Meeting Doña Mara, the famous lady in our Costa Rica trips, was really special.

I learned how to make tortillas, not only from scratch, but on a wood stove, outside in a “Rancho” which is basically like a gazebo; a covered kitchen with a rustic, old-fashioned oven.

First we walked along the dirt road over to her neigbor’s farm where they grown sugar cane, corn, and lots of other fruits and vegetables. Here they take the fresh corn and grind it, making it into the corn flour called “masa.”   They also have an old-fashioned “Trapiche” which is a manually-operated sugar cane grinder.

  

In case you are wondering, Doña (which is pronounced Don-ya and means Señora or Mrs.) is the way all married or older ladies are addressed in Costa Rica. Men are addressed as Don – Don Luis, or Don Jose, etc.  It’s a sign of respect, even used among friends. Part of the travel experience is learning the culture right? For me it’s the part I love the most!

Doña Mara and I watched and waited for the corn masa, paid for it as well as for some “Limones” basically a cross between a lime, lemon and orange, to make fresh juice to go along with our tortillas, and “Tamal”.  Tamal is like a coconut & corn bread… so yummy.

Making tortillas is actually fairly easy, it’s amazing that we most often buy them in packages. But nothing compares to a fresh one off the stove. A little crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.

 

Often families visit Doña Mara and her family for the afternoon, to get a slice of rural Costa Rican culture, fill their bellies on tasty fresh food, and of course try their hand at making authentic tortillas. While it’s just one afternoon, and a fun and memorable experience for the travelers, it really helps the people there. It’s a direct contribution to not only Doña Mara’s family, but the neighbors where she buys her corn, and lots of GreenSpot travelers also visit the local school, and make donations to our community development project.

 

Another bonus is getting to meet her adorable grandkids!

It’s amazing to me how rising early (as is the norm in rural Costa Rica), spending the day in a breezy rancho, cooking (which I barely ever do at home), and just taking in the sights, sounds and views of the farm, can be the most relaxing, peaceful and heartwarming experience. There’s something to be said for taking pleasure in the simple things in life.

- Kelly Galaski

Have you met Doña Mara? Tell us about your experience!

We arrived at La Cusinga Rainforest Lodge after dark, and all that could be heard were the waves crashing below and the sounds of night. Here there is not only the wildlife you hope to see, but a variety of insects unimaginable. There are huge praying mantises, bright green grasshoppers, and lots of other unidentifiable creatures.

La Cusinga’s range of initiatives in sustainability include construction that fits well into the natural landscape, built with natural materials including the wooden lampshades, solar panels for electricity and water heating, extensive contribution to conservation and support to local schools, organic food grown onsite, and efficient water and energy conservation.

 
Our first walk in the morning greeted us with an abundance of wildlife. Only a few minutes onto the trail that leaves right from the outdoor dining area and main viewing deck, a family of howler monkeys were hanging lazily in the trees. They didn’t move an inch and let us watch them for quite a while and take pictures. The call of these small black monkeys can be heard, especially in the morning, in the distance and it sounds like a bunch of angry gorillas. When you see how small they are it is surprising that they can make such a loud, growling noise.

Next on the way we saw the rare and endangered green and black poison dart frogs. They are tiny but beautiful creatures. They even stuck around for us to take more pictures on the way back.

Down the trail towards the waves crashing on the rocks, our young guide told us he sees turtles every time he comes to this spot. We waited a few minutes, and sure enough, we saw the round brown shells just under the surface, and then a couple of heads pop out just enough to make it easier for us to see them. You can’t get close up to them here as they are down below swimming around the great big rocks but knowing that they are there and getting a small glimpse is exciting enough.

We ventured down another trail that led us to the beach which is part of the 800 acre nature preserve that makes up La Cusinga’s property.  The beach is wild, no amenities or development of any kind. Just you, the dense forest as a backdrop and the big, warm, waves.  We crossed through a cavernous tunnel under the rocks to a smaller cove to take a dip in the almost hot ocean waters.

On our way back the monkeys were still hanging about, not wanting to move in the heat we figured.

Then we were off for lunch, and we ate at a nearby cooperatively-owned ecolodge called Canto de Ballenas (Call of the Whales).  I have a friend who works there so he got the kitchen to whip us up a filling and tasty lunch of flavorful vegetables, rice & beans, and my favorite, garlic fish fillets.  Of course we had frescos of banana, pineapple and orange juice and fresh, strong coffee.

 
After lunch we continued down the road to the entrance to the National Marine Park, and “whale’s tail” where the long stretch of beach goes into a point shaped exactly as a whale’s tail. Pretty coincidental considering this is the part of the country the hump-backed whales visit each January and February as they migrate up the Pacific Ocean.  We walked along the beach to the end point where we sat down to take in the beautiful sunset.

We capped off our last night at the best restaurant in the region, called Citrus. It is absolutely beautiful, with luxurious details, outdoor candle-lit tables, mozaic tiles, pre-Colombian inspired art, not to mention delicious food and surprisingly good prices. Oscar, our great driver and I both had fish ceviche in coconut milk and cilantro, Jim and Usha shared a hot goat cheese salad and an eggplant lasagne and we toasted with a glass of wine to a wonderful week in Costa Rica.

- Kelly Galaski

After a yummy breakfast of homemade tortillas con queso(with cheese) and scrambled eggs, we were lucky enough to get visited by my favorite birds. Two chestnut-billed toucans arrived in the tree right above Jim and Usha’s cabin, giving us a great view of their spectacular colours and big bills. They sat above us in the branches long enough for us to watch them for a while and take in their beauty.

En route to La Cusinga Rainforest Lodge on the southern central Pacific Coast near Uvita, about an hour and a half away, we stopped at another private nature reserve called Hacienda Barú. Hacienda Baru has over 800 acres of forest, some converted from pasture 50 years ago to grow into dense rainforest. Jim and Usha wanted to do a canopy tour ziplining so we were off for an adventure! Hacienda Baru’s canopy tour is an ecological adventure, not just a fast ride through the trees. The guides are naturalists that bring their spotting scopes with them to point out and explain the varied wildlife on the way. There were three-toed sloths, leaf-cutter ants, and lots of different iguanas.

The reserve also has a butterfly farm and garden where six different species can be found, including their crysalids and the whole process can be seen. There is an orchid garden, a bird watching tower, and a soda for getting some filling Costa Rican food after getting a 3 hour adrenaline rush, or visiting the private beach.

- Kelly Galaski

Bird Watching in Costa Rica, Ecotourism are our specialty in Hacienda Baru. Our excellent naturalist guides will help you discover the wonders of the tropical rainforest, such as leaf cutter ants and sleepy sloths. On our tours you can experience everything from the Rainforest Canopy to Mangrove Swamps or the Jungle at Night, or enjoy the Beach.

Pablo Ureña’s family has been preserving primary forest on their farm for three generations.  As vast deserts of pineapple plantations encroach upon his property, and offers from Del Monte to sell his land are resisted, it becomes ever more apparent that his work is essential in maintaining the natural environment of the area, but he needs help.

After spending 12 years in the U.S., Pablo returned to the farm in Costa Rica to take care of his aging dad and to get back to a simpler life.  He named his farm Santuario Filaverde, or “Green Line Sanctuary”  because he knows the area is one of the last remaining pieces of primary forest in this land of corporate pineapple plantations. The forest is significant also because it continues the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, providing essential habitat for resident capuchin monkeys, birds, and there is even a family of pumas, one of which they recently photographed.

Pablo, his son Juan Pablo, his dad and sister, had Jim, Usha and I over for lunch after our morning hike in the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary nearby. They made us some delicious vegetables including squash (ayote & chayote), rice and beans and chicken, with freshly blended “fresco” of pineapple juice. 

  

Then we set out for a walk on the farm, riding first in the back of the truck through the pasture towards their forest sanctuary. The most beautiful aspect of their forest is the towering matapalo or strangler fig trees and winding vines, evidence of it being never touched for hundreds of years.

 

Emerging out of the forest the contrast of the surrounding pineapple plantations is striking. Knowing that the area was all natural primary rainforest and is now a vast field of pineapples that are sprayed with pesticides and injected with hormones to grow faster makes you think twice about that next pineapple, and you hope that it has come from someone’s farm, grown naturally among other plants.

 

 

Pablo loves to give tours of his property, and makes a great snack of pupusas – fried tortillas filled with cheese, and coffee of course after the nice walk. His sense of humour and passion for his forest are contagious. All he needs is more visitors so that he can benefit from preserving this precious piece of nature.

-  Kelly Galaski

After a nice drive over the Talamanca mountains and through “Cerro la Muerte” a cloudy mountaintop where so many people died during the creation of the highway they call it the peak of death, we arrived at the small restaurant (called a “soda” by Costa Ricans), El Tabacon, that is owned by the family I used to live with. Dona Sidey and her daughter Daniela were waiting for us with fresh pineapple juice and the food prepared for us to start our “Costa Rican Typical Food” cooking lesson. We cut local vegetables from their farm called Ayote and Chayote, which are two different squashes that are really tasty when chopped up into small cubes and cooked with some onions, red peppers, cilantro and other simple ingredients that create a healthy dish.

 

Then Usha tried her hand at tortillas, flattening the corn flour and water mixture into it round shape and throwing them into the frying pan for just a few minutes, and then grilling them on an open flame. Mmmm, yummy homemade tortillas! We also had homemade guacamole, rice and beans, and a salad made with shredded cabbage, tomato and cucumber with lime juice and cilantro for a dressing.

It was great to see Sidey, who was my host-mom when I lived here last year, but was more like a really good friend and confidante. We welled up with tears at the sight of each other, and were so happy to see each other even though it was just last year when I was here but without a phone or internet it is hard for us to keep in touch. Her daughters came over to the soda, along with her husband and two little most adorable grandchildren (on tractor) and our driver said he could see by how my face lit up how happy I was to see them. They are really wonderful people I’m lucky to be back. It’s amazing how some people can touch your heart and make you feel like family.

- Kelly Galaski

Today we arrived in another rural area of Costa Rica, the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor. It is named after the ornithologist (bird biologist) that lived here on 100 acres of pristine rainforest for 60 years, with his wife, studying the birds and writing books about the nature he was surrounded by and the birds that fascinated him. Dr. Skutch is author of Birds of Costa Rica, the book carried by avid birdwatchers that visit the country. Today his home is preserved inside the Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary which is open to the public for birdwatching tours and to see the ancient petroglyphs that lie deep within the forest.

The “Corridor” is so called because it is a designation given by the Ministry of Environment for areas that are between two protected nature reserves – in this case the Las Nubes cloud forest and Los Cusingos – which has the goal of increasing the total forested area to create one larger forested area for species to have a broader range of habitat.

The communities within this corridor mostly have sugar cane, coffee farms or pasture and therefore the forested areas are fragmented or separated by open spaces which means that species cannot move easily throughout the area. This necessitates initiatives such as the community-run tree nursery which grows and sells trees to farmers to dispurse throughout their coffee farms to create more sustainable shade-grown coffee. This also creates a need for incentives for the people to plant more trees, therefore there is a need for more demand for shade-grown coffee, more awareness on the benefits the tree cover can provide, and for more tourism to the area so that they can benefit monetarily from preserving the private forested farms.

 

Today we took a winding drive up out of the valley through the mountains and over into the valley of Santa Maria de Dota, part of the region of “Los Santos.”  90% of the population here makes their living from growing coffee. Even people’s backyards and sideyards are coffee plants. From the distance you can see the slopes covered in coffee plants, steep slopes as far as the eye can see. The coffee producers all belong to a cooperative, Coopedota (Dota is the name of the region) that was started in the 1950s by 9 farmers and has grown to over 700 members.  The cooperative helps the farmers earn a better price for their coffee by centralizing production and marketing to large buyers such as Starbucks, which purchases only high elevation, high quality coffee and pays a premium for it.

While the coffee in this region is not all shade-grown (which has a host of benefits for the environment and the quality of the coffee), the representative from Coopedota, Adriana, said that they have begun to promote shade-grown coffee and have the goal of becoming organic in five years. Already they utilize all wastes from the process by using the pulp and skins of the coffee cherries as fuel for the big drying ovens, they create ethanol for fuels, and have biodigestors that create methane to be used for fuel as well. They have a new organic fertilizer program which will help the farmers to use agricultural wastes to create fertilizer, which is not only natural but much less expensive than the synthetic fertilizers, allowing for a chance at better profits. Water used in the process of cleaning the coffee cherries is reused several times before being returned to farms for watering, rather than being used once and wasted.

 

We learned about the interesting process at the “Beneficio,” or processing plant, and while it is not coffee harvesting season so we could not see the process in action it was still really interesting.

In the afternoon we took a little hike on the private reserve at Savegre Lodge along the river through the forest to some beautiful waterfalls, which ended off the day nicely.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, where I used to live so I’m really excited about seeing everyone again. James and Usha are really looking forward to spending a couple of days with Luis Angel and his family in their cabin at “La Finca Escondida” (The Hidden Farm) where we will be treated to lots of tasty home-cooked meals and a great wealth of knowledge about the birds and nature of this lowland rainforest and farming area. There’s no internet in the rural community so I’ll see you in a few days when we’re on the coast at La Cusinga Ecolodge!

Our first stop on our trip to Costa Rica is Savegre Mountain Lodge in San Gerardo de Dota, a little valley among the mountains and forest. As you drive through the winding roads from San Jose, you go higher and higher until you reach the clouds. Literally. All of a sudden the clouds are passing by the car and you know you have arrived in the cloud forest. The cloud forest is different from the rain forest in the sense that clouds hang between the trees at the mountain tops almost all day every day.

 

It’s cooler here up at this elevation, 2200 metres (6400 ft) almost feels like the mountains in a temperate climate. This makes for an interesting forest because there are pine and oak trees, among moss covered rubber trees, vines, bamboo, lichens, bromeliads and millions of other plants.

This morning we (our guests Usha and James, and I) woke up early and went for a birdwatching tour through the forest with Melvin, our funny and knowledgeable guide. At one point he heard 6 different birdsongs and could identify them all simultaneously and he can spot something in an instant. He would set up his spotting scope (looks like a telescope to find birds that are hidden from the human eye below the treetops) within seconds of a bird flying by so that when it landed we could get a close-up look.

This area of the country is one of the best places to see the Resplendant Quetzal. It is one of the most spectacular birds I have ever seen, and judging by the amount of people with their expert cameras with massive telescopic lenses out on the search with different guides, it is a popular bird to add to your list.  We were lucky enough to see no less than six today!  We saw two couples along the road and then another couple inside the forest on the trail. First the female arrived, so we knew the male would be close by (It’s mating season). While the females are beautiful, the males are spectacular, with green spiky soft feathers on their heads, red bodies, and teal green backs with long plumage that is whispy in the wind.

In the afternoon, we decided to take part, at least in observation, of the procession along the road to the church for the easter celebration of the “stations of the cross.”  Usha, being from Africa is very interested in all of the cultural differences between where she grew up, where she lives now (the US), and Latin America. So we walked along as people from the small community here in this forested valley sang and prayed on this the most important day of the year for Catholics.

Tomorrow we are off to see the whole process of coffee, from bean to cup.  This region is famous for its coffee, as the best coffee grows at high elevations. It should be another beautiful day in this special part of the country.

- Kelly Galaski

I have to say I feel pretty lucky to be going back to Costa Rica already. I’m going to be visiting some of my favorite places, and people, for an authentic cultural and nature experience. First we will be at Savegre Lodge where the rainforest sights and sounds are at your fingertips.

Then we’ll be off to my beloved friends and “family” in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor. This is the area that has two protected nature preserves, one named after the famous ornithologist that lived there and studied the birds and other wildlife in the rainforest for 60 years!

 

It will be great to see everyone again. We are going to do some “comida tipica” or traditional food lessons, learn how to make some yummy “tica” food. We will be staying at La Escondida, the “Hidden Farm”, a sustainable coffee farm and home of Luis Angel Rojas, his wife Carmen and their family. I can’t wait to see the toucans and monkeys that come every morning while you’re eating breakfast!

Then we’ll be off to the coast, to the beautiful and wild Uvita area, to La Cusinga ecolodge, which sits up on the coast with beautiful views of the ocean, and tons of birds on the property that are always in view from their outdoor dining area.

Come on the trip with us! Vamos a Costa Rica