Second-Line Costa Rican Style

A few weeks ago, a bunch of neighbors opposed to a proposed garbage dump held a march in defense of the forest. It was a kind of New Orleans Second-Line Parade, but Costa Rican style... Instead of celebrating a wedding, a funeral, or just alcohol-enriched life in general, we were trying to draw attention to this vital forest, which provides life-giving oxygen and water to a huge population in the Central Valley: a population pushing inexorably westward - cutting, burning, trashing.


We were a Second-Line, but without the typical brass brand. However, we made enough music just by ourselves! And what a racket we made, as we marched along the country road from Ciudad Colon to El Rodeo through the forest. At one point, Teniente Azucar, who was leading the parade on his police motorcycle, rode back to us and shushed us.

“Quiet! Quiet! There’s a beehive up ahead!”

Want to quiet down a noisy demonstration? Point out beehives along the road! So, did we quiet down? Well, only slightly. We went from howling and shrieking to conversing loudly…

I was sharing a banner with Luisa at the time, so I asked her, “Did your parents arrive okay?” to which she replied, “Yes, they’re helping out with the candles.”

And sure enough, we were handed out candles and made our way to the Lake for a candlelight vigil. The evening became utterly magical, as more people from the village joined our group – kids, dogs, seniors – all joining in at the end of the march.

Lots of young people marched with us, many of whom had also helped out that same morning on the Virilla River Clean-Up Project. One young lady, who had spent the entire day volunteering down at the Virilla River, jumped out of her car on her way home and joined us for the march. She was very welcome! The candles stretched all along the road and up to the Peace Monument at the lake where everybody gathered. Margarita Ramirez was there, looking absolutely radiant, celebrating her 80th birthday, joining us in defense of the forest. Bob Hughes escorted Margarita to the candlelit monument on his 4-wheeler and many friends and relatives were gathered all around. It was a magical, beautiful evening. I profoundly felt part of the village.



Costa Ricans have now woken up to the challenge of trash – to the importance of changing behavior and cleaning up all the trash piled everywhere. On Saturday, March 13 - the same day as our march - a large group of volunteers gathered in El Rodeo to clean up a portion of the river Virilla. What a joy it was to see dozens of young people, making a human chain from the road all the way down to the river, hauling big sacks filled with plastic debris collected by other volunteers down along the river banks. Everyone knows that trash tossed down the mountainsides will end up in the rivers and, eventually, out to the Pacific Ocean.


This clean-up day was organized by Mario Barquero Brenes, of Servicios Ecologicos, a recycling company – www.reciclajecr.com – and volunteers hauled out many tons of debris from the river. The following Saturday, a group from Atenas, Terra Nostrum, organized another clean-up at another location along the river. And more groups will work over the next several Saturdays to finish the clean-up! This is, ‘Walking the Walk’. If you would like to help out, contact: www.MontanadeEsperanza.com



Putting Out Fires
I first observed the fire March 15th, at around 4 p.m., burning down the mountain on the Mueller property next door. At first it looked like a controlled pasture burn but it just seemed too close to the forest, so I called Yaneth, who called Jose, who called the Mueller caretaker, who said that he had not started the fire and that he wasn’t even on the property. Somebody else had started the fire. So Jose and Jorge went down to reconnoiter the situation and, as it was getting late, they carried flashlights and knives. Well, when they got down there, they found that the blaze was still controllable, not yet a major conflagration burning out of control. So, they decided to deal with the situation then and there. Still, facing any forest fire is hard, exhausting work – and extremely dangerous. They cut fire breaks around the blaze and cut down a burning tree to keep the flames from spreading into the forest. It took a couple of hours of hard work to corral the fire to pasture, controlling it until it died out. By the time the Mueller caretaker arrived, Jorge and Jose had put out the fire. They came out of the forest around 8 p.m., exhausted. Once again, our guys had put out a potentially devastating fire without any help from anybody.


So who do you call if you see a forest fire? Barrantes, a spokesman from Minaet replied, “Call Everybody”! But we already know that if it’s after 5 p.m., or on a Sunday, nobody is going to show. Just ask 911! We had a forest fire last year on a Sunday and, after calling 911 for the third time, the operator told us nobody was coming. We were on our own.

But we need help! We need help with resources and training - and if my fantasy can go free – a manned helicopter! That would really help control a fire! But this country doesn’t have enough resources for firemen on the ground, much less helicopters overhead. So what’s the solution? We prepare fire breaks. And we rejoice when it rains and dampens the ground. It rained last night!


Presenting Little Gerry (or Gerrito)! Lola la Vaca gave birth to a cute baby calf on Gerry’s birthday, March 11, 2010. So we named him Little Gerry. Isn’t he adorable? And what will Big Gerry do with Little Gerry when he grows up? Well, we’re very 4-H here – Little Gerry will likely end up in the freezer…

Having said that, however, we have all grown very fond of Little Gerry’s big brother, Negrito the calf. He is affectionate and frisky, just like a colt. Negrito will stand quietly and allow me to massage and pet him – he just loves the attention. And when I finish and stand back from him, he bucks and dances around playfully!


However, he gave us a huge scare on March 21st, when he wandered off with some cattle that had strayed onto Tigre pastures. He went missing for six days into the forest and had us worried sick! Jose went searching for him several times by foot and on horseback. I joined him on the search one day on horseback, and we searched all through Mueller’s lands and all the way down to the pastures at Bajo de Limon and then Llanos de Mango. We found the other cattle but Negrito and another missing calf were not with them. The pair had remained in the forest, and time was of the essence if they were to survive. Some cynics already assumed that poor Negrito was in somebody’s freezer!

Finally, several days after he went missing, a neighbor spotted Negrito in a pasture near El Rodeo, so Jose rode the 4km on Matchi to bring him home, kicking and bucking the entire time. It was a major battle for Jose, mounted on Matchi, a small horse not much bigger than the calf! Twice Negrito yanked the cord out of Jose’s hand and bolted, and twice Jose went in hot pursuit, jumping off Matchi and bringing back the calf on foot. And both times, Matchi just stood on the side of the road, reins loose, waiting patiently for Jose to return with the bucking calf. Matchi is such a good boy – he really stayed calm and became Jose’s partner.

I was standing at the gate when I saw Jose appear on the road, riding Matchi and holding back a stampeding, frothing, snorting calf. Negrito had spotted ‘home’ and came charging in like a wild bull, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Matchi reared up from the force and Jose jumped off Matchi again to finally corral Negrito to safety. I settled Matchi down while Jose calmed Negrito, both bathed in sweat, exhausted and trembling. But home at last!

I must say, Jose is a cowboy from the old tradition – a natural horseman who can put out forest fires: a calm person of great courage.

Days later, Negrito was back to normal, apart from a few scratches from the larger bulls during his adventure into the wild. And now that he pastures with Lola and his baby brother Gerrito, he will not be so lonely. Now, if we could only get the neighboring cattle to stay home…


He Had it Coming
A neighbor’s dog bit off the tip of Eddie’s tail. He came howling and yelping back home and Yaneth consoled and treated him, while telling him “You had it coming, you damned fool!”

And then he came whimpering to me and I cuddled and comforted him and also told him, “You had it coming! Now maybe you will stop pestering people and their dogs out in the road!”

I think our neighbor uses us as a training exercise for his highly disciplined guard dogs. He trots past the house with a German Shepherd at his side and they trot together in perfect unison - heel, heel, heel - trotting down the country lane, paying no heed to the barking pack of muts and strays at El Tigre. Oh, how they yap and bark at anybody walking past the Finca! They don’t bite, they just yap, yap, yap and bug, bug, bug anybody walking on by. We’ve worked hard to train our dogs not to go out on the road and pester passing hikers. But, if somebody’s passing by with their dogs, then the barking response reaches a cacophony: a whole jarring symphony of barking, yapping, yipping dogs. And who leads the pack? Why Eddie the Beagle, of course! He bays at the top of his lungs like the annoying hound dog that he is, and leads the muts on to pester and bark. How can any passerby maintain control of his dogs in the face of a pack of pestering, yapping muts, led on by a most obnoxious, baying Beagle?

We have tried everything: training, confinement, feedback. Yaneth controls them with a whistle; while Armando brings them running back by simply using a kind of gorilla-sounding, “hurrrumppph”! They respond immediately. But to Jan’s chagrin, I am no ‘dog whisperer’. I yell at them, “COME! COME!” And if they don’t respond, I ignore them – they become invisible to me. The silent treatment works with all the dogs, except Eddie the Beagle. He knows, that I know, that he hasn’t really disappeared after being a bad boy. He is a smart, stubborn dog!

So one day recently, Eddie was out there pestering the highly-disciplined German Shepherd dog and got taught a lesson. Will he learn from it? I sure hope so! Otherwise, that tail of his is going to get shorter. In the meantime, we have stepped up training: all dogs have got collars and get training time with Yaneth. She actually managed to get Eddie to walk with her on a leash! I never could. He would just lie down and let me drag him along, until I would finally relent and let him go.

Forest Report

Cortez amarilla is now in full, yellow flower. Miconia species (Santa Maria) are now fruiting – delicious sweet berries. Eugenias and Cupanias are also fruiting. Petrea vine just finished. Vitex is beginning to fruit. Ceiba pentandra just finished seeding and we collected the cotton with seeds to plant up in the greenhouse.


The ceiba germinates easily with our help but rarely in the wild. We observed numerous small red beetles - approx. 1/3 cm - in the Ceiba cotton that had dropped to the ground, eating the seeds. Is that why so few Ceiba seeds germinate naturally?

Bernoullia flammea finished seeding. No Cedrela bateo fruits this year and very few C. odorata – much better fruiting season for Cedrela last year. Also, very few Volador seeds this year.

Tin brought us some new seedlings of a tree known as a repellent, Neem (Azadirachta indica) a Meliaceae. Yes, we’re still experimenting with repellent concoctions. Thankfully, however, there are few insect problems this far into dry season.