Finca El Tigre

What! You again?

2012-01-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

What! You again! I thought I tore one of your legs off last November when I pulled you out of my riding boot? Did your leg grow back so fast? Or are you his brother? Or has word gotten out…? That this particular human female is tolerating tarantulas, so the coast is clear: “Come on inside and chomp down on whatever nocturnal insect you can find, while the humans sleep – cricket, beetle, anything you can snatch”. Our neighbor, Gabi, identified this arachnid as a Psalmopoeus reduncus – an Orangemouth Tree Spider. We photographed this one on the glass shower door of the bathroom. In the Tropics, the best fumigation method is good housekeeping, so there’s not much to eat inside the house anyway. Out you go!

There is so much flowering and seeding right now and the show is just getting started! Here’s a shot of Passiflora edulis. Armando planted this on the fence about three years ago, and I forgot about it until I saw the flower this morning. Isn’t it lovely? Of course, the bees are busily all about. It stopped raining on a daily basis some weeks ago and the ground has already dried out. Many leaves of the deciduous trees are starting to fall and the flowering season is definitely underway. Unlike last year, Armando expects an excellent seed year. Flowering trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants are blooming all over the place, from eye-popping trees like the stunning, yellow Cortez Amarilla or the gorgeous, violet Rondeletia, to delicate herbs in the understory.

Take a look at this incredible flowering vine, with the flower and legumes attached on the stalk. You can easily see herbaceous plants blooming along the roadsides and pasture edge, where they receive a good dash of sun. Everywhere, as you walk around, you see dotting the landscape – Oh! where to start - mints, daisies by the score, Ageratums, Morning Glories, Legumes, Hibiscus, Justicias, Aphelandras, as well as a slew of flowering vines sprawling all over the canopy and causing confusion. Is that a blooming tree or a vine?

One of my favorite native shrubs is now in fruit, Picramnia antidesma, which the locals call Caregre. This elegant, small, understory tree, of the Simaroubaceae family, is utterly delightful, with its long, dangling racemes: tinsel-like strands of red, orange or yellow berries glittering in the forest shade. All the berries eventually turn black and drop off, leaving the dangling string still attached to the shrub, giving a very charming effect. I have long been fascinated by what factors in the forest determine the particular color of the berries of individual trees. Here in the Zona Protectora of El Rodeo, we most commonly observe Picramnias with orange, orange-red or bright red berries.

However, occasionally, we have also spotted bright yellow berries. And the interesting thing is that, no matter what color the berry, they are all the same species, Picramnia antidesma! Apparently, just as the human species has many individual differences, so do all other species. Botanist and Costa Rican plant expert, Barry Hammel, explained it very succinctly in a note he sent to me: “Remember, species *do* vary, as we saw with that interesting pink version of the normally bright purple-flowered Justicia isthmensis at your place. Also, I have Ruellia jussieuoides in a white-flowered form at our house, not seen anywhere else. Coffee, itself, has versions with fruit color differences much the same as what you are seeing in Picramnia. However, if you find other morphological differences, besides color, or maybe even phenological/and or habitat differences, that would be much more interesting than color alone.”

Orchids are also blooming now, although most are normally way too high up in the forest canopy to see. However, we can sometimes catch sight of both orchids and bromeliads growing on shrubs or small trees with chunky, corky-textured bark – especially the Guitite (Acnistus arborescens) - which flourish in this area. With regular pruning, they do very well in even the smallest of gardens and can, thereby, bring the world of orchids closer to you. We grow Guitite trees in the orange orchard as living fences – they are easily reproduced by estaca - and most of the orchids that are growing on them just suddenly appeared. However, sometimes we rescue orchids when a tree collapses on the roadside and find them a new Guitite home!

Bromeliads are also blooming. We rescued this Aechmea mariae-reginae a few years ago, when a tree collapsed across the road bringing down this huge bromeliad. They usually flower way up in the canopy but, if you are lucky enough to see one up close, you can really appreciate the beauty of this magnificent plant.

Here’s a shot of all four horses back together again after Lucero’s adventure. The animals are all doing fine, although we had a bit of a scare recently. Lucero, my favorite mountain-riding horse, went missing for two days a few weeks ago, and we thought somebody had stolen him! During all the years here, the horses have always returned to the stables together. However, often during the dry season, they prefer to stay out in the pasture for a few nights – there is so much to eat right now out there, including the delicious fruit of the Guazuma ulmifolia - and they don’t return to the stables for the special feed we use to entice them back. Also, Lucero is normally the last to arrive and the first to wander off. So, when only three of the horses returned one night, we didn’t think much about it. However, when Lucero didn’t return for the second night together with the others, we immediately organized a search party.

We’ve never lost a horse here to snakebite, horse-thief or anything else, but 48 hours away from the herd was too long, and I was preparing for the worst. Jose went out that night for hours searching the property and also first thing the next morning. Armando and Norbert joined him in the morning as well, and searched the neighboring Muller pastures, quickly finding our Lucero frolicking and having the time of his life with a white mare owned by the neighbors. Clearly, he seemed quite at home grazing with his new equine pal next door. And no, Lucero did not want to go home! In fact, he put up quite a ruckus! I am still amazed at how Jose can handle that horse with so much ease…

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here’s a shot of Gerry and Jose sorting out the car. We had hoped to jump-start the generator using both of our two car batteries in series – but we still couldn’t produce enough charge to get it started. Jose even tried running the car, but no luck! The generator battery was 100% dead! 2012 has not had a propitious start. Our solar power system had not been operating normally for several weeks and then, on New Year’s Eve, the battery of our diesel generator died, which meant no back-up to the solar system. Everything was closed for the holiday, of course, so we couldn’t purchase another battery until Monday. This was an unprecedented event for us with the solar system – the first time since going solar six years ago that we were without back-up power. Over the years, no matter how cloudy and rainy the weather, we could always charge the batteries with diesel power (normally two hours of generator power is enough to top-up the batteries). It stopped raining weeks ago; however, most days remained overcast until…well, luckily, until just about the time that the generator failed. Suddenly, a few days ago, the sun came out and we could survive on 100% solar power, if we were careful in conserving energy and not running down the battery. However, the clock was ticking – we had fallen to 50% battery charge, when we realized that we would have to drastically conserve energy or risk losing power. What that meant to all of us at Reserva El Tigre was that we had to conserve power and water! We could only use well water and major electrical appliances during the sunniest part of the day, when the panels were generating solar power for the battery bank. After sunset, therefore, we all had to minimize the use of power – just a few lights and no opening the refrigerator! Gerry bought everybody candles in case we used a little too much power… Okay, so that would mean a nice romantic New Year’s Eve dinner. Que va!

Our plan was to barbeque top quality burgers for New Year’s Eve. However, it was such a windy night, that it took Gerry numerous attempts to light the charcoals; the wind kept blowing out the fire. Finally, after nearly 30 minutes wrestling with the grill, he got the charcoals burning well and came inside, his hands black from the coals, for a well-deserved cocktail. And then – suddenly, a big gust of wind knocked the grill right over and sent the burning charcoals flying! So we rushed outside and put out the coals with the garden hose – using just enough water to put out the fire, of course, because of the generator problem… We eventually calmed down, however, with the help of another cocktail, cooked the hamburgers in a skillet, and devoured them hungrily, if not romantically, accompanied by a very fine bottle of Chilean wine (Clos Apalta 2000) that tasted fine despite a rotten, exploding cork. We then had a glass of Graham’s LBV port and went to bed long before midnight, as usual.

And now for something completely different.

Can you identify this arachnid? I call him a ‘tarantula manso’ because he didn’t bite me even after I’d accidentally pulled off one of his legs! I found him hiding out in my riding boot in Costa Rica after returning from New Orleans. It had been ages since I’d last gone out on the horses, so I grabbed my riding boots and shook them out as usual. But sometimes shaking out a boot is not enough! I stuck my left foot in my boot but couldn’t quite get my foot all the way to the end because my big toe prodded and nudged at something that felt like a piece of cloth. Had I left a sock in my boot? I pulled out my foot and reached into the boot with my hand and groped around and felt something like a big puff of wool yarn. So I pulled it out and put it on the floor. And it immediately unwound and began to move away.

That was the spider you see in this picture. My first instinct was to scream - but in surprise, not fear; I no longer fear spiders! My second thought was that the spider had had two opportunities to bite me but did not. When I stuck in my foot, he could have ruined my day but did not bite! And then, I pulled him out quite roughly and pulled off one of his legs. He could have bitten my hand! But he didn’t bite. This spider must not die! So after taking this picture – notice the spider has only seven legs left after his close encounter with me - I carefully removed him to an elevated part of the retaining wall outside.

He later left and presumably found a cozy hole somewhere. If anybody else from the Finca had found this spider, it would have been killed. Hugo told me, “You should kill that!” I asked him why – had a tarantula ever bitten him before? No, but scorpions had stung him before. Well, yeah! I would have killed a scorpion too! My neighbor, Gabi, told me that, by coincidence, a tarantula had crawled into one of her boots too! Sadly, she didn’t realize it was in there and she crushed it with her heel.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2011-11-24T14:20:00.000-08:00

Gerry makes Jambalaya for Thanksgiving. His first attempt using John Besh's recipe.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you spent the day with family or friends, or at least with your dogs, celebrating all that we have to be thankful for. All around us we face threats and problems. So, it’s important on this day – and perhaps everyday – to look at what we have, with gratitude and humility, and to celebrate joyfully. Sometimes, feeling this joy amongst friends, we have sudden bursts of inspiration. Suddenly, we don’t have a problem – we have an opportunity!

Second-Line Buddhist style in New Orleans

What a different world. I took this shot several days ago, while sitting rather glumly in our apartment in New Orleans. Suddenly, I heard the jazzy sound of a Second-Line Parade! I rushed to the window and saw that it was the annual Hara Krishna Second-Line. I got this picture but, unfortunately, missed the musicians and the crowd in front. However, you get to see the float with the maestros sitting there being pulled by some of their acolytes…

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are today!

Jazz for Early Risers

2011-11-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Last night we listened to John Cleary play his magic at d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street. He’s an amazing one-man show – a legend in New Orleans – stirring the crowd of all ages and all walks of life to movement and joy, as he played that piano and sang to us – giving it his all. Pure magic! After the show, we had drinks at Tujague’s, dinner at Evangeline, and were in bed before midnight. Like some other talented musicians in New Orleans, Cleary started his show at 7p.m.

This morning, we read in the Times Picayune, that another Jazz trumpet legend, Kermit Ruffins, announced that he would begin playing his weekly gigs at Vaughan’s (a traditionally late-night watering hole) also at the very reasonable hour of 7p.m., so that he too could get to bed by midnight! We’re all getting old. We want to go to bed early and get up early. Kermit wants to walk his daughter to school in the morning. I have always been an early riser - and the world has just now caught up to my early-rising habits. We can have our jazz and rise early too! Thank you Kermit! Thank you John Cleary! Jazz makes life worth living and we can now get it live – and early!

Today is Veterans’ Day. I’m thinking of it more now, as history repeats itself. We went to the renowned New Orleans World War 2 Museum this past week, and reviewed once again the horrors and devastating losses – 65,000,000 dead throughout the world! The Museum displayed all too vividly the battles at Normandy, the bombings, the endless horrors throughout the Pacific, the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war. And we walked out of there feeling glum and uneasy. Humans study history so as not to repeat human mistakes, and yet we just do not learn. We just cycle around again, as if determined to self-destruct our species.

Lettuce Experiment

2011-10-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Rainy weather is the best time for growing lettuces - under cover. Take a look at Jose’s lettuce experiment. We have found that our ‘sweet’ lettuces (90% water) prefer their roots snug – as in these hydroponic bamboo containers that Jose built. We found it curious that lettuce grows faster, and looks better, in this hydroponic-type set-up than in the compost-rich soil pictured below. The really green vegetables, like spicy lettuces, arugula, spinach and mustards do great in compost-rich soil, but it seems that high-water-content lettuces grow better in bamboo. I was surprised and have had to think about why this is so. That’s what experimenters do when faced with unexpected results.

Today is Thursday, October 20, 2011, and for the last ten days we have been in what Costa Ricans call a “temporal”: persistent rains, all day and all night, punctuated by periods of torrential downpours; followed by thick, cloudy mist – which is the time you can dash outside and see about the chores; followed by more rain. We have forgotten what the sun looks (and, more importantly, feels) like…

This morning, I noticed that the Pseudosphinx tetrio caterpillars are back on the Plumeria trees again! Back again so soon? Or perhaps hawk moths metamorphose all the time, rather than just during particular seasons. They were here during the month of July/August and now again in October; let’s see how the Plumeria tolerates leafing out again - and again!

I’ve started reading about the Animal Kingdom, particularly those groups representing the climax of a specific evolutionary line (birds, mammals and, of particular interest during this rainy season, insects). And, within the insects, I have become quite fascinated by the Subclass Pterygota, Division II – Endopterygota. They undergo complete metamorphosis and develop wings from inside the body (from imaginal buds) compared to Division I – Exopterygota (eg.Dragonflies), which undergo incomplete metamorphosis and develop wings outside the body.

Even more specifically, I’m looking at the ants, bees and wasps (Hymenoptera). The word Hymenoptera comes from: hymen (membrane) + ptera (wing) = hymenoptera (membranous wings). The Hymenoptera have inhabited the planet for over 200 million years and have the second largest number of species in the Insect Class - over 100,000 species have been described worldwide! There are some 17,000 species in Costa Rica and many live here in the Zona Protectora, El Rodeo. Ants, wasps and bees are my focus but I’m also looking at butterflies and dragonflies.

Photo of Diaethria astala
There are myriad butterflies here in the Zona Protectora of El Rodeo, including Morphos, which are quite common. Students and experts come from all over the world to study butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) here. In fact, our neighbor, Gabriela, has a butterfly species named after her, which was discovered at her home, Finca Hamadryas. I have always loved butterflies but felt overwhelmed by the idea of studying them.

D. astala top side.
However, they really are the best way to begin studying the Insect Class, so I finally bought the prohibitively expensive DeVries books. Butterfly life-history is an excellent example of complete metamorphosis.

I am also studying a much smaller insect group at the same time: the utterly beguiling Damselflies and Dragonflies (Odonata) with only around 5,000 species (compared with groups such as wasps, butterflies or beetles, which possess over 100,000 species each). I see Dragonflies daily – glittering wings fluttering deep in the forest. They are so beautiful! Dragonflies are always around water. They spend their larval stage in water, where they are voracious carnivores, consuming huge quantities of, for example, mosquito larvae. Another reason to love to odonates! InBio have published a nice field guide on Dragonflies and Damselflies by Carlos Esquivel.

But I get ahead of myself. Before tackling any species of the Insect Class in the Animal Kingdom, where you can quickly get overwhelmed, the student is wise to go back to the beginning and …read the introduction. This is how you really get to know the author of any book and, in the case of biology, become inspired to go beyond just the syllabus, beyond just the question we have on a certain species. And, when we do, we find that species have more in common than not.

All plants, no matter what the species, use inorganic substances to build themselves (photosynthesis).

All aerobic animals use glucose and oxygen in a process that produces carbon dioxide, water and energy, usually in the form of heat. This process can be described in the chemical equation:

C6H12O6 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy.

My general focus during this long, rainy season is on aerobic organisms adapted to dry land. They all have in common complicated devices to preserve their internal environment. Animals (Protozoa) and Plants (Protophyta) reproduce and respire and have that extra something that makes them alive and not dead. So far even a 3-year old gets that much.

The Insect Class belongs to the Phylum, Joint-Limbed Animals (Arthropoda). The Spiders, Scorpions, King Crabs and Mites Class (Arachnida) are not insects – they are eight-legged. That’s for another day. The Insect Class alone is a huge area of study – hundreds of thousands species. Once again, it’s important to read the introduction and look at what’s in common. In the Plant Kingdom, I have managed to study plants to the Family level, but not often can I nail the Genus and Species. But that’s the goal.

My neighbor, Paul Gloor, reminded me that I must always remember to document not just the Genus and Species, but also the discoverer and date of discovery. Luckily, the Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus, did a lot of the work for the rest of us. His work, Systema Naturae, 10^th Edition (1758), became the basis of the binominal system of nomenclature employed in the classification of animals and plants. Nowaday, you need to go to research websites like Mobot, InBio or the Plantlist.org to study the latest in nomenclature of plants. And yes, I have been most lax in not including, at the minimum – L. – along with the species. In Costa Rica, plants and animals are getting discovered and identified all the time. Taxonomists might change species around within Families and Genera but the species name and discoverer will always remain the same. You just might have to go find it in a different Family…

Why study animal taxonomy now, after years of focusing on botany, trees and medicinal plants? Well, it started long before that day when I wanted to know the name of the hawkmoth caterpillar crawling on my Plumeria trees. Just by looking, you can see how well-adapted insects are in this forest environment. And with climate change, we shall see ever faster adaptations. I am also increasingly intrigued by the relationships observed between insects and plants. Just observing ants, I understand that they are more ancient, better adapted and will survive the human species. They succeed by their numbers alone and exist in virtually every habitat on this planet. Here in the forest, we might not see a collared anteater every day. But we will see ants, wasps and bees every day, whether we want to or not…

The ants are just here now – a few feet away from where I stand inside the house in this forest. If a child drops a few crumbs from his cookie, the ants will soon come and clean them up. If a moth inside the house dies and falls to the ground, the ants will soon come take it away. This is harmonic living in the forest. All we have to do is just let the food chain be. This works just as well in the urban jungle, where the Insect Class has also flourished and adapted. No matter how determined the human species is in attempting to annihilate the insects with toxic, chemical warfare, the resistant insects adapt and just come right back. Like that persistent, impertinent weed that just pops right back no matter how determined the herbicidal warfare employed. The smart humans must learn to try a different approach - just coexisting with like-adapted successful species on this planet. We humans are simply part of the cycle. We study the stages in the life-history of an insect which undergoes metamorphosis, in order to understand – and to sometimes develop strategies.

Pterygota undergoes cycles (metamorphosis) – either complete: egg – larva – pupa/chrysalis – adult, or incomplete, as in Exopterygota: egg – larva (nymph) –adult. Each species has its own set of requirements to morph and to survive in the environment. Understanding these cycles, leads to discovery, understanding, and strategies for coexisting.

So, what have I learned so far? Well, I am quite fascinated with ‘ovipositors’ – the egg-laying or stinging structures. All Hymenoptera have an ovipositor, that, in the case of say, worker honey bees (Apis mellifica) has been modified from laying eggs to stinging. The sterile worker bees use this weapon much more freely than the queen, who would be deprived of the normal ovipositor function of egg-laying.

Much has been studied of the highly structured communities of honey bees and also many species of ants. Wasps are different – they are usually solitary and parasitic. The wasps use their ovipositor to modify the substrate on which their egg is deposited, making it more favorable for larval development, by altering the plant tissue or by paralyzing, incapacitating or killing the host or prey. It’s not a pleasant image of Life-History but it is fascinating. I sometimes observe wasps ‘casing’ prey. Among the hymenopterans, we see parasitoids, predators and, also, pollinators and agents of biological control. We have much to learn from these ancient species. They will out-survive Homo sapiens, I have no doubt.

It was all a joke, Little Gerry

2011-10-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

No, no, you’re not actually For Sale. And, yes, we all had a good laugh over it. Of course, you didn’t laugh. How could you? You’re a calf. I never REALLY meant to sell you. I was just so mad that last time you broke into the garden – again! You slithered right under the sturdy fencing that we had erected, just like a small dog, and then proceeded to totally decimate our corn patch – you chomped the plants right down to the root! That crop had taken several weeks to grow, and we were just about ready to harvest the corn. I wanted to put you on the barbecue right then and there! And, yes, I offered you up for sale in a fit of fury!

We had a few offers too – but all too low (we wouldn’t let them insult you that way…). Nobody understood your value. The reality is, Little Gerry, you are not for sale at any price. We shall keep you here at the farm, where you can continue to enjoy the pastoral life, and we have taken steps to reinforce the fencing. However, Little Gerry, if you annihilate the garden again, Big Gerry is going to get served the best steak he’s had in his life…

No Turkey for Thanksgiving

Well, Mr. Turkey didn’t last long. One morning, when Jose went out to feed all the animals, he found him dead in the hen house! We were serving him a special protein-enriched diet, he was doing so well with the hens, and the weeks just went by in idyllic avian fashion. So his sudden death - with not a mark on him - came as a real surprise. Was it blackhead disease – Histamonas melagridas? We didn’t go to the expense of an autopsy, but asked around if anyone knew anything about turkeys. A neighbor told us that they are more delicate than hens; that sometimes they just keel over for no apparent reason. Well, so much for Thanksgiving turkey…

As we have found out very clearly living here this long, you should stick with what works locally, go native…. In the case of poultry, we shall stick to ‘criollo’ hens. The Finca hens live the good life. They spend their days outside, pecking all around the stable-yard, helping us to control insect larvae. The compost is produced so much faster with the hens pecking away at it, and they also add their own nitrogen-rich droppings to the mix. Even if we didn’t eat the eggs (which we do with much gusto), we would still keep hens out at the stable to control the insects. At night, most of them return inside, though some prefer to roost outside up in the trees. But they stay very close; we live in a forest with predators close by…

The eggs taste ssooooooo good. We’re just approaching a population size now where we should cull some of the flock, especially the roosters – or else they will kill each other. In the past, we didn’t have that problem, as predators always got to them first. I just reread the ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’, by Michael Pollan, and it just keeps delivering fresh insights. The author found the chicken-killing experience unpleasant – who wouldn’t? But he did it nonetheless. The chickens had lived a good life at Polyface farm, and grass farmer, Joel Salatin, made sure that they were quickly killed and processed; very 4H.

But can I actually kill a chicken? I don’t know. I definitely will not pluck one – we’ll rent one of those machines I read about in Pollan’s book. The whole thing will have to be organized with help from experienced farmers. In any case, we can at least say that we know where our food comes from.

We mostly eat vegetables and fruit grown right here on the farm, and the animals play a huge role in improving the soil in which we grow everything. Horse and cow manure, composted with stable bedding, chicken droppings and kitchen, produces a compost mix that, I contend, has greater value than gold. The soil keeps getting better and better, as we continuously add more organic matter. Gardening is something everybody can do to make his or her life a bit more enriching – in health and in spirit. You see nature at work and you begin to deeply understand how interconnected everything is – how life circles back around through the soil. Pollan describes this very well in ‘Omnivore’s Dilemma’. You can’t read his books and go back into the grocery store like you did before. You learn where your food comes from; you’ve gotten a glimpse of the industrial food business and the brutal treatment of animals. And you want to eat food grown locally, even better grown by yourself! The gardening experience brings so many benefits. I truly believe that, to comprehend nature, you have to go beyond observation; you have to engage in it – growing and rearing things yourself - and then you really begin to learn the lessons. Plants and animals tell us what they need just by looking at them!

Farewell Flopsy

2011-09-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Farewell Flopsy. Flopsy died last Monday. Here’s a picture of Yaneth holding Flopsy earlier this year. He has been my constant companion since he came to live with us. Several years ago, while still living in Ciudad Colon, Animal Rescue friends asked if I would adopt some dogs that had been tortured by a very sick man. He had already killed several dogs and, finally, the neighbors had had enough of hearing the pitiful yelps of dogs getting beaten. Flopsy came to us with broken ribs, a broken jaw, missing teeth and lesions all over him. He could barely breathe without whimpering in pain. I swore the day he came to us that he would never suffer again, if I could help it. It took a long time for his injuries to heal, and years longer before he would even let us pick him up without yelping in terror. But time heals all wounds, and we were so glad when he trusted us enough to finally let us pick him up and hold him.

And, thus, he lived at the farm and went with me everywhere. We took the most recent pictures of Flopsy, while hiking with Armando and the other dogs down to the waterfalls this past August. He kept up just fine with all the other dogs, despite having lots of white whiskers – showing his age. But he remained healthy and active until just a few weeks ago, when I noticed that he was losing steam, couldn’t keep on weight, and began showing signs of kidney failure – an ailment that had already taken his companions, Chispa and Spotty. Thus, we sadly recognized the same symptoms. I suspect the cause of the kidney failure but am not sure – we have taken preventive measures.

The last week, we knew that, soon, Flopsy was going to die and that there was nothing we could do but support him and keep him comfortable – and let him rest peacefully at home. We have learned that if we take a dog with kidney failure to the vet, the dog does not come back home alive. In no way do I want to denigrate our very fine and compassionate small animal vet, Dr. Rojas, in Ciudad Colon. But he would be the first to agree that, sometimes, it’s best to keep the patient comfortable at home and not subject a dying animal to more stress, like IV drips and caged confinement, closed up with other sick animals. Flopsy had a very good life after his rescue. He brought smiles to us all with his very conversational…waoo wuoo wao wuoo and was much loved. Farewell Flopsy.

m’a sa-laam-a Dr. Mahmoud El Zain Hamid

2011-09-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

We were shocked and saddened to learn that Dr. Mahmoud El Zain Hamid died on Monday, September 19, 2011, while teaching at the University for Peace. Mahmoud lived to teach – and inspired so many people in so many ways, that the University for Peace plans a special Memorial for him, so that people can give voice to how he touched their lives.

Yesterday, the University for Peace held a very nice remembrance service for Dr. Hamid, prior to celebrating planned activities for the International Day of Peace. One of the students chanted a passage from the Koran, which was deeply felt by everyone. Many tears flowed for this very kind and good man who left this planet far too early.

We want to say to the world what Gerry said to Mahmoud when we last saw him: “Thank you”! Mahmoud inspired Gerry to go out and buy the publication: ‘Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis’; the Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This massive document includes all the data and evidence pointing to the fact that the planet has, indeed, entered another period of global warming. Gerry carefully read the book, studied all the data and analyses, and is now now more convinced of it (although not at the pace, nor with the certain catastrophic outcomes that some non-objective politicians and activists with their own personal agendas will have us believe). The world must, therefore, brace for future change and mankind must adapt. Mahmoud understood this; he came from Sudan to bring his message to the world at the University for Peace. He passionately cared about the impact of climatic change on the peoples of the world. He will be deeply missed.

After the remembrance service for Dr. Hamid, the students formed a large ‘circle of gratitude’ as part of the International Peace Day. People from all over the world joined hands and, for many moments, we shared a collective sense of warmth and goodwill. For me, it was a very deep and satisfying feeling to share with so many people. I remain optimistic for the human species.

Box Fight in Pricemart

2011-09-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

So what’s life been like since Gerry retired? Well, I’ll give you the latest little episode. I usually enter the Membership Warehouse Store, Pricemart, with a list and a mission: to get in and out of there as fast as possible. When Gerry retired, I eventually talked him into going with me to help haul out the big, wholesale-sized packages, even though he really dislikes shopping in general and these ‘Big-Box’ places in particular (“I abhor these appalling bloody abysses, with their retarded zombie staff”). He tries to avoid it like the plague – but, over the years, Gerry has learned that it’s sometimes best to take the path of least resistance… Still, from day one, he made it clear that he only entered that store under great duress. And that I owed him. This trip last Friday was no exception but his mood was even more foul than usual - and I was irritable too. So we walked in there with the list, quickly piled up the supplies in the shopping cart and went to the check-out counter. While Gerry was unloading the items onto the conveyor belt and the clerk was scanning the items, I quickly moved to the end of the counter and packed them neatly back into another cart. Every action was designed to expedite the process, in order to get out of the store as quickly as possible and with the minimum of fuss.

So, I had just finished stacking the items and was ready to sign the credit card receipt, when Gerry storms through the crowd, takes one look at our neatly stacked shopping cart, and does not like what he sees! Suddenly, he demands of a ‘packer’ more boxes to pack up the merchandise the way he wants to do it! He needs lots of boxes – and he wants them “ya” (right now, for non-Spanish speakers)! So now boxes are flying, clerks are running to get more boxes - and I am burning with fury; I just want to…

…grab a box and whack Gerry up-side the head with it! So he grabs a box and throws it at me – and now boxes are really flying. And now everybody is throwing boxes… Boxes are flying everywhere… It’s a Box Fight at Pricemart! And now everybody is laughing – because it is all so ridiculous – and everybody now gets a couple of boxes to take home.

Wait a minute! Did that really happen? Well, some of it did. As Gerry demanded boxes and more boxes, I ended up just paying for the bill, my face blazing hot with rage and embarrassment. But I remained silent, keeping in mind that the mission was to just get out of there; Gerry gave the harassed ‘packer’ a good tip and we left the store – and we didn’t really start to laugh about it until later. Did that really happen? Did we just behave that way? The main thing to remember in situations like that is to keep laughing and loving, no matter how much you want to pick up that box and…

What is this Caterpillar? Answer: Frangipani Hawk Moth Larva

2011-09-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

Can anyone identify this caterpillar? Thank you Kathryn Kostka de Tanzi and Barry Biesanz and Mark Plotkin for the feedback! This is a Frangipani Hawk Moth Larva called Pseudo sphinx tetrio - a sphinx moth- that loves Plumeria trees - and also Oleander trees. We had about 15 of these colorful creatures living on the Plumeria rubra (Frangipani) trees during most of August. They chomped down on the leaves and soon nearly doubled in size, each caterpillar claiming his own branch, and eventually they ate all the leaves. I need not have worried, the leaves quickly started growing back and no lasting damage was apparent. What would they morph into next? One day I decided to take these pictures. And it’s a good thing I did, because the very next day all the caterpillars were gone. Sometime during the night, they all came down from the Frangipani trees and went somewhere else!

Every year around this time, we see these caterpillars - Tetrio Sphinx- during this particular phase of their life-cycle. They are so colorful as larva but morph into a rather dull, grey moth. Robin came over and saw one thrashing about - why? It was trying to avoid a pair of bees trying to sting it! Not sure if Robin got the shot.

Actually, right now is high season for butterflies in the El Rodeo forest; there is an astounding variety of them, which would dazzle any collector, or even any non-collector for that matter. And there is much to learn from them. Our neighbor has even observed moths that mimic wasps. Nature never fails to astonish and fascinate, offering lessons to those who want to observe and study it, and producing a state of wonder for those who just want to walk within it.

So what’s this big white bird running about with our hens? We now have a turkey out at the stable! Until recently it belonged to a neighbor, who bought a pair of them with the idea to breed them. But her dog had a different idea… That big bird was just too tempting. So, after the female became Thanksgiving doggie-dinner, she asked us to adopt the male, and he has adapted surprisingly well. He seems to get on with the hens – he doesn’t bully them and they don’t peck him.

He’s a gentle giant in a hen house where, yes indeed, there is a pecking order… We let them out into their garden during the day but they all go back inside at night, along with the turkey. We have learned that the forest can very easily make quick meals out of ‘free-range’ hens. But Jose has accomplished the next to impossible – he has created conditions so that the hens can thrive in a ‘free-range’environment yet survive. We breed criollo hens for their eggs. Criollos, like all natives, can resist illnesses and are adapted to the tropical climate – and they produce incredibly delicious eggs with very bright yellow yolks!

Seeking Wild Tomatoes

2011-08-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

I am a tomato freak. One time at a dinner party, a friend told me, “Do you realize that the only thing we’ve talked about all night is tomatoes?” Those are the sorts of friends I have. Back when we lived in PA and NJ, I tried growing lots of tomato varieties, and so relished the taste of a tomato just off the vine after flourishing in the long summer sunshine. The best-tasting tomato is the one you grow yourself in your garden. The reason why store-bought tomatoes taste so insipid – the more perfect the red tomato you choose, the more insipid it is likely to taste – is due to commercial practices.

Read investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook’s book, called ‘Tomatoland’, for the sad, shocking story of tomato cultivation. Estabrook inspired me to look again at the original wild tomato, the tiny cherry tomato – Solanum pimpinellifolium – progenitor of the modern tomato. Unfortunately, since tomatoes have been cultivated commercially, the original wild tomatoes have become rare, even to their native Andes. Estabrook described his expedition in the Andes in search of the elusive wild tomato. He obtained GPS coordinates of a, “pretty good cluster”, of wild tomatoes from the well-known tomato geneticist, Roger Chetelat, of the University of California at Davis. Chetelat e-mailed him a list of common names to help him in the search – tomatito, tomate de campo, tomate de culebras, tomate de zorro, tomate silvestre. The names tell us that the locals refer to the progenitor as a ‘wild tomato’, not really a tomato that they would cultivate and eat.

His Peruvian expedition was full of unexpected adventure but, finally, Estabrook found the plant way up in the high desert of Peru. Solanum pimpinellifolium was a scruffy plant; scruffy but surviving, despite impossible odds – and laden with tiny tomatoes! He popped a tiny tomato into his mouth and described what he tasted: “The bright, sweet pop of taste was followed by a lingering, pleasant tartness, that essential balance that defines a great tomato.”

Unfortunately, the store-bought tomatoes are just as insipid in Costa Rica as everywhere else, but it’s not easy to grow large tomatoes in the tropical garden. The sun sets in Costa Rica by 6 p.m. year round, and the rainy season limits sun to less than 4-6 hours daily, which significantly reduces the variety of tomatoes that you can grow here. Thus, small is better. Tiny tomatoes have a chance to ripen and turn nicely red on the vine long before the tropical elements begin to attack, which invariably happens with large tomatoes. Where could I find a Tomate Silvestre here in Costa Rica?

Our search led us to our friend, Hugo A. Zuniga Molina, who has carved out a totally self-sufficient garden paradise for himself and his family up near Pico Blanco in Escazu. Years ago, he found some tiny tomato plants while walking in the wild areas of high Escazu, took them home and planted them. Now, they are all over his garden, clearly healthy and seeding readily and delicious. However, Hugo did remind us that for reliable results, we should ferment the tomato seeds (from the basket of tomatoes that he generously allowed us to pick!), not dry them, prior to germinating them in our garden. We’d found our wild tomato!

Hugo regards nature as his teacher and, over the past 25 years, has transformed a steep mountainside into a series of terraced gardens, just like in Peru, where the (now) rich, composted soil produces an amazing array of edible plants. He collects all the water from the rooftops and directs it into holding tanks, where it is recycled back throughout the garden and into fish ponds. His septic system produces gas for his kitchen and treated water further down the mountain, which flows crystal-clear into a stream. Hugo doesn’t recognize any plants as ‘weeds’; all plants have organic value at least. And most have much more value to man than that; it just requires a little observation and study to discover it. He explained that every problem on the tropical, organic farm can have very simple solutions, if you just stop to think about it – how to conserve seeds, recycle hydroponic water, produce fertilizer, and so much more, to make your farm more productive and ecologically sound.

You can learn more about Permacultura Pico Blanco by contacting Hugo and Norma at email: picoblaco@ice.co.cr
Or take a look at their website: http://Sites.google.com/site/montniveus

It’s clear to all that I’ve been thinking a lot about gardens and weeds lately. Yes, I just finished Richard Mabey’s delightful book called ‘Weeds’, and it just brought back the whole English realm of gardens, gardening and gardeners. We used to go to England regularly for Pubs & Gardens tours – Gerry picked the pubs and I chose the gardens. I loved them all but grew increasingly more fond of the natural, woodland ‘gardens’, such as in the Lake District - natural, free-flowing plantings. As time went on, and after visiting possibly hundreds of gardens worldwide (but mostly in England – oh! the English and their gardens), I felt certain that you just cannot improve on nature. The most breathtaking places on earth are natural woodlands. Humans can create stunning gardens – but we can’t improve on natural succession.

Reserva El Tigre is mostly forest – left to nature – with the gardens confined to near the house and the solar panels. Over the last several years, the garden has evolved, as I evolved as a gardener, from exclusively exotic ornamentals to a mix of edibles and mostly native ornamentals. Volunteers popping into the garden – called weeds by those who maintain designed gardens - are mostly welcomed to our free-form, somewhat chaotic world of green. It turns out that some of the ‘ho-hum’-looking plants that unexpectedly appear in the garden can have great value. In fact, a large clump of a rather weedy-looking shrub, Witheringia solanacea (yes, the tomato family again!) has brought students here from the University of Costa Rica, avidly collecting it for their research – yet another effort to seek the true value of weeds!

Mr. B's Story

2011-08-28T12:41:00.001-07:00

So here’s how it all went down, at least as Mr. B later recounted his story to us - hysterical and true! Gerry has heard Mr. B repeat this story a few times and laughs just as heartily as the first time he heard it! And now the word is out! Here’s how it was that night in Escazu:

There had been a robbery in the neighborhood the day before, so Mr. B. brought his guard dog home from his business establishment for a few nights to protect his house. As he told Mrs. B, the dog will bark and chase off anybody who tries to jump the fence into the garden. And the next door neighbor also reassured Mrs. B that, if any intruder gets past the dog, then he would get out his gun and scare the thieves off!

So that soothes Mrs. B’s nerves and so, after dinner, she goes to bed.

Meanwhile, Mr. B goes outside on the front porch for a smoke and a nightcap, watching his dog loll about in the garden. The bar at the end of his cul-de-sac was bellowing out the usual music for the usual crowd (a highly questionable bunch – at best…). But Mr. B is used to the racket; it’s just the normal background noise on his street.

Suddenly, Mr. B watches somebody’s hand slip through the fencing but realizes that it’s an employee from his shop, who knows the dog well, walking by outside. So, the boy pokes his hand through the fencing for the dog to sniff and whispers some sort of doggy endearment to it.

However, Mrs. B couldn’t sleep, hears something, looks out of the window, sees a hand coming through the fence, and starts shouting – very loudly... The dog then starts barking (the employee having rapidly disappeared, of course); the neighbor gets his gun and begins shooting into the air! Well, now all the people at the bar run out, accompanied by much shouting and furor, scrambling over each other to get away (not knowing who was the target of the armed attack, but almost all with good reason to think it was them…) tearing down the street past Mr. B’s house. And then, just to add further confusion, a police car that was driving around a couple of streets away, hears the shooting and comes screaming in to investigate, producing the usual, age-old response : nobody knows anything; nobody was there; and, if they were there, nobody has a gun… And so, finally, everybody goes back to bed.

However, as Mr. B recounted to us with a big smile on his face, he is still the only one who knows what really happened that night…

For Sale: Little Gerry

2011-08-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Little Gerry (the calf) was born on Big Gerry’s (the husband’s) birthday last March. Big Gerry had originally destined Little Gerry for the freezer and thus, for the past 18 months, the calf has been living an idyllic, pastoral life until the day would come when… “You won’t even know what’s happening, Little Gerry”….thwack. However, this is Costa Rica, and so the long saga began. Thank you everyone for all the logistics help related to a 4H-approach to knowing where your food comes from: certifications, timbres, refrigerated transport to hygienic facility, professional butcher, vacuum sealing and, voila – ready for the freezer.

But, “What were we thinking???”

We don’t even have a freezer with the capacity for Little Gerry! We are 100% Solar Power. And what really made us question our sanity was this: we rarely eat red meat anyway – no matter how excellent the quality!

Why not keep Little Gerry as a pet? I learned that lesson the hard way. Bovines are not equines! They are a lot more trouble! The short answer is to read the book: “A Naturalist on a Tropical Farm”, by Alexander Skutch. I read his warning on keeping bovines – the flies, the torsalos, the broken fencing. Cows are vagabonds – but did I heed his warning? Of course not; ‘stupid me’ had to learn my own lesson the hard way. Of course, nowadays we have modern methods for controlling pests, as well as traditional ones – like stable hens chomping down on larvae and insects – but it’s a continuous battle to keep pests under control in the tropical forest. And we always have to think about resistance.

So what was I thinking? Well, things always have a way of cascading. We just planned on keeping one cow, Lola La Vaca, for her milk, and we just vaguely, kind-of, destined her future calves for the freezer. We didn’t really think much about the how and the why until we got started with the logistics. And that’s when the saga began. Little Gerry was Lola La Vaca’s second calf and, at the time, I was really keen on making our own cheese and yoghurt. So we were just beginning to experiment with her natural bacteria for cheese-making when she died. Much to our shock, she died from an infection, a week after the traumatic, caesarean delivery of her third calf, stillborn, on Easter Sunday.

And that put an end to bovine cheese-making! I thought briefly about goats – goat yoghurt is wonderful – but right now I’m taking a break from animal husbandry - and home-made, milk-based products! Now I’m taking the path of least resistance and staying with organic gardening and just doing battle in the plant world. Biodiversity is the key to organic gardening in the tropics: mix many plants together; include lots of pest-attracting natives, like Tuete; and go with the flow. Stick with plants that thrive and don’t slave over plants not suited for the location or that require too many resources to keep alive.

Some weeks ago, back when I was feeling a bit glum about having to give up on yoghurt pro-biotics, fellow gardener, Hugo Zuniga, introduced me to plant pro-biotics: Water Kefir, gelatinous masses of beneficial bacteria and yeasts (also called Japanese Water Crystals, Ginger Beer Plant, Snow Lotus, Tibicos and other names). I had lots of fun playing with recipes – trying to make it more palatable, so that somebody besides just me would drink it, but nobody really liked it - except the ants, which just love tapa dulce and completely invaded the kitchen! So now Yaneth is grumpy and the Water Kefir is in our little freezer.

We haven’t completely eliminated animals, however! The horses have adapted very well to forest-living and, now that the guys have built a proper enclosure for our chickens, they have begun to breed and thrive. It’s fascinating to watch chickens – the protective mother, the pecking order. But then, I’ve been observing insects lately – even having conversations with them, “Stay off my basil”!

Insects are the big problem here in the tropical garden, not so much ‘weeds’. I’m currently reading this book about Weeds, by Richard Mabey. He describes the correlation of weed behavior with human behavior: humans, by reducing biodiversity, enclosing the Commons, introducing mono-culture, and applying chemicals, allowed only the toughest plants to survive, irritate, vex and plague humankind; who are now determined to eradicate the pest that they helped to create! Mabey is a fun-to-read, botanical author like Michael Pollan; fun reading but with many insights. The weeds we have in the tropics are mostly exotics that escaped from gardens, although the Pro-Nativa organization has recently been quite effective in guiding Costa Rican gardeners to plant native plants, rather than foreign ones.

So, the upshot is, we have no freezer for Little Gerry. Do you want to buy Little Gerry for your freezer? He is a natural grass-fed animal, who is in very good condition, unlike most cattle in this country. Big Gerry is very unhappy about this but has agreed that it makes most sense to sell him – even though he threatened to put me in the freezer for prematurely whetting his appetite…

Monkey feasting on Pitahaya fruit

2011-06-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

The monkeys always get the very best! Here’s a shot just outside the bathroom window of a Capuchin monkey snagging the last and best of the Pitahaya fruits. We’d have grabbed it first but couldn’t persuade anybody to climb up the tree to get it…

Here’s a shot of the same Pitahaya cactus in full-bloom a few weeks later; the flower is huge, white and night-blooming. I took this picture at about 5 a.m. while the flowers were still wide-open. I also found another bloom on a cactus growing closer to the ground, with a slew of stingless bees pollinating it. However, by 9a.m. it had closed, and that was that. Show over.

Willow Zuchowski, author of ‘A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica’, writes of Pitahaya: “The epiphytic cactus with the most impressive flowers is a dry-forest, night-blooming cereus, called pitahaya (Hylocereus costaricensis), a species with branching triangular stems. In the wet season, the fragrant flowers open to a diameter of ca. 30 cm. The bright magenta fruits are edible, and pitahaya-flavored ice cream is sometimes sold at the Pops ice-cream chain in Costa Rica.”

Yes, it’s true! Fea still lives! We estimate that she is at least 23 years old. Back in Pennsylvania, our groundsman found Fea abandoned on the country road leading up to our farmhouse. She was nearly dead from exposure, her Persian fur matted into a filthy mess. He took her to the local vet, The Cat Doctor in Hellertown, who fixed her up - thank you, Susan - and a few days later, I spotted this scrawny, naked, really, really UGLY cat wandering around the barnyard. He told me the story and hinted that he really didn’t want the ugly cat, so I took her and named her Fea – Spanish for ‘ugly’... But then her fur grew back quickly, she thrived, and she even traveled with us to Costa Rica, where she has lived with us for the past 14 years. Fea nearly died several times here in Costa Rica - this is a cat on her 8^th life! I remember thinking more than once that Fea would be dead by the following morning – after the scorpion…snake…bad fall…bufo toad…and assorted other unknown ailments - but Fea was always with us the next morning and back outside again, where she thoroughly enjoys tottering about like a drunken sailor...

Menguante de Mayo

2011-05-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

It was a full-moon for our last night in New Orleans, and the Mississippi river had nearly crested the levee nearby where we live. To save New Orleans from another devastating flood, the Corps of Engineers had just opened the Morganza Spillway upriver, flooding thousands of acres and causing much heartbreak. We left the next day for Costa Rica – coming home to a waning moon.

And there is no more important waning moon in Costa Rica than the ‘Menguante de Mayo’ – when we all rush to plant and prune as the first rains of the season begin.

And, Oh, the joy of farm-living; we came home to the Finca, finding abundant fruit – citrus, mangos, granadillas, pitanga, papayas, bananas, manzana de agua, capulin berries, and still more coming – all of it just so delicious! The air is fragrant with orange blossoms!

And what a bumper crop of mangos we’re harvesting this year - the best ever since Armando pruned and fussed with the trees. You have to pick mangos at just the right time, before the fruit gets too soft, box them up with newspaper, and then - get out them recipes! So far, we’ve made mango chutney, mango ice-cream and mango cakes; we’re sharing mangos with everybody in the neighborhood - even though everybody has their own mangos this time of year; and we’re even thinking of freezing some for the off-season… And, if that’s not enough, the unripe, sour criollo mangos are also ready – perfect for a tropical mango salad!

It has definitely started raining here – although quite late in the month for us - so we are very busy planting and pruning. After several years of living in the forest, I have come to cherish the small spaces of sunlight, not just for powering our solar panels but also for the gardens. Basically, we have allowed native, forest species to take over the ornamental gardens, and all the other sunny spots have been snagged for the edibles. Where there is sun and a source of water, we will grow edibles. In general, it makes more economic sense to go to the local organic markets to purchase your food. But there is no greater pleasure - and no better tasting food - than to grow your own! The big secret, besides finding the right sunny, well drained spot, is the soil. We’ve learned a lot about composting in the Tropics. It goes without saying that the horses, cows and chickens have done much to enrich the soil… And now, as we enter the rainy season with fewer sunny hours, we hasten to harvest the tomatoes before they succumb to too much rain and not enough sun. We have recently planted smaller varieties hoping that they ripen faster. Experiment, experiment, experiment…

The start of the rainy season also means fewer sun-hours for our solar panels. We have discovered that the key to solar-living is attentive maintenance and flexibility in the consumption of power. Also, we have all had to learn a smattering of electrical engineering just to live with the system. It took a few bumpy years of too many hours of needed generator back-up, before understanding how to live comfortably and efficiently with solar power. For example, when the generator came on in the middle of the sunny dry season, Armando learned that we have to wash the panels regularly to keep off the dust, because it significantly lowers efficiency. But now the daily rain will help with that task, although there is obviously less sun during the day! There’s always some issue to think about, and then deal with, when you’re living ‘off the grid’…

Geovanna and Lucero

The horses are doing very well indeed at the moment. We watched them today, feasting on grasses growing in the pastureland below the house. However, the biting-fly season is starting early this year! Luckily though, we have found that more flies pester us on the opposite side of the mountain, when we go out riding near the rivers; so far, there are not that many flies up in the pastures on our side – yet! We have been trying for years to reduce the pesky insect populations – cleaning drains, composting manure, treating the animals - and we had great success last year. This season could be difficult, however, because we don’t usually see many biting-flies anywhere until around July - and it’s only May! It goes without saying that we’re experimenting with herbal repellents – they all work but are too short-acting – especially citronella, which works best in mixtures with other herbs. You have to vary the formula frequently to keep confusing the bugs, and not allow them to get used to the scent. They should ideally be fragrant and pleasant to us, but really nasty to the mosquitoes and flies…

I was delighted to read in La Nacion and see on local TV newscasts, that they are re-planting the city park in San Jose, La Sabana, with native species, some of which are coming from the CNFL nursery located at the University for Peace – just up the road from where we live. The forest here in El Rodeo is actually spreading to La Sabana! We are thrilled for the residents of San Jose because these native trees produce berries and flowers that attract many species of birds and other fauna. The Sabana park will become much more like a forest, bringing joy and fascination to all those who appreciate Costa Rican biodiversity. There is no greater comfort to the spirit and body than a walk in a beautiful park. Just the beauty of the nature all around you brings such pleasure, and soon you feel your troubles lifting. Everything becomes possible, do-able. Of course, I’ve sought out parks all my life. No matter what city I have found myself in, and no matter how much stress I have in work or life, I have found solace in the city park. Back in Michigan, parks were everywhere – practically every neighborhood has a park – some with lakes. Now, San Jose will have a park worth visiting, and I am just delighted.

Can you imagine reading such a question on an official, national Census Form: “How do you primarily dispose of your garbage?” And one of the possible answers to check is, “Dump it in a river, a stream or the sea”! Believe it or not, that was a common disposal method in Costa Rica until recently, and now the new Costa Rican Census will quantify, among many other things, how Costa Ricans currently dispose of their garbage. That shows how important the subject has become in this country, when the government wants to try to quantify the problem. And, not only that, Question 17 asks specifically about re-cycling. Why do I write so much about re-cycling? Because we live ‘off the grid’ and have no municipal services at all – including no garbage pick-up. So we have learned to re-use and re-cycle the vast majority of everything we buy. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Since returning to Costa Rica from NOLA, we’ve read several news reports about re-cycling and clean-up efforts. Volunteers began cleaning up rivers last spring, including here in El Rodeo, and the movement has apparently now spread all over the country. What has really impressed me about the Costa Ricans is that they are now not only embracing the concepts of re-using and re-cycling, but also that they want to go out and help make things right. Business opportunities have also consequently grown, as people become aware of the value of re-cycled materials. Here in El Rodeo, the re-cycling company, Servicios Ecologicos, picks up re-cycled materials from households on a regular schedule, now that we have had to remove the community re-cycling bins because too many uninformed people were just dumping unsorted trash, not using the correct bin, or making a mess in general. Every change in this world requires a process of education and lots of patience… The main thing is that we are headed in the right direction. I see much less trash littering the woodland roads now than a few years ago, although we always carry along a bag to pick up crap when we see it. All any of us can do is set an example.

The kids joined Armando and me for a walk this past weekend. Oh, how the kids have grown! We wandered the trails and took a few pictures. Here’s a shot of the group.

Tropical Biodiversity in Costa Rica

2011-05-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Senna papillosa, F. Fabaceae

Have you ever wanted to know the name of that beautiful, fragrant tree flowering just outside your window? Would you like to learn a simple method for identifying trees in the maddeningly complex plant world of the Tropics?
Then I can enthusiastically recommend a two-week, intensive field course on Tropical Biodiversity in Costa Rica given by Dr. Humberto Jimenez Saa. You will travel to breathtaking forests throughout the country and study with renowned local experts, for example Luis Poveda, Willow Zuchowski in Monteverde, Francisco Morales and others from the Tropical Science Centre, INBIO, etc. As you explore these diverse habitats, you will be introduced to ‘the Matrix’ – a sort of mind-mapping, botanically-based system of plant recognition. I took the course with Kathryn Kostka de Tanzi – we became like sisters after rooming together for two weeks – and very soon we were speaking botanical Latin with confidence... Check out Kathryn's pictures of our course at the Tropical Biodiversity website: http://www.hjimenez.org/

To this day, I still frequently refer to the Matrix for identifying unknown plants that I come across while hiking. It is an easy-to-learn, but exceptionally effective method that you will use throughout your life to amaze your friends!

Dr. Jimenez has a Course coming up in English in June. Take a look: http://www.hjimenez.org/

Monday Morning after Jazz Fest

2011-05-03T08:54:00.001-07:00

Lola la Vaca

It was early Monday morning after Jazz Fest, when Armando phoned and told us that they had found Lola la Vaca dead from post-op complications, probably an infection. Her still-born calf was buried last Easter Sunday. One week later, on May 2nd, they buried Lola. Everybody thought that she was on the mend, recovering from the major surgery; Armando was giving her antibiotic shots everyday and she was beginning to eat again.

Finding her suddenly dead on Monday morning shocked and saddened everybody. Lola was a sweet Jersey-mix cow and, thanks to her, we learned how to make yoghurt and cheese, even starting to work with her natural bacteria. This third calf was highly anticipated – soon Lola would share a little of her milk with us again! Now we have to rethink everything.

Little Gerry

Lola is survived by her two calves, Negrito and Little Gerry. Little Gerry was born on Gerry’s birthday last March. He will continue living an idyllic pastoral life until November, when he won’t even know what stunned him; and then to the freezer (Little Gerry that is, not Gerry…). So, by the end of the year, we will no longer have cows living at Finca El Tigre. My experiment with dairy cows is coming to a close.

Fortunately, the other animals are all okay. The chickens are doing well, after many struggles keeping them safe from forest predators (as well as that big, untrained puppy, Zincy). The horses have adapted to forest living and are doing very well indeed.

And now, the rain has begun again in Costa Rica, which signals the busiest time of the year for planting. We are putting in more sugar cane, chicasquil, bananas, fruit trees and herbaceous edibles. In general, despite all the challenges of gardening in the Tropics, it’s still a lot easier - and less upsetting - than animal husbandry. This is something I have learned the hard way.

Sad Semana Santa

2011-04-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Chispa, Eddie the Beagle’s beloved life-companion, died of kidney failure a few weeks ago. Jose and Danny helped me bury her in the citrus orchard. Oh, how I cried that day.

And we all cried again on Easter Sunday, when Lola la Vaca nearly died trying to give birth to her third calf. An Easter Sunday Birth became a stillborn calf, which they buried and then worked so hard to save Lola’s life! Jorge, the vet, was at the beach, so he recommended a colleague who came out to El Tigre and spent a number of hours doing field surgery, staying until Lola was stabilized. Unfortunately, we shall not have yoghurt or cheese-making this season - or perhaps ever again. The main thing now is that Lola rests and recovers. She is a much loved cow – very sweet-tempered - who rarely wanders beyond the pasture, unlike her meandering first-born, Negrito, who we still describe as a sweet-natured calf but who, in reality, is growing very quickly into a notable bull! And when Negrito wants to go a-wandering down his idea of Bourbon Street, into the pastureland below, it gets harder and harder for Jose to haul him back. He has to lasso him, riding my horse Matchi, and bring him back up the mountain, bucking and pulling the whole way, very unwilling to leave his playground. He now matches poor Matchi in weight, so it’s a big struggle for both horse and rider! Cowboys don’t usually sign on for bull-hauling duty unless equipped with a tranquillizer dart…

Before learning of the traumatic Easter Sunday happening back at El Tigre, Gerry and I enjoyed a lovely lunch with friends, Nancy and Don Adams, together with their family and other friends. Everyone brought something to eat and contributed to a delightful afternoon. Nancy started off the ‘rebirth feast’ with a poem by Dylan Thomas – but without the Welsh accent… We have much closer ties now that they have experienced the jungle with us in Costa Rica. The urban jungle is different but requires the same skills to survive. I get up early and sleep early, thus making me the biggest party-pooper in New Orleans. I proved that again last night, when my sheer laziness made me miss out on great piano by John Cleary at the Chickie Wah Wah lounge.

Also on Sunday, like everybody else we know in New Orleans, we watched the first episode of the second season of ‘Treme’ on HBO, and all I can say is: Awesome! Got that tune? ‘Accentuate the Positive’… It’s all so real. We recognized so many people and places. I just loved to see my favorite trombone-playing musician, Craig Klein, as well as so many other people that work, play and live here! Treme - what a great gig!

Jazz Fest is coming right up – two weekends of many reunions of old friends. My UM college roommate is visiting after many years without seeing each other. There is also another pal from Costa Rica spending his 50th birthday here in the city, and yet another coming to experience Jazz Fest this year. It’s going to be a blast...

Dry Season Flowers

2011-02-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

Gurania makoyana

Take a look at the fascinating bloom of Gurania makoyana (f. Cucurbitaceae). Barry – is that the right name? This plant grows well down at the edge of the forest at Tigre hill and the bloom lasts for weeks. Lots of wild flowers and vines are in bloom at the moment – Ageratums, Iresines, Lobelias and species in the mint, daisy, verbena and Morning Glory families by the score!

Here’s a picture I took today down in the lower pasture of Tabebuia rosea (Roble de la Sabana). You can see the pink and yellow blooms of Tabebuia species all over the Central Valley right now. They are deciduous - dropping all their leaves prior to flowering - so the canopy becomes a totally eye-popping show. The Cortez Amarillo (Tabebuia ochracea) is also in full bloom right now in the coffee fields nearby but, here at El Tigre, the tree has still not dropped the leaves, so we don’t expect flowering until later in the month.

Another yellow bloom in the Trumpet Vine family sparkling up the roadsides is Tecoma stans (Vainillo) a small tree that tolerates extreme drought and rocky inclines; dozens of Vainillo trees perch jauntily all over the cliff-sides along the highway between Ciudad Colon and San Jose. Note the leaves and flowers together. Willow Zuchowsky writes in “A Guide to Tropical Plants in Costa Rica”, that Tecoma stans can easily be reproduced by cuttings, and that is very true! Other roadside trees in bloom: Poro (orange flowers) and Jacaranda (violet flowers).

Nancy, look at the color popping over the Hibiscus shrubbery! Assorted Bougainvillea cultivars (shades of bright pinks) co-mingling with blue Petrea, purple Morning Glories, yellow Allamanda and, for the reddest red (la mas roja - zui duo hong se de) of any flower I have ever seen, Passiflora vitifolia! Such a blast of intense color might assault the sensibilities of, say, those English gardeners who might gasp in shock at a multi-colored Azalea shrubbery in full, kaleidoscopic bloom. It’s all just too bright – too much for the eye!

Or is it? We are having solar flares today – the sun feels too intense to go outside. Thus, I’m typing this while gazing out the window at the transformation of the shrubbery just below. From the smooth, clipped-hedge green, shaped charmingly by Armando these past 5 years, we now see encroaching eye-popping magenta and pink bracts, mixing with red and blue flowering vines crawling here and there. Will Armando manage to tame the tangled monster into something pleasing to the eye without losing the view? Easy Peasey! And, yes, it goes without saying that we have added edible vines to the tangle – chayote and granadillas.

Here’s a shot of Danny helping his dad out in the garden. Danny just turned 10 years old and, typical of that age, he’s curious about absolutely everything – gardening, animals, electronics. If it exists, he’s interested in it! Experiments abound all over the place! Learning comes from failure as well as success; perhaps the best lessons come out of something that didn’t work as expected - understanding why.

Here’s Danny again, helping process the frijol harvested a few weeks back. The guys harvested an awesome crop of beans this year and we feasted on frijol molido for Danny’s birthday! We just began an experiment using spring water to feed a garden in a clearing in the secondary forest, to see what thrives and what doesn’t. However, the dogs wrecked our first attempt, and so we are now fencing in a second attempt…

Poor Flopsy has suffered these past weeks with yet another bout of ‘kennel cough’; it always seems to affect him but not the others. However, as it wouldn’t get better, Yaneth took him to the vet today and came home with meds, including prednisone - poor little Flopsy. Our old dog, Tigre, was in the middle of a course of antibiotics when he went missing, never to be seen again!

Zinc is still a pup, as the destroyed rugs and shoes lying all around constantly remind us. Training puppies teaches all of us patience; a good lesson for kids to learn (and GRAK…). And we’re always learning new things here. I was tempted the other day to get into apiculture (bee-keeping) until Armando - well experienced in the art - told me the story about someone in Puriscal who wanted to get rid of all of it – sell it all cheap – name your price – because the Africanized bees killed his horse and some chickens! We currently benefit from the bee hives located just below on a neighbor’s forested property. There are no animals or people living near the hives and the bees travel up the mountain for the pollen in our gardens and orchards here. We enjoy the honey; they enjoy our pollen – a mutually beneficial situation…

Take a look at Gerry with the most perfect lemon (for his G & T, of course!) Armando has brought home to us yet. If we can’t grow something here, then we buy it from the neighbors. We always buy locally if we can; it keeps the economy rolling along and keeps our own garden experiments to a manageable number. Focus is essential for success. This is a lesson I never seem to learn, however! Hugo just walked over with a bag of coffee, grown at a local farm and roasted in San Jose. Wonderful local coffee! But no, we shall not grow coffee here…

Next time you drive by a rubbish heap, stop your car and take a careful look at it. You might find a treasure there, thus reducing the pile. Last Sunday, University of Peace students and El Rodeo neighbors did an awesome job hauling a lot of ‘stuff’ out of the river - old chairs, tires, broken toys, all manner of debris - and it is now all piled up along the side of the road awaiting collection by the Municipality. But, yikes, the Municipal Truck is broken! However, let’s not complain; let’s take the opportunity to go over there and rubbish hunt. It’s a kind of in-your-face lesson on the Law of Unintended Consequences... Luckily, villagers now have many more recycling options, rather than just hurling stuff out into the creek. I am really very proud and grateful to the UPaz students for taking on this project, along with neighbors of El Rodeo.

February 13, 2011- El Rodeo Creek Clean-Up Day

2011-02-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

Take a look at El Rodeo’s new recycling collection area, located next to the village square. Recycling has really taken hold lately in the neighborhood. Patricia and Memo began the center at Memo’s Market, and it was an immediate hit. Many people began to bring their recyclables and, as success built on success, they expanded and moved the collection center to a convenient spot in the village. We have all learned how much less landfill trash we produce when we reuse and recycle.

Now, if only the weekend warriors who flock to the El Rodeo forest would use the recycling bins, rather than tossing their snack trash out on the roadsides! Children have begun educating their parents and the culture (or lack thereof) of throwing trash about willy-nilly has actually become less widespread – but not enough. The time has come to clean up all the trash from the past. Volunteer groups all over the country have begun to organize major clean-up days of their local trash heaps – located along roadways and near rivers.

And the neighbors in El Rodeo have joined with students from U.Peace for a major clean-up day too! Please join us at 7:30AM, Feb. 13th, at the Elementary School in El Rodeo, near the University for Peace, to haul trash out of the creek that flows through the village. Students, neighbors, friends and fans of the forest at El Rodeo – join us and become part of the solution to the garbage problem plaguing our creeks and roadways.

Here’s a picture of Sunday volunteers from El Rodeo cleaning up the roadside trash. Trash attracts more trash unfortunately; but the converse is also true. Over time, volunteers who clean up the El Rodeo roadways have noticed less trash than before, and we want the trend to continue. More people now have a better understanding of their individual impact on the environment – negative or positive – and they want to be part of the solution.

On behalf of the El Rodeo Emergency Committee, I wish to thank all of the drivers who made a voluntary contribution last Sunday morning, entering or leaving El Rodeo, to our river clean-up cause. We collected just over 100,000 colones, generously donated by drivers going by that day, which will be used to provide supplies for the big clean-up event on the 13th. Yes! Volunteers will receive refreshments and lots of gratitude, and we will all have a lot of fun cleaning up the river.

Here’s a picture of our friends, Nancy and Don Adams from New Orleans, visiting Monteverde with us a few weeks ago. It takes a tourist to make a local a tourist, and there’s much to see in this beautiful country. They spent a few days in the Osa Peninsula - a must-experience forest - and then we all went together to Monteverde, which is a cloud forest known for epiphyte-laden trees and a special kind of energy. We have traveled extensively around Costa Rican forests and they are all amazing. But there’s something truly unique about the fresh beauty of Monteverde – you feel like you’re in the lungs of the earth. I had something akin to a spiritual experience years ago while hiking in the rain at the Santa Elena reserve there.

Here’s a picture of Gerry on the hanging bridges at Selvatura near Santa Elena. It was a truly remarkable experience. We also spent time with Willow Zuchowski, viewing some of the delightful ProNativa gardens she has planted around Monteverde. Next time you are in Monteverde check out the gardens at the Estacion Biologica and the butterfly garden at Stella’s café. Willow planted both gardens with beautiful Costa Rican plants. Several years ago, Willow spearheaded the idea of planting native plants rather than exotics. Why would anyone plant an exotic plant, when there are so many native species that will flourish in their own habitat for much less effort? You would be amazed at how some people refer to Costa Rican plants; they call them ‘monte’ - weeds - and they pull out the lovely native plants and put in exotics that, of course, require more care and water. And some of them then become invasive, wreaking havoc on local ecosystems. ProNativa suggests that we plant what flourishes naturally in our environment - go with the flow with respect to nature - and the result is beautiful. Native plants attract native fauna – birds and other animals.

We’ve had a rough time at the Finca these past few days. First, we lost our prize criollo hen to that murderous pup, Zinc, who only just wanted to play… We are now building a secure garden for the chickens, so they can safely feast on kitchen scraps and nature’s insect bounty. But we’re not just confining them because of Zinc. He now knows, like all the other dogs, that chickens are part of the stable yard. But we have lost too many free-ranging chickens to forest predators – hawks, coyotes, snakes, pizotes. It’s not easy keeping free-range, criollo chickens in a forest. But we have a plan…

We also lost our favorite old dog, Tigre, to the forest. We don’t know how or why. We’ve searched high and low but he has disappeared without a trace. We can only think that, since Yaneth was dosing him twice daily to treat an ailment diagnosed by the vet- Erlichia canis, well, maybe Tigre had just had enough of the pills and took off for a spell. That was Sunday.

Then, on Monday, Lola la Vaca’s oldest calf went missing – a big, shiny, black bull named Negrito. He is a sweet calf and very handsome – not destined for the freezer but to father many more beautiful cows! We all love Negrito and are worried sick – we suspect that he broke through the fencing and followed a couple of cows back over to the neighbor’s pasture. We have ample pasture for our four horses and three cows, but not for visiting cattle – they bring fleas and ticks with them as well, which we have pretty much eradicated in our animals, unfortunately starting the whole cycle all over again…

Jose, Danny and I went by horseback yesterday all over the neighboring pastureland and trails looking for Negrito and Tigre. Sadly, there was no sign of either. However, we haven’t given up hope.

Today Saturday – wonderful news! Jose and Jorge went out by horseback again yesterday afternoon and found Negrito down at Limon Pasture – gallivanting with the ladies – just like he did this time last year! It wasn’t easy for the guys to bring him back. He was not quite finished having his fun. But in the end they returned him back to the cow byre where he is resting comfortably.

Snake experts from the University of Costa Rica gave a talk the other day in the Quittirisi Reserve on the topic of venomous snakes. We are grateful to Luisa and Bob for transporting all the guys to the meeting at the Reserve. Armando has dealt with snakes his whole life but he picked up new information at this talk. What could he pass on to us? Basically: first-aid for any snake-bite in Costa Rica is this – calm and transport the patient to the Cruz Roja as fast as possible and they will handle it from there…

ThePlantList.org

2011-01-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Onoseris sylvatica f. Daisy

ThePlantList.org

This is not just any plant list. This is Kew Gardens, the Missouri Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden and more, all jointly deciding what to name every plant in the world! They’ve agreed on the names of 300,000 species so far and are still working hard. So, the first thing I investigate is what they’ve decided to call the ‘Daisy Family’. Answer:

“Compositae!” I wailed out loud.

Gerald heard me from the office and, wisecracking, pedantic Brit that he is, called out:

“Compositae - the Daisy Family. Every schoolboy knows that!”

Of course, Gerald is English. And, as a Yank, I know full well that we are two nations divided by a common language - and that includes the botanical world too!

As the old (new) song goes:

You say Compositae, I say Asteraceae!

You say Guttiferae, I say Clusiaceae!

Compositae – Asteraceae; Guttiferae – Clusiaceae,

Let’s call the whole thing off!

You say Labiatae, I say Lamiaceae!

You say Malvaceae, I say Tiliaceae!

Labiatae – Lamiaceae; Malvaceae – Tiliaceae,

Let’s call the whole thing off!

But, Oooooooh, if we call the whole thing off, then we must part,

And, Oooooooh, if we have to part, then that would break my heart.

So you say Palmae, and I say Arecaceae

And you say Leguminosae, and I say Fabaceae,

‘Cause they’re all just asters, mints, frijoles, daisies,

So let’s call the calling off off, let’s call the whole thing off!

Nevertheless, all joking aside, the vast majority of accepted names have all been agreed upon long, long ago – at least to the Family. And everybody knows that, if you can’t find Asteraceae, you immediately search for Compositae. There are a few more like that – and we can see in ThePlantList that the lads from Kew Gardens got the accepted name.

So we’ll call it the Daisy Family. Y punto.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas - hope this finds you healthy and happy at home with your family. With the horrible weather everywhere, a lot of people are spending more time at home than expected. Flights were delayed and cancelled at Heathrow last week, and the blizzard this week has closed down airports around NYC all day yesterday and today.

The Christmas holiday is even a bit chilly here in Costa Rica. Natasha bundles up in my sweater, as we explore the garden at the Del Mar restaurant in downtown San Jose. We celebrated Christmas, as has become a tradition, with the other three Horsemen and their long suffering Merry Makers.

Home on the Farm

2010-12-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to you, dearest friends and family! We wish you love, health and joy.

I write to you from Costa Rica. We did not return in time for the 30th anniversary celebration of the University for Peace (UPaz). However we did visit UPaz to hear the students sing Christmas carols – very uplifting. Also, dignitaries from South Korea came to raise their flag on the campus, the result of a recently initiated relationship. This had such symbolic significance, considering what is happening right now: the North/South Korea border and, in fact, most of Asia, very tense and close to being a tinder box. I felt the moment keenly, watching the South Korean flag (depicting the yin-yang circle) hoisted, joining the other world flags in a gesture of peace.

Now, if only dignitaries from North Korea and China would join those from South Korea at UPaz, raise their flags, shake hands all around, be photographed next to each other by the press, and then go off for a few beers together (or, at least, to a diplomatic cocktail party)…

Gerry calls that a naïve dream. But for that there is a University for Peace - teaching and promoting conflict resolution. So, you never know…

It’s so very good to be back on the farm, and in the forest: a beautiful tropical forest called Zona Protectora El Rodeo, located at 1000 meters in the Costa Rican Central Valley plateau. It is a healthful, beautiful place for so many species; they not only survive but thrive. In fact, I feel very grateful to be one of the species sharing this little corner of the world; a corner of great biodiversity. At the Finca, all is done simply, following the natural rhythms of the lunar, solar and forest cycles.

But New Orleans is also home - a totally different world from Reserva El Tigre, home of Negrito the calf et al. And I love New Orleans so much more now that we can open the windows (renovated and repainted) and get some fresh air. However, after several weeks away from the Finca, I start to pine for the forest, for the horses, Lola la Vaca, Fea la Gata and the other cats, and, of course, for the multitude of dogs: "Come Flopsy, come Eddie, Tigger and Dilly! Come Lulu, come Zincy, Chispa and Sol". Which is is my favorite? We love them all! So, what a joy it was to return to Costa Rica in December to all the animals – our guys said that we brought the sunshine back with us!

It was a horrible rainy season for Costa Rica this year – none were spared, though many suffered more than others. The road to the Finca collapsed several times in several places. Sometimes, our guys could get it back open, with help from our neighbors’ workers. But, when there was a major landslide on the paved road to Ciudad Colon and part of it collapsed, that job required a couple of back-hoes and lots of hands.

We were in New Orleans at the time, but Armando later told us how all the local guys came out at the crack-of-dawn on a Sunday to help get the road open in time for school on Monday. We all know that the Municipality would get the job done too - eventually - but in their own sweet time, and only during government working hours...

I asked Armando how he knew to show up at 5 a.m. on that Sunday and he said, “Luisa called us.”

Of course, Luisa. Most positive, motivating, group experiences actually start with someone setting an example and organizing everything; they rarely happen spontaneously. And, apart from effectively handling our own distressing, but relatively minor, community emergency, Luisa also coordinated local donations for victims of a nearby major landslide and flood, as an active member of the El Rodeo Emergency Committee; following up with financial accounting e-mails and spreadsheets to boot!

Luisa, “Thank you for keeping the wheels spinning, and for making good things happen”.
And, with all my heart, a very big thank you to all our neighbors and friends in El Rodeo for doing so much to make El Rodeo an even more lovely place to live. There are so many examples. Here's a big one: Guillermo and Patricia are donating materials to build a bigger recycling collection center in the village, expanding on the one that they started in front of their store. Success builds on success. More and more people recycle, reuse, and even pitch in to keep public areas clean.

Now that the sun is shining, the weather is just splendid for walking and riding. Jose brought the animals through the dreadful rainy season looking better than ever. Here you can see all four horses, rounded up for the picture, in the corral. However, very soon after, they stampeded back out to pasture. Lola la Vaca is expecting again – due around March. Little Gerry has been successfully weaned and Lola now pastures with her calves. And we have taken a break from making yoghurt – although, I did keep two jars from our last batch bottled in September (update - just opened one and it’s still delicious! I shall keep the other sealed until Lola is ready to share a little milk with us again).

We took the kids out for the annual photo session with their adopted trees, and all had a swell time – although, in some cases, the kids grew faster than the trees! Take a look at Geovanna here with her tiny Nazareno (Peltogyne purpurea). This is a slow-growing tree in the best of conditions but, when planted out here in the charral, it is tough going for all new trees. Still, all the stresses it is enduring will make it grow stronger in the end. Already, the tiny little trunk is tough and strong. Someday, it might even tower over Geovanna - all in the fullness of time.

Here’s a shot of the kids with a Sura (Terminalia oblonga) planted the same time as the Nazareno - it’s a much faster growing tree.

Karla's tree, a Calliandra bijuga is located at the top of the charral, so it receives a lot of sun and wind, and has very sharp drainage. It’s doing okay, however- another survivor from a not easy life!
All of us learn lessons from the forest.

Ardisia revoluta - Tucuico

Now that it has stopped raining, so much has begun to flower. Take a look at this gorgeous Ardisia revoluta (Tucuico). This is a lovely, evergreen, small, highly ornamental tree – very popular with birds when fruiting.

Various Ingas are also in flower – incredibly fragrant. Other Fabaceae, especially forest Bauhinia species, are giving an incredible show.

Lonchocarpus (Chaperno) trees are also in bloom; Armando volunteered on Saturday for the local river clean-up and reported seeing the beautiful violet blooms - he said the trees gave volunteers a nice view as they hauled plastic from the river for recycling. I looked out the window this morning and saw the beautiful violet canopy just down the mountain. Which Lonchocarpus? I'm not sure at this distance. They are all beautiful.

Take a look at the lovely, yellow flowers of this Senna papillosa (Fabaceae-Caes). All Fabaceae flowers are gorgeous, and I especially love this one because the tree is small and you can see the lovely blossoms up close.

Shot of Zinc (the Second) in a field full of orange daisies. Lots of plants are in flower right now and the show is just getting started. You can see blue blossoms from the mint and Morning Glory families, lots of red and yellow Acanthaceae and Malvaceae – including the delightfully sweet 'Amapola' (Malvaviscus arboreus) - adding color to the understory, and the meadows are now waking up with nodding, delightful daisies. There are so many unlikely colors – magenta daisies – coral milkweeds!

Picramnia sp.

Take a look at the bright yellow fruit of this Picramnia species. Both antidesma and latifolia species grow at El Tigre, with red and orange fruits respectively. Not sure about what to call this one with yellow fruits - the leaves look like antidesma. You can see how the yellow fruit goes from yellow straight to black as it matures; it does not change from yellow to orange or to red first.

Witheringia solanaea

Here’s a shot of Witheringia solanaeae. Poveda brought pharmacognosy students from the Universidad Nacional to collect specimens of this. Apparently, they are interested in the intestinal properties of the berries.

Apart from Lonchocarpus trees, there is not much color yet up in the forest canopy, due to the heavy rainy season that just saturated the forest and delayed both leaf-drop and flowers.

We remember last year this time in December, how the entire forest canopy came aglow from the vivid orange Yuco trees all over the mountainside - Bernoullia flammea trees do look like they’re all aflame when in bloom. They’re late getting started this year, however, due to the long, heavy, rainy season. Guachepelin blossoms are just getting started now.

The huge Higueron down the road is in fruit at the moment and is attracting animals of all sorts both day and night. Today, we saw a large troupe of white-faced monkeys, a couple of pizotes and many species of birds, all feasting and paying us no heed. When food is plentiful, we see monkeys and pizotes together feeding on the same huge tree. But we also know that, when food is not so plentiful, monkeys might feed on the pizotes!

We’re glad to see the forest fauna eating the forest flora – rather than chomping down on all the oranges and bananas in the orchards. Apparently, during the rainy season, we were sharing with the occupants of the entire forest, not just with the neighborhood! Armando takes excellent care of the fruit trees with frequent compost feedings – many thanks to the horses', chickens' and Lola la Vaca’s droppings, all mixed together with kitchen remnants. This goes to the compost heap to feed the lambrices, which produce black gold, incredibly rich soil. Oh, how grateful the plants are to get such nourishment, and the trees give back to us wonderful citrus – and more!

So much to eat from a forest garden! Armando popped over today with a large basket of oranges, some lettuces, radishes, assorted herbs and various lemons; Hugo brought fresh eggs; and Jose gave us some tender green beans and told us that he bought a 'chancho' for christmas - he promised us chicharrones. La Abuela, Rosa, is busy in her kitchen making tamales for everybody. Yaneth made us a lovely ‘picadillo’ with Chicasquil growing in the Finca. Armando has two varieties of Chicasquil growing – Cnidoscolus acontifolium and C. chayamansa! The former requires longer cooking but both taste delicious and are full of nutrition.

Chicasquil at El Tigre

Note for anybody with interest in medicinal plants in Costa Rica: the Herbalgram from the American Botanical Council published an interesting article on plants growing at Finca Luna Nueva, a property established in 1994 by Paul Schulick, located near Arenal. Naturally, after reading the article, which profiled a few of the species grown there, including Chicasquil, I was keen to read the book! So, I was delighted to find out that it is freely available for download. Semillas Sagradas, co-authored by Rafael Ocampo and Michael J. Balick, PhD, published in 2009, profiles 30 plant species growing at Finca Luna Nueva. I found the information very interesting and relevant – particularly an article on Psychtria ipecacuanha, as I did not know about lower dose uses.
Go to http://fincalunanuevalodge.com/
and look for the Semillas Sagradas link.

Thanksgiving in New Orleans

2010-11-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It is such an important time during these terrible economic times; not to mention the Wikileaks diplomatic fallouts, The Third World War War games taking place in South Korea….

On Thanksgiving Day itself, we all watched football. More specifically, we ‘Who Dat’ fans watched a Saintly miracle, while feasting on a wonderful, light and incredibly tasty Thanksgiving dinner with friends, Nancy and Don Adams. Their daughter Vanessa is a vegetarian, which provided a fun project for ‘cuisine artist’ Nancy. She even made a delightful stuffing using fruit and nuts, which was spicy and wonderful!

New friends and old friends, new Saints fans and old, a group with highly diverse lifestyles and politics; we all clustered around Don and Nancy’s little, temporarily rigged-up T.V. with one accord, and watched the Saints beat the Cowboys in Dallas with a miraculous display only the Saints could achieve.
Gerry actually went to the first football game of his entire life (he’s from the land of soccer, cricket and rugby) on Halloween Day, when the Saints beat the Steelers. We were in the Superdome that day, when thousands of costumed ‘Who Dat’ fans ‘Made Some Noise’, the likes of which Gerald couldn’t even fathom. And the fact that we were air and weather-conditioned inside that huge stadium seemed an extravagance that left him quite astonished.

We sat near the 50-yard line, thanks to our new Vieux Carre friends, Linda and Bill Miller, who had a family event that day and, very generously, gave us their season tickets. What a day! I even enjoyed queuing up at the Ladies Room (necessary twice that day, thanks to the exceedingly large Daiquiris). Thousands of the fans dressed in incredible, sometimes hilarious, outfits, trying to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records for the most people in costume at one event (I think we made it) including the Steelers Fans. We were very happy to see them in town.
Since we have adopted New Orleans as our hometown, we are always glad to invite friends and tourists alike to come and enjoy a few days here. There is a chemistry here that is hard to describe - but it is irresistible nonetheless!

Dave the Dude, aka ‘Pestilence’ (of The Four Horsemen), visited us back in October. We spent the first night celebrating and then he spent the next two weeks recuperating. He’d fallen and whacked his elbow – luckily x-rays showed it not broken but badly inflamed. So, the hospital prescribed analgesics, hot & cold packs, rest, etc.
The mischief happened when Gerry and David stopped in at Ryan’s Pub on the way back home from dinner. I was tired and went ahead to go to bed but those two didn’t show up until hours later. Our friends who own Ryan’s, Jessica and Martin, later told me what they drank. Shot after shot of bourbon. However, on the positive side, nursing David back to health gave me the opportunity to pass the time studying Mandarin. Gerry gave me a Rosetta Stone Mandarin course for my birthday. So now I have to walk the walk: learn Mandarin! But it’s not easy. The calligraphy is driving me nuts right now. However, at least, I now understand why Asians are naturals at math and music. Their language and calligraphy explains a lot about their culture.

Why am I studying Mandarin? Because I would love to study Hunyuan Taijiquan with Grand Master Feng in Beijing, student of Fake, and Feng only accepts students who speak Chinese (and are already very competent in the art, of course). Yes, Maria, I know I’m a wee bit obsessed.
I would be so honored to be allowed to study with Master Feng’s students. But first thing is hard work: Mandarin. Ni hao! The anglicized alphabet is easy. However, the calligraphy is a whole other world – reading it and writing it!
An important part of Thanksgiving Day here in New Orleans is the first horse racing day of the season. Vanessa and Daphne, dressed up with charming hats and outfits, went to the big event – apparently it was sold out and totally festive. And it was all organized to be over by early afternoon, so that everybody would have time to feast at home and/or watch the Saints game, which started at 3pm…

We don’t know if Jessica and Martin had one of their horses in the race on opening day, but I have no doubt that they were personally there, and then off to Churchill Downs. Here’s a shot of Martin and Jessica with one of their thoroughbreds. You see how this amazing creature adores Jessie? But don’t you just walk into a racing stable and try this – you’re liable to get your ear bitten off! Thoroughbreds are notoriously moody. I remember horse-world pal, Francis Radics, when she tried to enter Joe Hamilton’s thoroughbred into a dressage competition. How that stallion jumped and bucked! She skillfully managed to stay on him – but got kicked out of the dressage ring nonetheless! He just wanted to run…
It’s not always true that horseracing is just a big business. Jessie and Martin adore their horses. You should see the feed room! Those horses eat better than 99% of the population on earth - and I’m talking the human population! And they also retire their horses when necessary to a beautiful farm.
I was so glad for a chance to meet some of their horses. Did I go for a ride? I wouldn’t dare even ask!
But that day at the stables at the New Orleans race track brought back such pleasant thoughts and feelings from the ‘horse world’. I do miss my horses – but I know for certain that Jose is taking wonderful care of them.

We finally managed to get our windows open in New Orleans! No Ali, she is not his daughter. Denise is Corey’s wife! And this wonderful couple did a great job restoring and painting the windows of our flat in New Orleans. Now I can open the windows and breathe in the fresh (?) air. It has completely changed my life here; natural air flowing all through the flat – it’s not the forest but it makes urban living so much nicer!

Suzy's painting of her Mermaid. Nov.2010

Ever seen a sulking mermaid? Take a peek at Suzy’s sulking mermaid, which Billy actually had her tone down. According to Billy, mermaids aren’t the sulking type. Well, Suzy’s mermaid was sulking, because a big fish was just about to eat her pal, a little fish, and she could do nothing to stop it!
Yes, we spent some of the holiday with my parents in Florida, and Suzy came to visit from Canada. Just like old times, we sat, ate and painted together; she always had more raw talent than me.
Zai jien.

Costa Rica Update

2010-11-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

The weather has been terrible in Costa Rica. We are in New Orleans so got the most specific updates from friends who wrote:

Luisa Hughes from El Rodeo wrote, "Our roads have collapsed several times in Rodeo, schools were out for the entire Central valley for 2 days and today one big hill just collapses in Rodeo so we are stuck one more time. The area by the river in Ciudad Colon just got evacuated last night and Escazu has received the most damage about 30 people dead."

Margaret Flaum wrote: "Quepos is cut off. So is Londres where the farms are. No electric, water or food in stores. Raymond, an old friend and old guy, asked our friends Howard and Carolyn what they used to do when we got a temporal. Howard said we partied until the sun came out. We were much younger. Parrita is being evacuated. Those palm oil plantations are flooded and so is the road. Aserri's mountain has collapsed taking 25 houses but the people got out due to quick thinking by the old guy on the mountain top who heard the midnight rumbling. Still looking for bodies at Pico Blanco. Brian is collecting old clothes at the shop."

Obituary Cocktal for Robert Muller

2010-10-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Friends everywhere, please raise your glass today in honor of our dear departed neighbor and friend in Costa Rica, Dr. Robert Muller. Described by Margaret Mead as the most brilliant man in the United Nations, Robert Muller tried to change the world – bringing world peace, by setting an example – and he did it in both large ways and small ways. Nate Perkins wrote an excellent history and tribute to Robert Muller in the Tico Times this week. As one of the co-founders of the University for Peace, Robert Muller set about the task of planting thousands of trees at the University, as well as allowing natural regeneration of forest on pastureland. How can we, as individuals, make the world a better place? Muller described the ways in the thousands. And he shared those thoughts with countless readers around the world over the years. Very best wishes and love to Barbara and the children at this sad time.

Robert Muller’s spirit remains strong in the forest that he helped to regenerate: Zona Protectora El Rodeo, Costa Rica.

Right now, the forest weather is rather cool and misty. Happily though, the flying insects have been damped down by day after day of rain. This is just great pasture weather for the animals. In fact, the horses enjoy the refreshing grazing weather so much, they haven’t returned to the stables for three days! Finally, this morning, Jose fetched them all back to give them some feed, take a good look at them, remind them of the routine, humans,etc. They’re all doing just great.

Also, Lola la Vaca is expecting again, and thriving with her calves out in pasture during this unseasonably cool, misty weather.

It feels like a Scottish highland summer: damp, with frequent drenching downpours, and the sky only clearing to a sort of misty, milky atmosphere that gets everything wet. We’ve had no sun at all for days. It comes out for a few seconds here or there but the clouds quickly swallow it back into the mist.

Solar Power living sure is a lot more fun when the sun is shining! We’ve had no hot water for over a week – I’m getting used to taking cold showers... What’s more, we had a problem with the system, activating the transformer, which only supplies essentials like the water pump and refrigerators. Nothing else works: no television, no lights, no nothing! What an ordeal! Coincidentally, just last week, we gave everybody at the Finca an exercise of thinking about how they would live out in the forest, without any solar power or generator, for an extended period of time. How would we humans survive without power? Everybody got to talking about using wood for fires, collecting spring water – it really gets you thinking about energy consumption when you can’t consume. Luckily, our solar engineer, Carlos Oreamuno from Consenergy comes to the rescue tomorrow. Until then, everybody is prepared for the long haul – even if it means heating the coffee on a wood burning stove.

Also, thankfully, Gerald is in New Orleans. He got out in the nick of time - just before the rest of us had to deal with a landslide, which marooned all the back road farms until the guys managed to dig us out. Then you add in cold showers and no television; yes, Gerry got out just in time...

You will find GRAK quite often at cocktail time at Ryans or Tujagues in the Vieux Carre. Everyday it’s another story.

Home Invasion Alert! We have a pair of wrens trying to invade the house through a small hole up in the sky-roof ventilation. I think they’re the same wrens who nested on the terrace just outside our bedroom a few months ago. Now, with all this rain, not content with bullying the other birds off the terrace, these Rufous-Naped (I think) Wrens want to move inside the house with us! They seem to like the space inside better than outside and don’t care how much we holler at them. They just scold us right back, with their rapid-fire, "chet, chet, chet", flying around leaving bird droppings all over the floor – until we chase them back out again. And even when they're eventually outside, we can still hear them scolding us. We’ve got to get that hole plugged before all chaos breaks loose around here.

Postscript: The sun came out today! Took the horses out. Everybody is smiling and talking about the sun. What an absolute joy!

Another Landslide

2010-09-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

The road caved in up the mountain near the sign that says: "Calle sin salida. No pase."

The guys have been working all day to clear the mess. And it's just miserable work in this drenching, unrelenting rain. Many thanks to the Gloors for the truck and Jorge and Alirio for helping to clear the road.

Oh the joys of tropical living!

Finca Meeting, Mozote and Camouflage Artists

2010-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

When things seem to flounder a bit in life, call a meeting. Sit down at the table with your spouse, kids, or work companions. Set an agenda, and you won’t believe the things you can accomplish...

Here we are, all the Finca personnel, sitting down with a glass of mozote, a very rural Costa Rican drink, discussing more efficient ways to capture and use rain water, conserve energy, implement integrated pest management during the rainy season, plan for the dry season, review maintenance routines and suggest ways to reduce costs. We all learned from each other. Marcia provided an excellent review on mosquito control that nicely tied right into recycling and overall tidiness. And we drank mozote! It was delicious!

Recently, Luis Poveda reminded us of the importance of mozote! I regarded the plant (Triumfetta spp., F. Tiliaceae) as a medicinal – used to treat mostly gastrointestinal complaints. However, Poveda recently reminded us that mozote – a mucilaginous plant* – is also highly beneficial for intestinal health. It’s like an emollient for your insides! The locals make a drink from it and enjoy it regularly to maintain intestinal health! So, the next day, Armando cut a couple of mozote stems, brought them back to the kitchen, and taught us girls how to make the mozote drink. The plant grows very well in the meadows at El Tigre. However, once the meadow (charral, or abandoned pastureland) regenerates past the scrubland stage and grows into a forest, the meadow plants, including mozote, get shaded out and die. So, to prevent this from happening, we deliberately maintain some of the meadows, where the mozote plant thrives, along with other edible plants, like chan.

Here’s Marcia pointing out the mozote bark. The procedure for making the mozote drink begins by scrubbing the stem and then cutting and removing the outer bark. Inside, you can feel a mucilaginous layer, which you then peel off, cut into chunks, and place in a jug covered with fresh water.

At that point, you put it in the fridge and leave it soaking for 24 hours. Next day, you can easily notice how the water has thickened. And that is the mozote drink! But, if you want it to taste good (it has no real taste by itself) you can toss in a few herbal nutrients or fruit juices. For example, this time we made a separate herbal infusion (Stevia, to sweeten the water; a variety of mints; and pineapple sage) and, just before serving, mixed the cooled herbal infusion with the mozote liquid. It was delicious! We all drank two glasses of it (except for GRAK, of course) and walked away from our gathering feeling just great.

Regarding mozote, Luis Poveda wrote: "Muy estimada Victoria, recuerde que el mozote se puede mezclar con limón ácido y grape fruit, sabe delicioso también con naranjilla, carambola, casy otros frutos, es excelente para problemas de colitis, gastritis, estrenimiento y refrescante."

Gracias Maestro!

Take a look at this amazing camouflage artist. This insect looks just like a leaf! I took a picture of him here being held by Yaneth, and then another of him hiding in the hibiscus foliage. Can you see it?

*Mucilages are hydrocolloidal polysaccharides. I found the following description in ‘Herbal Medicine’, by Rudolf Fritz Weiss, MD: “Mucilaginous plants owe their name to the fact that they contain slimy substances. The slime or mucilage envelops and protects badly inflamed mucous membranes, including those of the stomach. At the same time they have a bland effect, binding gastric acid and irritant decomposition products.”

Squeezing out Torsalos: a Tropical Pastime…

2010-09-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here’s the first of a few pictures showing Armando squeezing a torsalo out of Eddie the Beagle. I have written about Botfly larvae before and, no doubt, will do so again. Torsalos are part of tropical life, especially if you own dogs or cows. They are not something to fear – you just have to learn the life-cycle and deal with it. If you don’t want to deal with torsalos while visiting Costa Rica, don’t let the mosquitoes bite you! The vector for Botfly larvae is the mosquito!

You can Google lots of information on Botflies but, in a nutshell, the cycle starts when a mosquito that is carrying Botfly eggs lands on a dog, bites and feeds - and at the same time deposits Botfly eggs onto the skin. If the conditions are correct (hide thickness, etc.) larvae hatch under the skin and begin feeding on the host – in this case, our Beagle, Eddie; the larvae then grow under the skin and, after a period of time, drop out onto the soil, shortly thereafter turning into Botflies, thus completing the cycle. I have read that some entomologists have allowed Botfly larvae to develop undisturbed under their skin, but I don’t know of anybody who has done it. Everybody we know in Costa Rica feels exactly the same as we do about torsalos: kill them! Squeeze them out! Break the cycle! But make sure you know what you are doing!

If you don’t know how to squeeze the larvae out completely intact and alive, then don’t even try! You could make a mess of it, causing a major inflammatory reaction and infection. I suspect that messed up torsalo extractions account for a big percentage of visits to the vet. Every rural village, however, has an expert in extracting torsalos! In our case, it’s Armando. It just takes him a few seconds to massage the larva into position and then he just pops it out! If you don’t know somebody who can do that, then take your dog to the vet! And remember, there could be multiple larvae!

In our experience, we have rarely seen torsalos in cats or horses. Some dogs get pestered more than others. Why? Because some dogs let the mosquitoes bite them! Watch your dog when a mosquito buzzes near him. Most dogs will whirl around and snatch the mosquito, snapping their jaws shut; snatching it right out of the air and eating it! But mosquitoes do not let sleeping dogs lay and, unfortunately, Eddie falls into a deep slumber after a big meal - this is the second torsalo Armando has squeezed out of him this week! And he does not like the procedure one bit. The other dogs are so patient, understanding that we’re trying to help them; they sit quietly and bear the discomfort as Armando squeezes away - but not Eddie! When we have to squeeze a torsalo out of Eddie, it’s a major production. We need at least two people to hold him still and keep him from biting at Armando! As soon as Armando starts extracting the torsalo, Eddie starts to struggle and agitate, howling the whole time at the top of his lungs - and he’s strong! In fact, he twisted and agitated so much, that I had to put down the camera and help Yaneth with him, so that Armando could finish the job!

At last, done! Here’s a shot of Armando holding up the intact, living torsalo he squeezed out of Eddie. Most dogs actually eat them! As always, Eddie instantly felt relief. I massaged the area a bit with a dab of herbal cream with camphor, and Eddie trotted off to join the other dogs for breakfast. Some sources recommend suffocating the larvae, by putting Vaseline or some such goop on the skin over the air-hole to facilitate extraction, but I think that works better on humans than dogs because they just lick everything off.
For Lola la Vaca and her calves, we use the ‘big gun’: injectable Ivermectin, which kills both internal and external parasites, including torsalos. We also regularly bathe all the animals – forest living requires a multi-pronged approach in dealing with ‘plagas’ for both flora and fauna. In general, the lazy organic gardener’s approach – and perhaps the most effective in the long run – is the food-chain. If you see lots of grasshoppers chomping down this season, just watch the birds fly in!

Gerry’s just back from New Orleans. Go Saints! It looks like they’re still doing their Second-Half Magic! As always, we unloaded the suitcases full of goodies from the States not easily got here in Costa Rica. Years ago, we hauled back stuff like horseradish, but now Costa Rica sells all sorts of interesting edibles. However, even now, there are still things we have trouble finding, which must be hauled back from trips abroad. This trip, when Gerry had purchased everything on our mechanic’s list needed for our Jeep Grand Cherokee, his luggage was notably over the weight limit, even after splitting the stuff into two bags! I could forget my electronics wish list and everything else…

He didn’t notice what I had done to the hedgerow until the following morning. And, like everybody else who comes from the north, upon viewing the scene depicted in this picture, he believed that I’d gone completely bonkers – massacring our gorgeous, flowering hedgerow. Why not leave the hedge to grow and age, like the magnificent hedgerows all over the English countryside? Because we live in the tropical world – in a forest, with only a small clearing carved to allow in sufficient sunlight for solar living. You have to prune shading plants away from your solar panels! This is a major cause of power drop when consumption remains the same, especially during the rainy (growing) season.

There have been so many rainy, cloudy days this season, that the few sunny hours we do get become highly coveted. We need to maximize as much sun as possible for the fruits and vegetables planted in our small clearing. However, in the meantime, the shrubbery has grown and sprawled, shading and keeping areas damp. It’s the September ‘Menguante’ – time for a major pruning! The hedgerow is actually known here in Costa Rica as a ‘living fence’, comprised of plants that accept and even thrive from a right proper pruning! Our hedgerows are made up mostly of Megaskepasma erthrochlamys, Gliricidia sepium and Dracaena species (locally called Itabo and Cana india), along with a scattering of Bursera simaruba. All of these plants and trees not only thrive with pruning, but you can plant the pruned stakes right back into the hedgerow, making the ‘living fence’ even thicker and less penetrable than before. Thus, we keep the dogs in! And we let the sun shine in!

Kids to the Waterfall, Big Spiders, Grapes, etc.

2010-08-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there. Here's a shot of Yaneth - Celebrating Mother's Day weekend by hiking to the waterfalls with Armando and El Tigre Kids. I took this shot after they all got back - not a hair out of place.

Armando was supposed to guide Luis Poveda and some University students down to the old forest, but stuff always happens… So, instead, Armando guided all the kids down to the waterfalls. Yaneth went too – it was her first time trekking to the magical place – what a way to spend Mother’s Day weekend! I couldn’t go because my clavicle still isn’t strong enough; you have to rock climb down there, so you need strength and agility. Armando has learned over the years how to guide people safely – and kids are naturally agile!

Karla took all the waterfall pictures this year; she’s a natural artist. It’s such fun looking at pictures of something as beautiful as the waterfalls – a place I know very well and love – seen from a different perspective, through the lens of someone else, in this case, Karla. Great pictures, Karla! You captured the day from beginning to end; I really felt that I was with you all! I’ve selected a few of the 165 pictures taken yesterday and posted them here, just for the memories…

Take a look at this furry fellow! Magnificent, isn’t he? Actually, it could be a female – they are normally larger and friskier than male arachnids. But one thing’s for sure: this is the biggest tarantula I’ve ever seen! Not that I see them often... They generally burrow below ground or hide in trees during the day and emerge at night to hunt. But this particular spider came up on our terrace the other night, probably to escape the rain. However, he almost didn’t survive the following morning. One minute he’s slumbering peacefully along with Fea, inside her cat-nap box, and next thing you know - here comes housekeeping! Marcia took one look at it and chased it out of Fea’s box, brandishing a can of Baygon (we use Baygon only sparingly - for emergencies only - defined by the observer). The spider scuttled off fast, climbed up the wall and around the house, Marcia right after him with the spray. But he got away and Marcia returned to her tasks - out of sight, out of mind.

Later, when I returned from my walk, Marcia told me about this huge spider she’d chased off and, of course, I just had to find it and see for myself!
So, after a bit of searching, Marcia discovered him hiding under the gas tanks. He was still alive, but he was moving somewhat languidly, definitely no longer up to speed. Most insects would have been killed instantly with just a whiff of Baygon, but this was a big tarantula. Armando looked at it gravely and announced that some of these species are venomous! Apparently, tarantula bites hurt more than the venom, but their urine is caustic! Still, we all agreed that this was a magnificent specimen. We left him alone until the next day, when we found him still alive. Yaneth, who has a way with spiders, just picked him right up, placed him in the sink and rinsed him off for a few photos. He still appeared languid, however. Would he survive? There was only one way to find out. Yaneth put him back in the garden on the ground and after a few hours, he began to move away. The next day he was gone – back to the forest. I suspect that we won’t see this furry fellow again, no matter how cozy he found Fea’s cat-nap box.

Fea is known for keeping strange bedfellows! Here’s a shot of her, our 23 year old Persian feline. We rescued her years ago in Pennsylvania and brought her with us to Costa Rica. We figure she’s on her eighth life at this point – stung, bitten, poisoned, fallen, and nearly died over and over again, but she survived it all. Now the old girl totters around the grounds like the Queen Kitty – all the other household animals, and humans, regard her with reverence. There is something special about the old girl. Needless to say, Fea is groomed and pampered daily, but she much prefers going right back outside where the world is so much more interesting than inside the house. It’s quite normal to find her napping in the midst of insects, all giving way, leaving her in peace. Nothing bothers her anymore. But she is the exception. Forest life is not easy on animals, especially during the rainy season.

Take a look at our new pup, Zinc, shown here romping with Danny. Zinc the Pup replaces our beloved Zaguate, Zinc the First, lost to the forest a few months back. Like the late Samantha and then Spotty, Zinc had a fatal hunting instinct, though he survived a lot longer than we expected. The forest took his sister Maggie some years before. And finally the forest took Zinc. Luckily, the other dogs are more territorial, having a stronger instinct to please and stay near the house. Thus, they survive; only suffering from the normal ailments that every other dog owner deals with. Sol got a sore that wouldn’t heal, so we took her to the vet, who removed a tumor, and she is now on the mend. All the other animals are currently doing well. However, with this relentless rainy season, we are constantly battling parasites and biting insects – rotating repellents and other remedies. The chickens really help! They scavenge for grubs all through the stable area, and follow Lola la vaca and her calves all over the place. And then, when the animals head out to pasture, other birds take over as insect-eating escorts.

Here’s a shot of Luis Poveda collecting native, forest grapes (Vitis tilifolia) ripened on the vine. There is a very short window of opportunity to collect them before the birds get them. He filled two bags and took them to the University to conduct an analysis of their nutrient value. Poveda is attempting to quantify the nutrient and medicinal properties of plants, in order to use the information to convince Costa Ricans to rediscover the value of the flora growing where they live. Why purchase imported spinach, when you can grow and eat the wonderfully tasty, nutritious, and native, Chicasquil or Zorrillo?

Here’s a shot of Chicasquil (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) - an easy to grow shrub that does well in the smallest of gardens. Everybody should grow one or two! There is so much to eat in the forest – you just need to know what and how. We even collected a bunch of Eugenia cartagensis berries and produced a very nice liqueur! GRAK suddenly became interested in botany at that point…

Another time, Poveda showed up with a post-grad chemistry student, William Zamora, from the University of Costa Rica, and they collected Zanthroxylum monophyllum for analysis at the lab. William is also interested in Croton draco (Targua) sap, renowned for treating gastritis, amongst other ailments. We plan to collect the sap during the waxing moon (local tradition) and take it to him at the U. I’m keen to check out how they set up large-scale distillation equipment. We’ve got hundreds of citronella and lemon plants growing at El Tigre, which require distillation to collect their essential oils – key ingredients for concocting insect repellents.

Here’s a shot of Targua in bloom, with a curious transparent butterfly; just one of many butterfly species taking part in the pollinating frenzy of a blooming Targua! This is high season for butterfly watching – it’s just a magical scene all through the gardens. The flowering Targua attracts a huge number of pollinators – it is literally covered with fluttering colorful butterflies and insects. The tree seems to come alive with moving, buzzing life.

Take a look at the fruiting Sipuruna guianensis. If you rub the fruit, it smells just like a lemony citrus! But it’s not in the citrus family – it’s a Monimiaceae. We have many Sipuruna trees fruiting right now in the forest understory. I sure wish I could figure out how to extract the fragrance…

Here’s a shot of Armando planting Dalbergia retusa (Cocobolo) in charral near the house. Rain, rain, rain – everyday it’s the same. No canicula for Costa Rica this year. Gerald is just miserable with the dreary weather and biting insects; they are just terrible this year, the worst ever! On the bright side, we have a longer planting season. Armando collected a bunch of Cocobolo seeds last season and germinated them in the green house. We planned to keep them for another season but the roots quickly filled up the bag – time to put them in the ground. We would normally never plant so late in the season, but it’s been so wet this year. The trick with trees in the legume family is to hide them from the foraging horses. Armando found spots within the charral as, in our experience, hardwoods do best planted in charrals with companion plants, rather than all alone out in pasture. Don’t remove pioneers, like Cecropia or Tuete, to make room for ‘high value’ trees. Every tree has value! The Cecropia, during its short life, will protect and enable slower growing trees to survive! Tuete (Vernonia triflosculosa) - an effective coagulant - is a very useful companion plant because it attracts and tolerates insect attacks, allowing tender seedlings to prosper. There are so many more examples of companion plants – always think biodiversity…

Breaking Bones in Paradise

2010-07-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here’s my reflection in a sling, taking a shot of a colorful flying insect.

Gerry asks, “What is it about women breaking collar bones?” Krysia, a horseback rider pal, wrote that she sure knows how it feels to break a clavicle! Karen wrote that she’d broken her clavicle when she was seventeen and still walks around with a metal plate and four screws. My Swiss neighbor, Gabriela, broke her clavicle when somebody hit her with a golf ball (she had her metal removed after a year). She said that you can always kind of feel the metal afterwards in your shoulder and wanted it removed, even though it meant another surgery under general anesthesia. Coincidentally, we had the same surgeon at Cima, Dr. Alfonso Pereira Garcia (who does very nice, neat work, if you ever need the service…). He told me that if I wanted the metal out, then I should call him in about 18 months.

Turns out lots of people I know have broken a clavicle. I guess pretty much all skiers, horseback riders, rugby players and other assorted sportsmen/women have broken something or other over the years. But this was the first broken bone for me after all these years of pushing the high-adventure envelope and, yes, having lots of falls, but no serious injuries, until now.

Breaking News: The President’s husband, Jose Maria Rico, just broke his hip and ended up at – Cima Hospital! This is definitely the season for breaking bones!

I learned how to fall a long time ago, on my 18th birthday. As soon as I reached the age of consent, I signed right up for sky diving, back in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where parachute training was vigorous and military-style (it was the same with scuba diving training there – they wouldn’t even accept you into the course if you couldn’t swim six laps in an Olympic-size pool). They really train you in Michigan - none of those quick, easy, honeymoon courses, like down in Mexico, that get people killed. If you were not pronounced ‘fit’ after all the parachute training, then you were not allowed to jump, not even with the static line. During the training, we novices were taught how to fall, how to use the whole body to absorb the shock, how to roll with it! We had to jump off a high ledge and practice falling, over and over again, until it became second nature. Sky diving is definitely good training for anyone wanting to learn how to fall without injury.

So, over the years, I have called upon that old training to conquer the fear of falling and going with it; rolling right back up and landing on my feet. However, the time when my horse Matchi threw a shoe, we both went flying, and he fell on top of me, it didn’t help at all… I went to X-ray my shoulder at Cima but, luckily, it was just a bruised scapula. Over the years, a number of friends, who have visited me here at El Tigre for hiking, have gone home via Cima Hospital too (bruises, broken bones, heatstroke, etc.) taking memories and hospital bills with them! Unfortunately, accidents happen in the jungle...

But this fall was just plain stupid. I was coming down the stairs, like I’ve done hundreds of times in the past, happy as a lark. Gerry and I were going out to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate the fact that it wasn’t Friday (He’d had a rough Friday, shuffling me back and forth from the Pro-Nativa Conference, held all the way across town (the other side of the world, according to GRAK) in the beautiful Hotel Bougainvillea.

Shot of lovely, native Palicouria species.

It was an outstanding first Conference for Pro-Nativa – all serious gardeners and landscapers in Costa Rica should study this important trend in landscaping. Look to your own garden first, and open your eyes to the treasures provided – birds dropping seeds: a beautiful fern, a Gesneriaceae species, a Piper? Some might call these volunteers, ‘monte’ (weeds). But weeds are just plants in the wrong place. Maybe that weed belongs there more than what YOU planted there! And it could be more beautiful and easier to take care of!

Take a look at the forest and woodlands nearby where you live. Can you possibly improve on such beauty as Mother Nature provides? Pro-Nativa says no. Watch the press and literature for conferences coming to your area. You might meet the authors of your favorite botanical reference books: Willow Zuchowski, Barry Hammel, Deedra McClearn and others; passionate promoters of native plants in the garden. Native flora also attracts a breathtaking array of native fauna, creating something approaching perfect serenity, uplifting the spirit.

But I digress. I was planning on going out and having a wonderful Saturday night dinner with my long-suffering husband. It was dark. Walking down the stairs, I thought I’d reached the bottom step. But, no! When I turned right to walk over to Gerry, instead of stepping onto the floor, I walked out onto – air! As my body then began to roll to the left, it slammed into a column, collar bone first... It hurt a lot and Gerry said it didn’t feel right. So, we agreed to stop at Cima on the way to dinner to get it checked out. I figured, if the usual occurred (ER, X-ray, Orthopod prescribing sling/analgesics) then we would be out and on our way to dinner within the hour. Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way…

The X-ray showed a diagonally broken clavicle with a large space between the two pieces of jagged bone. It was a shocking sight to look at but what came next shocked me even more. The orthopedic surgeon could not just maneuver the two pieces back together again. He would have to cut my shoulder open, put a titanium plate on top of the bones, and hold the pieces together with titanium screws! Simple as pie! He could get time in the operating room at 11 p.m. that night. He just needed to phone a few people: another surgeon, an anesthetist, an internist to check me out and see if I was fit for surgery, etc. When had I last eaten something?

I was ready to bolt! No, I didn’t want surgery! I went through open-heart surgery twice as a kid. It saved my life but the experience changed me forever. I don’t like to get cut. I don’t like needles, the smell of alcohol, hospitals…
Gerry showed up at that point and concurred with the surgeon, as it was obvious that the bone would not heal without surgery. So I did end up in surgery, and Gerry had his Saturday night dinner alone, long after midnight, at a local McDonalds. He hasn’t been to a fast food joint in years. I can just imagine him, sitting in a McDonalds crowded with adolescents out on a Saturday night, eating a ‘Quarter Pounder with Cheese’ all by his miserable self, while I got surgery costing us plenty because of a really dumb accident. Yeah, I know, now I really owe him!

After the surgery, I had to spend the night at Cima, so missed the catholic procession in El Rodeo on Sunday, and also missed the Peace Festival taking place in Ciudad Colon. It’s not easy getting discharged from a hospital. I wanted to leave as soon as I woke up in the morning, but had to wait until I got another x-ray and a visit from the surgeon. However, we pushed and pushed and eventually got things moving more quickly. No, I didn’t want to choose from the menu for lunch – I didn’t want any lunch at all! I WANT TO GO HOME NOW.

We finally got out of there, after paying the bill of course: $7,000. And as we were leaving, just for another turn of the knife (or scalpel) as it were, the internist hurried over looking very concerned. Apparently, we were leaving so fast, he’d not had a chance to bill us for his services…

And now Gerald has another project to keep him busy: extracting money from our insurance company…

Here’s a shot of Karla and her 15th birthday cake. We used a cheesecake recipe out of a wonderful Southern Living cookbook that Beth Crane gave me some years back – still my all-time favorite when searching for something extra special. As turning fifteen in this country is a special birthday, Karla is doing exactly what she likes – for a while, at least! Hiking and riding! It’s school summer holiday here, so on Monday, a group of kids set out for a six-hour hike down to Piedras Negras and back. And all the dogs went with them for some long needed exercise.

This morning, the Finca kids went out horseback riding, with Jose guiding them. Of course, I stayed home being miserable with the sling, but was glad to learn that both kids and horses had a wonderful time. The horses appear to enjoy going out as much as the riders!

Later, Gerry grilled hamburgers and we feasted on cheesecake for desert. This was my first appearance in public since getting the sling – albeit just in the kitchen, and only with the El Tigre ‘family’. But it felt just wonderful to laugh and get teased.

Gabrielle, our neighbor, called from Switzerland to wish me well, and told Gerald to treat me kindly. He responded that he was already well-established in his new role of slave – cooking, cleaning, running errands – all for his ill-tempered, complaining, ungrateful wife. Oh how our poor spouses suffer!

But, truly, everyone is treating me very well. Yaneth made me pupusas, fresh bread and yoghurt. Margarita sent over some delicious guayaba preserves. Abby sent me flowers! Jorge brought me over a bag full of the latest delights to feast on from Paoul and Gabrielle at Finca Hamadryas (granadillas, tiny sweet bananas, chayote, and creamy avocados). Armando brought basketfuls of citrus and herbs from the garden, so we made a delicious iced tea with some of the herbs: clove basil, spearmint, chocolate mint, pineapple sage and stevia. And he even planted a new rock garden that I could view just outside the window, using native ferns and plants brought up from Cerro El Tigre!

Ornamental bananas and Zingibers are now producing beautiful fruits and bracts. However, both are considered invasive (a la Pro-Nativa Conference). So what do we do? Well, Armando cut armfuls of them to take to the local procession on Sunday and for display at our charming church in El Rodeo, later to be safely composted.

Just outside the house, Jose cut a nice raceme of still green bananas and left it on the ground to ripen, as usual, along with several ripe, yellow bananas, sitting alongside. I figured he’d left some of the ripe bananas for the monkeys. But, would they show? Sure enough, hours later, a troupe of capuchin monkeys came up from the forest to help themselves to the oranges and bananas in the garden. Now, here’s a piece of (fascinating?) information that you can use at your next cocktail party. Capuchins actually peel bananas before eating them, dropping the peel onto the ground. But they don’t peel oranges; they pound them on a branch to soften them and then just bite into them, sucking out the flesh and juice. I have a great bird’s-eye view of the monkeys feeding from our bathroom window. They don’t like being watched, however. So I have to do it furtively, like I can’t really see them. And then they glance away, like they can’t really see me. Even though we can see each other perfectly well, we just act like we can’t. That’s monkey etiquette...

Birds don’t like you watching them either when they’re feeding their nestlings. Some wrens built a big nest just outside our bedroom balcony, and they’ve provided us with many hours of entertainment. Although, if we go outside on the balcony to watch, they scold us - Hey! Hey! Hey! Get out of here! - until we retreat back inside. Only then do they resume feeding the nestlings. Then one day they were all gone! The fledglings had left the nest (flown the coop?).

Finally, thanks so much to everyone who wrote and called! It really means a lot! I still can’t write much because it’s not easy writing with my right hand – I’m a leftie. Barry says using the other hand builds new neuronal connections, but it just makes me feel stupid and awkward!

Life is a Bowl of Lemons

2010-06-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

GRAK requires lemons (not limes, heaven forbid) for his Gin & Tonic – a key ingredient for a drink ever so necessary for tropical forest living (water, quinine, juniper berries, alcohol, citrus) and all so fortifying for the constitution! Thus, we grow three varieties of yellow lemons at El Tigre. Here’s a shot of them – Barry Hammel knows their individual names, but one variety looks very similar to the yellow lemons you can buy in stores up north. Why do we grow them here? Well, you can find green limes and sour oranges at grocery stores everywhere, but the only semi-reliable place for buying yellow lemons, other than very occasionally at local markets, is from a guy in the cellar of the Central Market in downtown San Jose. In our experience, the big ugly variety goes off the fastest – the peel soon gets covered with a kind of greenish-white mold, if not refrigerated quickly. The other two varieties will last just as long as the more common limes and sour oranges - up to several weeks at room temperature here in The Tropics. We grow many of the citrus varieties- green, orange, sweet, sour - but only a slice of yellow lemon will do in Gerry’s Gin & Tonic at the end of a long day…

Marj and Dave playing with Lemons!
Gerry has been grumpy since returning from New Orleans. It has been overcast and rainy just about every day, all day long. Usually, Costa Rica gets a morning sun during the rainy season – ample for charging up the batteries via the solar panels. But weeks on end of cloudy days and rain requires generator backup – for us at least 3 hours every day or two to cover our electricity needs. We started a Captain’s Log – daily tracking of the weather, solar energy system and generator back-up use. It helps us to stay on top of the situation and, at this point, after five years of living ‘off-the-grid’ on solar power, we have all become solar engineers (with the invaluable help of our real solar engineer, Carlos Oreamuno). This is especially true of Armando, who maintains it all with his own log and notes. It’s all part of living life in the jungle...

One reason for Gerry’s grumpiness is that the rain brings more insects! And insects bite; and they seem to have a penchant for his nice, sweet blood; and bites itch; and multiple itchy bites make him irritated and grumpy…
We do keep a sharp eye out for mosquitoes – just occasional pests so far, but if one exists in the house, it will go straight for GRAK. We try to break the breeding cycle to keep the population down, by keeping the drains clean and all water flowing. Dengue is the enemy!

However, many of the insects in this forest are colorful, fascinating creatures - and they attract lots of birds! All birders will tell you that if you want to see birds, go look for insects and fruiting trees. We have seen large flocks of parrots and parakeets recently, some visiting from the Parque Nacional Carara, joining the resident birds to feast on the Aguacatillos – little avocados – now fruiting. The parrots chatter loudly in flight and continue chattering, even after they land and settle down to feed. Then, after feeding quietly for a short time, the chatter begins again: starting with a complaining pair; followed by others who join in to chatter, scold and natter; and then the racket continues increasing to a great, noisy crescendo until, finally, the whole flock flies off in a cacophony to another tree.

Other species call and sing, keeping the music going all day, especially during the rainy season. Birders can identify and locate birds by ear: Toucans, Oropendulas, Trogons, Wrens, Warblers, Fly Catchers; we have them all here, and many more - all with distinctive voices joining in the chorus. The Masked Tityra also returned to El Tigre this year. And there is a lot for them to sing about, with so many trees fruiting right now: Ficus, Ingas, Cupanias, Jacartias, Casearias, many species of Rubiaceae, Solanaceae and Myrtaceae, and that’s just for starters!

And there’s not only fruit and insects to eat. Armando actually saw a Mot Mot snatch a Coral snake out of a stone wall and chomp it down!

Here’s a shot of Armando and me discussing the ripeness – hear them shake? – of the Apeiba tibourbou seeds.

Here’s a shot of a Dalbergia retusa seedling that Armando raised from a seed collected from Cerro El Tigre. Most of the seeds germinated and now we’re planting a bunch of Cocobolo! We also planted/donated arbolitos from Armando’s vivero of Bernoullia flammea, Carapa guianensis, Ceiba pentandra, Citrus species, Diphysa Americana, Garcinia intermedia, Guarea glabra, Hura crepitans, Lafoensia punicifolia, Samanea saman, Swietenia macrophylla, some native fruiting trees and a slew of native plants brought up from the forest for cultivation. We are especially pleased with the lovely Palicouria and its yellow flowers.

Thanks to C.N.F.L. for the seedlings we received, that were donated as part of their Virilla River & Watershed Reforestation Project. We planted Cedro Maria, Guachipelin, Laurel Negro and Caoba.

Here’s a shot of Armando in the vivero. Rainy season is also great for growing lettuces (Asian lettuces – Bok Choy, etc., do great in this climate) and many other edibles of all sorts. We’ve had to move some of the Mediterranean herbs under cover – lavender and rosemary will wilt quickly under direct tropical rains. Armando has gained a lot of experience planting in small clearings above the orchards, as ‘organic’ means rotating crops and spots! In general, we have learned that the best success in the garden comes by planting natives. Armando actually planted a shrubbery of Chicasquil – a nutritious, tasty shrub, with a flavor kind of like spinach! He has also succeeded in propagating many varieties of chili peppers, all thriving even during the rainy season. And, yes, we make lots of salsa!

Here’s a shot of Lola La Vaca with her second calf, ‘Little Gerry’, out in pasture with the horses.
There is no doubt that her milk has improved after giving birth to him. We continue to practice making yoghurt and fresh cheese, but would like some more training on the art of cheese-making. Agustin’s wife Satia’s family – originally hailing from Michigan – live on a farm up near the Cerro de Muerte and have decades of experience making cheese and bread.

Here’s a shot of Karla and Geovanna with our littlest dog, Lulu.
Time flies. Karla turns 15 next month – a very big deal in this country (kind of like ‘Sweet 16’ in the north). It seems like just yesterday that we were celebrating her 5th birthday! But Karla doesn’t want a party – she wants to ride and hike.
Unfortunately, now turning to a topic of disharmony, we’ve had another incident with thieves in the neighborhood! Here’s how it went down. One of our guys, Jose, spotted two thieves breaking into the Muehller’s house down the lane from us. He immediately called one of the Muehller employees, Alexander, who called the police, and then also alerted the other finca workers along the lane, Jorge and Alirio! The police arrived and nabbed the thieves, handcuffed them and put them in the patrol car. Then they drove up to our place to see if they had struck here too! Armando recognized them as the same guys who had tried to break into the brother’s house of our Swiss neighbor, Paoul, some months ago. At that time, they were given a good talking to and told not to come back! We thought that, after Paoul gave the scruffy thugs a dose of his grumpiness – not to mention dealing with all our guys and the Mora Police – we would never see them again! Well, some youngsters learn their lesson, go find a job and earn an honest living; but others… Apparently, they live near the Quitirrisi mountains and know how to quickly move through the countryside and forest. They target unoccupied houses, grab something quickly, and then they’re gone. That’s why the Ticos call thieves of this sort, ‘guatusos’ – animals that live in the forest, move quickly, and are opportunists, darting here and there, snatching this and that and gone in seconds. Pura Vida!

Well-timed Humbling Experience

2010-05-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Whenever I think I’m getting somewhere with Tai Chi, somebody – usually my teacher Patricia – comes along and gives me a good knocking.

Same thing happened the other day in New Orleans! I was out on the Riverfront Green doing HunYuan Chen Style Taijiquan yesterday, as usual, when I noticed a guy standing nearby watching me. I could tell at a glance that he had mastered the art - they always look with open, friendly expressions.

I should mention that, over the years, lots of people have watched for a few seconds as they go on by, running, biking or whatever. And once, another Taiji practitioner actually joined me on the green for a session. But we ignored each other and just did our own thing, and then went on our separate ways without a backward glance. He was much better than I was and I hoped he would return, but he never did. I read somewhere that if you work out long enough out in the park, other Taiji people will eventually join in and soon you have something going.
Well, this morning it was different. I realized instantly that my observer was a high-level martial artist, and he in turn could see that I was still quite new to the art. As I went through Feng’s Hunyuan 48- form, I tried to settle down, relax, unblock, qi, focus, yi…

But it was no use. I made a mess of the form. I was so embarrassed! But when I finished and turned to leave, he addressed me as a fellow student of Taijiquan.

I told him that I was a beginner. Only 10 years. He responded that we are all beginners at Taijiquan. Would I like to see a few seconds of his form? I sure did! So he began, and I instantly recognized the movements of a great master of the martial art - he made it look easy! I felt humbled, mesmerized and eager to learn from this fellow, although time was short. Gerry would be popping over within minutes to collect me for our morning walk to fetch the newspaper***.

We exchanged introductions and talked. It turns out that Ron Panunto has been studying martial arts for the past 35 years and, for the last 15, he has been teaching Tai Chi, all styles - Chen, Yang, Wu and other martial arts. As we spoke, I realized that he deeply understood Taiji concepts and that he pronounced them with well-practiced Mandarin. I’ve been too lazy to study Mandarin but should have a firm understanding by now of Taiji basics – not just pronounced correctly but actually applied. I needed to meet this guy.

He pointed out several key problems I have and quickly put me on course to improve my structure and form, helping me grasp internals that I’ve been working on for years! I learned more in 5 minutes from this guy than I have working out on my own for the last 3 years. It was a humbling experience – I have a lot of work to do! And there I was fantasizing about going to Beijing and training with Feng!
Thank you Ron! Your 5 minutes gave me lots of work to do!

If you live near the Philadelphia area and want to study Tai Chi with somebody who has not only mastered the art but can convey the teaching, check out Ron Panunto.

***I should mention that hubby Gerry often watches me do the form, wherever we are in the world. He’s my hero! One time, we were just out walking in the square in Managua when two thugs attacked us! One knocked me down and I could hear Gerry just kicking and punching and sending them both flying! When it comes to safety, I look to Gerry more than anything I could do with Tai Chi – even though I practice a martial art. I still can’t fight when attacked. Thank God for Gerry!

Meanwhile, New Orleans is under threat from the oil spill. More areas were closed to shrimping today.

We watch ‘Treme’ on HBO, Sunday nights at 9 p.m. and recognize a lot of people in the show: Derrick Freeman, Kermit Ruffins, Troy Andrews, John Boutte and many others. We also recognize well-known New Orleans characters, played by actors like John Goodman. This is a New Orleans story and we are riveted! Remember the first season of ‘24’? ‘Treme’ is another world, equally as riveting. It is recent history unfolding – and everything just comes back.

The Word is Out

2010-05-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Word is Out: I am New Orleans’ Biggest Party Pooper

Shot of Margaret, Beth and me in New Orleans.

Margaret and Joe Bellah, Beth and Greg Crane, Jon and Abby all discovered this during the course of their visits to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. The Cranes and the Bellahs joined us for the first Jazz Fest Weekend – Beth celebrating her birthday, Margaret celebrating retirement, all of us enjoying a wonderful reunion not achieved since the old days in Costa Rica. Our old friends planned their trips separately and only later discovered that, by some wonderful coincidence, the visits overlapped. We were all in town together! We tried to coax Nina and Ross to join us but it was all too last minute – this nana of six needs a bit more notice to just go traipsing off to New Orleans with old pals!

Shot of me and Beth on roof.

We had a wonderful time together, and also apart, as our friends explored all over New Orleans.

Another coincidence – everybody scheduled trips during Jazz Fest. We accompanied our visitors most days but had the first rainy day of the Festival to ourselves – where we found ourselves huddling under a rickety Daiquiri tent (daiquiris in hand, of course) for 3 hours, sheltering from the torrential rains threatening to collapse the overhead tarpaulin cover, which was collecting too much water. The guys kept pushing up at it with their umbrellas, hurling great waves of water cascading down the open sides. But we were very well organized – two of the guys held off the waterfalls with open umbrellas to their backs, gallantly keeping the water from reaching the rest of us inside.

Who were we? Why, 30-some people who’d just purchased daiquiris on our way to the Gentilly Stage when the sky opened up. So we parked ourselves temporarily under the tent and listened merrily, if a little damply, to the sounds coming from the stage. Coincidentally, we met a bunch of people from Michigan, and I must say that we had an absolute blast.

When the six of us went to the Festival on Sunday, there was a huge mucky bog in front of the main Acura Stage – as Beth and I found out a little too late! Yuck! But the crowd didn’t care; they were up and dancing in it! We sloshed over to the Blues Tent, the Jazz Tent, Congo Square, the Economy Hall, and so on and on, until we went home mucky and tired but having enjoyed a great day. However, the party was just getting started all over town. Knowing that all the restaurants would be filled to overflowing, we had smartly made reservations a few days earlier at GW Finns, where the six of us feasted on fresh grilled shrimp and the best fish you can find anywhere. That was, of course, before the oil spill happened in the Gulf, making that memory one to cherish even more.

After dinner, the real action starts – you can hear your favorite local artists at small intimate venues (or large trashy ones, if you are so inclined) all over town – extremely important if you missed them at Jazz Fest. And the music goes on all night – the last act at Tipitina’s starts at 2 a.m.

Trouble is, being an early riser and feeling good at breakfast, I am always gung ho when Gerry reads off all the acts playing around town that night: Charmaine Neville at Snug Harbour, Kermit Ruffins at Vaughn’s, The Jazz Vipers at The Spotted Cat, etc. But then the time comes around – normal starting time is 10 p.m. – and, country hick that I am, I just kind of poop out by then and want to go to bed! Everybody stares at me in astonishment whenever I admit just wanting to go to bed, rather than to a club. Yesterday, in fact, several people from Obit just stared at me when I confessed to rising early. What on earth was I thinking? I’m in New Orleans…

Anyway, we still managed to do a lot during the day with our visitors – a street car to the Garden District, then all the way to Audubon Park and Tulane University – much lovely walking there. Yes, I know I had a blister that day and pooped out on that too…

The main message to Jazz Fest goers is, book your restaurants for dinner in advance or you will be disappointed.

When Abby and Jon arrived for the second week-end of Jazz Fest, we got very lucky with a cancellation at Brigstens. More rain arrived also, but we didn’t let that slow us down – at least not during the day. We heard Abby’s brother-in-law, Derrick Freeman, sing and play drums at Jazz Fest with Kermit Ruffins at Congo Square. They must have recorded Derrick’s performance, because we heard him sing it again on the bus ride going home. They then performed again on stage at Rock ‘n Bowl, starting around midnight. We got there around 10 and almost managed to bowl despite the crowds (in fact, we actually started before getting thrown off the lane by the people who had reserved it…). Great music and dancing. Lots of booze. However, I couldn’t make it to midnight to watch Derrick perform with Kermit. So, poor Gerald took me home by taxi. The secret is out: Biggest Party Pooper in New Orleans!

Now for a change of topic and mood. An oil rig exploded out in the Gulf of Mexico and we watched news reports of the search for eleven missing workers (sadly, never found). Then the focus turned to the oil spill – gushing from nearly a mile down below the surface of the sea. It was, and still is, causing high levels of stress as everyone waits, oil pouring inexorably into the Gulf, day by day creeping closer to the shore. Oyster, shrimp, and general fishing are all stopped, and the prohibition area is expanding each day.

Another catastrophe is creeping towards New Orleans. But the best minds are now focused on capping, sealing, relief drilling, burning, etc.
But no, you cannot smell oil in the air in New Orleans, no matter what the news channels say. It’s as if the disaster unfolding close to the south-eastern coast of Louisiana was happening somewhere far off – that shape expanding day by day like an amoeba.

We love this town with a passion and are bracing for the worst, while hoping for the best – first floods and now oil (in Costa Rica it was landslides and fires!). If this contraption they now have to contain the oil works, the whole team will be hailed as heroes. And we need heroes in this world right now.

Springtime in the Big Easy

2010-04-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

We went to the Easter Day Parades – just for the fun of it!

The bright and sunny Sunday morning saw streets full of people decked out in their Sunday best: ladies dressed in lacy layers of chiffon, pastel dresses, with huge, flower-festooned floppy hats, riding to the Cathedral by carriage or convertible; waving to the street crowds; shading themselves with colorful parasols. They even stopped for Mass – and then got back in their carriages for more meandering through the Vieux Carre.

And then came Chris Owens and her entourage, rolling down Royal Street. Dressed to the nines, her traditional Easter Parade didn’t disappoint. Oh, how the crowd appreciated it all – floats, brass bands and marching ponies!

But for the best costumes of all - apart from Chris Owens herself, of course, who always reigns supreme – you must be at the Easter Sunday Gay Parade. We were late for it but, luckily, caught up to them on Burgundy Street. All was merry and joy (and gay)! What costumes! What sauciness!

French Quarter Festival - once an event purely for locals - has been discovered, and it really maxed out this year! Everyone - young, old, kids, dogs - all came together for a three-day joy ride. The first day, we ate, drank, and danced all day to the music. The second day, we ate and danced, but drank just water until 6 p.m., when the hangover started to ease. The third day, I had bailed out by 6 p.m., utterly exhausted, desperately needing to go home. Gerald laughed at me – what a weakling, no stamina – and out he went for dancing and jazz at the Royal Sonesta.
And now, Jazz Fest is coming right up. You must be prepared for the crowds. Relax. Don’t hurry anywhere.

So, what happened to my stamina? Well, I try to keep up with my walking and Tai Chi training, in order to stay conditioned, but…
The first morning after arriving in ‘The Big Easy’, I rise early as usual, 6 a.m., and head out to the waterfront, walking and executing ‘The Form’ - XinYi Hunyuan Taijiquan - on the grassy levee.
Next day, I rise at 7-ish; the following day, 8:30. And then, before you know it, I’m sleeping in until 9:30, coasting to a final wake-up time of 10-ish!
Welcome to New Orleans: a place to sleep late; get up and lounge; take your time; enjoy your coffee, lingering over the experience. Things just get started slooowly; no problem with late arrival. The Jazz Fest crowds stream in all day.

Lately, we have begun to exercise in the early evening - walking the riverfront, prowling The Bywater, cruising Bourbon St…
Wait a minute! Don’t just tourists cruise Bourbon St? Oh, yes, and then some! For the real local music scene, head over to Frenchman Street, or a plethora of other spots all over town. They all get going properly around 10 p.m., but some places also have early shows.

Still, once in a while, after dinner, we go for a wander down Bourbon Street… It’s kind of like going for a drink at the Del Rey in Costa Rica – but, oh, much more so!
Bourbon Street is best experienced between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m. Earlier is okay if you’re with kids, to just get a look at it on the quieter side, although music pours out onto the street all day. But, for that matter, you can listen to musicians all day long on just about every street corner in the Quarter.
However, after 11, you’d better watch out! Everybody is drunk; some slobbering, staggering, groping, mauling; a few punching, getting punched, getting arrested and waking up in jail, or worse. You must stay alert (and sober) on Bourbon Street if you’re visiting. Then you can observe the wacky scene, outrageous costumes, and howling masses safely (relatively). It’s enough to make even grandpa blush…

And the wailers wail, “But what about all the crime?”

Well, the truth is that the biggest danger in New Orleans is YOU. How much are you drinking? Where are you going to score something, or someone…
If you behave yourself, and display just a little caution, you will have the time of your life in The Big Easy.

Meanwhile, back on the Farm:
Zincy, our big, black, gentle, zaguate dog, was lost to the forest a few weeks ago. Zinc followed his identical sibling, Maggie, lost to the forest some years ago. Why? Both were Incurable vagabonds. Neither could tolerate confinement – chewed their way out of just about every conceivable restraint. And after managing to escape, they would disappear for several days to make up for lost vagabonding time. But, usually, they eventually returned - until they didn’t. Rest in Peace, sweet, gentle Zincy!

Second-Line Costa Rican Style

2010-04-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Vagabundos

2010-03-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

We were expecting a household full of people last full moon – botanists, kids, dogs, girlfriends - but things happened and, to make a long story short, only two showed up: Luis Poveda and his disciple, Agustin Contreras. They stayed the night, the vagabundos - kindred spirits. So off we go hiking and botanizing. What’s it like to go botanize with Maestro Poveda, renowned medicinal plant expert of Costa Rica?
Well it’s a fascinating experience: science, poetry and prose; Latin (as Tommy says, botanists love to get together and speak Latin – go to end of blog for a glimpse); referencing his notes quoting thoughts, mostly his own, and proverbs; and, if just the right moment strikes, reciting from a dog-eared book he carries in his pocket, Wayne W. Dyer’s, ‘Pensamientos para una Vida Mejor’. Always spot on.
We talked of the natural world, relative plant nutrients, lunar and solar cycles, observation, understanding, a terrible dream, transformation; often cycling back to the forest and how we learn from it everyday. We are all students just scraping the surface of the natural world.

We spoke of our responsibilities: protecting the forest, processing water and waste, not contaminating. When you live off the grid, you manage all this on your own. Since moving from a house in Ciudad Colon to being off the grid at El Tigre, including no garbage pick-up service, we have reduced our garbage production by over 95%. That was necessity for us but anybody can do it!

Maestro Poveda reminded us of the four R’s:

Re-Use

Recycle

Rechazar (Reject) - Don’t buy/accept stuff that will just end up in a landfill.

Reclamar (Complain - Loudly!) - Don’t let people throw their trash everywhere!

Poveda fills me with such awe. Every challenge comes with an opportunity to grow and learn from it - and to move on. And if you’re moving with Poveda, you’d better take notes quickly because he definitely moves on quickly... (See Latin at the end of the blog for a few more glimpses of hiking with Maestro Poveda and fellow student, Tin).

So what’s this about people throwing garbage everywhere?
Well, I think everybody has a story or ten about garbage. Sometimes you have to, as the Ticos say, ‘Reclamar’.
Here’s a story of, ‘One man’s irresponsible greed being a whole community’s (and the country’s) potential environmental suffering’, expressed very well by Manuel Emilio Morales, Periodista:
“Una Vez Mas, SOS por el Rodeo”,
published in La Nacion, Friday, March 5, 2010.

It’s time we stood up to RECLAMAR. We plan to walk for nature – to fight to maintain a pristine forest, in the face of its proposed destruction by an enormous mega garbage landfill - and we shall do it peacefully and with an open heart. We meet in el Viejo Mercado in Ciudad Colon at 4pm on Saturday, March 13th. And we shall walk as a group to the University for Peace in El Rodeo. Join us, please – walk for the love of a vitally important forest. Donations for our B&B fight will also be gratefully accepted (B&B – Bosque y Botadero; or Beauty & the Beast, if you prefer…).

You can get all the details in the local press, but mark your calendar now!
Dress and prepare for walking 6 km. on the road from Ciudad Colon to El Rodeo. On arrival, there will be a couple of speakers, a show of solidarity, and then buses will be available, at nominal cost, if you want to ride back to Ciudad Colon in comfort, rather than trekking it…

Why should we care about this little forest? The Zona Protectora El Rodeo is vital, pre-montane humid forest, connecting to the Biological Corridor of the Rio Virilla all the way to the Pacific coast. Over recent years, the forest has withstood all that Mother Nature had to throw at it: fires, landslides and earthquakes. After each disaster, the villagers have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and carried on.

Thus, we shall do so again. See you on March 13th!

My Big Mistake
Over the past few years, botany pals visiting El Tigre all have similar reactions to ‘My Big Mistake’: they recoil from it, look askance at it. Then come the ‘polite’ little remarks, “What lunacy is this! Do you wish to create a Monster Garden? It’s a monstrous palm! It’s not a palm! It’s not a grass! You made a Big Mistake!”
So what did Poveda say? He looked at it and exchanged glances with Tin, who made no comment but just gave the name. However, I wasn’t fast enough to write it down at the time, and was too embarrassed to ask Poveda to repeat it. So I looked it up later in Tropica, 4th Edition, 1992.
This is how Tropica, page 1054 describes ‘My Big Mistake’:
“Pandanus sanderi, F. Pandanaceae: …handsome, very ornamental screw-pine …with age, breaking above the middle and laxly pendant …used as towering clumps of wind-breaks in their native Polynesia.”
I brought one potted plant of Pandanus sanderi from Ciudad Colon when we moved to El Tigre. Now, Armando is a master at reproducing stuff (he took one mangy citronella plant that somebody gave me and reproduced it to hundreds of plants, that we now have planted all over the garden as erosion breaks). So, unfortunately, he took that one potted Pandanus and reproduced that too. Now dozens of them are popping up all over the place and just taking over! They were only planted three years ago but, already, they’ve turned into monsters! I thought it was an ornamental grass and planted it along the drive, amongst other places. However, they just grew and grew – into massive towering clumps of grass atop sprawling, spirally, cavernous root systems that push way up off the ground! And look at what resides in those monstrous mazes: bee hives, Terciopelos, bears! (Well, maybe not bears…).
Luis and Tin told us about the problem, and the very next day, Armando got stung by a bee defending his nest in - you guessed it - a Pandanus…
Luckily, we are in menguante – the waning moon – perfect pruning weather, and Armando has already gone at it. And now, chopped-up Pandanus is making wonderful mulch all around the garden, although Gabi came out to see our pruning and proclaimed that she likes the plant! I think we can spare a plant or two…

And now a few snippets of, ‘Latin with Luis Poveda’ – actually we spoke Latin in Spanish. I have translated a few of the notes I could quickly scrawl as we hiked along. I’ve also ad-libbed a bit here in English. All mistakes are mine: “That Asteraceae with purple flowers is an Onoserys silvatica. I call it the Stimulant Purple Daisy because the roots are reputed to have stimulant properties. Watch the daisy you pick – got to get the right species. Ocotea veraguensis – wonderful fragrance – use the bark for shampoo. Vitex. Apeiba tibourbou – oil extracted from the seeds. Acacia ternifolia (Amor Fino). Ficus costaricensis – sap kills parasites. Justicia macrantha – interesting dyes. Also flowering is, Justicia ovata. Lonchocarpus (probably felipei). Characteristics listed of Celastraceae, Hippocrataceae. Regarding the Malvales Order - Bombacac., Sterculiac., Tiliac. – all now folded into Malvaceae.
Tin and I gasp at this last piece of news! And it just goes on and on. I am lucky if I guess the Family name correctly. Poveda, however, nails not just the Family, but also the Genus and the species! And, if he’s not sure about the species, driven by curiosity, he collects a sample for analysis back at the lab. You have to be quick and take notes before he moves on.

Poveda moves in a higher sphere of mentation – totally open heart, you can feel his joyous spirit. I am still in awe of him, as I was when we first met 12 years ago, then being a complete novice student. Over the years, I have also studied out in the field with Quirico Jimenez, Humberto Jimenez, and other ex-students of Poveda. Even so, after all these year in the tropical world, I am still a novice.

And just as I recover from that fascinating visit, an old friend arrives from the past, from Pennsylvania…
Virginia Derbyshire almost died in a traffic accident three years ago. In fact, they pronounced her dead a number of times just the first night after. But she returned to life - only to die again and then return again. Her doctors called her the Miracle Patient. Broadsided, her body battered and broken, nobody expected her to survive during her months in ICU. But she did survive, underwent numerous surgeries, and then, slowly but surely, made a full recovery. And the next thing you know, Virginia travels from Pennsylvania to Costa Rica, and on her final day of trekking and birding – from Monteverde to Tortuguero – she ends up visiting me, an old friend from years back. And here we are, hiking together all the way down to Tiger Hill and back. Tiger Hill is a strenuous hike even for young, healthy people; not at all appropriate for a 75 year-old woman who’s just come back from the brink… Absolutely no problem! Virginia looks and moves exactly the same as I remember her 15 years ago, when we were naturalist buddies in Pennsylvania. In fact, I was huffing and puffing just to keep up with her! She also still has a keen power of observation - a natural birder. And like Polly, Virginia loves the butterflies. We saw Morphos! Polly was with us in spirit.

And in the middle of this mix of visitors comes walking in Dr. Bob - that's a
story for another time.

Gerald has been in foul temper all this week. His Driving License expires next week. Who cares? Normally, renewal is not a huge deal, but it is this week. Why? Because the Costa Rican government just passed a new traffic law that dramatically increases the penalty for those driving on expired licenses. So now, all those people driving around on expired licenses have suddenly swamped the License Bureau to get renewals – thousands of them! And the system has utterly collapsed from the crowds. If you don’t get in line by 6 am, you won’t get in – the guards closed the gates yesterday at 11am, turning away hundred of people. They all went back today, along with Gerald, who also got turned away yesterday. As he crept along in line, he complained vehemently to the guard about all those people with expired licenses collapsing the system. The guard responded that one guy showed up yesterday with a license expired 23 years ago! That was the record thus far…

Not a Hair out of Place

2010-02-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this shot of our Swiss neighbor, Gabriella, showing us girls how to make bread. Now I understand why we used to make such a mess of it! Basically, you have to understand your ingredients! Bread made with yoghurt is not treated the same way as bread made with sodium bicarbonate, or baking powder, or packaged yeast. Gabi helped us understand the feel of when the dough is ready. And then it’s just feeling for it and lots of experience. As with everything else, practice makes perfect.

Why not just get a bread maker? Because we use 100% solar power – anything that warms or cools takes a lot of juice! Yes, I know Gerald loves his toast! But Gabi even helped with that – she gave us a grill-thing that we just put over the gas stove. Our neighbors, Gabi and Paul also live completely off the grid, and we continue to learn from them as we bump our way through the process. We share water and it goes without saying that we use the same Solar Engineer, Carlos Oreamuno.

Here’s a shot of our first attempt at baking bread. The pale loaf is ours– described as heavy as a brick (but edible if toasted). We photographed it alongside the lovely loaf that Barry Hammel brought for us when he came over with his family to hike. As you can see, Barry is a much more accomplished baker, and we devoured his loaf post haste – or post hike as the case was - we didn’t even leave crumbs for the chickens.

It was a great day for hiking. Barry and his family arrived after the other hikers, so I went with the first group, and I asked Armando to guide them when they arrived and rendezvous with us down at the river. However, obviously something got lost in the translation… We went to the river (Jaris) and Armando, Barry et al went to the other river (the waterfalls) - a high adventure hike!

It wasn’t until quite a bit later in the day, that they finally returned up the mountain. I ran into Barry’s daughter, Indira, as she climbed the final ascent up to the house. After dispensing with the usual salutations, Indira asked, “Do you have a glass of water? I am ever so thirsty!”

I couldn’t believe it! I asked her, “Did Armando take you down to the waterfalls?”

“Yes – they’re still down below eating oranges”.

I just couldn’t believe it! This pretty college girl didn’t have a hair out of place– after just getting back from the waterfalls! I would have been soaking wet, filthy and face bright red from exertion!
Barry and Isabel soon arrived with Armando, and we feasted and drank wine. Barry showed me several plants that he had collected and, in order to identify one of them, he pulled out of his backpack this huge taxonomy manual that definitely caught my eye, called, ‘Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica’. I simply had to have a copy of it!
“Who wrote that?” I asked.
“I did, along with a number of co-editors, of course – it’s our work!”
It is a Magnum Opus of plants – a never ending study of discovery here in this wonderland of biodiversity.

I was interested in this work, so Barry later elaborated:

It's the continually changing product of many people, all working on the flora of Costa Rica over the last 20 years. It's a list that can be printed from the specimen database in ATTA at INBio, but we originally produced it by crawling through all the specimens at the Nacional Herbarium. It doesn't have all species known from Costa Rica on it, just those we have collected during the course of the project, Manual de plantas de Costa Rica (coeditors myself, Mike Grayum, Cecilia Herrera and Nelson Zamora). Surely you know about those volumes that the Missouri Botanical Garden is publishing in collaboration with The Museo Nacional and INBio? All of the monocots have been published (two volumes), one of dicots, one is in press and we have two to go. Also, we have published an introductory volume, on history of botany in the country, vegetation, novelties, etcetera. When the series is finished, we will probably have accounted for more than 8500 spp. total, not including the ferns. It's a big project.

If you don't have them and are interested, the published volumes (Manual de plantas de Costa Rica) can purchased at INBio

https://www.securesitecr.com/editorialInbiocarritoLibreria/product_esp.php?pagina=4&cat=38

or directly from the Garden

http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=list_author&

So, did Barry find anything interesting down at the waterfalls? I was very keen to find out!
After reviewing his notes and collected plants from the hike, Barry sent us an e-mail:

Thanks so much for having us over: we had a great time, and we *did* survive! Saturday night I lived up to my nick-name "calambre" as walks like that always give me leg cramps. Isa and I would do it all again in moment, but my daughter, city hick that she is, is still moaning and groaning about the walk!
I wanted to let you know that the big tree that had me perplexed, did turn out to be plain old (but what a beautiful tree) Lafoensia punicifolia. It's quite rare, and I don't believe I had ever seen such a big one, I'd only seen it in flower, never in fruit, blah, blahblah--just making excuses! The Heisteria is H. concinna. That's a really common tree on your property. I'll bet the birds love it.
Some of the other things I collected and have identified are these:
Acanthaceae: Barleria oenotheroides, Blechum costaricensis
Annonaceae: Desmopsis bibracteata
Commelinaceae: Tradescantia poelii
Flacourtiaceae: Casearia commersoniana, C. sylvestris
Malvaceae: Allosidastrum pyrimidatum
Rubiaceae: Arachnothryx (Rondeletia) aspera
Rutaceae: Amyris cf. pinnata
Last, most unprepossessing, and also most exciting was a dumb little Malvaceae that I had at first thought belonged with the Allosidastrum specimens, but then when I looked close, turns out it's something else altogether, and I can't figure out what it is!!!! Well, it's an Abutilon, or Pseudoabutilon, but not one accounted for in our book. That's a family that we just published in the last volume and I spent quite a bit of time on it, so this is really exciting. I do tend to jump to conclusions, so it may yet turn out to be something accounted for that I am just overlooking, so I need to calm down and study it carefully. In any case, I managed to get some seeds from the one rather poor collection, and have planted them, so if it does turn out to be something new, and if I get the seeds to germinate, I should have plenty more specimens. I only saw one small plant in your forest, but there must be more, near where we saw the Lafoensia. I'll keep you posted, as I work to figure out what species it is.

Thank you so much for the feedback, Barry. We live for this! So Rondeletia, one of my favorite flowering trees, has a new genus name – Arachnothryx – that’s quite a mouthful! And you’ve also nailed some that had us stumped. And that mysterious Malvaceae is fascinating–a family that goes far beyond my very limited knowledge of just the Hibiscus genus. Next time, Indira will have more fun horseback riding with Jose!

Restaurant shock! We stopped to eat at our old stomping ground, Tex Mex, in Santa Ana, and found it utterly and completely transformed - like walking into a place straight out of New York City. Tex Mex no more! Not a shred of Tex Mex left of it, and now it’s a steakhouse called – Doris – and no, Doris is not a girl…

Finca & Forest News.

We lost Grisela, my favorite barnyard cat, to a snake bite. She went hunting up in the charral and got a ‘back-off’ jab, probably from a Fer de Lance. Even the dogs know not to go sniffing around down it the charral! Grisela thought herself invincible - had killed several small terciopelos over the years. That's why we keep barnyard cats - they compete with snakes for prey. No rats or snakes in the stable yard. But on this day, a terciopelo decided to take her out. Poor Grisela. Hugo saw Grisela first, convulsing, and Armando rushed her to the vet. But, unfortunately, it was too late. Poor Grisela was dead on arrival. We feed all our animals very well but some simply continue to hunt on instinct. Grisela had a hunting vice, and so followed Samantha the dog and several other incurable hunters to an early grave.

All the other animals are doing fine. Solo got colic but recovered quickly with treatment. It’s great riding weather – sunny days, and no bugs tormenting the horses. The dogs still get a few torselos now and then but the population has dropped significantly since we adopted a zero tolerance for them. Armando is still the master at squeezing out the larvae but Yaneth has also become quite deft at it. Even GRAK has squeezed out a torselo or two! Lola la Vaca is healthy and will soon have a new calf.

The criollo hens are beginning to breed, now that we have brought home the new rooster. He roosts up in the tree with his four favorite hens. The others sleep in the cow byre with Lola or in the hen house. Some of them prefer to sleep inside – so we close the hen house at 6 p.m. Those remaining outside have adapted well and are thriving. More and more of them prefer to sleep outside. So far, they all return inside in the morning to lay eggs, and sometimes one will want to sit on her eggs, so we let her be. When the chicks hatch, she hides them in various places and will attack any animal getting too close. The dogs and cats have now accepted the arrangement and no longer chase after the cute little chicks. How did we do it? It wasn’t easy, especially, with Eddie the Beagle – a very stubborn dog. He just looks back at me when I call him sometimes with a look as if saying: “I just want to, y punto!”

Watch out for ant-divers during this time of year. For some reason, the hot, dry weather riles up the ants living in the trees. What does that mean? Well, it means that you can’t stop in front of an ant-dwelling tree, where ants and trees live together, symbiotically, like, say the Acacia tree and just yack away with somebody because it annoys the ants. If you don’t move on in a timely manner, a few of the ants might start to dive-bomb you to get you moving. The other day, while looking at the Diospyros digyna fruits down in the forest with Armando, I suddenly felt a sting on the back of my neck – like a wasp! It was an ant. Seconds later, Armando pulls off his cap where an ant had dive-bombed him! We glanced up and saw the nearby Cornizuelo tree - and we got moving…

Wasps and bees also get irritable this time of year, especially in windy weather, and particularly if a bird or other prey is assaulting the hive. Armando describes how monkeys shove a stick in the mouth of the bee-hive, blocking it, then grab and eat the wasps as they crawl out one by one. I’ve never seen this but have seen birds attacking a bee-hive up in a tree. If you see a bird making lunch out of a bee-hive – you can tell because the bees are all swarming furiously about it as the bird calmly pecks at it – then stay clear. And stay calm. Don’t start screaming and throwing your arms all around swatting at the buzzing insects. Ignore the bees and they will ignore you – just keep moving away. If bees start to construct a hive with the structure of your house, remove it immediately before it gets too big. Bees attack because they are defending the hive. So, don’t allow bees to make a hive near the house. Once it gets big, then all it takes is a windy day or a perceived threat and the bees will get ornery. Armando clears hives in progress using soapy water. If you don’t know what you are doing, call in a professional to remove a hive.

Now in flower: Pink Tabebuias (called Roble de Sabana) giving an eye-popping show all along the roadways in Ciudad Colon. Gliricidium sepium (Madero Negro) also in full bloom - the bumblebees just love it, and it’s fun to watch them buzzing languidly about from blossom to blossom! Leave them be and watch the amazing relationship between species. Laurels are just finishing.

Also, take a look at this shot of the lovely Poro Poro flower (Cochlospermum vitifolium).

What a Sunday!

2010-02-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Score 31-17. Who Dat! Who DAT!

What a Sunday. Feb 7, 2010 : a day to remember forever.

The New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl, and Costa Rica chose Laura Chinchilla as their new President.

Excitement mounted all day, from Bourbon Street in New Orleans to Calle Central in San Jose. Everybody was out on the streets: voters going to the polls in San Jose, Saints fans and other revelers drinking in New Orleans, cars honking, people just milling about. The mood was electric with anticipation.

5pm NOLA time - Streets empty out in The Big Easy. All quiet on Bourbon Street. Everybody was in front of the TV pretty much everywhere in the world.
The First Quarter was sheer torture, as we watched our guys get a bad case of nerves. It was, after all, the first Super Bowl ever for the Saints. But straight into the Second Quarter, they settled down, focused - and triumphed!! Oh, what a joy it was to watch. The New Orleans Saints went to their first Super Bowl and WON! What a team! What a city! Who Dat! Who Dat!

What a Sunday! While all this was going on, the people of Costa Rica were also electing their first Presidenta - Laura Chinchilla. You go girl! Only 50 years young but ready and able to lead Costa Rica into the future! Smart - educated at UCR and Georgetown. Sensible too - focused on Costa Rica but with an eye on the world. Laura Chinchilla seems to understand how everything is connected. The world will soon know her. She will accomplish great things, I predict.

So much to celebrate! What a great day for both Costa Rica and New Orleans! This is a new beginning for both places.

On the down side, that same day, Arsenal lost to Chelsea (GRAK was really grumpy about that until the Saints won) but there has to be balance in the Universe…
And, oh yes, speaking of elections, New Orleans has a new Mayor. Vamos a ver…
It’s a whole new day.

Kids in Trees

2010-01-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Shot of Matchi.
Jose and I took Matchi out for the first time since removing his shoes last December. Just as with Lucero, we gave Matchi a year off from riding, in order to allow his hooves to strengthen and adapt to his new barefoot lifestyle. So we rode out on Matchi and Lucero - both have a similar pace - and it was just wonderful! Matchi has never felt more balanced, relaxed and settled - and this was his first outing in over a year! We rode all the way down to the river and out to Las Palmas, returning home via the road to Piedras Negras. A long ride for Matchi’s first outing but he did just fine - he never once showed any sign of heavy breathing, even when we cantered up the mountain.
It wasn’t only necessary for him to rebalance without shoes, however. I think he also needed a ‘reset’ - a long vacation - to start riding him not as a race horse, as we did back in the days when we raced, sprinted even, and WON… Those days are over. We actually ruined Francis’ mare by racing her. Xicha could no longer stay in the Peruvian trot - she always fell into a gallop in the up-transitions, and the judges obviously noticed it. So Francie retired Xicha to pasture up in Nicaragua - not a bad life though…
Matchi has now matured and settled down - he’s almost ready to entrust to the kids.

Here’s a shot of Negrito the calf.
Lola La Vaca weaned her calf some months ago, so we have no milk right now for making yogurt or cheese. However, she is expected to give birth to her new calf in March and, soon after, will be able to share some of her milk with us. In the meantime, we coddle and pamper both Lola and her calf, Negrito. Not sure what Jose plans to do with Negrito, but I have become very fond of this black, shiny calf. He is growing into a very large bull, although he is very sweet and affectionate for a bovine…

Every year, in January, the kids go down to the charral and we take pictures of them with their adopted trees. Three years ago, the kids planted a bunch of trees and now January has become the tree photo ritual. The idea is to photograph the kids annually with their adopted trees and observe how the kids and the trees grow!

Shot of Geovanna.

We nearly walked past Geovanna’s tree but she remembered it very well and pointed it out to us - a still tiny Peltogyne guainensis (Nazareno). Someday, it will tower over her. Karla posed with Sapindus saponaria, Calliandra bijugo and Terminalia oblonga; Danny posed with Cedrela salvadorensis; and they all posed with numerous others.

Shot of Danny
Danny would just as soon climb a tree as identify it. He is learning all the forest lessons fast from his grandfather, Armando, who has planted too many trees here at El Tigre to mention. On this day, we took shots of Armando with trees that he planted just 3 years ago, some of which now tower over him: Anacardium excelsum, Ceiba pentandra, Pseudobombax septenatum, Hura crepitans, Lafoensia punicifolia, Terminalia amazonia and Zygia longifolium and others I’m not sure about.

Shot of Picramnia with yellow berries.
While out with the kids, we noted Picramnia sp. (common name, Caregre) now fruiting, with their cascade of red, yellow, or orange berries, depending on the tree. The leaves look like the species antidesma , no matter which berry color. The berries do not change from yellow to orange to red. They fruit and remain one color, depending on the tree but, in all cases, the berries turn to black after a few weeks.

Shot of Picramnia with red berries.
Some fruits change color as they ripen on the vine, but not Picramnias. I mention this because it’s a point of confusion - depending on the time of observation. For example, the Pseudosamanea guachapele (I think they’ve now changed the genus name to Albizia) flowers are creamy - now in bloom at El Tigre - but after a few weeks, they turn mustard yellow. That phenomenon had me a bit confused until I understood what was happening.

Also, currently in full flower are Gallinazo (Schizolobium parahyba). We will have a bumper crop of Gallinazo seeds this year, unlike last year. Also, Lysiloma species are seeding abundantly this year, while there were none in 2009. Dalbergia retusa seeded last year and is seeding even more abundantly this year. The seeds germinate easily and we already have a slew of Cocobolo seedlings ready for planting at the start of the rainy season.
Also noted in bloom while out with the kids were: Sapranthus palanga, Bauhinia sps., Casearia sp., Eugenia sps., Cochlospermum vitifolium, Erythrina sp., Luehea speciosa, Plumeria rubra, Thevetia sp., and a slew of vines and herbaceous plants, especially Asteraceae and Acanthaceae.
It’s going to be a long, long, dry season…

The guys have already begun cutting fire breaks at the borders, and will finish the job after all the deciduous trees have dropped their leaves - probably by mid-February. We can’t control man but we can prepare in advance, and try to manage the fire threat to the forest.

The village of El Rodeo almost got a volunteer forest fire-fighting course organized with MINAET to start this week - we had 16 guys signed up, including Jose. I almost signed up too, but this was to be a boot-camp style type training with only young men signing up, so I bowed out, obviously. However, the course was postponed - we need more prep work.

I thought about closing this blog-site after a few ads landed in the Comments section recently. But this little remnant forest needs a voice. Actually, it needs more than one voice calling out to defend it, and this blog is just one. I am very grateful to the other nature lovers, near and far, who also defend this little remnant forest called Zona Protectora El Rodeo.

You would think protecting forestland would be quite in fashion, with all this global warming brouhaha, but economic interests too often are in conflict. MINAET told us that the logging is insidious. First, people just trim a bit, then they cut a few trails, followed by a house, then houses, and the next thing you know the forest is gone, the damage has gone too far.

Part of protecting a forest is showing its value to the world. And here we have a new voice!

Barry Hammel, renowned botanist and author, kindly identified some plants pictured in earlier blogs. When we get to New Orleans, I shall update them, because we still have no internet at the Finca - I’m actually sending this while lunching at Bagelman’s - so I’m reprinting Barry’s notes here:
Barry wrote:
…The unknown ("We’re still not sure what this is. Stay posted!) vine you have in your blog is a sp. of Marsdenia (Asclepiadaceae), probably have to see flowers to know which species.
And oh--just can't help being a botanist--looking on down I notice a few other things that could be tweaked, like that Asteraceae is not a Montanoa, but I'd have to do too much work right now to figure out just what it is! The first red tubular flowered one you seem to have called a Malvaceae is actually Rusellia sarmentosa (Scrophulariaceae), the next one *can* be said to be Malvaceae, sensu lato, but we (and many books) still do it in Sterculiaceae (Helicteres guazumifolia), and then the one Armando has in his mouth, that one *is* Malvaceae, sensu strictu, Malvaviscus arboreus.
After visiting your place I found that same cute little fern (Hemionitis palmata) at our place and now have it growing in the shade next to our house. I also went exploring on neighbors' fincas and have found some very-close-to-real lemons. So we have been sticking to Jerry's rule "gin and tonic with lemon, rum and coke with lime!" I hope we got it right....

Thank you Barry! It was a pleasure to meet you and Isabel and we are so grateful for any help you can give!

For example, this Asteraceae is in bloom again and I still have not found it in the guides. Take a look at the lovely purple flowers. Known as a stimulant, we tried decocting the roots and also infusing the leaves, but got no effect. Coffee works better and tastes better. But I would so like to know the name of this plant! Agustin?

It’s a Whole New Playground

2009-12-16T12:33:00.001-08:00

When was the last time you took a look at your neighborhood playground? Is the swing set in good operating order? Are the grounds nice and tidy or do you have trash strewn all over the place? Well, if the place is a mess, then you have a great opportunity to bring out the whole village and clean it all up! Recently, our own Village Emergency Committee organized a ‘clean-up and repair day’ at the playground in El Rodeo. Everybody came out to volunteer and all had a wonderful time.

Here’s a shot of Jose painting one of the playground roofs. In a matter of hours, villagers had transformed the playground into a colorful, clean, safe place for the kids to play. Armando teamed up with some of the stronger guys to install new fencing, and everybody else just pitched in where they could - cleaning up trash, repairing, painting, etc. Now the El Rodeo Playground is a delightful meeting place for the whole village. Memito supplied colorful new trash bins - one for trash and the other for recycling. Because, yes, El Rodeo now has recycling collection! Many thanks go to the Hacienda El Rodeo for organizing recycling and also for providing the bins.

Here’s a shot of Luisa Hughes painting at the Playground.
Have you noticed how much better maintained our soccer field looks? The village Equipo de Futbol committed to maintaining the ‘stadium’ grounds nice and tidy in exchange for uniforms and other support. A big thank you goes to Luisa and Robert Hughes for supporting our local team. It’s not just about buying uniforms, it’s about giving the kids responsibility and guidance - keeping them off drugs, alcohol, and other self-destructive pursuits…
We were still in New Orleans when the El Rodeo Emergency Committee carried out the first of a number of planned initiatives. Luisa wrote to me in New Orleans with the following information:
From Luisa to me in New Orleans:
Hi sweetie - Glad to hear from you. Lots of things have happened - We got our graduation certificates and our new sign, purchased a couple of more and installed several signs through out El Rodeo. Our road has been re-paved, We had a clean-up day a few weeks back with the committee members and our new El Rodeo football team, We installed new trash bins in Rodeo Centro, fixed the basketball hoop, fixed the Rodeo school fence, went to an event this past weekend with some members of the committee regarding Community peace, the District committee is getting all the merchants from the Canton to team up and see the possibilities of installing cameras in Ciudad Colon Centro. Sonia held a seminar for all the kids in Rodeo regarding self esteem this past Friday. So as you can see we have been pretty busy lately.
All I can say is a big THANK YOU SWEETIE! Thank you, Luisa, for taking the bull by the horns, for organizing so many projects large and small, and for making positive things happen in our beloved El Rodeo.
And many thanks to Maria Marta for spearheading the Red Cross Training Courses, now taking place at the Community Center.

We returned in time for the final Emergency Committee Meeting of the year, where Teniente Azucar – yes, his name really is Azucar - received a thank you gift on behalf of the Committee. You can take a look at all the latest details related to the Mora Seguridad Comunitaria at their blog:
www.comunidadesdeMora.blogspot.com
With Teniente Azucar’s help, we have accomplished a lot during the year. Petty crime has plummeted! People are more aware, proactive and interested in the well-being of the village and surrounding forest. Trash is always a problem, with weekend warriors leaving their trash wherever they go (walking, picnicking, biking, horseback riding, quadricycling, etc., etc) but many more volunteers have now started setting an example, by going out and picking up roadside trash more frequently.
Our neighbor, the University for Peace, paid homage to one of its founders this past weekend, after Costa Rica’s 40th President, Lic. Rodrigo Carazo Odio died on December 9th in the Hospital Mexico. Don Rodrigo Carazo served as President from 1978 to 1982 and, during his tenure, as part of his legacy, joined with long-term United Nations advisor, Robert Muller, to carry through a UN resolution to establish a University for Peace - an important statement during politically turbulent times in Central America. The University for Peace was built in Costa Rica, on partly forested land donated by Cruz Bennett Rojas in El Rodeo, just west of Ciudad Colon. The old growth forest in El Rodeo still exists to this day thanks to the combined vision of Carazo, Muller, Cruz Bennett Rojas and all those affiliated with the University for Peace. This forest survives because Costa Ricans - especially those living in El Rodeo - still stand committed to protecting it through their many individual efforts.
Gerry and I both volunteer whenever we are in town. We helped out with the party for Los Abuelos (the grandparents/senior citizens of the village). Apparently, so much has been done for the kids recently that many felt that we should do something for the ‘older kids’…

Here’s a shot of the gang from the Comite de Seguridad Comunitaria doing kitchen duty at the Fiesta de Los Abuelos.

Here’s a shot of some of the Abuelos making music.
Abuelos and Nietos played Bingo and enjoyed the feast. Everybody on the Emergency Committee helped out, bringing food, drink or a gift for the Bingo.
I brought a refresco concocted out of tamarind and clove basil that we grow in the garden - a nice refreshing, non-alcoholic drink. I got the idea from Maria Hon at her restaurant, Tin Jo, located in downtown San Jose. Maria is amazing at blending unexpected flavors into something very special.

The party attracted a large crowd from the village - everybody is either an abuelo or a nieto. I recognized abuelos from just about every family in the village (all five of them…).
Sonya, from the Emergency Committee, gave a nice speech about community spirit - working together - healthy village - Drug Free Zone.
So, in keeping with the spirit of her words, we did not offer alcoholic beverages at the party. However, I couldn’t help but notice that some of the abuelos slipped away early, right after eating. I think it was a simple matter of, ‘No guaro, No abuelos’! But, at their age, they’re entitled to do just what they want…
Yaneth made a nice bread pudding for dessert - much better than the version she served for dessert a few days earlier for Gerry’s Iron Chef Indian Culinary Extravaganza…

GERRY COOKS CURRY!
Gerry’s cooking now? Well, he watched a lot of ‘Iron Chef’ programs on television while we were in New Orleans and, of course, with all the John Besh (local NOLA character and world-class chef) influence, he decided that he was going to come back to Costa Rica and cook.
And, because Gerry is English and the English adore Indian food, Gerry wanted to cook various curries. However, here at Reserva El Tigre we have herbs and plants for all sorts of cooking, but NOT for Indian. Why couldn’t we just cook something simple from the fruits and vegetables already growing in the garden? But, nooo…
So, that meant going out and searching for the ingredients to make Garam Masala and for a whole assortment of other exotic spices. Not so easy in Costa Rica - where there is like one Indian Restaurant in the entire country… But Gerry does like a challenge. He called everywhere, trying to find what he wanted: Chinese supermarkets; Tommy Tomas from Ark Herb Farm; Corinne Aulak, frequent traveler to India (no luck with Corinne - Costa Rican Customs confiscated her spices at the airport). Finally, Gerry went to the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Santa Ana (the Indian restaurant previously mentioned) - where we have feasted with the other Horsemen frequently over the years - and convinced the owner to take pity on him and sell him what he needed (personally brought in from India): cumin seeds, coriander seeds, papad, etc. I believe they had a few drinks together at the bar and became very good friends…
So, Gerry cooked his first dinner in Costa Rica. Our invited guests included culinary artists, Robert Whittington and Phylliss Crist; botany pals Rob and Karen Arras; and botanists Barry Hammel (Author, MoBot and InBio) and Isabel Perez (InBio).
By the way, if you gardeners have already made pilgrimages to Kew Gardens and the New York Botanical Gardens, then don’t miss the incredible Missouri Botanical Gardens (MoBot). Back in 1851, MoBot’s founder, Henry Shaw, consulted with Sir William Jackson Hooker, previous director of Kew, on how to organize the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Kew Gardens is celebrating its 250th Anniversary this year and, with 40,000 specimens, is one of the largest botanical collections in the world. Only two gardens come close to Kew: the N.Y. Botanical Gardens (est. 1891) and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. (Ref. HerbalGram, American Botanical Council, Number 83, Oct. 2009, www.herbalgram.org).
Just about every student of botany in Costa Rica - and, for that matter, from the entire New World - consults the MoBot website at one time or another to search the database. Specimens found in Costa Rica get catalogued at MoBot and locally, InBio. I was very much looking forward to meeting a famous botanist from MoBot and, now, InBio. Would we find anything interesting at El Tigre?

Everyone arrived early for a walk, which was just fine, because Gerry wanted us all out of the house so he could cook! We went out for a lovely wander on the horse and woodland trails, and Barry pointed out a lot of plants.
“No, that’s not a Morning Glory. It’s a Bignoniaceae”. And, “No, that’s not a Convolvulaceae vine either, it’s an Apocynaceae”. And he didn’t even need to check for the sap, much less leaf position! Barry could ID the lovely vines at a glance! He differentiated between the three leaflet Syngoniums and Philodendrons. Answer: the Syngoniums have white sap.
We had a swell time. Hiking in the forest with botanists is like going with kids - a continuous sense of wonder and new discoveries. “That’s not a lemon, it’s an orange”! Isabel, who is equally as impressive as Barry, suggested that we rename the property, ‘Reserva Bernoullia de Tigre’, after the Bernoullia flammea trees growing all over in the forest. A few are still in bloom, brightening up the canopy with orange blossoms.
Did we find anything special? Not on this day. Next time, we shall head down to the old growth, undisturbed forest - down to Las Cataratas.
We headed back to the house where we met up with Phylliss and Bob, who’d arrived after the hikers. But, Gerry wasn’t ready for us. He was running late in the kitchen and didn’t even want to stop to offer us a drink - he wanted us out of the house. So back outside we went, where we meandered around the gardens and through the orchards. I forgot to show Karen our latest garden with ‘All Nativos’.
And I forgot to show them the monster hedgerows! There’s this science fiction writer, Neal Stephenson, who wrote about ‘tangles’ - edible hedges - in his latest book, Anathem.
Well I’m doing ‘tangles’ - with Chayote, Passiflora, Hibiscus, Citrus, etc., and my plantings mix in with a slew of volunteers that the birds bring in. The whole thing is becoming an incredible, colorful, gigantic hedgerow - with all the associated buzzing and chirping that goes on in such a complex ecosystem. It’s a gardener’s version of a charral - abandoned pastureland, allowed to naturally regenerate back into forest. When we bought El Tigre five years ago, we stopped cutting over 8 hectares of pastureland and allowed it to return to forest. We didn’t plant anything – the seeds come in from surrounding secondary and old growth forest. We have observed over the years that the Charral is also a dynamic, fascinating ecosystem. Up in our garden hedges, Armando clips the edible Hibiscus as topiaries, but the rest we just let climb and grow into - tangles…
Anyway, we got back to the house rather warm and thirsty. Gerry, who normally loves to mix cocktails - the best martinis, margaritas, and manhattans - was still busy in the kitchen cooking and would not stop to serve us drinks. And why couldn’t I serve drinks as hostess in my own house? Because on this day, Gerry didn’t want me involved in anything in the kitchen at all! He wanted to manage everything! Well, hell, even the Iron Chefs don’t make drinks! We would be lucky to get a drink at all. Luckily, Karen came to the rescue, and we managed to scrounge up some wine, beer and orange juice.
Finally, Gerry called us to the table. And it was very good indeed. But the leftovers were even better! Karen brought a wonderful, aged chutney that we’re still enjoying.
Next on Gerry’s menu: Christmas Dinner for the Horsemen. Oy.
Farm Report:
Armando squeezed out 12 torselos from Eddie the Beagle’s back. Why do some dogs get torselos and others don’t? Because some dogs let the mosquitos bite! Eddie - like all the dogs and cats - normally eats any biting insect that gets too close! They rarely get torselos. I can only figure that somebody served Eddie a big plate of leftover something and he just fell into a gluttonous slumber and didn’t feel the bugs bite!
The mosquito deposits the Botfly eggs, which hatch under the animal’s skin as torselos - the larva stage. The torselo grows fat and big, causing discomfort to the animal and, if not discovered and killed, will eventually transform into a Botfly. And the cycle begins again. We break the cycle! Every dead torselo is one Botfly fewer! So we kill them all. Armando and Jose are both masters at feeling around the dog’s skin for the torselo and applying just the correct pressure to squeeze it out. Don’t try to extract torselos from your dog unless you know what you’re doing. You could well make a mess of it and cause a nasty infection in your dog.
Take your dog to the vet.
Horses rarely get torselos but, for some reason, cows let the mosquitos bite them! It took two long sessions to clear out the bugs from Lola La Vaca and her calf. We used Ivermectin on the calf to knock back the population but we still have to treat them both locally to kill them all - especially to reduce the potential of Ivermectin resistance. If you want a deeper understanding of how quickly resistance happens and why, read Richard Dawkins’, ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, a splendid book on evolution.
The rains have now pretty much ceased and the weather is bright, sunny and windy most nights, mostly calm during the day. The Sun’s rays feel much more intense than usual. The forest is still humid, and the springs below the house are still flowing well so far. Luehea speciosa, Tecoma stans and Senna papillosa are in full bloom all over the hillsides. Schizolobium parahyba and Guachipelins are just getting started. Leaves are beginning to drop. We shall see how El Nino affects us this year. It’s a fragile forest. Fire is never far from my mind.
World Report - Copenhagen: Nations join together to discuss climate change and take action.
It’s all about individual actions: recycle, reuse, shop for things that won’t end up in the landfill. If that plastic container won’t disintegrate within 500 years, then use it again!

A Magical Garden in New Orleans

2009-11-22T12:14:00.001-08:00

Whenever my heart aches for the forest, I go to a very special garden in the heart of uptown New Orleans, owned by a dear friend and fellow gardener, Nancy Scholar-Adams. Take a look at what greets you even before you reach her front door.

You can’t miss Nancy’s garden as you walk down the street - the plants sing to you, raising even the lowest of spirits. It’s a joy to see! It never fails to lift me up when I begin pining once again for the countryside.

We walk through her home, filled with lovely collections of objets d’art that she and Don have collected over the years, pausing to admire her own latest painting. The canvas calls to her at times - that timeless instant of her vision. Then we continue through her bright sunroom, with Gerry, her big German Shepherd dog, pacing agreeably along with us and on out to her garden. I can’t possibly describe all the curves and corners of that magical place but it never fails to fill me up with joy at first sight. A few years ago, she and Don bought the lot next door and expanded their garden, allowing room also for a pond and larger trees.

Take a look at the cascading yellow blossoms of a Cassia species in full bloom overlooking the pond.

We sit out there for hours, chatting and enjoying the scene. Nancy understands how therapeutic her garden is for me. She is a fellow gardener and understands the healing magic of nature. I feel very grateful to have her as a friend - she opens up her garden and heart. It makes the urban lifestyle so much easier to love.

Gerald loves the city - born and raised in London, he feels more at home living the street life. And there’s no place like New Orleans. We love this city more than any other city in the States. New Orleans is a place of daily celebration - almost everyday, we see a Second Line party rolling down the street, marching brass band playing, followed by a crowd of festive spirits (often imbibing festive spirits also...). Yesterday, a sizeable group of Buddhists marched by, complete with a large float and a long-robed guru sitting with legs crossed in the middle of it.
The Saints are playing Tampa Bay even as I write this. Score tied. They have to battle for every game, but are still undefeated thus far this season. Geaux Saints. Who Dat?

I fell in love with this city way back when Gerald brought me here for our first wedding anniversary. It rained the whole time but we had an absolute blast. We returned most years for a visit and finally went all out and bought a flat in the Vieux Carre. We never tire of this town - even with all the problems and corruption. The Big Easy has so much in common with Central America that it just makes us feel more at home. Reading the ‘scandal du jour’ in the Times Picayune is very much like reading La Nacion back in Costa Rica - lots of laughs and, sometimes, even spluttering howls over the morning coffee.

WhoDat! WhoDat!

2009-11-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

The press talks about the special relationship between the New Orleans Saints and their fans.

Just from one perspective:
I've never cared much for American Football - used to give away my U.Michigan student season tickets to delighted friends. Gerry prefers Cricket and Soccer - Arsenal is his team.

But here in New Orleans
... When the Saints go Marching in,
Oh when the Saints go marching in,
We want to be in that Number,
When the Saints go Marching in...

Lastnight the Saints fought long and hard to beat the Atlanta Falcons. We watched the whole thing with a visiting English chum from Costa Rica - who doesn't normally like football either. And there we were, perched on the edge, then jumping up and cheering, sometimes howling;
then during halftime, we went out on the street joining big crowds of fans watching the game at assorted bars around the Quarter. Everybody shouting WhoDat! WhoDat!

Then the Streets emptied up as we all went back inside to watch the 2nd exhausting half. What a physical game. What spectacular plays. The Falcons wouldn't let up even up to the last few seconds of the game.

But in the end, the Saints won their 7th straight game of the season.

Soon, Saints and Falcons fans alike, poured out from the Superdome and joined those from every bar, just swarming the Quarter, where everybody celebrated together just for the pure joy of it all. The Falcons fans had as much fun as the Saints, everybody drinking beer together, toasting each other. Everybody was a Saints fan lastnight.

October Berries in the Forest

2009-10-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

There are so many fruits and berries now peppering light and color in the forest.
Taxonomy experts, Agustin Contreras of Ark Herb Farm and Orlando Vargas of Organization for Tropical Studies – OTS-, helped us to identify the following trio, which had me stumped:

Chiococca alba F. Rubiaceae – Zorrillo or Snowberry

Here’s Another Rubiaceae, probably a Palicouria. Berries leave a bright purple dye on your fingers that won’t wash off easily.

Witheringia solanacea F. Solanaceae.

Usually found at higher elevations, common in Monteverde. We found this volunteer at aprox. 900M altitude down the mountain at Tigre Hill.

We’re still not sure what this is. Stay posted!

Right now, I’m in another sort of Jungle called the Big Easy. WhoDat Saints still undefeated - playing Atlanta on Monday here at the totally renovated Superdome. It's just crazy in this town right now! Can you blame me for finding solace in pictures of berries back in Costa Rica? Here’s a shot from the Krewe du Boo parade last Saturday.

Just a prelude of what’s to come tomorrow. I just hope they don’t smash the front door like they did Halloween night two years ago.

Nov.1st: Frontdoor survived halloween but elevator out of order. Somebody squeezed in one too many ... so now we have to climb four flights of stairs up to the flat, building an appetite for breakfast.

Let Mother Nature improve your Garden

2009-10-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Now, just sit down there, senora, and I’ll show you how it’s done!

Yaneth then shows me how to make tortillas, Salvadoran style.

Everything I try to do in the kitchen, Yaneth can improve on it. Her latest batch of orange marmalade is the best yet out of El Tigre!

Many plants are blooming and fruiting earlier than usual this season - species of Asteracea, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Rubaceae, Myrtaceae and others. Bernoullia flammea (F.Bombacac) are currently in full bloom all over Reserva El Tigre. We’ve had enough rain to keep the ground moist, thankfully, but not the drenching rains normally expected at this time of the year in Costa Rica. Clouds descend as mist on the forest at night, cooling everything down. In fact, temperatures are cooler than usual, which helps mitigate the drier season.
Still, we decided to postpone any further planting until the start of rainy season, next May 2010.

And now to the point. Why plant at all, when nature does so much of the work for us? It’s taken me years of gardening to realize that the most beautiful and healthiest plants seed themselves right where they need to be. No matter how beautiful your garden, nature will improve it - if you can recognize the treasures popping up all around. Why are you weeding out everything? Why are you battling with plants that want to grow there! Take a close look at what’s popping up all around your prized Cordylines and, in many cases, you will find good company for your garden plants. If you let some of the natives grow, you will find that your cultivars now combine gracefully with the native volunteers. At a certain point - at least, this is what happened to me - you have this insight that the native plants look more, well, natural and beautiful in the garden, and the cultivars start to look out of place. And you get the urge to remove plants that you bought in a garden nursery.

I think most tropical gardeners - those living close to a forest - go through this transformation sooner or later. You start out by designing gardens and buying plants. Then you notice how the native plants popping up seem to accompany and ‘help’ the purchased cultivars. During times of drought, the natives hold up much better and so you start to expand the natives - going with the flow. Soon, you begin to identify native species in the forest that look much sturdier than the cultivars of the same Genus you bought in La Garita. This has happened to me over and over again. Armando has found species of Lantana, Morning Glory, Justicia, Hibiscus, palms, ferns and many others growing in the El Tigre forest, and we’ve brought clippings up to the gardens to see how they fare. They do well. Better, in fact, than the cultivars bought in the garden centers.

Take a look at this lovely Petrea species we brought up from the forest.

This native vine usually climbs high into the trees but we got a hold of this clipping for the garden.

The plants that do best of all are the volunteers that seed themselves.

Here’s a shot of a Cecropia that popped up in the garden below the pool.

This volunteer has transformed the garden. You can walk right up and see the visiting birds eye to eye.

Here’s a Montanoa species, one of many ‘Tora’ species in flower now at El Tigre.

This one is a sweet, vanilla-smelling variety.

We recently dumped a truckload of red volcanic rock at the edge of the driveway to stabilize the area. Normally, a gardener would think, “Let’s design and plant a rock garden”. But not us, not now. We just waited to see what would pop up there naturally. It didn’t take long. Soon we began observing ferns and mosses taking hold in the rocky crevices.
Take a look at the first fern to pop up:

What will be growing there in a few more years? The retaining rock walls around the house hold clues.

An incredible diversity of plant life nestles amidst the rocks, much of which goes dormant during the dry season, but which provides a lush carpet for the walls.
Many forest plants also have important culinary or medicinal properties. You can eat the leaves and flowers of the nutritious Hibiscus plant, but the natives are the sweetest and most sought after by the hummingbirds. And by humans too!
Take a look at a few charming Malvaceaes in bloom now at El Tigre:

Here’s a shot of Armando tasting his favorite Malvac. He calls it Amapola.

There are so many native edibles! Here’s a shot of one of the Passiflora species growing on the fence row.

We do also cultivate native, edible fruits, grains and vegetables. Here’s a shot of Danny with the latest crop of frijoles.

And yes, we still have a place for exotics in the garden - especially the edibles!

Here’s a shot of tea - Camellia sinensis - in flower:

Here’s our very first fig - Gerry’s favorite fruit:

Edibles aside, we have awakened to the natives in the natural world. The forest reaches up to the gardens, mixing and merging. And, inexorably, the Exotics decline as the sturdier natives move up.

Making Tortillas

2009-09-25T11:29:00.003-07:00

Margarita Ramirez Rojas smiles for me as Rosa teaches us how to make Tortillas. Yaneth and Ana working at the counter - preparing a picadillo using the chicasquil that we grow in the garden.

Getting back to basics. Living the simple life - dolce vita - here at El Tigre.

It was Worth Every Bite

2009-09-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Emergency Committee, El Rodeo
Remember that huge landslide a couple of years back? Remember all the El Rodeo people getting stuck in the muck trying to cross over the abyss on their way to work/school in Ciudad Colon? One neighbor sank up to her shoulders in the muck, handing her baby up to bystanders who rushed to help. Our construction workers wore huge plastic bags over their boots and legs to wade through the mud, determined to get to work…

Well, the road is still a mess. Soon after the landslide, a group of neighbors formed a committee to get work started on the road. It has been a long, steady haul for some dedicated people, but it looks like, after two years and a lot of meetings, involving the mayor and a whole parade of public officials, work is about to begin on Monday. As always, the issue comes down to money and, with municipality coffers nearly empty due to the construction slow down, they need donations to finish the road. We are raising funds to get the job done right, once and for all. Can you kick in a hundred dollars or so? Please contact me as soon as possible if you would like to contribute towards our road works. Someone from UPAZ has generously offered to handle the admin on roadwork donations. We all need the road open to Ciudad Colon! Even the most reclusive people need to get out for supplies now and then.
Meanwhile, Teniente (lieutenant - but everyone calls him ‘Capitan’) Azucar, from the Mora Police Department, has been meeting with a small group of villagers, on Tuesdays in the Village Hall, to discuss a wide range of community security issues, and is now helping us to set up an Emergency Committee for our village and environs. After the recent forest fire, I realized that we are living a fragile, precarious existence on a forested mountainside in Costa Rica. Over the past 3 years, our area has suffered fires and landslides, and we can only expect more emergencies in the future, including even the terrifying possibility of an earthquake - a big one! Thus, we decided to be proactive, rather than reacting to the next event, and form an emergency team of people living in the community, ready to act.

Our first task is to invite everyone in the village to join a telephone network, so that they can receive immediate information in the event of an emergency. Anyone in El Rodeo reading this who has not yet been contacted, please e-mail me if you wish to be part of this network. Over the next several weeks, we plan to work on emergency protocols, resources, etc. A key aspect of this is to have direct contact with professionals: police, Red Cross, MINAET, fire fighters, etc. Thank you.

Newsflash: The Little Theatre Group is presenting ‘Twelfth Night’ (Yes! It’s Shakespeare) on weekends all this month at the Salon Garbo Theatre. See www.littletheatregroup.org for details/reservations. Get on out and support your local thespians!

It was worth every bite!

Gerry took this shot on Sunday, two days after the root canal. It looked even worse before, ghastly. I appear much better in the picture, but still very much as Gerry now likes to call me: his wife, ‘The Hamster’…

The tooth started to ache last Thursday, so I called our dentist to have it sorted out the next day. The receptionist told me that she could fit me in the same day at lunchtime. Unfortunately, however, that wouldn’t do. I had a lunch date! Didn’t she have anything on Friday or even the following Monday?

Why would I not go to the dentist right away given the chance? Because we had been invited, that same day, to the lovely garden home, adjoining Braulio Carrillo forest, all the way across the valley, of some dear friends, Robert Whittington and Phylliss Crist. They are both culinary artists of the highest degree, and dining with them is always a memorable event. Couldn’t Dr. Gil see me tomorrow?

Lucas Gil’s receptionist responded in the usual, sweet, Costa Rican way and insisted…
“I can get you in today at 12:15. You have an aching tooth. You need to get in here.”

Luckily, Phylliss was able to organize a delay to the lunch until 2pm. Thank you Phylliss!

I got to the appointment and barely got seated, when Dr. Gil came in and banged on the tooth with some metal instrument. “Does that hurt?” He asked?

“Yes.” I replied, while inside my body, I howled, “OOOUUUUUCH, …!”

A quick glance at the chart and Dr. Gil reminded me of a chat we had several months ago. I remembered it well. He had to do a deep filling, and in choosing a treatment plan, advised me that the root only had a 50/50 chance of surviving the filling. I was feeling invincible back then - never say die, keep innervating for as long as possible. What is health, but clinging to the back of the Titanic - staying alive as along as possible. Well, it turned out that I was on the wrong side of the 50%. The root died and began to decay, causing my jaw to ache. I needed a root canal.

Could Dr. Gil do it the following day, I asked, brightening at the prospect of arriving at Phylliss’s in time for the first course! No, Dr. Gil doesn’t do root canals. But he would refer me to a specialist for the next day, Friday.

Delighted, we left the dentist’s office and began the beautiful drive up to Braulio. On arrival, we were introduced to our dining companions, and then spent a lovely afternoon, dining, imbibing and enjoying good conversation with fascinating people. As always, I learned several new things, including solvents and distillation techniques for extracting citronella essential oil; and even how to make sour dough bread. Phylliss gave me a starter for sour dough to add to my growing bacterial collection - for yoghurt, cheese, etc.!

Andrew showed us incredible photographs of birds from all over Costa Rica: the Resplendent Quetzal; hummingbirds in full flight, feeding on - hey, isn’t that bird hovering over that invasive plant Justicia aurea? Well, at least the hummers love it! No wonder it escapes all the gardens!

We spoke at length about New Orleans. Did you know that there are more restaurants open today in New Orleans than before the Storm? The city is just as vibrant as ever, despite the lousy economy. Fun New Orleans Fact: The inquisition came to New Orleans and New Orleans sent the inquisition packing!

Phylliss and Robert are spending a few days in the Big Easy in September, with Larry and Dorothy Boone. Sadly, we will miss them there, as we arrive in town later, but we did have plenty of restaurant suggestions, including our favorite, August, the flagship of should-be Iron Chef, John Besh. I just wish we could enjoy the Vieux Carre with them! Dorothy and Phylliss are both very dear to me, like older sisters; they had a huge impact in my life at a time when I needed it! We worked together as volunteers, and I learned much from them: courage, honor, loyalty, grace under fire, compassion - anger management… and lots of laughter and fun times… I believe I became a better person, though still hopelessly flawed, by aspiring to be more like them. And we met other fascinating women along the way…

It was a leisurely, culinary, delightful afternoon that wound up at twilight. And then, as we drove back home off the Braulio mountain, I could feel the tooth starting to throb…

The infection flared up overnight. I couldn’t sleep for the pain, and could feel my whole face on one side puffing up. I woke up on Friday morning looking like a hamster eating, and feeling just horrible. However, even so, even while groaning in the depths of misery, it was still worth every bite of that wonderful lunch. The tooth would have flared up anyway, right?

So, we hightailed it to my appointment with endodontist, Dra. Ana Lucia Perez Clare, M.Sc. (Baylor College of Dentistry), at Cima Hospital. She quickly reassured me that, even though I was shocked at what was happening (and how I looked…), she saw cases like mine every day. She said, “It’s my work. We are going to fix this.”
And she did. Thank you Doctora Lucy!

It’s not fair. I’m diligent about dental hygiene but still end up with the toothache, whereas GRAK is far more neglectful but doesn’t suffer half the problems. He goes to the dentist every ten years or so, whether he needs to or not…
By the way, it’s true that you can get excellent healthcare for a fraction of the cost in Costa Rica.

Spotty and Grandpa died.

Photo from 2007, shortly before Samantha was killed by a Terciopelo.

Armando holds Samantha - a poodle/pekinese mix with a killer hunter instinct, and Armando Jose holds Samantha’s offspring, Spotty (not an inspired, creative name to be sure but, at least, descriptive...). Spotty inherited Samantha’s hunting instinct and it was only a matter of time before she ate the wrong thing and followed her mother to an early grave. Sure enough, very sadly, Spot died of liver failure a short while ago, on August 23rd.

Years ago, back in Ciudad Colon, Samantha surprised us by delivering two pups on the bathroom floor. The father was a mut living down the road. Spotty was the second born, and it appeared that Samantha had abandoned her after birth. She wouldn’t even chew off the umbilical cord. She just groomed her first born, Dillan, and ignored poor Spotty who just kind of dangled there by the cord. I went to the internet to figure out what to do, and there learned about using dental floss to tie and cut the cord. But then it took another hour or so before the tiny Spotty could open her mouth and feed. She couldn’t, just didn’t have the strength. I was at the desk, crying. I called Beth and she called a dog expert and the dog expert said that some new born pups just die. We were going to lose her. Suddenly, Janet ran in and said that she had got Spotty to feed. Thus, she survived and thrived, looking every inch like her father, the mut living down the street. Sammy was promptly neutered, so we would have no further surprises…

Spotty died peacefully and Jose helped me bury her out back. And yes, like everybody else, as well as feeling sorrow, also feeling no small degree of relief. Spotty was such a ‘necia’- barking all the time at nothing! Such sweet solace there is now here, silence. Gerry used to mutter at Spotty all the time, “She’s such a coward”! She used to bark at something and attract the other dogs, and then skulk off leaving the other dogs to face the poor beleaguered bufo toad, for example. Luckily, nobody touches the toads - dogs vomit up anything that doesn’t suit them. And like humans, dogs are pretty much one trial learners, if they survive the lesson.

The day after we buried Spotty, Grandpa died peacefully in Florida. Mom and Cy were with him. We had already posted a card with a daily “Hi Grandpa” greeting, to help keep his mood up while convalescing from congestive heart failure. However, his lungs got too congested, he needed too much Lasix and his heart just gave out. But Grandpa had a very fine run on this planet. We loved him so very much. Grandpa was healthy right up until the end. As mom said, he used to take fewer medications, and had fewer health problems than most people half his age. We used to joke with him that he would outlive us all! I still treasure those summers with him and Grandma at the lake. And, yes Grandpa, you were right, I was too young to go to the Grosse Lake Rock Concert Festival.

We cannot say thank you enough to dearest mom and Cy, who took care of Grandpa and Grandma with total dedication over so many years. In fact, it has been four years since they last visited Costa Rica, because they didn’t want to leave Grandpa alone for even one day.

Janet’s girls, Karla and Geovanna have grown up in those 4 years. Take a look at this shot of Geovanna and Karla, with Eddie the Beagle.

The girls have grown up but still can’t wait for mom and Abuelo Cy to come visit again. Nobody reads stories to the kids like Abuelo Cy! And he will find new kids eager to sit down with him for story hour: Armando Jose, Amanda and Bayron.

Here’s a shot of Marcia with Danny and his very fast growing hermanito, Bayron.

Everyone is doing well and, after a lot of training, all the domestic animals wander together in relative harmony - dogs, cats, chickens, and now, Lola the cow, join the horses when they go out to pasture. We’ve managed to control the biting insects this season after many years of trial and error. It’s a strange El Nino season of less rain and, thankfully, less bugs! However, Flopsy has a torselo in his hind leg, but raises such a yelping howl that he won’t let us squeeze it out of him.

I trot the dogs daily down the public road in order for them (and me?) to blow off steam. We keep moving to keep them out of mischief. If I want to botanize or birdwatch, I leave all the dogs at home, except Flopsy of course. Flopsy never strays from my side and doesn’t harm anything, not even a nestling fallen from the nest. He does kind of look at me first, “Is it okay if I just sniff at the little bird?” Flopsy is my constant companion.

Here’s a shot I took of a pair of hummingbird nestlings.

Birds are such amazing camouflage artists! I never would have even seen the nest, hidden well amongst the palm leafs, had a gusty wind not blown one of the lowest palm leafs way up almost vertical, and I could see the nestlings hunkered down in there and holding on. I took the shot quickly - when no curious dogs or cats were around to see what I was doing, and then I stayed away from the nest and watched it from afar. The parents would not feed the nestlings if they saw me watching. The fledglings grew up and flew away safely, despite being raised in a most vulnerable spot, just off the ground and very close to the terrace, where numerous dogs and cats lounge for much of the day. But none of them had the slightest clue.

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Janet discovered a line of ants leading up the outside wall to a tiny hole into the utility room. You can build a fortress against insects but they shall simply invade you from within - up the drains or through gaps into crawl spaces between the walls. No matter how clean you keep the house, one dead moth on the floor will attract the clean-up squad - tiny ants which just seem to appear from nowhere. We make them run with squirts of vinegar or borax. But lately, I’m beginning to rethink my approach to ants. Rather than adversaries, I’m beginning to think of them as friends. They clean up after us. They dismantle the moth and take it away. Army ants are welcomed as natural fumigators. And we maintain a laissez-faire or ‘without harm’ principle to all species, as advocated by my tropical nature mentor, Alexander Skutch. However, the forest is one thing and the house is quite another, and tiny ‘sugar’ ants will settle in the house if given the chance.

And if you tolerate one species in the house, next thing you know, you’ve got monkeys swimming in the pool! It’s a continuous lesson, keeping the insects out, harmonizing with the forest, and doing no harm. It all comes back again to good housekeeping.

Here’s a shot of Janet and her helper, Laura, dusting down the library.

Laura is raising money to return to University in Nicaragua, where she studies Civil Engineering. Remember all the odd jobs you did while at school, trying to make ends meet (or, at least, to buy a bottle of wine…)?

Since the economy has gone to hell, I’ve been thinking of new ways to save money at the grocery store, and am having lots of fun learning new things in the kitchen. Apart from drinking it, we also use Lola’s milk to produce both yoghurt and cheese. The starters keep getting better the more we practice with them.

Margarita and Janet have helped me experiment with orange preserves. We tried several recipes, until finding a Seville Orange Marmalade recipe, which we only use as a rough guide, adapting it to our own citrus fruits, both sweet and sour, growing at Reserva El Tigre. My first attempts produced truly nasty concoctions. I recall taking one bitter-tasting jam down to the forest for burial, where even the chickens couldn’t get poisoned by it. The next try ended up too syrupy, but had an interesting, intense flavor. I added alcohol to it and produced a perfectly drinkable liqueur (much to GRAK’s delight). Tomorrow, we shall try another batch. I think that we’ve now got the sugar balance right for this crop of oranges, we know the right amount of seeds to make the pectin, and how much of the white pith to remove to avoid a bitter taste. And then it’s just experiment after experiment.

There is no greater pleasure than orange preserve spread on sourdough toast!

Menguante de Mayo

2009-06-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Introducing the latest arrival at Reserva El Tigre! Bayron Jose, son of proud parents, Jose Parra and Marcia Porras, born on May 4th, 2009, weighing in at 3.275 kilograms and measuring 51 centimeters (no mistake: Bayron was that big!).
As with Danny, Marcia carried Bayron for 41 weeks! She delivered at the hospital but left ASAP for the healthy countryside back at El Tigre (H1-N1 infection scare at its height!).

Here’s a shot of Marcia, Danny and baby Bayron a few days after birth.
Other Reports from Costa Rica:
The generator needed to be put on for an hour or so very early this morning - the day GRAK had to return to the Labor Court, of course... What a way to start the day! Why? Because the cats had been playing on the solar panels, leaving dirty paw prints all over, thus reducing solar power to the batteries; the consequence being - no electricity… Armando was cleaning the panels just as poor, frazzled GRAK left home at 7 o’clock in a taxi (he hates mornings at the best of times) so I asked him if the cats were also scratching the panels. Certainly not, Armando answered. Nunca! Just dirty paw prints, that’s all, easy enough to hose right off! Armando will always protect the clan and take the heat himself. There is so much of GRAK in Armando, though the two will always deny it. I see GRAK mannerisms in husbands of girlfriends. Men are so alike in so many ways! But they will always deny it! “I am nothing like him at all!” We gals just nod sagely.
I have felt for a while the need to get better acquainted with the neighbors. After the forest fire fiasco here, I realized how fragile this world is and how we really need each other as a community. We might have continuous, petty disagreements, but we need to stand together for common threats - earthquake, fire, landslides, adolescent troublemakers, etc!
I realized that, apart from Margarita and the Gloors, our Swiss neighbors who are even more reclusive than we are, we didn’t really know anyone well in the neighborhood of El Rodeo. So, I decided to hold a small lunch; then one of our neighbors, Luisa, held a lovely tea for some of us girls - all lovely and fascinating women; then we organized riding and hiking mornings; and, suddenly, I am getting much better acquainted with the greater world of the hamlet of El Rodeo (employees, problems, troublemakers, etc.). And now things are beginning to happen, as people start connecting. We’ve had our first meeting on security, hosted by the Ciudad Colon police officer, Capitan Azucar (Captain Sugar…) unfortunately poorly attended (major football match on TV) but it’s definitely a start. Tonight, we attend the second attempt, to be held in the village community center. Will anybody be there? Stay tuned! A recycling center is also now being talked about. Poco a poco.
Other good news is that, at long last, I now have Permanent Residency here in Costa Rica - Libre de Condiciones - which means no more visits to Immigration until 2012. Visiting the Immigration Office here is a lot like visiting a Drivers’ License Bureau anywhere else in the world (The Driving License Office here is another thing altogether…). You get a look at people that you would not normally ever come across - a complete slice of humanity - except this is at a global level, people from all countries wading through the crowds in search of the correct queue. When Gerry and I moved here 12 years ago, his company assigned us to an immigration lawyer - Esther Rodriguez. Over the years, even after Gerry retired, Esther and husband and fellow attorney, Alfredo Bolanos, have guided us skillfully through all our legal matters in Costa Rica.
With respect to immigration, Esther loves her job and does it well - with heart and joie du vivre. It’s her attitude that is really special - with Esther, Immigration becomes the most wonderful place in the world - nodding, greeting, gliding right through, occasionally queuing up for each other, talking about all sorts of things, especially our mutual passion - gardening. Esther has a lovely garden in Ciudad Colon, where she is always experimenting: bromeliads, agaves, orchids, and many other tropical delights. Actually, we both rent the same truck guy for garden expeditions to La Garita and beyond. Someday we’ll get a pickup truck, Esther! Who will be the first? For me, only after we drive the Jeeps into the ground. After retirement, you rediscover basic survival skills - reuse everything, never say die. But, one day, I shall get that Ford Pickup Truck!
With typical, immaculate timing, I officially retired from pharmacy practice last year (placed license on inactive status, Sept.08) just as the world entered the worst economic cycle in my lifetime. Gerald retired back in 2006. I was first licensed in Michigan and, most recently, in Pennsylvania, but haven’t worked in Pharmacy since moving to Costa Rica back in 1997.
After moving to the Tropics, I shifted my focus to the study of tropical plants. However, after years of courses and fieldwork, I still just totter along as a beginner. As Tommy, a friend who owns an herb farm, says, “Plant people can’t resist getting together to talk Latin over a bottle of wine” - unless we’re all talking Spanish with Costa Ricans, of course. And then we all fall back on the common names for native trees - Jorco, Guanacaste, Targua - we all do it! Even you, Maestro!
Every new gardener to Costa Rica takes the courses and makes the rounds: Lankaster Gardens, InBio, C.A.T.I.E., Monteverde, La Selva, Wilson Gardens, Ark Herb Farm, private gardens and the national parks, both above and below sea level… But, in May, you will always find gardeners at home in their own gardens, feverishly planting during the most critical time of the year, El Menguante de Mayo. All planting/pruning is done during the menguante, the waning moon, when, according to local lore, energy is drawn down to the roots. However, if you wish to collect sap, flavor or fragrance, then you collect the plants during the creciente, the waxing moon. Have we verified this with experiments? No. Armando comes from the Huetar indigenous line, where, traditionally, lunar activity guides garden planning. And for planting, the May waning moon is THE time!
This year, the rains began late - not until the second week of May - which coincided with the menguante. This meant that we really had to hustle to get everything planted. Armando finally convinced me that we didn’t need to go to Garita to buy more plants! Everything we wanted was already growing beautifully somewhere in the forest at El Tigre. We simply needed to collect/reproduce a few of these plants to harmonize the garden with the forest. Also, it appeared that the sturdiest trees had seeded naturally, dropped by a bird - we simply needed to recognize and tag the important species that had popped up all over the place. Is that weed really a treasure? Armando is a master at recognizing valuable species that just sprout. Just as one example: we have tagged 3 species of Cedrela seedlings that have popped up: odorata, salvadorensis and… Expert botanists and good friends, Agustin Contreras and Luis Poveda, are helping us to finally nail that mysterious third species. It’s not easy…
We’ve also had a productive planting season: Zapote, Nispero, Psidium, Bread Fruit, Papaya, Cashew, Coco, Citrus, Ingas, Cacao, Chicasquil, Zorillo, Mangas, Zapotillos, Eugenias, Actinus, Ardisia, Jorco, Picramnias, Syzygiums, figs, and a few exotics from La Garita, like Averrhoas and Pitangas. And, after the horses ate all the Poro Gigante seedlings last year, this time around, Armando hid the tasty Erythrinas well inside the charral…

Here’s a shot of Armando leading the way inside the charral to one of the Poro hiding spots.
We also planted several first-year Ceiba pentandras, second-year Ceibo verde (Pseudobombax septenatum), third-year Jabillo (Hura crepitans) and many other plants down in the charral.
We are now into June, and are ending this menguante de Junio with herbs and vegetables in the garden, and sugar cane in the pastures for the horses and - cows… Take a look at our new bovines!

Lola La Vaca and her 3-month-old calf.
Marcia has been craving fresh milk, and now we can also make cheese and yoghurt. Pharmacy is most fun in the kitchen! Lola is a small (perfect for mountain living), young, Jersey-mix, milk cow. She came home to El Tigre with her first calf, and carrying her second. Jose built a byre for them, reusing materials from the house reconstruction. As with all the other household animals, we secure them at night.
We learned early and well, that native (criollo) is best for all flora and fauna! Locally bred animals - hens, horses, dogs, cats and cows - are already well adapted to tropical living and rarely get sick if you maintain parasite/hygiene control. They won’t let insects alight on them, much less bite them. In fact, the dogs and cats eat, with great gusto, anything that buzzes too close to them. Here, all creatures must adapt to the ubiquitous insects. And with the late start to the rainy season, the bug season has been much more intense than usual.
We have all sorts of organic techniques for breaking the insect cycle, and are very old school in our approach, using the food chain where possible to keep everything in balance. Criollo chickens are the best for feasting on larvae around the stableyard. The horses get lots of help from the birds, especially the Anis, flocking around them in the pastures, feasting on insects that the grazing horses disturb. Matchi often walks around with an Ani perched on his back. It’s a symbiotic, truly natural scene to observe. I have learned to use repellents sparingly, and then only plant-based whenever possible. I have found citronella by itself too short-acting, so am still working on finding the perfect safe/effective repellent, experimenting with mixtures of citronella, lemon, rosemary, lavender, Siparuna, etc. In my experience, the most effective product you can buy here (sold in agricultural stores and by vets) is called Scavon - a mixture of Linseed, Eucalyptus, Natural Camphor, Acorus calamus and other pleasant, exotic-smelling, Indian herbs. The insects hate it. Oh Joy.

Forest Fire, Zona Protectora, El Rodeo

2009-03-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Photo of fire from house, Saturday:

We dodged the bullet. The fire is contained. The forest stands. But this vernal equinox changed me forever. As Dr. Bob says, it is one thing to see a conflagration on television, fires burning in Australia or California, but quite another thing to be in one…

Here are a few salient facts about what happened to us, summed up by Carlos Arguedas C and published on Sunday by the newspaper, La Nacion (translated by me):

…Fires started by unknown person destroyed 15 hectares of Zona Protectora de El Rodeo, Canton de Mora. The first fire started Thursday afternoon was controlled by Friday morning; but then another fire was started that same day and was controlled Saturday around 2pm, according to officials from the National Fire Management Section of the Environment Ministry (Minaet). This is the fourth forest fire so far in the El Rodeo Protected Zone. There have been 43 fires this season, destroying 430 hectares of Protected Zone forests and 9,000 of private lands… (Ref. La Nacion, March 22, 2009).

We were involved in fighting this fire from beginning to end.

The fire was started on Thursday, March 19, 2009 around midday, by an agricultural worker attempting to clean up pasture for planting (the easy way is to simply burn the pasture…). When the flames started licking at the forest, Armando arrived with trained & equipped staff from the University for Peace (UPAZ) to help control it. However, the worker did not want Armando’s help, and treated him more like an intruder, rather than a concerned neighbor rushing forward to help him control his fire. A fire starter will always insist that his fire is under control until too late… and believe me, as you have seen on TV, fighting a forest fire is hard, scary work. The UPAZ guys and Armando used shovels, axes, soil and brute force, to contain the fire.

Then the following morning - the Vernal Equinox - the winds started up again, whipping smoldering ash back into fire. That’s the problem with forest fires. The fire looks tamped down and you turn around, exhausted, going home But five minutes later, the wind gusts and the fire is back, often worse than ever!...

Or, maybe, somebody set a new fire…

Why would anyone start a fire in such dry, windy weather anywhere in this country - during an intensely hot equinox - much less near a forest containing countless innocent species of fauna and flora?

Remember Yogi the Bear? “Only YOU can prevent forest fires!”

We called for help and Ciudad Colon firefighters responded. But it was getting late, and Costa Rica doesn’t have the resources to control forest fires by using planes from above like you see on TV in the States. They fight it on the ground. And fighting a forest fire on mountainous terrain is exhausting enough during the day - way too dangerous after dusk.

Gerry and Armando watched the forest burn out of control from the road below, together with the firefighters. They stood there watching the fire run up the line, parched dry scrubland igniting like a tinder box, flames racing with the wind, engulfing tacotal, charral, and … trees. Gerry watched tree after tree burst into flames like huge, oil-soaked torches, shooting fiery debris up into the sky and feeding the fire. Once fire has engulfed a massive Guanacaste tree, unfortunately, you can do nothing but let it burn and clear the area around it to contain the fire. But when tree after tree ignites, resources are few, and night is coming on, there is nothing anybody can do.

Gerry stood there with the firefighters watching, helpless to do anything to stop it. It was now dark and one of the firefighters had already gotten jabbed by a snake fleeing the flames. Luckily, he was suited up safely in protective boots and pants, but nobody else was going back in there before dawn.

The firemen told Gerry that we needed to be ready to evacuate immediately if the winds shifted eastward. We needed to remain vigilant all night.

Photo taken by Jose of fire on Friday, Vernal Equinox, 2009:

I was already exhausted. Jose and I had hiked down the mountain earlier in the afternoon on Friday to try to reconnoiter the situation with the fire below El Higueron. However, on the way back, we got separated because of the fire and smoke, and I was never so glad to see him as when he came back for me - even though I’d told him on the mobile to find his own way out, that I was okay. He still came back for me. And later, as I followed him at a quick trot up the mountain, we stopped and ate an orange. Never has an orange tasted so good! You can get some idea of how scary these fires are by watching the tall, strong firefighters on TV coming back from the frontlines, covered in soot, completely exhausted, eyes blank from hours of focused activity, staying calm, working in a team.

Saturday at 5:40AM, Armando began fighting the fire from above the mountain with our other employees and Jorge from Finca Hamadryas. Also, dozens of Ciudad Colon firemen and Minaet volunteer forest firefighters tackled the fire from below, supported by Memito and his team from the neighboring finca where the fire started. They worked hard all day, eating nothing but oranges provided by El Tigre. Had I known, they would have had big piles of sandwiches, and anything else they wanted. That was another faux pas and a new lesson learned: never forget to feed and support the firefighters - be proactive! When they left late that evening, both the fire chief and the head Minaet man really felt confident that this time they had got it under control. Gerry spoke to them when he drove down there to pick up our guys, who were also just coming off the mountain. They all piled into the car, filthy, scraped up and utterly exhausted.

Early Sunday morning, however, our guys had to return to the frontlines again, as flames had reappeared and an apparently new fire had started and was approaching the Finca - and, this time, we were on our own…

We made at least four calls to 911 that morning but nobody showed up. Gerry’s last phone call was at about 2pm, hoping against all hope that professional firefighters were on their way.

However:

Gerry to 911 Operator: “I phoned hours ago. Is anyone coming to help us?”

911 Operator: “Please hold while I check with the firemen….no, nobody is coming.”

Gerry then called Carlos at Minaet again, who was also frustrated - nobody wants a forest to burn: “I’m really sorry but we have nobody working on a Sunday.”

Luckily, Armando was being more productive. Gerry had called Armando during the morning and told him that he feared that the professionals were not going to arrive, and that he should try to recruit (persuade, bribe, cajole, whatever was needed) volunteers from the village to help Jose contain the fire from encroaching further up the mountain - and closer to us...

And, amazingly, that’s exactly what he did. He recruited six guys from the village and, together with Jose and himself, they successfully managed to keep the fire from reaching Reserva El Tigre! They worked all day and they worked smart! You can’t just charge into a fire like horses out of the stable yard. You need a strategy, tactics and resources, carving out a fire barrier, sometimes fighting fire with fire, choosing which fires to fight, always working together as a team. Always Safety First!

Now, on Monday, I wish to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who helped us save our precious woodlands at Reserva El Tigre. Here’s the team who worked so hard yesterday, and who managed to contain our fire damage to mostly charral, 200 meters inside El Tigre, when so many hectares on the other side were destroyed:

Photo taken by Jose of Sunday team on his mobile:

Armando, Jose, Victor, Alejandro, Armando Jose (who fetched water and supplies back and forth to the firefighters), Israel, Joaquin and Jaime, thank you.

And then, we really got lucky. Last night, the wind died down to almost nothing, and Mother Nature gave us a cool, completely still night, which meant that, by this morning, only a few puffs of smoke remained - although Jose and Israel returned to the fire-lines again early, just to make sure… Thank You Mother Nature.

And a final thank you to anyone else who helped in the fight, who either we forgot to mention, or who we never knew was there. Thank you for helping to save a forest this past equinox weekend, March 20-22, 2009.

And now, an apology.

I am sorry if we seemed a bit rude to all of you innocent weekenders, hiking, riding, biking in El Rodeo or Piedras Negras. All you wanted to do was escape from a hellish work week and enjoy a nice day in the country. I am sorry we drove so fast, spraying up road dust. But, when there is a forest fire, and nobody works on a Sunday, things get a trifle fraught…

But, Never Again on a Sunday. We - that is me, Yaneth, Armando, Jose - plan to sign up for firefighting training with Minaet. If we can recruit a larger group of committed locals to be volunteers, trained and equipped, then more people will be available, and able to respond faster and more effectively to the next fire - although Yaneth thinks I’m too old and Minaet won’t have me!

Everybody felt the weight of possibly losing the forest this weekend; everyone cried, aching and feeling helpless to stop the fire. All weekend long I cried, wept, sometimes howled in despair, whenever I watched another magnificent Guanacaste tree burst into flames. Once, I actually screamed in empathy. But for Gerry’s sake (“I can do nothing if I also have to worry about you!”) I took the proverbial deep breath, focused, smiled, encouraged the kids, and tried to be useful in any way possible. Yaneth even saw a large troop of monkeys down at the massive higueron tree, waiting out the fire, very quiet but with some of them whimpering. Everybody felt it.

The Zona Protectora of El Rodeo is the last remnant of primary forest extant in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, and much beloved by all nature lovers. Why should anyone care? El Rodeo is just a remnant, not even connected as a corridor to anywhere! Well, there could be corridors soon, if we humans would just stop burning and cutting in forest areas; if we would just let nature connect the dots: corridors of forest, like highways for wildlife.
This remnant forest recharges untold gallons of mountain-fresh water back into the Jaris and Virilla rivers. And it also clears tons of carbon dioxide from the air, with carbon-fixing giants like, Ceibas, Pochotes, Balsas, Bernoullias, etc.

Now, on Monday, after the fire this past weekend, I feel more strongly than ever that I was born to protect this forest - and to become a firefighter, if Minaet will have me…

Also, our firearms training is still on! The training will do us good. Just like with firefighting, using firearms requires a zen-like calm.

In other news:

GRAK was back in court (on behalf of Merck, of course…) last week.

Municipality people visited El Tigre to assess the fines for our overdue renovation permit. After everything that has happened, all we could do was laugh.

P.S.
Sorry hiking buddies! It’s still not safe to hike the mountain this soon after the fire - the natives are restless! We have seen snakes on the move this morning, trying to find a new spot to settle down. Snakes normally never move about during the day - especially in this hot weather. We need a few more days for everything to settle down.
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Written on Thursday before the fire changed everything, but more relevant than ever:

Thanks to our Tree Pals in Costa Rica, we are beginning to identify less common species of trees at El Tigre! I recently sent out an SOS requesting help (sorry Kathryn, Maestro Humberto, Ingeniero Forestal, about hard to open format).

Agustin Contreras promptly nailed both species - Coccoloba acapulcensis f.Polygonac; and Lafoensis punicifola f.Lythrac!

Who is Agustin Contreras? Well, just for starters, Tin is a student of El Gran Maestro Luis Poveda, of the Universidad Nacional. Need I say more?

My questions piqued Tin’s interest. So, the next day, he came over and promptly nailed more species! Bam, Bam, Bam! He found two Swartzia species: S. cubensis and S. simplex. Also, Cedrela salvadorensis! We haven’t had so much fun since back in 2005, when we carried out our first review with Ingenieros Forestales Manuel and Yamileth (elmundoforestal.com). We nailed a lot of species then, but many remained ‘unknown’.
There is still much work in this premontane forest for many dissertations and theses - vines, butterflies, eco-systems - for so many students, now and into the future.

Armando hiked with Tin, while I wandered the gardens with his wife, Satia - a Tica but with parents from Michigan, and with whom I felt an immediate connection - and their 5 month old baby, Urun - named after the third largest mountain in Costa Rica. Urun is already a great mountain of a baby - wanting to burst forth from his baby constraints and plunge forth into the world. They visited on the Tuesday before the vernal equinox - under a hot, burning sun - so Urun just loved getting plunged into the swimming pool by Yaneth and Marcia while we ate lunch. Next time they come over - which I hope will be soon - we shall teach baby Urun how to swim. He is at the perfect age to begin!

I grew up in Michigan with all the lakes and, like most everybody else in Michigan, learned how to swim before walking. I don’t remember learning how to swim - my dad just put me in the lake water and it went from there. I have no fear of water - I respect and understand it, especially stormy waves and undertow - but I fear it not.

Many people are terrified by water (never learned to swim)…

Or earthquakes…

Or hurricanes (New Orleans)…

I fear fire. Something deep inside me from generations back into the DNA - has imprinted this.

Farewell to Rover the Vagabond

2009-03-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

It’s all over for Rover…in this particular doggy world. We came across Rover at the local soccer field a few days ago while out horseback riding. Poor Rover! He looked and smelled awful!

“Remember this dog?” Asked Jose

I sure did! A couple of years ago, Rover spent a couple of weeks with us and we all just loved him! Rover with the bright eyes and wagging tail - he was just irresistible! However, Rover was a classic vagabond and, sure enough, a few weeks after enjoying all our comforts and attentions at Reserva El Tigre, he left us - off to the next household of adoring fans. He was a heartbreaker that dog - over the years he wandered all over the landscape, enjoying farm and village life alike. But, like everybody else, we could never entice him to return back to us!

Well, on this day, it looked to us like Rover had reached the end of the line. We brought him back to the stable and bathed him with shampoo, which perked him up a bit. We could almost see the old sparkle back in his eyes. But he was very sick and probably contagious to the other animals, so I wanted Rover safely away from El Tigre as soon as we could organize it.

Well, our vet didn’t want Rover at the horse clinic either - and not just because Jorge was still cagey over Lucero. He took one look at poor Rover and said he was too far gone and risked contaminating the entire clinic - they had no isolation room - and were still boarding horses from a recent equestrian event.

Unfortunately, we understood only too well. In fact, just as Rover left for the vet, I whispered to Janet, “Make sure you sterilize everything Rover came into contact with: clothes, surfaces, everything!”

Janet gave me the usual Look, that says, “Do I look clueless to you, O Ye Who Bringeth Home All The Strays…?”

Well, Anna* found a vet who admitted Rover into his clinic, but we soon learned about the cost of treatment - lots of money, with no good prognosis despite all of it. Sadly, I’d been down this road too many times before and, therefore, didn’t hesitate to say,

“Have the vet put Rover down.”

This was soon done and Anna stayed with him until the very end, when Rover drifted off to, as Gerald says, “The Great Kennel in the Sky”. Farewell to Rover. He lived a full and happy vagabond life, and spent his last day in caring arms.

Still, animal rescues continue all over the country. The recent earthquake at Poas Volcano brought out the best of people all over Costa Rica - reports say the vast majority of Costa Ricans and residents alike offered some kind of aid to those who suffered. In the case of the animals, perhaps it was the television images of cows all over the ravaged hillside, lost, hungry and sick with mastitis, mooing disconsolately for want of milking. People all over Costa Rica responded, from donating time and/or money to animal rescue groups, to individuals adopting animals.

Fundraising helps to support the hardworking, front-line animal groups, who put up with so much grief caused by irresponsible humans. The main goal uniting all animal groups is this: spay and neuter them all; also making the mixed breed the most fashionable breed! Don’t purchase an animal - go adopt one at your local Shelter! We have found that mixed breeds are healthy, sweet and easy to train.

Times are tough and needs are many, so we were thrilled to learn that Penny Santomenno and her dedicated team will, once more, but perhaps for the last time, put on the famous Rice Table - Rijstafel - Indonesian Banquet in support of the Animal Shelter in Heredia. All of the food and drink has been generously donated, and the event takes place in Penny’s beautiful Heredia home. Email me or Leigh Moynihan for details on this March 7th event: donation - 30K colones, or about US$58. Thank you, Penny, for doing this once more - seeing your sweet smile again is alone worth the admission!

Now, with the current economic situation, our animal rescue friends are busier than ever - everyone I know has taken in more animals. It makes me so proud of Costa Rica! We are just one among many households with a slew of dogs, cats, horses, chickens, etc.

Here’s our latest arrival, itty bitty Dilly-Doo, who showed up at the Finca with a vastly larger female dog who just towered over him, but whose honor this little fellow most valiantly protected. He guarded his lady all day long, growling and snapping at any other dog that happened to get too close to her. The spectacle caused great amusement for us all. After a few days, however, the female went back to live with Armando’s daughter, Elena, in the hamlet of El Rodeo, and little Dilly stayed with us - now neutered. I initially named him P.C. - little gentleman in Spanish - but the kids would have none of it and renamed him Dillan.

So many more mouths to feed…

Is there any GOOD NEWS out there in the world today?

Yes! Turns out that 2009 will be a most bountiful year for seeds! Armando predicted that this would be a good seed year last November, when he observed earlier than normal leaf drop, followed by many more forest trees flowering and seeding this season when they had not the last. In fact, we have seen trees produce seeds for the first time in years!

Brightening up the forest and roadways right now are the dazzling display of the Tabebuias - yellow- Cortez amarillo (T. ochracea, f.Bignoniac.) and also the pink Roble de sabana (T. rosea).

There is too much flowering and seeding at Reserva El Tigre to list everything - like bucketfuls of Madero negro, Guapinol, Thounidium and Guanacaste - come and get them! We have collected and identified the following seeds so far this February, 09:

Dalbergia retusa (Papilionac.), ‘Cocobolo’. Yes, that’s retusa as in ROSEWOOD! This is the first time in 3 years that we have seen seeds produced by these endangered trees. Reserva El Tigre protects perhaps the last naturally occurring stand of Rosewood in the Central Valley!

Other Papilionacs seeding: Lonchocarpus salvadorensis, ‘Chaperno’; L.velutinus, ‘Comenegro’; Gliricidia sepium, ‘Madero Negro’.

Also,
Cedrela odorata (Meliac.), ‘Cedro amargo’;
Hura crepitans (Euphorbiac.), ‘Jabillo’;
Albizia adinocephala (Mimosac.), ‘Gavilancillo’;
Brosimum alicastrum (Morac), ‘Ojoche’ - just getting started - also, B. Colorado;
Diospyros salicifolia (Ebenac.), NOT Diospyros digyna, ‘Mabola, Sapote negro’YET;
Cochlospermum vitifolium (Bixac.), ‘Poro Poro’;
Gyrocarpus jatrophifolius (Hernandiac.), ‘Volador’;
Plumeria rubra (Apocynac.), ‘Frangipani’, Yellow, White, Pink;
Terminalia oblonga (Combretac.), ‘Guayabon, Sura’;
Pseudobombax septenatum (Bombacac), ‘Ceibo Verde’.

Last year, we collected Ceiba pentandra seeds and they germinated quickly. We already have several saplings planted back in the charral, with more to go in during the rainy season.

Take a look at a first year sapling of the mighty Ceiba pentandra tree:

It’s windy here in Costa Rica, and that makes the bees and wasps ornery. While out hiking in windy weather this time of year, make sure to stay alert. Give beehives, like the one pictured here, a wide berth.

The wind knocked this tree down, bringing the beehive down with it - still intact, right onto our favorite horse trail - and the bees are still going about their normal business. We are still observing it to see if they stay or go. A beehive like this is not normally so close to the ground, but the horses seem to graze next to it quite undisturbed. I took this photograph in still weather, but I’m sure the horses will keep their distance too when the wind kicks up again.

Feeling a bit morose from the gloomy events in the world? Go check out your local theatre group! You never know who you might run into either on stage or off. The other night, we went to see ‘Calendar Girls’, put on by Costa Rica’s English-speaking Little Theatre Group, and saw friends on stage for the first time: Sheila Pacheco (the British Consul) plays Brenda; and Debbie Jean plays crying Cora, adorable in her cute rain gear. The show was hilarious, with the strongest actors - Karen Rae, Vicky Longland and Ann Antkiw - carrying the show, albeit with fine support from the rest of the cast. Go see this wonderful show! You will leave with a smile on your face - and maybe thinking of getting on stage or helping out with the fun people behind stage…

* Anna Coy Dalton recently moved here from Colorado. She teaches people how to breathe consciously, and it can cause life-altering experiences. In Anna’s tapes, her voice and music put you into a hypnotic state - relax - all suggestion is positive - breathe health, love, spirit - everyone has a different experience. I liked it - it goes well beyond ‘stop and take a deep breath’. Anna’s method helped me to ‘breathe’ through to my capering horse and relax him. It also has helped me to cultivate ‘qi’ in doing Hunyuan Taijiquan. If you are interested in Anna’s method of conscious breathing, contact her directly at: www.inspiringyourlife.com or email: anna@inspiringyourlife.com