Read day 4 here.

Who needs an alarm clock??? The howler monkeys are out in force at 5:00 this morning. They are in the trees right outside my room and the noise they make will most certainly wake you up! I loved it! I just lay there for a while and listened to them. This particular group just happened to be near my room this morning and evidently they howl to warn off any other encroaching groups of monkeys from their territory and they repeat this behavior every morning. Since I was already awake I took the opportunity to walk around the grounds while it’s cool. There are plenty of birds out and about already. Our group leader Pedro has offered an optional early morning bird walk for those that are interested and I see a group of them coming back in time for breakfast.

*** As it turns out, Pedro has 6 or 7 of my fellow travelers that go out with him just about every morning of the program. They end up with a total of over 130 birds sighted during our program. * This includes the ones that the group spots throughout the program.

Luggage has to be outside the room by about 7:45 so that it can be taken down to the dock to be loaded onto the boat for our ride back to Caño Blanco. After breakfast I check to make sure I haven’t left anything behind and then head for the dock. As we leave Pachira I realize that I am really relaxed and have truly enjoyed my stay there.

On our boat ride back we spot more herons, cormorants, egrets, and even mangrove swallows. It’s a beautiful clear, sunny day and the river is flat and calm. We can even see Turrialba Volcano in the distance.

When we arrive at Caño Blanco Didier and our bus are there to meet us. After a quick bathroom break we’re back on the bus to head towards Sarapiqui. I didn’t notice as much on the way in but on the way out the river rock road is consistently bumpy- actually more like a rattle than a bump - but it’s all part of the experience. On the way out our driver Didier spots a crested caracara (falcon) sitting in a bunch of bananas – he stops the bus so we can all get a look. Further along we stop at a banana processing plant and we see how the bananas from the nearby plantation are processed.

I didn’t know that banana plantations yield only one crop a year. There is an older Costa Rican man sitting next to the processing plant and he has a cooler filled with coconuts that have already been husked.  For a dollar he will punch a hole in the top of the coconut and stick in a straw for you – instant cold drink! He also had a large rhinoceros beetle on a piece of stick as a pet. He let us all take a close look at it as well as take pictures. After the short stop it was back on the bus.

After we hit the paved road we encounter a bit of a delay due to a traffic accident. We wait and after about a twenty minute stop we are on our way again. As we ride along we see rice and pineapple plantations all along the road. As always Pedro is giving us information and answering any questions we might have.

We arrive a bit late to Selva Verde Lodge so the first stop for everybody is the restrooms. After that everyone meets in the downstairs dining area for  check in and then straight to lunch. As we are sitting in the upstairs dining room it starts to rain pretty hard – imagine that, rain in the rainforest. Before we even finish lunch it has stopped raining and the sun is back out again.

***Selva Verde offers laundry service that is priced by weight instead of by the piece so I take the opportunity to get some laundry done while I am here – I drop it off at the front desk on my way to the bus.

Once we are all in the lobby we board the bus for our visit a local pineapple plantation, the Finca Corsicana. We are met by our guide for the tour Rodio and we all get on a covered trailer that pulled by a tractor. We learn that on this particular 2800 acre farm all of the pineapple is picked, sorted and packed by hand.  The farm grows both conventional and organic pineapple that we often see in stores in the US. Any pineapple that is deemed not good enough to be sold fresh is used for juices, canned fruit and jellies. We were shown the whole process from picking to sorting to packing. I was particularly impressed by how quickly the ladies doing the sorting from the conveyor belt could differentiate between a quality pineapple and one that would be used for juice or canning as it whizzed by them. I learned that a pineapple actually ripens on the vine and is then picked and shipped. We learned to taste the difference between a conventional and organic pineapple. Rodio went down and just picked a random pineapple from the organic section of the fields and then one from the conventional section.  I’ll be honest the organic was by far the best pineapple I have ever tasted! I definitely have a much better appreciation for how much work it takes to get a pineapple from the field to our local grocery store!

After our pineapple tour we return to the lodge for a scheduled evening lecture.  After our lecture on the La Selva Biological Corridor we head to the lodge dining room for dinner. After dinner I head back to my room. My room has three big screened windows with shutters as well as a ceiling fan – no AC. Like Pachira, it cools off enough to sleep comfortably. It also includes the usual amenities, hairdryer, wall safe, 2 double beds, a walk in shower, as well as a phone in the room.  I can’t wait till tomorrow – we have river rafting outing scheduled.

Day 6 >