Costa Rica Days 7 & 8 - Rancho Margot

Greetings from Rancho Margot! I took a day off from scribing because I didn't want to waste what little time we have here in front of a computer screen. With that being said, the last 48 hours have been spent hiking, paddling, touring, eating, hammock napping, more hiking, natural-pool-swimming, practicing yoga, and reading, so I figured it was time to get caught up.

We left UGA Costa Rica around 7AM yesterday and drove a few hours to Arenal. Arenal is slightly northeast of Monteverde and lower in elevation. It's also home to Vulcan Arenal, one of 6 active volcanoes in the country. We arrived at Rancho Margot slightly before lunchtime, and after lunch, we split into two groups for a tour of the ranch. The ranch is similar to Racho de Lelo in that sustainability is a major focus. They generate all of their own hydroelectricity, grow a variety of crops, keep chickens, pigs, and cows, use a biodigester to provide heat for their natural pools, etc.

Our tour guide, José, was extremely personable and conversational. He spoke very good English but also encouraged our students to practice their Spanish, so our tour was a fun blend of both. Throughout the tour, he'd hand us various crops to try and then have us guess what they were. We tried mustard greens, lemon grass, spearmint, anise...and a live worm. Yep. Ate a live worm. What's more, I ate a live worm out of a soil/manure mixture. I figured after the dumb cane incident, a live worm couldn't be THAT bad. I feel like I'm playing Russian Roulette with foreign substances here. Wonder when my good luck will run out.

After the tour, a few of the students and I went to check out the natural pools. The warm pool is heated by methane generated from the ranch's biodigester. It was very pretty. I regretfully don't have very many pictures from the tour or warm pool because it was raining heavily for a significant portion of the afternoon and I didn't want to chance ruining my camera.

You can see pictures of all of Rancho Margot's amenities here. After the warm pool, the students had lecture, so I was left to my own devices. I finished a book and was lights out by 9PM. It felt fantastic.

Oh, I should mention that our lodging accommodations here are FANTASTIC. The students are in a communal bunkhouse with a very nice front porch. Marta and I each have our own private bungalows. Might be the most picturesque lodging in which I've stayed. Ever. The students accidentally walked past the bunkhouse and stumbled into my bungalow (before I got there) when they were first looking for their lodging. Needless to say, they've been giving Marta and me a non-stop hard time about the disparity in living arrangements. What can I say, being faculty has its perks.

Okay, Day 2.

We woke up early for an outdoor yoga class. M.J., the instructor, taught the class in an open-flow style. It was good for beginners. Lots of focus on breathing and mindfulness. The class was taught in a raised outdoor pavilion overlooking the river. It'll be hard to return to yoga in an indoor studio after practicing yoga in paradise.

After yoga, we ate a quick breakfast and then headed down to Lake Arenal for a guided kayaking tour of the lake. We paddled to the base of Vulcán Arenal, where Marta and our guide, Aurelio, gave a short lecture on volcanoes and a history of the area. Getting to have a GEO lecture at the base of a volcano while on a kayak is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Despite slightly windy conditions, the students did a great job paddling. I didn't take pictures of our paddling expedition because again, camera + water = :(

After paddling, we ate lunch and immediately set out for our hike to El Mirador ("lookout point"). I might add that today was fairly PEDB content/activity heavy (PEDB 1090 "Outdoor Adventure" is the class I'm teaching. In case you're wondering, yes, I do have responsibilities while I'm here). This hike was no joke. Rough, muddy, uneven terrain, and pretty much a straight climb uphill in direct sunlight. By the time we reached the top, our sweat was sweating. But it was totally worth it--the vista provided incredible views of the volcano and Lake Arenal.

After the hike, the students had a GEO class so I had a few hours to myself. I spent the first hour reading a Stephen King novel in the hammock on the porch of my bungalow. I used my second free hour to hike El Sendero del Bosque ("Forest Trail"). Another difficult trail in terms of terrain but not nearly as uphill. The trail ended in the vegetable garden, so I was able to snap a few pictures of locations that I wasn't able to document while we were touring in the rain on the previous day.

Tomorrow, we set out for Arenal National Park and then drive cross-country to Puerto Viejo, which is located on the Caribbean coast. Tomorrow is a long travel day and I'm not sure what the internet situation is at our hotel in Puerto Viejo, so I may be off the grid for a few days, which as far as I'm concerned is a great thing--it's good to unplug every now and then. I hope I have an opportunity to return to Rancho Margot in the future. This place is something special.

My bungalow's porch.

The other side of my bungalow's porch.

Bungalow Bed 1

Bungalow Bed 2

The most perfect reading spot.

José giving our tour.

"La Reina del Noche." Beautiful, but toxic. The flowers bloom at night.

Early morning yoga by the river.

We made it to El Mirador ("Lookout Point"). That's Vulcán Arenal in the background.

Our wonderful students. Seriously, they're fantastic. Great attitudes and appreciation for the trip.

I've lost count of all of my neature walks.

Happy in nature.

View of the garden.

The clay studio. The resident artist designs pottery in the style of the indigenous people of this region. 

The ceramic work is beautiful!

Costa Rica Day 6 - Birdwatching and Water Quality Sampling

Today's schedule is very content-heavy for Geology, so we've spent most of the day on-campus.

We started our morning with 6:30AM birdwatching. We were very lucky during our birdwatching session. We saw blue-gray tanagers, parrots, chachalacas, an emerald toucanet, and a bellbird as it was flying off. We also saw a variety of wrens, jays, and flycatchers. 

After breakfast, the students had a GEO lecture followed by a water quality sampling lab. I tagged along for the lab to take pictures. I can't even possibly begin to understand or explain the water sampling and testing process, but it seemed interesting from my vantage point.

Tomorrow, we leave for Arenal. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be, so this may be the last post for a day or two.

OH. One more important thing. If you read last night's post, I mentioned an interesting situation involving an unidentified plant. All of the naturalists got together and did some super sleuthing and figured it out. The plant was part of the family of dumb cane. The reason this plant is called dumb cane is because juices from the plant are TOXIC and can cause temporary speechlessness. Historically, dumb cane was given to slaves as a form of punishment. Read more about dumb cane here and here.

(For the record, we didn't go traipsing through the woods randomly sampling wild plants. The naturalist guiding our night hike gave us each a piece--including himself! Obviously, lesson learned on his end and on ours--we were lucky we didn't have a more serious situation.)

Blue-gray tanager

I don't remember...some sort of flycatcher maybe?

Parrot

This is definitely NOT a posed shot of birdwatching.

Emerald toucanet

Water quality sampling

River crab

I think they're testing the pH or something.

Doing science things.

Victoria is the color of the pH stick from a picture on her phone.

Costa Rica Day 5 - More milking, Cabure Chocolate Tour, and a few more Neature Walks

Today was somewhat of a rest day for me since the students had their second GEO test. I woke up early to join the second half of our group at the stable for more milking. After breakfast, the entire group drove into Monteverde proper for a tour of the Cabure chocolatier. Bob, the owner of the operation, provided us with a wonderful explanation of the history of cacao (and its evolution) and then demonstrated the process by which cacao is transformed into commercial chocolate. Bob comes from a science background, so his explanation of the chocolate-making process was rooted in chemistry, which I really enjoyed. Throughout the presentation, we got to sample various stages of cacao and chocolate. As you might imagine, the whole experience was...pretty sweet.

We ended our tour with a lovely lunch at Cabure (Bob's wife oversees the restaurant component of the operation) and had a 5-mile hike back to campus. We've been very lucky with the weather thus far on the trip; May marks the beginning of the rainy season in Costa Rica and it's been relatively dry for the week that we've been here. We had some light rain on our hike back to campus (which felt great--it was hot!) and right as we finished, the sky opened up. The storm was 1) much needed 2) provided a perfect ambiance for the hammock nap that followed the hike. The students spent most of the afternoon preparing and taking their second GEO exam so I had a few hours to relax.

After dinner, the students had another GEO lecture so I asked one of the naturalists if he wouldn't mind if I tagged along on his night hike. He kindly obliged, so I spent my evening with my new friends John and his daughter Charlotte (here on vacation as a graduation present) and Mason, the new sustainability intern from UGA. The hike was very peaceful and we got to see some cool stuff, including a tarantula and bioluminescent fungi. We also had an unusual situation involving an unidentified wild fruit and a minor allergic reaction. Luckily, I carry diphenhydramine in my first aid kit.

We've had all of the naturalists trying to identify this plant. I just spent the last half hour trolling electronic field guides of Costa Rican plants. Someone solve the mystery!

WHAT AM I??

Cacao

Bob explaining the chocolate production process

Yes, we ate these.

The motmot

View from our hike back to campus

That's pretty neat!

A very, very large tarantula

Costa Rica Day 4 - Cow Milking, Zip-lining, and Rancho de Lelo

Today was a very full day.

1) We woke up at 6AM to milk cows and get a tour of the stable and biodigester. UGA Costa Rica uses the milk in the cafeteria each day. I didn't assume that milking cows would be easy...and it's not.

2) We learned about the biodigester. Think of it as a large stomach. Organic matter (i.e. waste) + bacteria = methane, used to fuel the campus kitchen. Clean, organic fuel. The technical term for the process is anaerobic fermentation. U Wisconsin Oshkosh has a good explanation here.

3) We went zip-lining over the Monteverde canopy. The weather was great, the views were spectacular, and our guides were fantastic. I don't particularly like zip-lines (jaded from working in the challenge course industry), but I have to concede that this was a pretty awesome experience.

4) Came back to campus and took another neature walk while the students were in GEO class.

5) Visited El Rancho de Lelo. Aurelio (known affectionately as Lelo) has spent the last 20-or-so years building this incredible facility. His goal was to create a fully sustainable, organic farm/ecolodge to teach others how small-scale farming is possible and worthwhile. In fact, Lelo's farm uses a biodigester much like the one on UGA's campus. The ranch is a family effort. Everyone has a job. Additionally, this farm works in collaboration with other local farms, rather than in competition. For example, Lelo grows coffee but doesn't have the machinery to grind or roast the beans. He exchanges coffee beans for the use of machinery at another farm. On our tour, we learned about the process of farming tilapia, and later that evening the family caught some tilapia and grilled it fresh for our dinner.

6) Before dinner, we played soccer against members of Lelo's family (and Lelo himself, who is a BOSS on the pitch) and another very nice family who was on vacation and wanted to have a real Tico experience. Dinner, as I mentioned, was fresh (literally right out of the pond) and delicious. After dinner, we had a dance lesson from Lelo's wife, who taught us the bachata, merengue, and salsa.

Getting to communicate through sports, food, and dance is a really special experience. It transcends language barriers. Tonight's festivities made our group truly feel like members of Lelo's family. Lelo's family is a prime example of why Ticos are so special. Their generosity and kindness is unmatched.

Okay, I'm wiped out. Here are some pictures to summarize the day:

Cross this off my bucket list.

UGA Costa Rica's biodigester. Anaerobic fermentation in the lower bag leads to the production of methane, stored in the bag above.

About to zip-line over the Monteverde canopy.

My view from the zip-line.

Rancho de Lelo

One of the tilapia ponds at Racho de Lelo. Not a bad view.

Learning about the process of tilapia farming.

I just really liked this photo.

I ate one of these fish shortly after this photo was taken.

These snails help keep the water clean in the tilapia ponds.

Rancho de Lelo also has a biodigester.

Soccer with the Ticos.

View of another tilapia pond. The tent in the background is where the family grows some of its produce.

My pictures don't do the beauty of this ranch justice. Not even close.

Another tilapia pond.

I will probably never eat another fish as fresh as this in my lifetime.

Dance lessons. After learning several Latin dances...we taught them the Running Man. Yep. Sure did.