M. Rick Hendricks

     The entire country of Costa Rica must be green.  Not a washed out green, either.  A deep, lucious, luxurious green that pleases the eye and draws you to the rich colors that are splashed around within it. Reds so bright they don’t even seem real.  Purples deep and rich.  Yellows that are almost blinding.  Orange, blue, every color you can imagine.  The browns you see are in the richness of the soil and in the deep chocolate of the tree bark wet from the nearly constant mist in the air during this season. 

     This weekend a new friend invited me to go with he and his family on an excursion to a place north of the village of Sarapiqui.  The resort is named Pozo Azul, or blue well.  I never found out the reason for the name.  There are several options for housing there.  The one Steven chose for our little group was tents in the jungle.  Not like any tent I have ever stayed in before, however.  Each is set on a raised platform of rich, dark wood.  The tent is erected on the platform, with enough space on two sides for a walkway and front veranda, with chairs, lights, ceiling fans.  The tent itself holds two queen-sized beds and has an attached private bath complete with sink, toilet, shower.  Water is solor heated.  Since its the rainy season here, cold showers were the order of the day.  Small price to pay for the richness of the experience.

      Steven’s children opted for a horseback ride through the jungle.  Wonderful fauna.  Steven is a natural biologist beside being a tour director, and very passionate about the plants and animals of Costa Rica.  All I had to do was ask, “What’s that, Steven?” and I received an explanation fit to be written in an encyclopedia.  Every discovery was another evidence, for me, of the amazing way life works together, and how symbiotic it needs to remain if we are to survive together on this amazing blue marble in the galaxy.  The colors on the deep green plants are, of course, lures for insects and others who will assist in the pollination and gestation of the plants.    We picked quava from the trees, and a huge cocao pod filled with the seeds.  Our guide used his macheti to hack it open.  Steven dug out a couple of the seeds and popped on in his mouth and gave one to me.  Unfortunately without instruction and I bit down.  Not a horrible thing to do, but not right.  I was supposed to suck off the rich film encasing the pod and then spit out the pod.  I did better with the next one.  Cocoa is a major export of Costa Rica.  That and the richest coffee anywhere.  The mountains are covered with rows and rows of coffee plants.  I enjoyed the running commentary of my host and learned more than I ever thought I could about this tiny part of the world.  The most important lesson:  Everything is supposed to work together for the survival of all.

    This is true even of the Brazilian Army Ants, Marabunta, who invaded the campground overnight.  I was in a reception tent reading a little about the frogs and snakes of Costa Rica when the receptionist stopped by to tell me to be sure to keep my flashlight turned to the ground in front of me when I walked the path to my tent.  “The ants,” he said.  “They bite very hard.”  I hadn’t seen any to that point, but kept watch and sure enough there was a column about two inches wide across the path.  I stepped over them but wasn’t quick enough to avoid getting a couple on my shoe.  The bite was immediate and immediately painful.  By the next morning they had spread to several different columns.  Steven explained that this was a very small colony, and that the main column was fed and scounting lines sent at several points, so you were never safe.  If you step on one, you are immediately identified within the colony and they will rush to defend themselves, quickly covering you.  Everything moves out of their way.  Steven said that entemologists love to find a colony of these ants because they can scout in front of the colony and find all sorts of insects and wildlife who are leaving the area for safety.  At one point the entire ceiling of the reception area was a moving carpet of little black bodies.  One of nature’s ways of clearing the ground and making way for new growth.  Really amazing.

     We went on a canopy tour the second day.  A canopy tour is a series of zip lines through the tops of the trees in the forest.  We were about 2/3 of the way up the trees, 120 to 150 feet in the air, sometimes higher when we went over gorges.  It was a wonderful experience, with some guides who clearly loved what they were doing, were very professional, and made ’safety first’ their first priority.  when they found out I was here trying to learn Spanish, each of them helped by teaching me new words and some idiomatic phrases that will help me sound more accomplished than I am.  They were great.

     At one point we happened into what was obviously a territorial dispute among a group of male howler monkeys,  each of whom was convinced that a particular group of trees belonged only to him.  The sound they make comes from deep within their throats and being in the midst of them it was so loud we couldn’t hear each other speak.  They finally began chasing each other through the trees, jumping from tree to tree with amazing dexterity.  They took no notice of us, at all. 

     It began to rain just as we were leaving.  The entire mountain range simply disappeared from sight behind the clouds, which hung below us, above us, and around us.  Every turn a new vista and every one more beautiful.

     Today I began the second week of classes.  I already feel a little more comfortable, enough at least to try to put together simple sentences and do so without making apologies.  I know it will get better.  I am looking forward to being able to have an actual conversation with my gererous hostess.  The people here are so warm and inviting.  She is one of the best examples. 

         Don’t know what will be planned for next weekend, but whatever it is will be great.

          Dios le bendiga, mi amigos.