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!