Canopy + la playa de Ñeque, Costa Rica

On Saturday, July 11 we awoke in the El Ceibo Lodge. After breakfast we gave the students a quick lesson on the Costa Rican national anthem. We would later record them singing it in different places and with different people.

From there we took taxis to go zip-lining. It was a beautiful trip; that is Golfo Dulce in the background. At one point along the way we saw little faces peering at us. Do you see it?

We stopped the cars to check out the monkeys and even more came along. These are the littlest monkeys found in Costa Rica. They are monos ardillas or squirrel monkeys. They are also called monos titis because they are the smallest. In Spanish the youngest son is often called Titi.

The view from the top of the mountain was even more beautiful.

I was drawn to the butterflies flitting around the flowers. They were hard to capture with the camera, but I got a few shots that were ok.

Soon enough we were flying through the air. It was fun. In Spanish it it called “hacer canopy” since you are flying through the canopy or tops of the trees.

The platforms were tall. The guys working there told us how they built them. They had to climb up in the trees and then bring the materials up log by log. The zip-line cables were then strung, starting with small strings and then running lines one after the other, each slightly thicker than the last until they were big enough to hold the weight of the zip-line.

While we were up there, we saw lots of birds, but I only got a picture of one. We also saw a sloth or at least a patch of fur in the tree that the guide assured us was a sloth. Can you spot him?

There were seven zip-lines, but we were done all too soon.

At the end we took some time to look around and observe the rain forest around us. I was amazed by the roots of the trees. It is shocking how such tall trees can be held up by such shallow roots. The key is that they spread really far.

Other trees were covered in long thorns. I was not tempted to climb this one.

On the way back up the hill I found a little lizard.

Back at the lodge, we ate lunch, and the kids washed up their plates. Then, we gave them some time to reflect on the day and write in their journals.

I wrote in my journal was well, but I got distracted by the birds at the feeder. The one bird was jealously guarding the pineapple that I put in there and not allowing the other birds to get close.

After lunch we started off on a walk to the mangrove. The Otto sign is a political statement.

Here are some things that caught my attention on the walk. I took hundreds of pictures, but I will try to limit myself to the most interesting here.

 

Can you tell that I am fascinated by trees?

On the walk we started to hear howler monkeys in the trees. If you have never heard them, you should check out this YouTube video. They sound terrifying. Gustavo spotted them in the trees for us. They threw feces at us while we were under them. At least, I think that was what they were throwing.

Jonathan picked more flowers for us. My favorite was the passion flower. Purple is my favorite color, and it smells good too.

Is this not the most amazing flower you have ever seen? It is interesting from every angle.

Svia used my flower to make a habitat in a Frisbee for the lizard that she found.

Jonathan also explained how the Guaymí used these gourds that grew on trees as canteens. I should have brought one home.

We entered the mangrove under this fence.

A mangrove is the point where the land and sea meet. These trees have to be hardy because they are submerged under water at least half of the time. You can see where the water line is.

Jonathan and Gustavo gave us botany lessons about the four different kinds of trees in the mangrove and how they reproduce. The last seeds produces a liquid that can be ingested. It did not taste like anything really.

The only reason that we were even able to enter the mangrove was that we arrived at low tide, but even so it was extremely difficult to walk through the thick mud. Several people lost their shoes. Somehow we slogged through.

Yorens was looking for oysters, but he didn’t find any. Kira found one, and we ate it.

There were crabs everywhere; they had red claws. It took me many attempts to get a good picture because they were fast!

On our walk, we ran into Luis, the owner of Hospedaje El Ceibo.

Finally we made it to the beach at Ñeque. As I mentioned before it was low tide.

 

By the time we got to the beach I was covered in mud. My Tevas were also falling apart. I have had them for about 25 years, though, so I guess it was to be expected.

The kids went out to wade in the water and play soccer.

Meanwhile, Jonathan, Kira and I started scavenging for food. We found coconuts and these fruits.

Jonathan found a long stick and cut off most of the branches leaving only one that formed a crook at the end of the pole. He used that stick to pull the fruit down from the tree.

While Jonathan and Gustavo were opening their coconuts with machetes, Kira and I opened ours the old fashioned way. Our method was much more difficult, but I think that it made our coconut taste much sweeter.

First, we pounded the coconut against a stone wedged in the ground. Then we used every ounce of strength that we had to peel the husk off. It seemed to have a face. Finally we used stones to crack the coconut open. It was the sweetest one I have ever tasted.

We had to make sure to leave the beach before the tide started to come back in. Otherwise, I would have been happy to stay there a lot longer.

I was able to get some pictures of birds before leaving.

The walk home was fairly uneventful. This dog threatened us for a while, but he backed off once I stopped and faced him.

Our finally activity of the day was to share something from our journal entries. It was really special to hear what the students had to say about our trip. They were a mature and insightful group. They made me proud to have taught them anything.

If you have somehow missed the other posts from our trip, you can check them out here: day one, day two and day three. Check back next Monday for the post on Matapalos.

Happy Travels!