Warm & Sunny again?

15 October – Sunday

Welcome back to Monteverde- after spending 10 days with our Aussie family, we’re back into our routine of life here in Monteverde, and it’s time I updated everyone on our adventures. The first news is to bring you up to speed on local indications of climate change. Typically September and October are the wettest months of the rainy season around here. And, this being a rain forest, that typically means REALLY wet, as opposed to merely sodden. Last September Monteverde received a meter of rain. Yep- 39 inches in one month. October was almost as bad, something like 700mm. How much have we had this year? Maybe 8 or 10 inches, max. It feels like upstate New York in June. Every day it’s 75F & sunny, with the occasional afternoon thunderstorm. Even the ever-present cloud forest mist has been pretty scarce the last 10 weeks or so. Not that we’re complaining! But it does make some of the field work I’ve had planned more difficult. I’ve got several projects that require surveying and my laser works much better in overcast conditions than in bright sunlight. So believe it or not, we’re almost hoping to get some cloudy weather soon…

On the plus side, the visit from our Aussie family really benefited from the sunny weather. For those wondering who our “Aussie family” is, they are Norma’s family from her exchange student days living in Sydney during high school. Lorraine & Tom Wilson spent almost 28 hours flying here (as well as suffering through US customs in LA), and we were really glad we didn’t have last year’s torrential downpours. After picking them up at the airport, we spent a couple lazy days at the beach in Manuel Antonio, then about 5 days here in Monteverde, and finally 3 days in La Fortuna watching Volcan Arenal erupt. We did a bunch of the touristy things we’ve been saving for visitors, like touring the local cheese factory and coffee processing plant, and hiking the Monteverde Reserve with a birding guide. We also returned to a few favorite spots, like the little trout farm we caught dinner at one night. I’m not sure who get a bigger kick out of catching 15” rainbow trout from a little pond on a hand line- Niall or “grandpa” Tom!

For those who have never seen a volcano erupting, Arenal is just the ticket. While it can be dangerous (a surprising number of tourists over the years have been lulled into the impression that the mountain is harmless, and attempt to hike too close, only to end up either toasted or brained by a boulder), if you keep your distance (about a kilometer or two), Arenal is one of the most benign volcanoes on earth. And it is worth seeing! During the day it isn’t much, just the occasional puff of steam rising from the near perfect cone, but the light show offered on a clear night is enough to cause almost anyone to sit slack jawed and mesmerized, watching nature’s fireworks. If the Volcano is in an active phase (which it has been in for the last 4-5 months), lava and red hot boulders spill down from the summit almost continuously, spectacularly bounding and sparking down the sides of the mountain. You hear only the occasional rumble and it really does look harmless at the typical observing distance, until you realize that the rocks you’re watching are bigger than most SUV’s and they are traveling at upwards of 100mph as they cascade down-slope. We spent one of the most delightful dinners I can remember at a nearly deserted open air restaurant, savoring a bottle of red wine and filet mignon (for less than $8 each!), and watching the volcano erupting in the background. It’s one of the variety of forms of “Tico TV,” as we’ve come to call several of the captivating aspects of nature around here. The only hard part of seeing all this stuff is getting lucky enough to have clear weather-- which this year at least, is cooperating admirably. The last time we visited Arenal (in 2003), we never saw more than the bottom half of the mountain, as everything above disappeared into the ceiling of clouds and mist!

After we dropped Tom & Lorraine off in San Jose a week ago, things have returned to normal. Niall is still enjoying school, Norma is still learning Spanish at the restaurant, and I’m busier than ever working on a variety of design and planning projects. One of my colleagues, who has also spent a year here in Monteverde recently cautioned me—this is a dangerous time, when everyone in the community learns there is a landscape architect in residence and they won’t be leaving for almost a year! Needless to say, I won’t be getting bored anytime soon. Now, if only those clouds would cooperate… oh well, for now, I’ll take the sunny side of climate change!

Well, all...hello. Norma here. I've been vegging about for what, two months now, so I thought it was time to write something and give you the real inside scoop on what it's like here. You know, all the nitty gritty details, like the cluster of huge wasps I found in our bedroom and the giant army ant hordes that invade the house from time to time!

Well, lets just say that the beautiful weather here and the 22% of Costa Rica that is in protected rain forest is host to innumerable critters, large and small. The large ones are quite fun to spot (sloth, raccoon, squirrel, snakes, lizards, monkeys, toucans, hummingbirds, flycatchers, vultures, swallows, parrots, toucanettes, agoutis, coatis, tayra, innumerable butterflys and so on). Then there are our little friends..the wasps, beetles, moths, centipedes, crickets, millipedes, ants, worms, bees, gnats, katydids, spiders, walking sticks, scorpions, leaf hoppers....each of which comes in
innumerable variety and size range. Luckily Scott, Niall and I are all interested in these little guys as they make daily appearances in the house. Costa Ricans do not typically use screens...and I have found out...even if you do use screens, the house construction is so filled with gaps and holes that stuff will get inside no matter what. So, we have pretty much dispensed with our make shift screens and learned to just live with the bugs. What flies in will often fly out if you've got all the windows and doors open. What doesn't ends up dying in the window sill and getting swept out the next morning.

We have begun to recognize some of the bugs, like what I call the rhinoceros beetle. They are small and have little snouts like a rhinoceros. Thing is, I've never found one that is colored or shaped like any other I've seen. The variety is just endless. Just about everyday we have one or two new bugs to marvel at. At some point I suppose we should get a guide book or something, but I've heard that there are simply so many insects here that they are not all catalogued.

Oh and I've got to tell you about the ants! One day a horde of ants simply started crawling over the outside of the house. Niall and I watched from the outside as they just covered the entire side of the house...all very purposefully going in one direction. As we watched they came down the side of the house, formed a large ant highway in the grass and marched off into the jungle. Within the hour they were all gone. We have since later been at a friend's party where they same thing happened, only the number of ants was much greater, practically turning their children's room black as they swarmed through. We all stood back and watched as the ants captured and devoured any living thing in their path. In this instance about 3 scorpions that lived in the house. Again, within an hour or so they were gone and, as our hostess pointed out, so were many of the scorpions that had been driving them nuts!

Later in the week we were hiking behind our friends house and he showed us where all the army ants were holed up, literally, inside a very large hollow log. The inside of the log was simply filled with a mass of ants, all clinging to one another to form a solid mass inside the log. It had to have been at least 3 cubic feet of ants!

Needless to say we've all become much more accustomed to have wasps and such buzzing around us in the house..so far to no ill effect. We have found three small scorpions around our shoes. Luckily we are pretty religious about shaking our shoes out, so we haven't been stung. We do however, wonder what it is about shoes that attracts the scorpions. We've only found them in the shoes and sometimes on a window sill.

Scott reported earlier that Niall had seen a Fleur de Lance in the road (highly venomous snake), but we have since learned from our nature guide friend that there are simply none at this elevation, and that it was probably a large rat snake. Regardless we were please that Niall acted prudently and tossed stones at it until it slithered off the road and out of his way. We have asked many of the locals about our snake concerns and have not heard a single story of anyone being bit and that there are only two venomous snakes locally. The coral snake which is so brightly colored it would be hard to miss and the eyelash viper (love that name!) which is brilliant green, nocturnal and lives in trees. So unless we're blind or into nighttime tree climbing, we should be just fine.

Speaking of tree climbing, we do have some resident howler monkeys. They are somewhat elusive, but can be heard daily broadcasting their primacy across the rain forest. If you call back to them, they'll "talk" back to you in turn. I've noticed that thunder and car alarms often set them off as well. I was quite surprised when I finally saw our locals which hang out in a tree in the small river bed, just out of view of our house. They are quite small for such big voices! We also see white faced monkeys at the edge of the rain forest behind the house. The are a delight to watch as they cavort and hang from their tails to reach the tenderest fruits.

We also enjoy other more benign interactions with domestic animals. Of course, you've heard of Chispita, the dog who adopted us. She continues to be the perfect dog, her only naughty moments when she sneaks up onto the couch or bed for a more comfortable snoozing spot. She's figured out where her territory is and won't even think of going down the road anymore even to visit her buddy, the young collie "Oso". Oso has to come up to our house now if he wants Chispita to play. They are both about the same age and are fun to watch cavort. Chispita is agile and fast and darts about while Oso lies in wait to pounce on her. They wrassle for hours and when Chispita's tired she just comes inside where Osa's not allowed...kind of like a "time out".

Finally, Senor Torrez keeps 6 cows which graze at rotating locations all over the finca. They are lovely, big eyed bovine like you'd expect to see at home. We often chat with Senor Torrez when he walks the cows up to the field next to our house after milking them. Senor and Senora Torrez are in their 60's or so, but have no trouble walking up the steep road we're on. Although, I have seen Senor Torrez hold onto the last cow's tail for a little help up the last bit! And, finally the Torrez's have two somewhat rangy looking horses that greatly enjoy an occasional romp in our garden. It is quite normal to see cows or horses loose along the road. Either the animals are smart enough to escape, or the Ticos are just bad at their barbed wire fences..but there are an awful lot of escapees!

Come to think of it, Costa Rica is a country of barbed wire fences. They are everywhere, but few have traditional wooden stakes to hold them up. In fact the great majority are held up by whatever stick or tree was handy at the time. In the more tropical locations, dracina branches or other types of live tree branches are stuck into the ground, which root and create quite beautiful living stakes. Costa Rica is mainly populated by ranchers and farmers, and like our western states, is the home of a proud cowboy or caballero tradition. Many people still have horses in lieu of a car and we often see handsome caballeros out riding along complete with a machete at their side (no need for pistols here!).

Many people have asked how Niall is coping, and we are glad to report that he is doing quite well. He has turned into a voracious reader due to the lack of other entertainment. We don't have a TV and limit computer time, so he's turned to books and is quickly making his way through Brian Jacques' Redwall series. Our house is somewhat isolated from other homes, being at the edge of town and out in the Torrez family's finca or ranch. We're basically up a steep, steep road in what used to be the cow pasture. Lovely views, but a hike if Niall wants to find fellow playmates. Luckily there are children in the extended Torrez family, the oldest being a charming girl, Stacy who is Niall's age. They spend some time together and are finding that it's to their benefit as they are allowed to go together down the road into town to buy treats at the corner store. Something neither of them would be allowed on their own. Stacy is tolerant of Niall's bugs and pets, but she isn't quite the tomboy Niall would prefer.

At school Niall claims he's not made any friends in his class, yet when I see him there occasionally the girls all seem to fawn over him. I think that what he means is that he's not yet made any close buddies among the boys. Niall is the sole gringo in his class, which we think is for the best in the long run. It is very easy here to just hang out with the ex-patriot community and never even get to know the local Ticos. By living on the Tico side of town and working in a Tico restaurant and Niall being in with all Tico kids in his class, we feel we are balancing out the gringo effect to some degree. Niall does have some good gringo friends in the upper grades at school and does enjoy hanging out with them at school. He clearly misses his friends at home, but troops off happily each day to school without complaint.

His classmates at school are behind him in English, of course since they are learning English as their second language. The school has accommodated Niall by having him work in a special reading and writing group and we are doing more advanced spelling at home. From a nature and science aspect, I'm sure Niall is getting an incredible education here. They are often out hiking in the rain forest, measuring and counting and observing. When they did their recent study of the
water cycle, they were right out in the streams coming out of the rain forest.

Niall is really lucky and gets his own one-on-one Spanish lesson daily from the cute and charming Natalie. She has taken pains to adjust her teaching to Niall's more visual style and already has him conjugating verbs. We didn't realize how far Niall had come along until the other day when someone asked him a fairly detailed question in Spanish and he answered perfectly. He's also started to correct my pronunciation!

Niall is also turning out to be the mountain goat among us. The school grounds are located on steep slopes and the road up to the house from the bus stop is quite the hike. Between the two, he's getting in great shape. He comes home quite dusty and dirty and banged up from a good day's worth of hiking, playing soccer, and generally scrambling about at school.

As a matter of fact, by around 4 p.m. We are all spent here. Part of it is the altitude (we're almost a mile up, literally with the continental divide the ridge just above our house) and part of it is walking the steep grades. While we have all noticed that we've adjusted quite a bit, we still are all often sound asleep by 8 p.m! Its a good thing too, as while I originally thought of the rain forest as a relaxing place...it can be quite loud! Especially in the morning. At about 5 a.m. we start to hear the chickens crowing down at the stables, then the toucans doing their loud "tree frog croaking", then the hummingbirds duking it out over the hummingbird feeder, then the early morning delivery truck laboring up our steep grade. Shortly thereafter the howlers start their morning conversations. There is a veritable din of human and wildlife noises wafting up the valley and waking us up. No need for an alarm clock!

While we have yet to get out hiking that early, Scott and I try to get at least one hike or walk in each day after we drop Niall off at school. Often we're hiking out to some site of interest for Scott's
projects. In the coming weeks we will be surveying a property that a group of us hope to develop into a co-housing development. Basically a community of small, efficiently designed units connected together to a larger community space. The concept is perfect for the many retirees who enjoy staying here during the winter months, especially those that are getting on in years and would appreciate some extra support, such as being able to share rides or grocery shopping. The concept also minimizes the development footprint on the parcel we're building on. Instead of ten fair sized houses each with its own private facilities, there's one large shared community area with overflow bedrooms for guests, a commercial kitchen, library, laundry, great room, computer room, etc... The individual units are all self contained and are spread out on the lot connected via a series of elevated walkways. Each unit is designed with an efficiency kitchen in a small great room and how every many bedrooms the particular family requires. We're not sure, but this may be the first co-housing in Costa Rica. If it is, we're sure to have fun working through all the bureaucratic bits.

While some of Scott's hoped for paid sabbatical projects did not come to fruition, it was only a short time before he was inundated with volunteer projects that he is greatly enjoying. In addition to the co-housing project, he is now on a member of both the Cloud Forest School Board and the Monteverde Institute Board. The Institute is going through some challenging times and Scott is helping where he can. He is also helping the local artisans cooperative redesign and improve their public space which is kind of the "center" of Monteverde. He is also working on cataloguing vernacular designs throughout the area which entails long drives on the infamously rutted, dirt roads here to small towns to sleuth out old buildings and catalog them. We've been to Tilaron, a thriving rural mountain town that had approximately two original vernacular buildings, but was still laid out along the old Spanish influenced grid of 16 foot wide streets. We've also made a quick jaunt down to Punteranas, which was the very first port established in the Americas on the Pacific Ocean! Located on a protected sand spit inside the protection of the Gulf of Nicoya, this bustling ocean side town reminded me of what many of the California beach side towns used to be like in the 60's. Kind of low key, run down, and laid back. A bit seedy even perhaps..but what a spot, what a view...and we could probably even afford beach front there! Also there was a plethora of lovely old buildings all laid out, again on that delightful Spanish grid with nice public spaces and a lovely promenade and beach.

Well that's it for this installation. We're off to pick up my Australian parents from my exchange student days. We're sure to have some fun adventures and more stories!