Costa Rican Caribbean Coast

Thank-you to all who have expressed sympathy at my publicly displayed neuroses (and for keeping your sniggers and smirks mercifully quiet). At this point I have recovered sufficiently from the trauma of overindulging in “Jungle Appreciation 101” to add another chapter to this diary.

As I write the sound of the Caribbean surf is crashing just yards away from the foot of the stairs to our room and the Howler monkeys are roaring in the trees just a couple of yards from the beach . The sun is hot, the sand is white and the beer is cold. You must understand that at this point in our journey I feel this is a richly deserved break for the kids and me. Bill is happy to sweat the days away in the insect infested lowland tropical forest (and the air conditioned labs) but for those of us who are less invested with a burning desire to see what is going on in the dirt of this forest, a trip to the shore was in order. So, we are spending 5 days in a teeny little coastal town called Cahuita which is about 45 minutes south of Limon (large coastal shipping port, currently the biggest import/industry is the production and transport of malaria). Grampa elected to stay at La Selva because of his delicate red-headed skin and his need to work on a project he found to do there, so we are having to limp along without him.

Olivier and his family (yes, they are real, I’ve seen them now) came for a couple of days and we all had fun just walking along the beach, swimming in the surf, snorkeling from the shore, talking to tame parrots and collecting tiny shells for a project Liam hopes to accomplish once we get home. This little adventure gave the boys the opportunity to get familiar with the snorkeling equipment before we took them out on the reef to dive from the boat. As it turned out Liam wanted nothing to do with this exercise and chose to remain at the edge of the beach and hurl himself into the oncoming waves with carefree abandon.

This morning Bill made pancakes after much begging and whining from the lads (we had to buy 2 eggs from the store, luckily this kind of thing is quite normal here and the shopkeeper didn’t think we were destitute or a couple of fries short of a happy meal) and then we set off to meet up with the snorkeling boat. Once the boat stopped at the reef, Bobby put on his gear and followed me into the water without any hesitation. Liam stayed aboard and helped the pilot navigate the shoals. It was a really great experience to watch Bobby enjoy the wonder under the waves and to only have to pound seawater out of his lungs once. The boat took us to a little beach and the crew (young, healthy fellows with fearsome dreads and many Jamaican beads strewn about their person) then cut open several pineapples and watermelons for us to snack on. During this small intermission Liam decided to get brave in the shallows and try on the snorkeling gear. Well!! Big surprise, he loved it. He got to practice for all of 15 minutes before we had to get back in the boat and enjoy a spleen jarring ride back to shore. Both boys were mighty put out that we couldn’t do that all day, every day. As it turns out, people are not permitted to snorkel in the park (Cahuita National Park) without a guide so as to protect the reef; so we can’t just swim from the beach where we are staying (we had to travel for about 45 minutes when we went with Olivier). To appease the budding marine biologists Bill is out on the beach again with them (in the pouring rain) and they are indulging in the now second favorite activity of allowing the surf to populate all of their crevasses with sand as they throw themselves into the waves (the Howlers and Capuchins watch the stupid human tricks for hours).
Alas, tomorrow we leave this tropical idyll and head back to La Selva where deadlines await and many legged creatures lurk around every corner and under every surface. Where toads live in the dining room, geckoes poo on your bed, peccaries live under the house, snakes come out at night to bask on the walkways and every conceivable color known to man is displayed on the many birds that perch in the canopy and carry on a running commentary of our daily lives. Shortly thereafter we go to Laguna del Lagarto to meet one of the threads that makes up the very fabric of our lives, Briny Hauge. He has rather a daunting task ahead of him as he must not only teach the students he is bringing down with him but must also take the boys and I out hunting for snakes and caiman. That’s OK, he has been known to be very powerful on occasion.
More soon,
Michelle