COSTA RICA TRIPS FOR NATURE LOVERS

Story and photos by Barb & Ron Kroll

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Costa Rica is a small country, only one-third the size of Florida, yet it's impossible to see it all on one trip, or a dozen for that matter. More than 100 biological and wildlife reserves, national parks and protected areas comprise one-quarter of the country. Their ecosystems range from tropical coasts, jungles and forested valleys to a temperate central plateau and mountain ranges.

Although Costa Rica is only 10 degrees above the equator, the temperature can drop to cool or even freezing as the land climbs to the three mountain chains that form its backbone.

Rising as high as 3,800 meters, they cradle both dormant and active volcanoes. The latter are tourist attractions as much as the beaches and rainforests.

Garden Jacuzzi

Arenal, the most active volcano, is located an easy three-hour drive northwest of the capital San José, via Canas on the Inter-American Highway. The best place to view the volcano is from Tabacon Hot Springs.

Tabacon Hot Springs. Arenal, Costa Rica.

Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll

This natural Jacuzzi provides a water massage so powerful that it erases every bit of tension from your muscles. Its water is so warm that steam rises as high as the surrounding palms.

A maze of garden-lined pathways and arched bridges join the tumbling creeks to ten thermal pools. Couples cuddle together in natural rock grottoes, below a waterfall's Champagne spray. Green ferns, red ginger and yellow gladiolas separate them from elongated cascades where entire families luxuriate in languor-inducing foam.

Arenal

It's impossible to tell if the constant roar originates from the cataracts or from the source of the heat — Arenal Volcano. The conical mountain is dramatically close. Periodically, puffs of grey-blue smoke mushroom from its 1,633-metre-high peak.

At night, fountains of fire illuminate the sky. Although Arenal is still active, people can safely observe it from Tabacon and the lodges around Lake Arenal.

Engineers created the lake in 1973 by damming a river to produce electricity. Towering windmills, on the hills above, also generate power. Strong northeasterly winds whirl their 10-meter-long vanes and churn up waves on the lake, making it a favourite destination for windsurfers.

Costa Rica lodging

Lake Coter, nearby, is natural and more suited to canoeing. Visitors to the Eco Lodge Resort, located between the lakes, can enjoy both sports, as well as fishing, hiking and horseback-riding.

Twelve kilometres of trails spread like spider webs through the rainforest around the lodge. The short Bromeliad Trail offers an easy introduction to the 800 species of plants found here. Fallen flowers, strewn over the ground, resemble delicate mauve confetti.

Tiny white orchids adorn moss-covered trees. Twisted lianas dangle from epiphyte-covered limbs. And ruby-red berries drip pearls of moisture on lacy green ferns below.

Hiking tours

To truly experience the rainforest, it's best to hike with a guide who can identify the flora and fauna. The Eco Lodge offers escorted full- and half-day hikes. Guides frequently change, but all are well-qualified. Our guide was Gerardo Riviera, a visiting biologist.

Guide identifies rainforest tree. Costa Rica.

Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll

Riviera discovered three new species in the surrounding rainforest. Scientists named them after him.

Riviera showed us some of his collections: a palm-sized bean seed — the largest in the world, insects, and trays of butterflies and moths. Some had wings of iridescent turquoise. Others resembled owls, to frighten birds which prey on them.

Rainforest plants

Riviera made more than 200 signs to identify trees and plants along the trails. One sign, on the Illusion Trail, marks the Pouteria congestifolia, or chicle tree. Its sap is a component of chewing gum.

If you were ever lost in the jungle, you'd want to be with an expert like Riviera. Crushing a few lemon-scented scarlet berries in his hand, he explained that they were citronella, which repels insects. He identified the Protium costavicensis tree, which contains oil that will burn, even when the wood is green and wet.

Natural health remedies

After peeling a strip of bark from a tree, he rolled it with his palm against his thigh, until it coiled into a string. He repeated the exercise with a different coloured bark to make a strong two-toned twine. (One of Riviera's specialties was discovering natural dyes from vegetation like teak leaves and avocado seeds.)

Riviera explained that over 5,000 plants in Costa Rica have medicinal value. He pointed out a yellow flowering plant used to treat malaria. Crushing various leaves to release their scents, he described their use in deodorants, perfumes and food seasonings.

To show how plants can be used to make tools, Riviera severed a small branch from a Guararibea costaricensis tree. Peeling off the bark, he fashioned a five-spoke eggbeater that he manipulated by rubbing the handle between his palms. As a final touch, he hung it from the string he made earlier.

Wild seeds

Not all the plants are friendly. Riviera cut a small wedge into a Virola kochnyi tree. “Anyone inhaling the red sap that leaks out will hallucinate for five days,” he said. Other plants are mere curiosities, like the cucumber tree and the primitive plant. The former has long green inedible fruit hanging from its trunk; the latter is a plant fossil that has never evolved.

Cucumber tree. Costa Rica.

Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll

Whatever the purpose of the plant, Riviera planned to include it in a seed bank that researchers could use, as rainforests are destroyed and plants become extinct. “Many trees in the virgin forest, around the Eco Lodge, are at least 800 years old,” he said.

When Riviera wanted seeds, fruits or flowers, high up in a tree, for his collection, he reached into his back pocket for a slingshot. First he flung a lead weight, attached to a filament, high up over the branch. Then he used the filament to pull up a nylon rope with a chainsaw blade attached. By pulling back and forth on both ends of the rope he sawed off the specimen.

All inclusive family resort

After hiking for four hours, the comforts of the Eco Lodge were most welcome. Eco lodge packages include meals and daily activities. Buffet meals mix familiar dishes with local specialties like fresh fish, heart of palm salad, cassava, coconut flan and tamarind drinks. A roaring fire in the stone hearth entices guests to snuggle into the surrounding overstuffed chairs.

Invariably, the conversation centres around new discoveries: Squirrel monkeys chattering in the forest canopy. A wildcat's footprint along the trail. Industrious leafcutter ants carrying loads fifty times their size.

Costa Rica birding

Horseback-riding to Lake Coter, accompanied by Oscar, the wrangler, and Negra, the lodge dog. Returning to the stables to find Negra's litter of five puppies, all midnight-black, like her. Viewing birds from the rocking chairs on the front porch of the Eco Lodge. (There are 310 species here.)

Every morning, staff put out seeds, grain and fresh fruit. Within a few minutes, blue and red spoon-tailed motmots appear, followed by blue-grey tanagers, black and orange Baltimore orioles and yellow-breasted euphonias. Above the feeders, in the trees, jewel-coloured hummingbirds sip nectar from a rainbow of flowers.

Arenal is a showcase of Costa Rica's natural wonders — birds, flora, fauna, rainforests, waterfalls, hot springs and a magnificent volcano.

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TRAVEL INFORMATION

Lake Coter Eco Lodge: www.ecolodgecostarica.com

More things to see and do in Costa Rica:

Costa Rica Adventure Tour

Central America on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet)