On the great Osa Peninsula

Making it to Matapalo

OK, I have to catch up—we’ve been in Matapalo—way south of Dominical on Costa Rica’s remote and lush Osa Peninsula that stretches into the Pacific Ocean—well over two weeks now.  Our Internet connection is so weak here—present only in the early mornings and late at night—so I haven’t been able to blog.

As I write from our house, I hear the black and brown Howler Monkeys in the distance, their long, deep, guttural rumbling booming through the trees--much less a howl than a roar.  They are the earth’s loudest land animal and you can hear them miles away. I have learned to sleep through the howls at dawn now. Our guide Rodolfo, on a recent, long hike (10.5 miles) through the Corcovado National Park here, described the howlers (‘mono congo’ in Spanish) as having sad faces…I saw through his scope that indeed, their black leathery faces and deep, dark reflective eyes are sad, their mouths bent in a melancholy frown. 

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A Howler Monkey--picture taken from our guide Rodolfo's scope

Yet these quiet creatures, (quiet except for the male’s giant roars at daybreak and sunset), are fascinating and beautiful.  We have been fortunate to see them in the tall trees that shade the bumpy dirt road leading to our house…mothers with babies clinging to their backs, an alpha male clamboring through the trees separate, but not too far, from his pack of females and younger males.  One recent evening a troop of Howlers made their way through the giant bamboo that runs along one side of our house. They must be one of the few animals, along with pandas, that can eek out any nutrients from the fibrous bamboo leaves.

With Rodolfo in Corcovado National Park -- our 'epic' 10.5 mile hike with many
sightings including an ant eater and giant Jesus Christ Lizard

 Javier our wonderful driver and friend had driven us down to the house we rented here—it took a full day from Dominical, going south along the Pacific coast. We enjoyed his relaxed pace, taking time to stop for lunch at a lovely restaurant on a high perch in the mountains with a beautiful view of the ocean as the kids read on their iPads. 

Lunch in the mountains with
Javier on the way to Matapalo

We drove further down the mountains to Puerto Jimenez, the last town on the frontier before you reach the little outpost of Matapalo—where the road stops and the giant expanse of Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula begins.  We stocked up at the local supermercado in Puerto Jimenez, knowing it would be an hour’s drive back on a bumpy dirt road to buy food once we reached our house. I was a bit intimidated as the checkout people loaded our groceries into big large cardboard boxes…it felt somehow ominous, like we were headed on an expedition, which we kind of were.  Javier’s low riding VW bus hit quite a few bumps on the last stretch of road to Matapalo, and we crossed two rivers without a bridge. We arrived safely at our house and sadly bid goodbye.

Our Jungle House

Despite my fears of being so remote (off the grid, using rain water for showers, solar panels for electricity, and being on my own with two kids in this distant place) when we arrived at the house it was so beautiful. Happily Lusijah, Robert’s mom, was still with us for another week, a wonderful friend and fellow adult on this adventure.  Far from roughing it, the dark tropical hardwood floors and open kitchen and floor plan are a luxury. Our grassy front yard, rimmed with blooming trees, adjoins the ocean.  We are right on Backwash Beach, a small crescent lined with trees where big waves attract a few surfers who have made it this far out on the peninsula. Though we are on the beach, we don’t have an ocean view because Costa Rica—happily—has prohibited building within 150m of the shore.  It is a sensible country—they also have no military, and have spent the extra funds providing education and health care to their citizens, so life expectancy here exceeds that of the US.

View from the hills way above our house,
at Bosque del Cabo resort

Joys of Living in the Tropics

I quickly learned that despite the luxury of this open air house, complete with hammock and small plunge pool, we are still living in a tropical jungle. The bugs—ants of many sorts, termites, wasps and spiders—are never far away.  We even found a giant scorpion curled up in a kitchen tea towel on our counter today…I screamed bloody murder and Harlan went running.  Our local neighbor who takes care of the house, Irma, killed it and threw it nonchalantly into the garden. I have learned that if you leave dirty dishes in the sink for more than a few minutes ants and bugs are there!  Every morning there are tiny droppings in the kitchen—either from bats or geckos, I am not sure…and one in about 5 nights our garbage can is knocked over by marauding opossum, or perhaps white faced capuchin monkeys, known as monos malos (bad monkeys) as they love to get into things including birds’ nests, all manner of fruit trees, and anything else.  A few days ago they came into our kitchen and stole our last 3 avocados!

A giant Matapalo (strangler fig) Tree, for which this area is named

But being right near the rainforest in this peninsula where flowering and fruit trees and plentiful among the sparse houses is a blessing as we see so much wildlife. Matapalo is home to four species of monkeys …we have seen all four in our yard, as well as macaws, hawks, and agoutis—kind of like a cross between a rabbit and a rock marten.  Perhaps the most exciting sighting was a giant snake eating snake, about 8 feet long, that slithered across the dried leaves at the border of our lawn a few days ago.  I am so scared of snakes, thank goodness it was fairly far off from the house. Our neighbor and groundskeeper Serjio was raking the dry leaves and the kids urged me to run over and warn him of the snake. So I did.  He was completely unconcerned. “Oh, yeah, it lives here. No problemo.” Apparently last year it climbed the giant tree in our yard to eat the large young of the black hawk that is nesting there. The juvenile was too big for the snake to swallow, so the snake just dropped it down in the yard, with the poor parents squawking above.

I could go on forever. We are loving getting to know our beach and the wave here two beaches over, "Pan Dulce" or sweet bread (don't ask me why), which is a long right point break. It is totally different to surf than the crashing beach breaks-- much slower…I am getting the hang of just riding it sideways as it breaks, taking the long ride in…but it is so tiring paddling back out!  The kids are doing lots of homework trying to keep up. Before cooking dinner, and I try to do my evening “monkey walk” to see the animals that come out to eat while it is cooler, and the other day Ella and Harlan surprised me by cooking me dinner, macaroni and cheese served in half coconut shells, decorated with a red hibiscus flower on top. I will try to send one more post before we leave…we are sad that we have just one week left in this amazing place, but glad that Robert, Roman and our au pair from Columbia, Juliana, will be joining us later today. Pura Vida to all our dear friends and family, we miss you!

Never too old for Mom's lap (I hope)

An armadillo!

Crocodiles and Surf

We settled in well to Dominical, a small surfing town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and quickly got into our daily routine.  It has been a luxury having our host Mom, Nury, make breakfast and coffee for us every morning (out of a beautiful, hand carved wooden coffee maker that holds a cloth filter and drips Costa Rican ground coffee into a container below).  Gallo pinto—the mix of rice and black beans with the national salsa, Lizano—seems to be a staple present at every meal-- breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once a day suffices for me but it is Harlan’s daily grist. Practicing Spanish with Nury and her daughter and longtime boyfriend over meals has been wonderful, a window into the local culture and traditions. They are kind and generous.  In the evenings we sit out on the porch, where it is much cooler, and  Lusijah, Ella, and I read our daily scene from MacBeth--(for Ella's 7th grade English). It is incongruous but somehow wonderful to read Shakespeare's Old English in the tropics. Witches and the supernatural do not seem out of place among the insects and many night sounds here. Sometimes Harlan and Ella play with Nury's nieces and nephews in the yard.

Kendall, Nury's nephew plays Ella's guitar

Every morning, we walk from our homestay on a bumpy dirt road along a beautiful river into town to start Spanish school at 9 am—by which time it is already quite hot. The walk takes Lusijah, Harlan and I 25 minutes but Ella cruises ahead, not a fan of the heat—and makes it in 15. On our first full day in town, not yet used to the heat and unrelenting sun, we went for a swim in the river across from Nury's house during the afternoon.  The water of the river is cool, clear, and shallow—with a lovely pebble beach—just calm and shallow enough that I am not too worried about Harlan, who can swim but not well enough to fight a river current.  Lusijah and Harlan passed hours sitting in the cool water, filling a hollowed out coconut shell with pebbles, rating each one in terms of beauty and shape, and seeing how many could fit in the coconut before it tipped over.

Bexabet and Ella at our homestay

I mention the river because, the next day after our first day of Spanish school as we sat at lunch at the local little organic café, Harlan announced, “Guess what, Mama?  Daniel (Harlan’s teacher) and I saw a crocodile in the river today!”  Lusijah, Ella, and I looked at each other.  Was this one of Harlan’s tall tales?  It turns out that no, they had seen a croc, from Harlan’s classroom on the second floor of the school that looks over the river near where it empties into the ocean.  I asked the school’s wonderful driver and ad hoc tour guide, Javier, who seems to know about such things, if this were possible. “Oh, yes, there are some alligators in the river, but they are mostly down here by the ocean—and I have never heard of them bothering anyone.”  We had been swimming back up the river closer to our house—and I told myself that crocs would never make it that far. We had seen locals swimming in the river and they didn’t seem to mind, so we went back on other days to swim and enjoy the gorgeous water…but I have to admit to kept a bit of an eye out after that.

Not the Croc Harlan saw :)
This one is a Black Ctenosaur, about 2 feet long

Smoothies and Rat-a-Tat-Cat

Our daily lunch is at Café Mono Congo (howler monkey) which has amazing organic food and plenty of naturally sweetened fruit smoothies. Our favorite is the passion fruit, pineapple mint.  We try to do an outing in the afternoons to keep cool…or go for a surf lesson with Oscar and Jose, two amazing instructors from the local school.





I am learning about the “beach break” here—the waves crash straight into shore and are pretty fast, compared to other breaks that may crash slowly from right to left or vice versa. The speed and plethora of waves is great for Harlan and I as we don’t have to paddle out too far to get one.

A quick coco break and then back to the surf!

We are using fairly long boards. Ella goes out further with Oscar to catch the green water on her short board.  The instructors were pretty excited to try Ella's "hypto krypto" and Oscar catches a few waves while we break for pineapple or coconut water on the shore. It is amazing to see his quick turns and acrobatics on the waves.

This town is growing on us! Unfortunately we will have to move on soon..but will get to explore the Osa Peninsula. Scroll down for a few more surf shots...next up Osa report. :)

Three generation surfing family--well, at least we all caught a few waves!

Ella and Oscar--a fantastic surf instructor and friend

Our first days in Costa Rica

OK--this is my first blog and I never thought I would do one, but a few of you asked, so here we go. I apologize that this post is kind of long as I am catching up for our first 10 days of the trip, but will make future posts much shorter! I am learning as I go so bear with me.

Lake Arenal - Probably our last cool weather of the trip

We arrived safely in Costa Rica and had a great three days exploring the volcano region to the East of the capital. We went to Volcano Arenal, which is a cloud forest (rain forest with lots of clouds and mist and fairly cool) and got to see the volcano (no longer active, just steam).  We did an amazing zip line adventure, going on 7 different zip lines, each hundreds of feet down over the rain forest. Lusijah, Robert's Mom, is with Ella, Harlan and me for the first few weeks of the trip and it is wonderful to have a fellow adult and bold traveler with me!

Volcano Arenal--we never saw the summit due to fog

Our Coati friend on the road

We are all having a ball together. Everyone is traveling so well with no complaints, just going with the flow of each day, enjoying the moment – or sometimes not- as in the case of the 4 hour drive through incredibly winding roads to our volcano hotel, after night fall, when everyone felt pretty car sick. After some wrong turns, going to the wrong side of the lake, we found our way at night on a long dirt road to our little hotel, Arenal Vista Lodge.

After a long sleep, we drove our giant rental SUV (the only one that Ella's new surf board and our 5 bags would fit into) to the volcano area, covered in rain forest. Once at the volcano, we hired a guide to take us on a rainforest walk over several suspension/hanging bridges. We saw three poisonous snakes —all far enough off to be of no danger to us—but sufficiently close to bring on a snake-filled night mare for Harlan last night. He seems just fine this morning.  It was neat to see the thin yellow “eye-lash” vipers as we have not seen snakes on our other trips to Costa Rica. Harlan wanted to do a night walk to see frogs and lizards, too, so we did that as well, again with a guide, and were able to spot the amazing electric green, red-eyed tiny rainforest frogs that are blazoned on posters throught the country, and several other poisonous frogs as well, including a tiny red one with "blue jean" legs. We found a few lizards, too. A good reptile fix for the boy.

After the new year's weekend Spanish school was calling, so we left our cool, misty volcano getaway and drove 5 hours down the mountains to the coast, to the tiny town of Dominical, which is on one of the best and most consistent surfing beaches of Costa Rica (on the Pacific side). This is where our Spanish school - Adventure Education Center- is. With a name like that I was a little concerned that we might not learn much, but a friend who had studied there with her son raved about it, so I signed us up for 2 weeks of intensive Spanish--with lessons in the morning and surf instruction in the afternoon. How bad could that be?

Our little pool at Arenal Vista Lodge

We dropped off our rental car in nearby Quepos and are now on foot—which means it is harder to explore on our own, but we are happy enjoying the environs within walking distance.  It is a gorgeous place with a beach several miles long, rimmed by lush rain forest and very little development.  Happily for us there are a few little organic food cafes with very healthy juices, smoothies, salads and burritos and a sushi restaurant which gets fresh fish daily from the neighboring fishing village.  Harlan has subsisted mostly on rice and black beans, with some fresh fruit, smoothies and the occasional carrots and broccoli with dinner. But he is happy as is Ella, if she gets to surf enough, and happy kids make happy Mom.

Diary of aWimpy Kid Fix

We are having a homestay, living with a Costa Rican family. Nuri our host mother is about 50. Very sadly she lost her husband just one month ago in a fishing accident in the ocean. We are are trying to provide some understanding, good cheer and conversation (albeit in imperfect Spanish) but there is nothing to be done for a broken heart after losing someone so special.  Nuri's daughter and brother live right nearby, and we are speaking lots of Spanish with them as well.  Our Spanish school is great. Tiny little classrooms raised a foot above the earth (presumably to keep out snakes and other pesky creatures) with screened windows and fans blowing to keep us cool. We are learning a lot, studying from 9 am to 1:30 pm, after which we get lunch and fruit smoothies in a nearby organic restaurant called Café Mono Congo (howler monkey) and then try to do some kind of excursion that involves cooling off in the afternoon. This involves quite a bit of surfing.

Near Dominicalito beach

Ella is LOVING her new board, a 5 foot 10 inch Hayden Shapes hypto crypto, THANK YOU UNCLE WILL for helping us with picking it out. After a few tries and a bit of practice on a 7 foot board she has been surfing her own board ("tabla" en espanol), and the teacher is now calling her “avancada” — advanced—maybe this means advanced beginner?  Still she is doing great and about to graduate to green water.  Ella caught some green waves on the Dominical beach but tomorrow is going to go to Dominicalito beach further south, apparently a bit better for green water (the color of the waves before they crash--the bread and butter of real surfers) and easier to get out to the big waves. I am loving my surfing too! Had my best teacher ever here—still firmly in the intermediate-beginner category though and will likely stay there for the remainder of this trip!

Dominicalito -- one beach south from where we are staying...love the vines