slowly on the lookout for snakes which could include rattlers, boas and the deadly fer de lance. In spite of some thick underbrush, I made it to the tree without incident and was able to confirm that it was a massive Guanacaste tree which lends its name to this region. These grand tree is at least 300 years old.

Guanacaste trees were often spared from cutting when forests here were cleared for cattle pastures a century or so ago.  They provided welcome shade in this hot climate and still shelter cattle and tired travelers today.
The special present that I received when I finally reached the shelter of the giant branches was a pair of Long-tailed Manakins. I saw the female first who is a rather drab olive green but has cute bright orange legs.

The male is black with a blazing red crown and spectacular turquoise cape that are barely evident in this long telephoto shot. His long tail feathers are easily seen, however.

Another tree of note is this unusual looking tree that is often used as a living fence and goes by many names. In the Caribbean it is called the Gumbo Limbo tree but here it is called either El Indio Desnudo which means the Indian’s clothes but my favorite local name for it is the Tourist Tree which its peeling red bark humorously alludes to!

I discovered this tree (below) on another hike and I love its amazing seed pods. I think it should be called the flying urchin tree since they look just like sea urchins to me but in Costa Rica it is called the monkey comb tree.

Most striking are the trees which periodically flower here. Since they often flower en masse during the dry season, their crowns are literally covered with bright flowers, a car-stopping show if you drive past one of these beauties in bloom. This is the Cortez Amarillo, one of the most spectacular of the trees that have bloomed since I have been here.

A number of tropical trees have cottony fluff around their seeds (kind of like our cottonwood trees) which help the seeds drift and disperse in the wind. Called kapok, it was once used to fill pillows, mattresses, and even stuffed animals. The towering Ceiba tree's (also called the Kapok tree) fibers are also bouyant and water resistant. The tree was cultivated for its kapok which filled most life preservers made until recently and would have been responsible for floating many shipwreck survivors including those on the Titanic.

Kapok blowing in the wind

Poroporo trees have big yellow flowers that are followed by cotton-ball like kapok and the balsa tree across the road creates so much fuzz that it is clogging the pool filters.

Poroporo flowers and seed pods

Fallen balsa tree kapok looks like fuzzy caterpillars

Everyone who's been to Hawaii is familiar with the beautiful plumeria (or frangiapani) flower that makes such wonderfully fragrant leis. The same flower grows wild here although it is called Flor Blanca (white flower). The delicate beauty of the easily bruised flowers does not suggest the rugged tenacity of the tree which manages to sprout and grow in the cruelest of habitats. Almost all of the dry rocky headlands here are decorated with blooming plumeria which grow seemingly out of solid rock, and present their fragrant bouquets to us to enjoy along the fractured shore.

Baby plumeria tree

Blog 9 Tope!

Mel and one of his horses

Tope is another word for cabalgata and cabalgata means Costa Rican horse party. Since I love horses and I love Costa Rica, when I hear the word tope (pronounced to-pay) coupled with an invitation, I smile, big time.

Tom arrived last Friday and since the tope was on Saturday, the first thing he did here (besides an early morning surf and swim) was to get dragged to an all day, all in Spanish, music, beer and food fiesta in nearby Quebrada Nanda.
These get togethers occur about once a month and many of the towns in the Guanacaste region take turns hosting. The festivities center around displays of horsemanship since the horse was—and to some extent still is—central to the cattle industry which grew this part of Costa Rica. Topes also help cement friendships and strengthen community ties between towns in a sparsely populated land.
As I understand, each tope/cabalgata is a little different depending on the hosting community. This one started around 11:00am as all manner of vehicles converged on a sawmill that was nesteled under a clump of huge mango trees. A bar, outhouses and a small stage had been constructed for the occasion and dozens of tables and chairs set up. We traveled with friends Karen, Mike, and Wendy and two trucks hauling horses from “our” town, Pueblo Nuevo. One of the horses belonged to neighbor Mike and Wendy and I had arranged to share a borrowed horse which was also hauled in.
The music was already playing as we arrived and the beer (kept ice cold in a huge watering trough) already being happily consumed. We joined the family that hauled the horses from Pueblo Nuevo at their table and were soon eating the delicious food that emerged on giant trays from the converted sawmill.
This is the same family I wrote about last year (Cabalgata post), who are the leading horse family in the area. Don Antonio is the imposing but friendly padre and Mel, his son, trained many of the horses that were featured at this tope.
For hours we ate and drank and listened to music while absorbing the sights and sounds of rural Costa Rica. Course after course of different dishes--tacos, rice, ribs, soup--arrived tableside and in our limited Spanish, we expressed appreciation.
Music sets alternated with horses being put through their paces to an appreciative audience while informal races were conducted out on the street. The climax for riders was the parade from the mill to the town center. As the sun was setting, all the horses were s addled up and riddento the community center where the entire party was transported for a huge dance. Those that wanted to, continued riding, showing off their horses and running around for fun on the town's soccer field.
We didn't stay to the end of the party. Full of food, beer and good company, we piled back into the truck for a bumpy but congenial ride back home. The horses followed much later, in the back of their own truck, certainly even more tired than we were.

Mini horse rides--note baby water buffalo (!) in the background that was the mount for earlier rides

Girl in kitchen window

Tope!

Horses amusing themselves while waiting

One of many courses

Three white horses

Another padre, getting ready for parade

Beginning of the group ride/parade which included a music truck with huge speakers (background)

Mel led the ride

Neighbor Mike on his horse, Rain

Kids and minis on the soccer field

Mel and his horse on "dancing" platform which resonates the sound of the hoofbeats,  in time with the music

After dark, serious horse negotiations commenced

At dusk, me on sweet Rosita, borrowed horse-for-the-day

Blog 8: To Sleep in a Tree

 

 

I don’t think I ever imagined what it would be like to sleep in a tree but now that I have, I can say that the experience is magical. Wendy’s friend Kurt has made an enviable life for himself in Mal Pais, which is a surfer’s town south of Playa San Miguel by about 20 miles. It took us nearly three hours to drive there however, due to the rutted conditions of the dirt road, three river crossings

This crossing was shallow due to the dry season: we shared the crossing with a herd of cattle

and the numerous stops we made to check out trees, photograph birds, and enjoy the beach scenery.

One two mile section of the road runs along the beach: this is a tighter section below cliffs

Kurt is an inventor, welder, surfer and all-around do-it guy. He and some friends built this swimming pool because they were getting hot building his house and once those were completed, he started looking up at the immense trees on his jungley property and imagining houses in them.

Kurt's homemade swimming pool

This is the first one that he built which you enter via a trapdoor in the floor that is counterweighted by welded together rocks which makes it easy to open and close.

Trap door counterweights

The treehouse is cozy but has everything a regular house does including bathroom with shower, fully equipped kitchen and a balcony perched up in the tree branches. The same branches wind through the rooms and remind you where you are let you forget because of the space and comfort there.

View from upper bedroom of kitchen area with balcony beyond

How much a part of the jungle I felt going to sleep cradled in the branches of that huge strangler fig and waking up again in between the rustling leaves!

As good as that was, the troop of White faced Capuchin monkeys that tried to break in while we were gone to breakfast was an added bonus to life in the trees. Curious, agile and incredibly athletic, these little old men primates, poked and prodded the door, picked at the windows and then as we approached, hopped into the giant bamboo and literally ran along the curving tubes.

Once in the safety of a fig nearby, this little fellow searched around, picked insects off the branch, and then got comfortable on his version of a big comfy tree couch.

Blog 7 A visit to the Rio Ora Estero

The other morning, while friend Wendy surfed at Playa Camaronal, I again explored the lower reaches of the Rio Ora where it meets the sea. Estuaries are amazing places where fresh water gently meets salt and is blended by the tides creating an rich environment of brackish water—a special mix in which many animals thrive. Mangroves grow well here too and provide cover to birds and mammals above the water and critical habitat to young fishes under the water where the roots dip and reach in to the muddy sand.
I arrived with camera and binoculars just as the sun was breaking over the mountains which is bewitching time for many birds and other animals. This is of course when birds’ songs peak and their calling and trilling allow me to find them more easily. On this day, I didn’t see as many birds as I hoped and I did not have the privilege of seeing the endangered Neotropical river otter again, but I did catch a glimpse of a most remarkable bird: the Long Tailed Manakin. It truly was a glimpse and my quickly shot photos of them feeding high in a fig tree, are unfortunately not worthy of posting.  But if you have the inclination, this is a bird worth googling for sure.
Awkward and gangly roseate spoonbills are another fascinating bird to see. They use their wide bill to sift through the bottom river sediments to catch small crustaceans which give them their startling color, just like more familiar flamingoes do. This small flock flew past and landed in a large dormant tree where they preened and napped for an hour or so.

Herons and egrets can be found all over Costa Rica, anywhere there is water. Bare-throated Tiger Herons are well named and stand motionless in shallow water waiting for fish to swim by which they spear with their strong, sharp beaks.

This Snowy Egret is in its breeding plumage. The long feathers on this bird were so desirable for Victorian hat making at the turn of the century that they were hunted to near extinction. They've made a strong comeback in many areas and are relatively common in waterways and along the coast.

So far, I have seen these incredible Malachite Green butterflies only under mango trees where they are feeding on fallen fruit, but this one was on the forest floor litter, perhaps lapping minerals from a dry stream bed.

I walked as far as I could on a narrow riverside trail that fishermen use to get from village to the beach and stopped where it cut inland up through a narrow quebrada which will become a lively stream again once the rains return.

As I turned around to return to the estero, I was surprised to find myself right under a howler monkey troop. It is wise to always look all around you as you move through this country if you want to see things since they are not always in front of you! I would have walked back unawares had not the largest male announced me with his loud guttural growl.

This set up a whole conversation (probably commenting on my rude intrusion) between all of the males who called and howled back in forth, long after I retreated to the river and headed back to the beach. An early naturalist described the howler’s call like a battle between a dragon and a jaguar and I can tell you that that is a perfect description of the sounds that followed me down the shores of the Rio Ora.