Here is a second installment of my "Letters from Costa Rica."  I have put the subtopics in bold so that you can scan down and choose the parts you may wish to read. I hope you will enjoy sharing some of the extraordinary experiences which living in this country provides. One of the things that happens on a sabbatical is that you have time to do some writing which was impossible before.

HOMES:

design esthetics: We LOVE the esthetics of interior design which we have seen. Our apartment has clean white walls, with lots of beautiful wood: ceiling and rafters on both floors, trim, shelves, cupboard, and floors of the second floor likewise. [We were recently chagrined to learn that this gorgeous wood is almendro, taken from local forests. It is warm and rich in appearance. Our beautiful interior may be evidence of the terrible deforestation which has occurred in Costa Rica over the past 50 years.] There is lots of glass, giving especially the second floor a feeling of being in a tree house. The weather is moderate enough that they don't have to worry about insulation or even tight fitting windows or doors. The layout is very efficient--we are delighted with our apartment.

shower and plumbing: Many (most?) homes do not have hot water. We have "warm" water in our shower in the form of "instant" hot water heater. You turn on the water slowly for about a minute, and then the water is warm. Spice is added to your shower when the water decides to turn quite hot (or cold) in the middle with no warning. Another quirk is that they do not want you to dispose of "sanitary paper" down the toilets. Then someone explained that "sanitary paper" would be toilet paper... A covered basket receives that material. Also, drained water from sinks is directed into gutters running next to the houses. These are not the most esthetic in appearance or smell...

TRANSPORTATION:

Buses continue to be a source of education, amazement and ready transport.

cost: the bus I take to the Medical Research Facility (Ciudad de Investigacion) runs literally every five minutes during the day. (Not at all after 11 PM, I found out...) Two types of buses run identical routes: one has hard plastic seats and costs only 60 colones (about 21 cents). The other has cushioned seats and costs 90 colones (32 cents). electronic detectors: It took me a while to understand and master these. I noticed that every once in a while that the bus driver would get very agitated, and give me a stern lecture (the point of which was entirely lost on me!) Finally, I realized that there are electronic detectors in the front of the bus which count the number of persons that pass through. If you stand there, either waiting for change, or getting ready to disembark from the bus, it counts you twice, and the bus driver is charged for (non-existent) persons who did not pay... Indeed, I have now learned to hand a bill to the driver, pass immediately through the detectors, and then wait for him to pass your change over a barrier behind his seat.

bus stations: The bus service around the country is excellent in terms of coverage, though the quality of buses varies dramatically. We took a bus up to Monteverde last weekend (see below) which was a "Blue Bird" school bus, with seats designed for elementary school kids. The head rest hit me in the middle of the back. Also, there are numerous bus companies, and each has its own terminal. These are dispersed around the city, with often no connecting service, making connection between busses difficult. Also, some of the most important terminals are located in rough parts of the city, adding a sense of apprehension to the task of making connections.

Walking: Many people walk wearing backpacks as they move about the city (I fit right wearing mine as I commute to and from the lab). However. I am constantly amazed by the "pitfalls" which abound in your path. With some frequency, one comes upon holes in the sidewalks which are literally two or three feet deep. There may have been a grate or cover, but it is destroyed or missing.  Caution signs or tape are nonexistent.   I can imagine someone in the US suing the pants off somebody for such a thing. You just have to keep your eyes open as you walk.  Even guide books say to look down as you walk, and look up only when you halt your walking.

FIELD TRIP TO MONTEVERDE: The six hour bus ride from San Jose up to Monteverde which Jill and I took includes 2-3 hours up a steep, narrow, pot-holed dirt "road" which connects Monteverde with the outside world. There is a movement among commercial interests to pave it, but many locals are against this "progress," knowing that easy access to the hoards of tourists would destroy their beloved settlement's atmosphere and environment. Does it ring a bell?

This idyllic community is perched on the top of the continental divide with views to both the Pacific and the Caribbean (the latter seldom actually seen because of the clouds. It was founded in 1951 by a group of Quakers who left the United States because of opposition to the US military draft, some of whom had been arrested because of their non-cooperation. Soon after they established their settlement, they set aside mountain top acreage as a watershed area to protect their drinking water supply (a lesson most communities in the States could learn from). It became clear that this forested watershed area was also a rich ecosystem, and with the help of the World Wildlife Fund, Nature Conservancy, a children's global ecological movement, etc., it became a fabulous cloud forest reserve of world renown. Numerous animals, including the jaguar, the sloth, three kinds of monkeys, etc. live in this reserve. Of the ones we saw, here are a few highlights.

BIRDS AND ANIMALS:

You are probably aware of my keen interest in birds. I have never seen so many new, startlingly beautiful, awesome birds in a single day in my life. Jill and I were a combination of dumbstruck, slack jawed and electrified all at the same time when we saw the Blue crowned Motmot. It wears a thin black triangle which surrounded its eyes like a bandit's mask which, with its electric blue crown, makes the bird look like a gangster with slicked back psychedelic hair. Its back and wings are electric green, with wing tips trimmed in dark, and, as if that were not enough, it carries a tail longer than its body which is tipped by a pair of thin long stems from which are suspended twin plumes. As we gawked and followed the bird down towards a house, two men (apparently employees at the park) emerged and came towards us. We ohhed and ahhed and pointed so that they could see this amazing visage. They shrugged their shoulders and said, "Toda via," which, as best as we could discern, meant, "We see those all the time." It is a lesson in how we can become blind to the beautiful things around us when we see them every day.

Resplendent Quetzal: the holy grail of many nature enthusiasts who tour the reserve. It is a bird with brilliant bluish-green head and back, red breast, and in the male, a spiky headdress and two foot long trailing tail coverts! We took a guided tour, or doubtless would never have seen them (both male and female). Our guide Samuel, part local Indian, was discussing a poisonous plant which birds can eat because they eat another plant which contains the antidote when he heard something fall through the leaves (hardly noticeable to the rest of us). "I think that is a Quetzal..." He scurried up the trail, set up his telescope, and within a minute or so we got our first glimpse of electric green high in the branches of a wild avocado tree. He explained that Quetzals eat their fruit whole, favoring avocados. They then perch high in the branches digesting the flesh,. When the pit has been stripped of nutrients, it is regurgitated intact. It was the falling of the seed through the leaves which he had heard! I was blown away by the subtlety of the clue, and the high development of his skill as a guide.

Coati: This relative of the raccoon at first looked like a large domestic cat with a long tail held upright. Males travel alone (which we saw), females in family groups. Its front feet are turn in "pigeon-toed" as it walked along. It has some of the similar habits of the raccoon when it comes to garbage picking, and indeed, I saw it behind the preserve lodge, scrounging for foods scraps.

TREES AND OTHER PLANTS OF THE CLOUD FOREST:

Words cannot convey the lushness of the bosque nuboso (cloud forest). Bathed in a mist formed as the moist Caribbean air rises and passes over the mountain tops, many plants are adapted to capture water from the mist (one bromeliad can hold a half gallon of water in its nooks and crannies). Three kinds of giant trees predominate this magical jungle world of vines, ferns and behemoth trees: wild avocado, Ficus, and sapotes. Each individual mature tree provides support for an incredible diversity of plant and animal life forms on its trunk, branches and canopy. Here are some interesting notes on these woods:

Ficus: These "fig" trees begin their lives as epiphytes, seeds deposited by birds high in the branches of other trees where they sprout, and live as "air plants." They then extend their roots down through the air to the ground where they take root, and begin to adhere to the trunk of the host tree. The fig surrounds the host tree, and ultimately strangles it. The result is a HUGE Ficus with sinewy perforated trunk (which you can see through). No trace remains of the original host tree.

balsa: Our guide pointed out a balsa tree, a large specimen with a diameter of about three feet . He asked how old we thought it was. Turns out (as I suspected because balsa wood is so light) that it grows extremely fast, and this large specimen was about 25 years old!

ferns: I have never seen a greater number of variety of ferns in my life! The are seen everywhere, rowing as epiphytes, as broad-leaved forms, and most strikingly to me, as trees! I had never seen them except in paintings in our Biology texts where they are portrayed as the predominant plant of the forests from the carboniferous age (when coal was formed. Here they were in real life!

orchids: They are scattered everywhere, including in "waste" areas along the roadside, as epiphytes, and as large rooted plants.

bromeliad: These are the most common epiphytes and perch on branches and trunks of most trees. Their leaves appear like the leaves on top of a pineapple (which happens to be a bromeliad). They produce gorgeous blooms, and are cultivated domestically for that purpose. They are one of the easily maintained plants our landlord gardener puts out.

liverworts and mosses: It seemed that every square inch of the cloud forest was covered with mosses. The branches, all furry and green, looked carpeted in deep pile. One could sense how they could suck up water like a sponge. And liverworts, fleshy relatives of mosses, formed moist thick overlapping shingle-scale colonies. In the biology lab at Clermont, we have to send off to a scientific supply house to show them to our students. Here, you step outside and are surrounded.

CHEESE FACTORY:

In the early 1950s, the Quaker settlement focused on dairy farming. The often impassable 35 km of deeply rutted dirt oxen trails connecting the settlement with the nearest highway meant that milk could not be dependable or expeditiously shipped out, so they quickly turned to making cheese as the best way to use the milk to earn money. There has been considerable growth of the endeavor, with farmers from all over the region bringing their milk to be processed into cheese. The Monteverde Brand of cheese is now sold throughout Costa Rica, including our local supermercado, "Mas por Menos."

Some milk brought to the factory by Ox Cart: Early Sunday morning, Jill and I took a walk along a tiny road which twisted and wound its way down the mountainside and were passed on the road by a cart drawn by twin oxen. A man sat driving the cart, and empty ten gallon cans rattled in the back. This form of ox cart drawn by twin oxen is one of the common symbols of Costa Rica, and are often richly decorated with brightly painted geometric patterns.

Later, just before we went to the local Friend's Meeting, we visited the Cheese Factory (we, having raised goats for decades, know that the milk must be milked twice a day, and the milk must be immediately processed...) Thus the factory was fully functioning. If you know how I get into making our own cheese, then you may not be surprised to hear that I stood for an hour in the observation room trying to assign purposes to their activities, based on what I know about cheese making.

That is certainly enough for now (if not too much???). Best wishes for your health and happiness,

David Fankhauser

Other items to be fleshed out in the future:

A huge white 1,000 gallon tank receives milk delivered seven days of the week.

Jill and I bus ride up and down the mountain, reserved seats

folk dancers on bus

Mary Stuckey's home with a view to take your breath away.

weather

continental divide

scorpion

Samuel
 

Heard  on short wave radio on BBC (our contact with the rest of the globe):

Five traits of women most sought by men:

1. looks

2. hips (0.7 ratio of circumference to height?)

3. 2.5 years younger

4. nurturing (? not positive)

5. fidelity

traits of men most sought by women:

1. power, status

2. wealth

3. 3 year older

4. dependable

5. looks (symmetrical, build)
 
 

theft at bus station