Post 6: Life, Abundant

One of the best things about Costa Rica is the abundance of life here. There are several reasons for the amount of living organisms in this place. Roads and suburbs and shopping malls have not completely eaten up habitat yet so there lots of places for animals to live. Tropical ecosystems also host more plant and animals species than temperate ones partly due to the lack of a dormant season. Living things can grow and evolve year round resulting in a tremendous variety of life at all levels. Since I am curious about animals of most shapes and sizes, it makes for full and interesting days.
If you are fascinated about living things and are surrounded by an abundance that is new to you, it means that everyday life can get delightfully bogged down sometimes. I am forever reaching for my camera or field guide or binoculars as I make dinner, walk to the beach, or try to write this blog. This house is perched on a ridge which gives me fantastic views both close up and far away.
For instance, prehistoric- looking wood storks fly by the house everyday heading to their estuary rookery,

and fierce Caracaras patrol roadside pastures looking for prey.

On the beach, fish occasionally wash up, turtles lay their eggs, and crabs of all sizes and habits inhabit the endless shore. Nearby Corazalito beach is pocked right now by dozens of crab holes and mounds, completely changing the topography of that beach.

These cute yellow ghost crabs skitter away at first sight of a human but the little hermit crabs are too intent of their meal of a treasure from the sea to care about me taking pictures of them.

Geckos and tree frogs move freely in and out of this mostly open air house and anyone who has been to Hawaii would recognize the gecko's barking chirp as they converse to each other in the dark. Considered good luck the world over, they eat dozens of bugs each night, including all of the bitey ones.

I discovered that a tree frog lives in one of the kitchen sink drains when it popped out for a visit last night.

Also moving freely in and out of the kitchen area are bugs which I have previously profiled. Here are two new ones to me: a metallic fig beetle that shone in the early morning sun,

And this scary large-jawed creature that tangled with my silverware the other night.

Even yoga classes are not immune to animal sightings. This is Bud, who lives in the pool area at Rhodeside where I take early morning yoga classes. He posed next to us, sunning himself the entire class while we stretched and posed too.

Not all animals are benign of course. This Greater White Lined bat is a fruit eater, but there are also vampire bats about.

They generally prey on livestock, especially the cattle that are so abundant here. Strictly nocturnal, the vampire laps up the blood from a small incision that it makes on its host’s shoulder or neck. Anticoagulants in its saliva helps the blood keep flowing. This young steer is the unfortunate target of a vampire bat which will return to the same victim repeatedly, night after night.

With so much life, there is also more death evident. I cleaned the pool today and scooped up this little Halloween crab which drowned sometime in the night.

Every direction I look and explore, there are animals. I wasn’t expecting something living when I closed this gate after the cows. As I latched the wire to the post I noticed a long tail protruding from a hole and discovered this young black iguana, staring back at me.

I love living in a place where there are animals everywhere!

Blog 5 Trogon Alley

A few mornings ago, I got up early to join neighbors Karen and Wendy on a hike up into the hills behind our homes. The closer to sunrise one can go out, the more birds, butterflies and monkeys you are likely to see, all animals generally seeking shelter as the sun climbs higher in the sky and temperatures soar. As the sun rises, the birds start to call to each other: good mornings and certainly other messages, but all of their vocalizations are a favor to those of us who delight in seeing them. Otherwise, we would likely tramp right by all of them because even their gaudy tropical colorations are not enough to make them easily visible in the heavy forest of the hills here.

This is a Turquoise Browed Mot Mot, one of my favorites

I have many favorite birds here in Costa Rica that I love for different reasons. Some are bold, some are curious or amusing, some are fascinating for some behavior or characteristic and others are simply stunning to look at.  Trogons fall in to the latter category. The males seem to me like the richly dressed kings of the forest and fortunately for me, it is breeding season for trogons which means that all of the splendored kings are posing on conspicuous branches trying to call in females with their songs.

On this morning we walked along an abandoned road and were flanked by trogons in the trees on both sides. This is an Elegant Trogon which has a raspy call that gives it away.

A little further on, we were greeted by these Black-headed Trogons which are a less immediately stunning until they turn around and you are treated to metallic blues and greens on their backsides.

Trogons to the left and right of us was a great way to start the day!

(The king of kings of the trogon family is the Respledent Quetzal which with its iridescent feathers and 18’ long trailing tail feathers is a bit hard to believe. I profiled them back in November earlier in this blog if you would like to see them).

Blog 4: Eye Candy

No words needed other than to say I enjoyed this sunset very much which followed a late afternoon swim down at Playa San Miguel. The view is northwest with the peninsula in view on the right. The photo has not been altered or enhanced in any way.

Playa San Miguel

Blog 3 Epic Battle!

Yesterday, on the way home from a walk, I witnessed a slow motion but dramatic battle between two ctenosaurs that I can only assume was over territory.

It takes a certain amount of patience to witness an iguana fight—you might want to grab a chair if you come across two males squaring off. I didn’t have a chair but I did have a camera and the luxury of time when I encountered these two big boys on the way home from our property yesterday.

There are two species of iguanas in Costa Rica: the large Green Iguana which can grow to an astounding 6.5 feet long and the slightly smaller (to 4 feet) but still impressive and impressively named Ctenosaur.  Both types like to climb trees which they will jump out of if they feel threatened which is quite a surprise if you walk unsuspectingly by and startle one!
Fortunately, these two were on the ground, and were oblivious to—or didn’t care about my arrival.
They were locked together, each with a mouthful of the other’s side. Every minute or two they would thrash in a circle, attempting to obtain some sort of advantage, and then stop, sides heaving, still chomped together.

This went on and on (good thing I had had lunch) until finally the turquoise one made a bold move and managed to flip the brown one over although in wrestling terms I don’t know if it could be considered a pin since the turquoise one was upside down as well. In any case, the brown one endured this clearly more painful position only for a few minutes before shaking himself loose and running as fast as he could, away. The victor posed for many minutes clearly enjoying his supremacy over these lands, until I moved to get a new camera angle and he too, ran away.

Blog 2: Pleasure and Pain

The big manga

 It is mango season—a wonderful time to be in Costa Rica! Dozens of varieties of mangos grow here and in the gardens surrounding the house are at least seven huge trees that are starting to ripen. There are both medium sized mangoes and massive “mangas” that must weigh two pounds each.

Mangoes ready to ripen next to the kitchen

Walking home from Spanish class this morning, I came across a beautiful tree with massive fruit that was already starting to fall onto the ground. Malachite Green butterflies attracted to the fallen fruit fluttered in the shade of the tree and birds scoped out the feast from the branches above. As I was picking the largest manga to take home for breakfast, I bumped into several more hanging fruits which made a strange rattling sound. The sound immediately materialized into a small buzzing clump of angry wasps which drove me running from their nest. They stung me as I ran and didn’t stop until I had pulled off all of my clothes which they were clinging to (good thing I am always wearing a bathing suit!). I suffered five stings for my carelessness and started back up the hill to home gathering up all of my belongings which I had thrown to the ground in my flight and feeling a bit sorry for my aching self.

Malachite Green Butterfly

On the way though, I encountered another gift: a large cashew tree loaded with ripe yellow fruit. The cashew is a curious tree: the large, fleshy fruit (actually the swollen stem) is called the apple and is edible and below it hangs a single nut in a shell, both of which are poisonous until roasted. Even the gases given off while roasting are poisonous so this is a nut to be handled carefully!

Cashew tree with yellow fruit

Cashews ripening with "apple" above and nut below

I selected several of the ripest fruit for a smoothie and will put the nuts out to dry in the sun. After the painful stings of the wasps, I am not sure whether I am up to risking my health with the cashews, but after tasting that fresh sliced mango, intensely sweet and piney,  it was worth the stings!

I'm Back! Blog One: Dry Season

I have returned to rural Costa Rica and so much has changed! It is April, the end of the dry season and the hottest month of the year. Just like during our winters in the north, many plants are dormant: enormous trees are bare and dead-looking having lost their leaves--not to cold and lack of sun but to conserve moisture. Other plants have died back entirely waiting underground to be awakened by the first rains in May that mark the beginning of the wet season. Much of the landscape, colorful and verdant when I left it last is now brown, desiccated, parched.  Under the blazing midday sun, almost everyone and everything hunkers down waiting out the heat of the day, and life seems suspended as if the landscape is holding its breath waiting for the rain to return and release it.

Deciduous trees on the peninsula nearby

The lot next door is now brown.

Other parts of the landscape remain the same despite the lack of rain: butterflies still float about and find flowers somehow blooming in the heat, birds and monkeys still hoot and holler from the trees and the house toad still plops into the pool for her nightly swim.

Marie and Hank have departed for to the States to visit family and friends for a month and I am happily house-sitting once again in their fantastical house without walls, perched between two spectacular beaches in the middle of the least developed stretch of coastal western Costa Rica.  I can’t wait to tell you more about it!

From the plane flying in, looking south towards the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula: the house I am staying in is the small red rectangle on the ridge upper left of photo. Playa San Miguel is behind, Punta San Miguel (the peninsula) is center and the south end of Playa Bejuco and the fishing village is at bottom

The dining area with kitchen beyond and pool beside. View to north overlooks Playa Bejuco.

One of the covered patios and the door to my bedroom. View to the south overlooks Playa San Miguel.

Day 25 Eating from a tropical garden

It’s pretty easy to eat well here when there is fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs for the picking but the grocery store is a drive away. At the tiny local grocery store, the staples costs more than you might expect and there is no such thing as pre-prepared food. All of this means that meals tend to be simple and close to their source. Almost everything is organic and local with free range eggs coming from Karen and Mike’s just down the road,

yogurt and cheese from Tad and Cook’s cows one town away, and the fish we have regularly enjoyed from the fishing village at Playa Bejuco, a nice walk down the hill.  I have bought tomatoes, garlic, and onions from the store but almost everything else has come from the land here. Marie grows pineapples, coconuts, starfruit,

Starfruit or Carambola as it is known locally

oranges, a few types of limes, bananas, mangos and mangas (yellow honey mangos in the States), papayas,

Papaya tree

and there is a community grapefruit tree next to Patty and Bill’s house that provides the neighborhood with sweet, fat grapefruits. In addition to all that fruit, she grows two types of tropical spinach, a cooking green called Chaya, two types of salad greens (one looks like a bush and one is a small tree) and all sorts of herbs from tropical cilantro, to spicy basil.
Hank and Marie’s worker, Mai has turned a small hill down near the quebrada into a bean patch. He is growing hundreds of bean plants that will provide his family with red beans for the entire year, once they are picked, shelled and dried. Here are some plants that he harvested so we could make gallo pinto (red beans and rice). Since the beans were fresh, they took only about twenty minutes to cook and yes, they were delicious.

Red beans in their shells