Olingo

This is an olingo who has climbed across a wire and is hanging upside down in order to steal a drink from a hummingbird feeder at the hummingbird gardens at Monteverde.

Olingos are mammals whose nearest relatives are the coati. Their territory ranges from Nicaragua to Peru. This photo shows that they are very clever and nimble

Their bodies are only 36-42 cm (14-16 in.) in length, although they have ringed, bushy tails that are about the same length as their bodies. They weigh only 1.1-1.4 kg (2-3 lbs.) as adults, and weigh only 55 grams (.12 lbs., or 1.9 ounces) at birth. It takes a baby olingo 27 days just to open its eyes.

We see olingos at our condo on the beach in the Langosta area of Tamarindo. The most common times we see one is when we are on our second story balcony/patio at night listenind to the waves and watching the ocean. We can sometimes see an olingo walking around the grassy area below. Occasionally we see one walking around the parking lot or even in the corridor of our condo, which is outdoors. They will walk away and keep their distance when they see a person coming.

They travel alone and live a solitary life. They are nocturnal, as you might guess from looking at the size of the eyes in the olingo in this photo. This picture was taken late in the afternoon, as the olingo was beginning its day. They eat fruit, nectar, insects, small birds and mammals.

Blue motmot

This is a blue motmot in Monteverde. Blue motmots are native to Costa Rica. They are about 45 cm (18 in.) long. They have what is called a bare shafted racket tip at the end of their tail, as there is a short portion without feathers, then a round feathered part at the very end, making a shape similar to a tennis racket.

They make a hoot sound and eat insects and small lizards. As you might guess from the shape of their head and their posture, they are a relative of the kingfisher. I will post photos of kingfishers in the future.

As I trust you will agree from this photo, blue motmots are beautiful. I would like to tell you that we ventured deep into the cloud forest to get this picture or that we took this photo from the canopy walkways that I showed in my posts a week or so ago. But I must confess that this picture was taken from the convenience of our hotel room at the Monteverde Lodge.

Roadside rest stop

This garden was at a roadside rest stop on the road to Monteverde. Monteverde is a popular destination for tourists. The rest stop has a cafe, gift shop and this garden out back with a small zoo so tourists can enjoy a little walk while stretching their legs.

I posted a variety of photos from Monteverde ove rthe past week or so. It is a magnet for tourists and environmentalists because of its pristine cloud forest. Biologists are working there to study and preserve many species of plants and animals. They are also measuring the impact of global warming and have noted that certain species of butterflies are now living only at higher elevations than the area that had traditionally been their habitat.

Costa Rica attracts young people from all over the world to study and work on environmental issues. My wife has made the observation that Costa Rica today attracts young environmentalists much like Paris attracted artists and writers from all over the world early in the 20th century. Let's hope that they will achieve a similar impact on the world.

Monteverde Cheese

Here are two photos of Monteverde Cheese labels to follow up last week's posts about Monteverde.

Last week, I posted several photos from the Monteverde cloud forest and told the story of the Quakers who moved from the USA to Monteverde in 1951 and produced cheese to support their community. Several readers left comments inquiring about Monteverde Cheese. I therefore went to the supermarket and am posting some photos of Monteverde Cheese labels.

I like the logo. Notice that it shows a cows head emerging from the what could be either the top of a mountain or the body of the cow. The artwork on the label shows the pastures for dairy cows with the Monteverde cloud forest in the background. It looks sort of like a Central American, tropical version of Switzerland.

Costa Rica is known as the "Switzerland of Latin America." That analogy is not intended to refer to mountain cow pastures and cheese, however. The comparison to Switzerland refers to Costa Rica's decision in the late 1940's to abolish its military, which is what caused the Quakers to move to Costa Rica, and to invest the money from its military on education and health care.

Costa Rica has maintained a stable democracy and has avoided the internal or external conflicts that other countries in the region have experienced. With no military, Costa Rica has done just fine relying on police, and the values of the country are reflected by the fact that the country has more teachers than police.

Epiphytes

These are some epiphytes that were falling off a tree and that our naturalist guide at Monteverde showed to us. Epiphyte means "upon plant."

Epiphytes are plants that grow on trees. Most are not parasites. They live on a tree, but they do not exploit the resources of the tree to help them live. They collect the nutrients that they need from the air, rain and particles in the air. They do not draw sustenance from the host tree. Some host trees are completely covered with the leaves and vines of epiphytes.

Our guide, Eduardo, was extremely knowledgeable about the plants and animals in the area. Costa Rican guides seem to have an uncanny ability to spot wildlife that an untrained person would overlook. Eduardo carried a scope mounted on a tripod that he used to point out a rare quetzel,, the national bird of Costa Rica, barely visible in the thick foilage high in a tree.

I might take this opportunity to point out that Eduardo illustrates something about the demography of Costa Rica. 95% of Costa Ricans are classified as white, primarily of Spanish descent. 3% are of African origin, and only 1-2% are indigenous. Many of those of African descent live along the Carribean coast where they or their ancestors moved southward from Nicaragua or Belize. Their ancestors had moved to Nicaragua largely from Jamaica. Belize, formerly British Hondouras, was a slave port centuries ago.

Jamaica and Belize are both English-speaking countries. As a result, the African minority in Costa Rica generally speaks English as their native language. That is an asset in filling jobs in tourism, the number one industry in the country, because most visitors are from the USA and the English -speaking area of Canada.

One of the other naturalist guides who escorted other membersof our group was the son of one of the original group of 50 Quakers who settled Monteverde in 1951. It was our pleasure to meet with one of the original settlers. He drove a truck from Alabama to Monteverde in 1951. He lived for many of the intervening years in San Jose as the director of marketing for Monteverde cheese, returned to the U.S. for a few years when his children were young (and where they now live), then he ultimately returned to Monteverde to live.

Tomorrow . . . . a photo from the zip lines.

Epiphytes growing on tree branch

This photo of epiphytes growing on a tree branch is typical of the cloud forest. Many trees serve as a host to other plants that grow on their trunks and branches. In some cases, the epiphytes completely cover the host tree.

Epiphytes grow in the cloud forest because there is enough moisture for the epiphytes to live off the rain and humidity, without requiring a root structure below ground. Monteverde is in the central part of the country. It receives enough rain to support the cloud forest vegetation because it receives trade wins from the Caribbean side of the country. The moist air from the Caribbean travels up to the higher elevations, and the air is cooled, releasing moisture in the form of rain. Monteverde is at 5,900 feet (1,800 m.).

In Tamarindo, we are not influenced by the weather patterns from the Caribbean side of the country. The spine of tall mountains in the center of the country provides a barrier, and even hurricanes from the Caribbean side do not cross over to affect us here on the Pacific Coast.

Canopy walk view, with a splash of color

This is another view of the trees looking down from the canopy walk. Again, these may look like they are small plants, but these are the tops of tall trees.

The Monteverde canopy walk offers a superb opportunity to see the canopy of the cloud forest, but some people think that there is too much tourism in the area. In addition to the cloud forest reserve, there is a butterfly garden, a hummingbird center, a frog zoo, an orchid farm, a snake center, and other attractions for tourists.

The number of visitors who are allowed to hike on the main trail in the cloud forest preserve is limited each day. The number of tourists in the area is also limited by the challenge of driving in the area, as the roads are winding, mountain roads that are not in good condition. (Costa Rica has made great improvements to its roads in the last few years, as I will explain and show in some posts in the near future.)

The Monteverde cloud forest also contains the world's first zip line canopy tour, as Costa Rica pioneered the concept of eco-tourism. Today, there are zip line canopy tours in many places in Costa Rica, including some close to Tamarindo. I will show a photo from the zip lines this coming Monday.

I should note that today is a national holiday in Costa RIca -- Mother's Day. What about Father's Day, you might ask. That is held on a Sunday without granting a day off of work, but Mother's Day is always August 15 and is a holiday.

The dense cloud forest

This is a sample of the views of the cloud forest that can be seen from the trail through the forest and from the canopy walk.

The density of this forest should give you an appreciation of the challenges that faced the Quakers in 1951 as they cleared land for their houses and farms and faced the challenge of living in such an area that was remote 50 years ago.

I ended yesterday's post with a question of what could they do to earn money? Crops would spoil before they got to market. Manufacturing is not practical in such a remote location. They obviously can't produce any wealth by selling insurance to each other.

Their solution was to produce and sell cheese. Monteverde cheese is still produced by them today and is available in markets throughout Costa Rica. Cheese was the solution because their mountainous land was suitable for dairy cows, and it was easier to transport and would not spoil during the slow trip down the mountain to the roads of the outside world.

The Quakers needed something to use as molds to form the shape of their cheese. Their solution was to use the round cardboard containers that previously held - - - - Quaker Oats, of course.

(For readers of this website outside the USA, I perhaps should explain that there is a well known cereal company in the USA that sells oatmeal in round cardboard containers with a logo that is a picture of a colonial-era Quaker on the box and is called Quaker Oats, but I don't think that the company has anything to do with the Quaker religious group.)

View from the cloud forest floor

This is a view of the Monteverde cloud forest looking up from the ground. It is the opposite of the view yesterday from the canopy walk looking down on the trees.

I provided some information in my posts yesterday and the day before about the settlement of Monteverde by Quakers from the USA in 1951. They planted small farms to grow crops for themselves, but they did not have a source of cash to buy the other things they needed. They did not have an outside market for the crops that they grew because Monteverde is in a mountainous area, and 50 years ago there was not even a paved road to the area. Also, it is a cloud forest, and trees don't get this green without a fair amount of rain. The same rain turned the dirt roads in Monteverde to mud and prevented the Quakers from being able to transport out crops before they would spoil.

Tomorrow, I will answer the question of what the Quakers did to have a product to export to earn cash for their needs. In the meantime, perhaps you can try to think of a solution. What would you have recommended as a source of earning money for a community of 50 people living in mountainous cloud forest that was rather inaccessible 50-60 years ago?

Canopy walk view

This fern is not a potted plant. This is a view down on the tops of large trees. The canopy walk shown in yesterday's photo allows visitors to walk in the midst of the tops of trees and to look down on tree tops.

The cloud forest has multiple levels of vegetation, with tall trees providing a canopy of shade to shelter the smaller trees and bushes that grow near the ground. Tomorrow I will show a photo of the forest from the ground looking up.

I mentioned yesterday that Monteverde was founded by Quakers in 1949 due to their opposition to war and Costa Rica's abolition of its military. We met with one of the original group of about 50 Quakers who came to settle Monteverde at that time. Most traveled by ship, but he was one of a few who drove from the USA to Costa Rica. It took months, as the Pan American Highway was not built. I will relay more of his story during the next few days.

(By the way, the Pan American Highway travels through Liberia and San Jose and is shown as Route 1 on the map I have posted in the lower left sidebar of this website.)

Monteverde canopy walk

Monteverde is a special place. Its cloud forest has a 2.5 km (1.5 mile) nature trail with 6 suspension bridge walkways like this one across ravines from one ridge to the next.

These walkways allow visitors to walk through, and look down upon, the canopy of trees at the roof of the cloud forest. The walkways are as high as 42 m. (138 ft.) above the ground and as long as 243 m. (797 ft.).

I will post a picture tomorrow of the view looking down on the canopy of trees, and additional photos of the cloud forest on the several days after that.

I will also provide some information on the history of Monteverde during the next few days. It is fascinating. It was founded by American Quakers who were faced with being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and of course their religion did not permit them to take up arms. They read about Costa Rica abolishing its military and a group of 50 of them from Alabama decided to move to Costa Rica. They settled in Monteverde, which was an uninhabited mountainous area.

The Monteverde cloud forest was later identified as a threatened ecological treasure. School children in Sweden collected coins in the 1980's to purchase land to save the cloud forest, and their efforts were joined by school children from 44 nations. The Quakers also donated some of their land. More than 54,000 acres is preserved in what is called the Children's Eternal Rainforest, or Reserve Bosque Eterno de los Ninos.