The Bat Jungle- Monteverde

 Yesterday morning I was able to go back to the farmers' market with my family to buy the food for the week.  I was so excited because they once again had my rambutan and they had yellow ones which are so much sweeter and they also had mangostein!  This week I also went up the hill to a hydroponic greenhouse that grows beautiful lettuce, basic, tomatoes, and so much more.  It was amazing to see this large scale operation that is open to the public to come up and pick their own vegetables.

 In the afternoon I was able to go to The Bat Jungle which is only a 5 minute walk from my house.  The bats they have here are on an opposite cycle than they are supposed to be.  So during the day when people are there it is like night time for them when they are active flying around and feeding.  

 This was one of the many signs they had that told about bats.  I was very interested to learn that just like humans bats have midwives that help deliver the baby (1 per year) as well have baby sitters so the mother can go out and feed.  One surprising fact to me was that bats are not blind but do in fact have black and white vision and they can also live up to 44 years depending on the species.  In Costa Rica there are over 116 species of bats and 65 of those species can be found in Monteverde.  Across the world there are over 1,200 different species.   Here at the bat jungle they have 8 species and have 111 bats in their exhibit.

 This is a skeleton of a giant Flying Fox bat and this isn't even as large as they can get.  Bats are closely related to monkeys due to their skeletal structure make up.  

 Here is a representation of how big our ears would have to be to be proportional to the bats.  Unlike humans who only have 9 different ways to talk to each other bats have over 95 different ways to communicate and rely mostly on echo location to find  the food as well as to find their homes.

 Here you can see a representation of three different types of bats.  The closest is an insectivore bat followed by fruit eating and then vampire bat.  There are 3 vampire bat species in the world.  Other bats eat fruit, blood, insects, meat, and nectar.  Their largest predator is owls sadly followed by the house cat.   I was also surprised to learn that they also are eaten by bat falcons, snakes, monkeys and humans in some parts of the world.  They had three scales that you could stand on that told you three interesting facts.  I learned that if I was a bat of my size and weight in order to survive EVERY NIGHT I would have to eat... 200 liters of nectar, 540 whole bananas, or 60 buckets of insects.  So I'm glad I am not a bat!

 The other half of the tour was done in the room where you could actually see the bats.  The room was very dark and the guide used a flash light to shine on the bats so we could see them through the large windows.  I was able to get there at feeding time so we got to see the guide go in and put the fresh fruit down for the bats and they had fresh mangoes, bananas, and watermelon.  Here you can see the bat eating fresh watermelon as he is hanging upside down.  All and all I had a great tour there and learned a lot more about bats and now have a greater appreciation for their importance here on earth. 

This was the view from the house last night of the beautiful sunset, so I can't wait to see what tonight looks like!

ProNativas Volunteer Group Day 1

Today we had the privileged of hosting a group from the United States that is helping us out for two days.  Today we worked at Bajo del Tigre in and around the greenhouse and below you can see a couple of pictures of that. Since there was such a large group we split them up into 3 teams.  One team worked in the greenhouse learning how we fill and plant the bags as well as helped water and prune the plants in the greenhouse.  The second team worked in the new garden that ProNativas is building and then helped plant some plants as well as lay down some leaf litter.  The third team (my team) worked in an older garden around Bajo del Tigre welcome center.  We worked on cutting down a dead tree as well as dug up some "baby" plants that we then transplanted into the greenhouse.  We also pruned along the Children's Trail.  Tomorrow we will be working with the same group again but we will be heading back up to the Cloud Forest School where we will be working in the greenhouse for half the time and then doing tree planting the second half.

A Force of Nature- San Luis Waterfall

Yesterday I was able to go on an adventure with 2 children from my family and the other 2 students staying at my house.  We decided we were going to the San Luis Waterfall.  We had to walk 8 km from the house down to the entrance of the waterfall and to get there we had to walk down a huge hill down into the San Luis Valley.  We stopped along the way down the hill to take these pictures looking out across the Gulf of Nicoya.  It was a very beautiful view and it seemed like we could see forever!

This is another picture that we took from the lookout point.  We we actually able to see the San Luis waterfall from this point and I tried to get a picture but it is kind of hard to actually see the waterfall.  

Once we actually got to the waterfall "welcome center" we had to walk an additional 1.5 km to get to the waterfall which was a beautiful hike through the forest.  The entire time we were right by the river and could hear the power of the river and the waterfall.  We also had to cross the river a couple of times on boards put across the river and here is one picture from me standing in the middle of the make shift bridge.

Here is the welcome to the waterfall sign and we were sure glad to see that after walking almost 10 km!

 Here is the first view that I had of the waterfall.  It is a very tall waterfall and has two very distinct parts.  We could only see a small portion of the top part of the waterfall where it forms a pool before coming down the bottom half of the fall.  The falls itself are approximately 100 meters tall.  

Here is me after our long hike standing in front of the magnificent falls!

We were able to get into the water and swim around.  The water was FREEZING but you got used to it once you got in.  We were not able to actually get underneath the waterfall like many of the others due to the sheer force of water coming down which is very dangerous to be underneath.  It was also hard to swim close to the falls because the current and force of water was so strong.  You can see though how large the falls are with me standing next to it.

Here is me, Surya, and Gudari sitting next to the falls getting our picture taken.  We had a great time swimming around and playing in the freezing cold water, it felt so good after our hike in.

Once we swam around and played around for awhile we decided to break open the snacks so I choose a rock to sit on in the middle of the water and took this photo from that rock.  I was just so amazed by this beautiful force of nature and even though Surya and Gudari were only about 10 feet away we couldn't talk because the falls were so loud!

Here was my last view of the falls before we began the hike back.

Here is one of the make shift bridges going across the river that just consisted of a board with other boards across to provide traction as well as a rope that you could hang onto.

Here was a little crab friend that we found along the river, I was very surprised to see such a creature along the river bank.

Overall we all had a great day and the 13 km hike was well worth it to see the beautiful waterfall.  Too bad it isn't closer to us so we could go there anytime we wanted!  Today I am just trying to catch up on the projects that I am working on and I have 3 meetings this afternoon!  Hope everyone is doing well back in the  States, I only have 3 weeks left in this beautiful country.

Working in the Garden

This was my view yesterday on my walk into town.  I was so amazed at how far we were able to see and how clear it was.

Today in the garden I found these two beautiful caterpillars that were moving around the garden and had to take a picture.  The one below will be a Monarch butterfly sometime in the future.

 Here you can see two pictures of the garden that we worked in today.  Most of the activities today focused on pruning back the bushes because some of them had gotten a little out of control!

Tomorrow I am taking the day off and going with Sury the oldest daughter at the house and she is taking me to a waterfall which is about 45 away, so I am really looking forward to that and will try to have pictures up by tomorrow night!

1st Quaker Meeting

This morning I had the opportunity to go with two of the other students staying at my house to the Quaker Meeting.  We had a wonderful walk up to the Quaker School and was able to get there about 20 minutes early so were able to participate in singing.  The Quaker's do it different than many churches.  There isn't anyone in charge or even a minister or preacher but if someone wants to sing a song you just blurt out the song number that you want to sing and people start singing it.  The songs last for about a half hour until the "regular service" begins.  This meeting is a lot different than normal churches.  Everyone just sits there in silence for an hour unless someone feels the need to stand up and share with the group.  This week no one felt that urge so we just sat there for an hour reflecting on everything.  It was a good experience and took me out of my normal comfort zone and opened my eyes to a religion I didn't know anything about until this trip.  Although I don't agree with them on everything we have a lot to learn from one another and I'm glad I went. 

Tomorrow I will be working with Willow and Lorenzo again at another native garden.  I only have about 2 and a half more weeks here in Monteverde so my goal this week is to try and get out and see some of the sites like the bat house, the butterfly garden, and all of the other cool stuff around here!

Farmers' Market in Monteverde

This morning I had the opportunity to go with my family to the local Farmers' Market in Monteverde.  It is located inside an old gym which is really nice for when it is raining outside.  There were not as many vendors there as I was anticipating but they all had very good local produce. 

Here is a picture of one of the stands and Sury and her mom buying some produce.  Much of the produce is the same as the states but also a lot of it is different.

Here is another stand where we stocked up on plantains which we have in some form of another every morning for breakfast.

Here my family is stocking up on rambutan, my new favorite fruit!

By the end of the day we ended up with all of these bags full of fresh produce.  This is where the family buys almost all of the food in the house.  We luckily were able to get a taxi back home instead of having to walk 45 minutes back up to their house.  On the way down it was easy but we had a watermelon, and 6 bags full of heavy produce so I'm glad we were able to find a taxi.

 

This evening we are getting ready for dinner and then will be heading back to the meeting house to do some country dancing tonight!

Trying to Save the Rain Forest One Tree at a Time

Well I think the cat officially has a new home.  She has been staying with us all week after it followed the kids home from practice the other day.  The kids have been "trying" to find it a new home but they haven't looked too hard.  So the cat has made itself at home and earlier today I was up working on the computer and I kept hearing this meow sounds and turned around and the kitten was laying on my bed trying to get my attention.

This morning I volunteered with the Costa Rica Conservation Foundation for another day of tree planting.  This time I was actually able to go to the tree nursery where all the little trees are grown and see how they grow the trees and how many trees they actually produce each year.

This is a picture looking down the hill at their nursery.  A lot of hard work goes into collecting the seeds and growing the seedlings but what a difference all these trees would make for future rain forest.  The most common tree species they grow is a wild avocado which there are over 80 different varieties.  This species is so popular due to the wildlife benefits that it provides to all the animals that live in the rain forest.

Here is our chain gang trying to get all of the seedlings out of the nursery, up the hill, and on to the back of the truck to be planted.  Today's group was another group of high school students from the US.

The trees loaded and ready to go!

The tree planting begins.  Today we had approximately 203 trees to get planted which this group did in about an hour, I was impressed!  My job was to sit on the back of the truck and cut all of the black bags open on all the seedlings to make it easier to get them out of the bags in tact and then I was able to help with the planting.

Here you can see where the students are planting at the top of the hill working their way down.  The farmer that we were planting the trees for, which was donated by the FCC, was trying to reforest an old pasture.  There seems to be a lot of people in the area that have old pasture land they would like converted back to forested land so that is where the FCC can come in and truly make a difference.

This evening I went with the family to the Monteverde Friend's School where they had a pot luck dinner.  It reminded me of my church at home but not as many wonderful dishes and desserts.  Here we had a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables as well as breads, and lots and lots of rice dishes.  So don't get me wrong it was good, but honestly didn't see any meat on the entire length of the table.  Tomorrow morning I will be going with the family to the local farmers' market which I am really excited about!!

Monteverde Cheese Factory

This afternoon we decided to finally tour the Monteverde Cheese Company.  We had walked past it a couple of times and have gotten some ice cream there but today we decided to go behind the scenes.  The tour started with telling us about the history of Monteverde as well as the history behind this Cheese Factory which started in 1954.  They have approx. 230 farms that bring milk to the factory some with the big milk trucks while other with horses and oxen.

This picture shows to the right where the milk is stirred until the cheese curds form as well as to the left shows the cheese in the forms being pushed together.

This is a picture of the lab where a lot of important tests are carried out.  Every batch of milk that comes in is tested for hormones and antibiotics as well as to the bacterial levels in the milk.

Here you can see one of the big tubs that the milk has drained out of and they are putting the cheese curds into the forms.  All of the waste products from this process is sent directly to a hog farm where the pigs consume all of the waste products.  Once we saw the process we were able to sample 5 different cheeses as well as their caramel that they make here on site.

Here is a few pictures of the store that they have on site where people can come in and buy all of their products.  They have a countless number of different cheeses, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese, as well as ice cream.

Here you can see a glimpse of their ice cream flavors as well as the hose for the milk.  You can bring in any container that you want and it can be filled with fresh milk.  Below you can see Paul who brought in his water bottle and got it filled up for 50 cents, what a deal.  You can also see Mave and I eating our ice cream.  She had coconut and coffee and I had mora (blackberry) and chocolate.  It was the perfect ending to a great tour.

Working with ProNativas

The last two days I have been working with Willow and Lorenzo at some of our native gardens.  Below you will see pictures of these experiences.

On our way up the hill yesterday morning we found this baby armadillo who was scavenging around trying to find some grubs to eat.  He had no idea we were even there so we were able to get up close to him to take a picture.

Can you see me? The garden that we were working at had a beautiful waterfall display and a HUGE toad to go with it.

Here is an insect that jumped on me during my walk yesterday.  I have no idea what it is so I will have to add this picture to the list to ask Ashley when I get home, who is the insect expert!

This was my breakfast this morning consisting of traditional rice and beans as well as homemade tortillas with fresh strawberry jam on them.  You can also see some wonderful homemade hot chocolate!

This morning we worked in the greenhouse that ProNativas works in.  Here you can see where I have potted some of the clippings that we collected yesterday to add to our plant collection.  We take clipping from other gardens and then let them grown in the greenhouse for awhile and then can transplant them into new gardens.  This helps cut down on the cost of the plants because we just cut or dig up extras and then have new plants to plant.

Here is another cool insect I found today climbing on a tree in the greenhouse.

Here is Lorenzo watering some of the plants that I planted!  This afternoon I also went to Monteverde Cheese Factory which you can see in the next blog.