See GreenSpot.travel and the mysterious spheres on the latest 2009 Condé Nast List of 32 Dream Trips

What’s big and round and hangs out in the ground? Frankly, no one is quite sure, but whatever they are, about 300 of them have been found and they date back to 400 B.C.E. The mysterious (and strangely alluring) stone spheres of Costa Rica have been uncovered primarily in the southern Diquis Delta, with some found as far afield as the Isla Del Caño. Made of a granite-like rock called granodiorite and topping out at two meters in diameter and 16 tons, these giant marvels raise more questions about ancient native cultures than their discovery has answered. Who made them? How were they made so precisely (some are 96% perfectly spherical) with what must have been rudimentary tools? How were they moved 25 to 30 miles from the sites where the rock was quarried? And the number one question with a bullet – why were they made?

There’s no shortage of theories about the spheres. Local legends suggest that the makers had a potion that softened the rock, and that each sphere houses a single coffee bean. If you’ve ever had Costa Rican coffee, that might seem like a fitting tribute, or perhaps an obsessive level of attention to freshness. More recently, archeologists have noted the stones’ proximity to burial sites and theorized a memorial or spiritual significance.

Workers employed by the United Fruit Company were among the first in the modern era to discover the spheres as they cleared land for banana plantations, and those fellas were convinced the spheres were full of gold. Solution? Drill holes and blow the spheres to the heavens with dynamite. So much for treading lightly on the land. Some of the reconstituted victims of their handiwork can be seen at the National Museums in San José. Other people believed that the spheres made excellent garden ornaments (the sizes vary from a grapefruit to the behemoths already described), so an actual count of all of the stones has never been made, and preservation has been a struggle.

We’re fascinated by these monumental marbles, and we hope to draw attention to the work being done to study and protect the spheres in their original settings. GreenSpot.travel trips have included stops at a major excavation site with tours led by the archeologists leading the effort to understand the role (and the roll) of these uniquely Costa Rican wonders. Call or email us (info@greenspot.org) if you would like to learn more about including the spheres in your travel itinerary.

So dinner last night was at La Cascada, probably the best known restaurant in the little town of La Fortuna that sits near the base of the Arenal Volcano . Our steaks were pretty good but a little tough (which is pretty common for a steak in Costa Rica) Over the years, this restaurant has been everything from the top restaurant in the area to a place where you probably wouldn’t even want to stop.

One place we always spend time at in our trips to Costa Rica is the Arenal Area, because Irene’s family lives here. And one constant of this area is that aren’t enough good places to eat. I know we’re supposed to be the experts and we try a lot of places, but if anyone has tips on where they had a good meal near Arenal, please share.

We move GS operations to CR at least a couple times a year, so we have the chance to explore some of the exciting new adventure and adrenaline experiences available, as well as find out which ones aren’t living up to their billing and see how some of our favorites are holding up. We get a chance to talk to and have fun (check out the verb vacilar in Spanish) with our Costa Rican friends and colleagues, and we also take some time to visit some of the places that our travelers visit regularly, experiencing first-hand the latest and greatest that our favorite lodges have to offer. Somebody has to do it…

Remember to post any good Arenal dining recommendations here!

The Goldfarb Family
July 2008

As someone who spends her life writing and thinking about food, I really enjoyed the fresh flavors of Costa Rica, especially the fresh mangoes and pineapple, fresh herbs, and locally caught fish with exotic-tasting sauces. But what we loved most was the abundant wildlife in the national parks. I found it so enchanting to be sitting in the little open air dining room in Corcovado Tent Camp and Lodge, and watching a family of Spider Monkeys come through the camp for their daily snack. We watched them leap from tree to tree, shimmy up the trunks of the coconut and mango trees, and feast on the ripe mangoes, often while hanging from the tree by one their tails or perching in a wobbly branch. Any mangoes they didn’t finish or rejected after picking them, landed with a thud on the tent below, probably to be picked up soon by the giant iguanas or fire ants. Behind us was the Corcovado National Park, and in front of us, past the monkeys, were the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing down on the empty beach—at least empty of humans!

Aviva Goldfarb has shared two recipes to share her memories of Costa Rica:

Tortuguero Tilapia with Cilantro-Lime Sauce & Mango and Black Bean Salad

Our thanks to Costa Rica traveler, Aviva Goldfarb!

Recipes from The Six O’ Clock Scramble, www.thescramble.com copyright 2008.