The second week of classes started with a trip to the Jazz Café, a local bar and concert venue close to ULatina in the San Pedro neighborhood. San José is the over arching metropolitan area, but San José locally refers to the downtown/center of the city. Surrounding the center are zones, regions, I don’t know what they’re called, more by the names of the place. For instance, I live in the Vargas Araya neighborhood of San Pedro and some other students live in the Sabanilla neighborhood. Then the rest of the group lives in another area of metro San José. It is not too confusing once you become familiar with the various parts of the city. So back in San Pedro, Jazz Café has concerts a few times week, mostly local or Costa Rican groups – reggae, flamenco, rock, jazz, salsa, etc – and is always around $6-8. This time we saw Cocofunka, a Costa Rican reggae/rock/pop group – sounds like a Spanish version of Dispatch, e.g. music that was pretty popular among college white kids 10 years ago. The place was packed, there are tables, but this night it was nearly all standing room only. It was good to see a bunch of young people, not the best music, but everyone had fun!
Classes went by the rest of the week, celebrated the final birthday from the early February stretch, and got ready for a trip with ICDS to the Pacuare National Reserve. We left San José early Friday morning and headed east to the Caribbean coast. The Pacuare Reserve is situated between Tortugero to the north and Limon to the south. For the weekend, we were accompanied by Julio, a freelance biologist, photographer, guide, etc. Julio works with National Geographic and various research institutions and a few years ago worked on the filming of Planet Earth by the BBC for the segments of rainforest filmed in Costa Rica. So, we had an expert with us to provide the most specific, accurate, and current information throughout the adventure. To get to the reserve, we drove 4 hours out of the capital until we reached the coast, along the way we stopped at a church in Cartago to purify ourselves in miracle holy water (people were filling up jugs of this water to take home and use)... From here it was an hour or so by boat through canals connecting various rivers in the region. Immediately as we crowded into the riverboat, howler monkeys greeted us to their relatively pristine jungles with low hoo-hoo-hoos. As we cruised slowly down the canals, lizards, iguanas, and basilisks (including the Jesus Christ Basilisk, which is able to run on hind legs straight across the water’s surface) climbed, scurried, and froze sitting and suspending themselves on the branches of the over hanging trees. Different types of herons (little blue, great blue, tiger, yellow crowned night) and egrets (snowy and great) birds stood, fished, and flew around us as we crossed marshes to get to the campsite. Overhead as we disembarked was a two-toed sloth sliding slowing up branches for a midday meal.
The ecotourism campsite - one small open aired house, a small cabin, and a few groups of tents – was carved right out of the forest to provide an alternative from common beach or urban tourism and an income for local community members. After leaving our things, we crossed the canal in smaller boats and began our couple mile hike/walk to the beach. Through the jungle, toucans, parrots, and white-faced capuchin monkeys scurried and rustled above. On the ground, the eee-eee-eee-eee of poison dart frogs played through our ears as the tiny blue-bodied, red-legged frogs hopped across the leaf litter scouting out their territory for mates and competition. The whole time, Julio is pointing out the various medicinal uses of the surrounding plants – leaves, flowers, bark – and the corresponding recipes that have persisted for generations.
Eventually we reached the beach. Not quite what we were expecting to see in the reserve – plastic bottles washed up from the Caribbean and rivers to create a mat on the sand. It was a terrible sight with a terrific view of the sea.
We returned for dinner and were luckily our tents had a tarp covering to shield us from the pouring rain though the night. We were awoken early the next morning to the calls of the birds and howler monkeys above. We spent the morning walking through the reserve to visit the local school. The one room schoolhouse provides all the local children, up til high school, an education. The younger children use the room in the morning and then the older students arrive. Children in the region are so spread out that some may travel by boat/canoe 2 hours just to get to school. It’s not the greatest situation, but at least a basic education provides more opportunities for local residents.
From the reserve we drove through a region of Costa Rica’s agribusiness – bananas, plantains, pineapple, and timber. Today pineapple is the most grown, with many of the plantations owned by multinationals – Dole, Del Monte, etc. Costa Rica is one of the top producers of pineapple worldwide, so there is year round demand for quality mass produce. Hundreds of shipping containers full of tens of thousands pineapples and bananas are exported everyday from this region of Costa Rica and the fields can be chemically manipulated to flower and produce year round. Del Monte has developed genetically engineered pineapple, which grow bigger and sweeter in much less time. Beside industrial use of fertilizer and pesticide, these huge plantations are eroding tracts of soil and contamination local water supplies. On the way back, we spotted a pair of two-toed sloth hanging out in a secropia tree enjoying an early dinner. Another adventure complete, we returned to San José to rest a day and prepare for the week ahead.