Idyllic Totobe days

We're approaching the end of 10 dreamlike days at Totobe (Armadillo) resort on Playa San Miguel, an isolated and almost deserted 5 km long beach between 2 rocky headlands, with golden sand and backed by mangroves and palm groves. No big resort this, just a main house and annexe, ably looked after by Greivin, Wendy and Leticia and co-owned by ex-Saga colleague Jon Sandvik and his Costa Rican friend Alfredo Chinchilla. All in all a little piece of paradise, with excellent local food thrown in! Highly recommended!



At high tide, the surf breaks very near to the top of the beach ,and as Ros's last blog says, the sound of it pounds away in the background day and night. For the lazier of us, there's also a great little swimming pool, flanked by manicured lawns where the resident iguanas bask and enjoy the morning sun, warming up for the day's hunting. Hummingbirds gather nectar from the trees around us and pelicans fly in big Vs over us, hunting out the fish shoals just offshore. Even a crocodile was observed the other night, crossing the road on its way back to the mangroves behind the beach track, while the howler monkies bark and groan out their chorus in the background.....



We've enjoyed a couple of longer trips, one a 50 something km trek down to the southern tip of the Nicoye peninsula at Cabo Blanco (yet again a trip made unnecessarily longer by Mrs GPS's commands!), fording rivers where the guide advises not to step out of the car onto floating logs - they may be crocodiles! And a fantastic 5 km run along pristine Playa Bongo, before hitting the somewhat rough and ready hippie/surf/backpacker resorts of Santa Teresa, Malpais and Montezuma near the southernmost tip and one of CR's first nature reserves around Cabo Blanco itself, with its luxuriant tropical forest and yet more untouched beaches. And then yesterday, 33 km northwards to Samara, a somewhat more upmarket beach resort, but along dirt and gravel roads that sometimes seem to hang miraculously onto the mountainside. Another great trip, but yet again making us more than happy to get back to magical Playa San Miguel and Totobe, to watch yet another awe-inspiring sundown over the Pacific.

On to the Pacific....

As I slowly awaken, I hear the loud shushing of a tropical cloudburst on the roof - “Walls of Water” as David calls it, or WoW – Waiting on Weather, the jargon of the oil industry. And then I realize that it’s not rain at all, but the beating of the Pacific breakers on the beach just a hundred metres from our bed. I pad across the hardwood floor and swing open the veranda door: another warm and cloudless day, a light breeze rustling the coconut palms and the passion flower creeper on the terrace roof below. The girls, Laetitia and Wendy are already preparing fresh fruit, rice and beans, scrambled eggs and fried bananas for breakfast and our fellow guests – Costa Rican/Swedish Hans, Emma, and Gustav (6) and Wilgot (1 ½) are exploring the strandline.

Totobe (the local name for armadillo) is in the middle of an untouched, eight kilometre long beach on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, towards thre southern end of The Nocoya Peninsula. It comprises two main buildings set on clipped lawns amongst the palm groves. The ocean is on one side, and dense mixed woodland with palms and flowering trees on the other across a seldom-used narrow dirt road. Emerald humming birds sip nectar from tiny red flowers and household iguanas sun themselves on the lawn. The construction is solid, but open – wooden tree trunks of heavy red-orange mulberry support steep sloping red-tiled roofs. The living area, kitchen and dining area are open on three sides, the eaves of the bedroom are open to the outside, so no air conditioning but plenty of fans to keep you cool. And there’s the pool, too. You have to be careful in the ocean rip currents and so it’s good to be able to relax in the pool when the heat gets to be too much.

It is not easy getting here though! We drive along good tarmac roads down the peninsula from Liberia to Carmona, briefly stopping at a strange Chinese restaurant/bar with swinging red lanterns for an iced tea in 34 degrees heat and then head southwest. I am somewhat apprehensive since the route chosen by the GPS lady lies along the crest of a series of high mountain ridges on the map – while a little further to the east there’s a longer but easier road going through the valley. The road from Carmona deteriorates rapidly into a single gravel track with loose silt and sand. Even David hasn’t experienced such steep and abrupt loose hairpin bends before. The road goes up and up and I quake at each steep bend, praying for this heavy 4X4 to make it. Eventually the road flattens across the first ridge and I manage to stop trembling enough to get out and take a photo of the view – and what a view! Across the Golfo de Nicoya towards San Jose, the islands glittering in the afternoon sun.

 

The ridge road continues for what seems an eternity, ever climbing and swinging, but eventually we make it across and down onto the coastal plain. Plantations of spindly teak trees, with oval  leaves the size of dinner plates, line the roads; we find out later that this is a very fast growing hardwood which can be cut and replanted, helping to prevent deforestation of Costa Rica’s rich native rainforests. The gravel road parallels the coast now through rolling pastureland with Brahman cattle – a short traverse and we’re on the beach! Totobe at last, to a welcoming cold drink and relax.....

Hubble, bubble, boil and don't snubble!

So on to closer contact with the volcanic world, not viewing a steaming crater from afar, but walking among bubbling and grumbling mud pools, steam jets furiously blowing from holes in the ground, all set in tropical forestland.... And all part of the Rincon and Miravalle complexes, beautiful stratiform volcanoes rising to 2,000 m, their craters often hidden in the clouds. Their forested flanks the sites of intense geothermal energy, with superheated steam temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Centigrade. So these two areas provide about 25 % of CR's energy needs, with export to Nicaragua and Panama too.

We started at La Pailas Ranger Station, with a sign saying that the trail up to the Rincon crater was closed because of volcanic activity, the last (moderate) eruption of ash and mud being in September 2011. I hadn't planned to attempt the 16 km round trip with a 1,000 m climb anyway and was more than happy with a 4 km scramble along and up and down the forested hillsides, with occasional hot springs, spectacular bubbling and rumbling mudpots and intimidating fumarole vents, jetting out their sulphurous steam. All the time wondering how much of the intense heat came from the sun baking down from above or from the hellish inferno under our feet, colouring the hot soil all strange shades of yellow, green, red....

 

Then on to Rio Negro, one of the biggest rivers running down the volcano flanks, where Ros dipped into a series of hot pools and mud baths, with temperatures up to 40 degrees, before a cold dip in the river itself. Altogether a great experience and much more exciting than the lukewarm "hot" springs of Miravalle with the most impressive geothermal energy site in Costa Rica. Then the drive back over the hillsides between Miravalle and Rincon, through a large-scale wind farm, making use of the constant high winds in the area. And back to Rinconito Lodge where hosts Luis and David served yet another superb Costa Rican supper, before early to bed for yet another day's adventure, to be recounted by Ros tomorrow - keep on watching this spot!

Up to volcano country.....

A slightly overdue account of our visit to the volcanic centres of Rincon de la Vieja and Miravalles - before heading on to our present stop on the Pacific coast..... First we headed down to the Pacific coast from San Jose along a modern freeway, winding down from 1,000 m to sealevel, the temperature rising along the way to a toasting but dry 34 degrees on the coast. Then north along the fabled Pan-American Highway, Ruta 1, which turned out to be about the same standard as the country road between Heggedal and Røyken, but clogged with heavy trucks, some of which couldn't manage the gentle hills at more than 20 km per hour and impossible to overtake...... But signs along the way that CR is doing what the president told Ros - that they're trying to improve the infrastructure, with long stretches where there is work in progress on a 4-lane highway.... Into Liberia, the northwesternmost major town before the border with Nicaragua and also the capital of Guanacaste province, where we had yet another major conflict with "Mrs GPS", she/it trying to send us on dirt roads around the centre, us wanting to see it!

Finally on the dirt road out of town and up into the hills, 23 km and 600 m up to Rinconcito Lodge on the edge of Rincon de la Vieja National Park, first through open chaparral-like rolling hills, the smooth dirt road cut into blinding white ignimbrites (deposits from super-heated "nuee ardentes" or burning ash flows), with local indigenous art carved into and painted on the cutting walls.... All the time the 2,000 m high volcanoes towering before and above us, their tops covered by clouds in an otherwise brilliant blue sky. Then up into another, darker ash flow as the vegetation thickened into a dry tropical forest, iguanas baking on the road ahead, monkeys playing in the trees.

On to Rinconcito Lodge, set on an open wooded hillside, cabins surrounded by bougainvilla, hibiscus, palms, luxuriant tropical bushes, but with an open eatery serving solid good Costa Rican food. Sat on our cabin's veranda, relaxing after the 200 km drive (not more!), watching sundown over the hills and planning the next volcanic visits, marvelling over Costa Rica's many local microenvironments and climates, the next more beautiful than the last....

The old man of Tortuguero

We've been offline for several days, up among the volcanos of the Cordillera de Guanacaste, great time, but poor or no net connection. More about that tomorrow - first Ros's description of a trip she had while we were on the Caribbean coast in Tortuguero:

"We’d seen Josh  around Casa Marbella in his khaki shorts, T-shirt and cap; slow talking with a round Canadian drawl, bleary-eyed, his greying hair tied back in a long thin pigtail. He turned up a few minutes late and looking somewhat the worse for wear to guide us through the rain forest on Turtle Hill – a rounded high promontory at the mouth of the Tortuguero River. The river taxi had room for seven passengers, but there were only four of us – Josh, a newly-wed French couple and me. We zip along the broad channel, the fancy lodges lining the banks with their parrot tablecloths flapping in the breeze. Guido grounds the flattened prow on the beach and we hop ashore, waiting for the ebb so the water doesn’t pour into our rubber boots.

We plod across the sandy beach and Josh points out the seed pods in the swash zone – large round pods the size of golf balls, flattened rounded disks and coconuts – all are far too large to be carried by birds or other animals and depend on water for their distribution. We pass by a cheap and cheerful row of wooden bungalows and cafes lining the beach and into the rainforest beyond. Suddenly it’s dark and dank, the cries of children playing on the beach absorbed by the foliage. There are 409 species of tree in this forest, four times as many as in all of  North America and Europe. All are struggling for survival, filling a niche in this complex ecosystem, all striving to reach the light. The trees thrive with their roots in the wet nutrient poor soil, but many other life forms struggle to stay dry. The white tent bats chew along the main longitudinal vein of a palm leaf so that it folds, forming a waterproof roof; they cluster beneath this during the day. Termites build their nests high up in the trees here.

The trail is muddy and slippery with brown decaying leaves. Occasionally we spot a tiny, bright red poison dart frog – the mucus on their backs is not poisonous to touch unless you have an open cut. Bullet ants can give you a nasty bite though, so I stay well clear. And I carefully avoid touching a vicious looking plant with spikes covering its stems and leaves, which can make you sick for days.

We hear a rustling in the tree tops and suddenly it’s pouring down; we hurriedly slip into our ponchos. I’m lucky, mine has a hood and it covers my backpack and hangs down to my knees; the others are drenched in minutes. The treetops way above us sway violently and Josh decides that we should retreat – falling branches are dangerous. We seek refuge in the nearest bar on the beach, Josh swigging his tumblers of white rum and water. I watch the kids splashing on the beach, the waves crashing onto the barrier bar just across the channel, and the brown pelicans effortlessly hugging the swell.

Soon Guido is here to fetch us and we drone back to the dock at Casa Marbella.  Josh steps unsteadily up onto the prow and then onto the dock, his foot slips on the wood slick with algae and he falls headfirst, backpack and all, into the brown muddy river water. He comes up looking disheveled and surprised and Guido helps him clamber back onto the dock. This is not the first time, and it won’t be the last…. "

 

Back to the world.....

We left Tortuguero yesterday afternoon, somewhat regretting that I had followed Casa Marbella owner Daryl's advice not to stay longer than 3 nights - it was a magical place and perfect to just sit on the riverside, letting time flow by.....

We were picked up by Jungle Tom Safaris' riverboat and headed back to civilisation up the Rio la Suerte - the lucky river - guide Mario joking the name was because you would be lucky not to be eaten by a crocodile if you fell in! And we sure saw some big fat crocodiles as the boat carefully navigated up the meandering and fast-flowing stream, with dense rain forest on both banks.


Then after an hour or so we reached the "bus station" at La Pavona and were packed into a minibus overflowing with people and luggage for the 110 km and 2 hour road journey back to San Jose. First driving through endless banana plantations on the deforested coastal plain, with the pretty primitive houses/shacks that Del Monte, Dole and Chiquita provide for their poorly paid and highly pesticided mainly Nicaraguan workers - the backside of the Costa Rican "La Pura Vida" medal!

Suddenly the Cordillera Central mountain chain rose through the clouds and we started on the climb from near sea-level to 1500 m, the dense rain forest of the Claudio Barillo National Park and its clouds hiding the sheer cliff above and the equally sheer drop below.... We were on Route 32, the only highway between the Caribbean and Pacific  coasts, often clogged with heavy trucks or closed because of landslides, but this Sunday evening all went smoothly...

Emerging from the clouds on the 500 m drop to San Jose just after tropical sundown, we saw the lights of San Jose glittering in  the valley below, before endlessly criss-crosscrossing the city and dropping people off here and there and then the 20 km drive out to our hotel near the airport.....Pretty tired by the time we got our chicken dinner at nearby Rosti Pollo!

Today a quiet day,visiting nearby Alejuela for lunch, a pleasant market town and province capital, now in the dry climate west of the Cordillera, a dry and pleasant maximum of 28 degrees in contrast to the humid rainforest we left yesterday. A once in a lifetime experience at lunch - giving a begging old lady 100 colones - about 1 krone - through the railings surrounding the cafe, just to get some peace, then 5 minutes later she returned, with a triumphant smile on her face, an ice-cream in one hand and a thumbs up as muchas gracias with the other! Nice to see my little coin appreciated....Then off to Europcar to pick up our sparkling white Toyota SUV, in which we'll drive on to the next instalment of our Costa Rican adventure tomorrow - watch this spot!

Tortuguero, a watery tropical paradise?

I'm sitting on the deck of Casa Marbella, on the banks of the Tortuguera ("Place of turtles") River just before it flows through a channel in the barrier bar and out into the Caribbean. The pounding Caribbean surf less than a km away giving the background noise, while here the river flows gently past, the howler monkeys growling at each other from tree to tree. Sometimes the sun shines, sometimes the rain pours down, making this one of the wettest places in the world, with up to 6,400 mm a year. It's a magical tropical paradise, in spite of the evergrowing number of "ecotourists" - like us. A great place to chill out and enjoy nature.

This morning Roberto guided us and 8 other visitors through the narrow channels meandering through the rainforest, silently gliding along in an electric-powered longboat. The water is a millpond, brown with silt and mud, penetrating far into the jungle beneath the tangle of tree trunks and vines at the sides of the channels. Grey herons and giant egrets stand motionless, peering into the depths. Rustling leaves in the towering trees reveal a sloth, white-faced monkeys, an ant-eater. A single cayman, a metre long drifts lazily downstream, a turtle basks on a log. Altogether a magical experience.

The Poas Volcano

Having been befriended by Juan, a very friendly taxi-driver, yesterday, we used him again today for our trip up into the mountains and to the volcano - cheaper than a guided tour and far more pleasant than being herded around like a flock of sheep! An almost 100 km round trip, but starting around 900 m above sea-level and ending at the lookout point over the active crater at just over 2500 m. Quite a steep and winding road up to the volcano, with many spectacular views, enormous coffee plantations on the lower slopes, then strawberry fields (forever?), then pine and fern forest, some of it quite stunted because of acid rain caused by the steam and gas continuously flowing out of the active crater lake.... We accused Juan of taking us on the special tourist scenic route, so beautifully neat, tidy, unlittered and almost manicured the whole road was and not a slum or untended shack in sight. But no, he maintained that this is how it is in Costa Rica!

A pleasant km or so walk from the park camping ground to the lookout point, and there she blew in all her glory, the active Poas crater, filled with toxic hot water, supposedly one of the world's most acidic lakes, steaming away and giving off its toxic fumes, so that the area immediately around the crater is bare and the nearby forest extremely stunted. Impressive proportions, the main crater about 1.5 km wide and 300 m deep,,, The last major eruption, sending ash 8 km up, was in 1910, but there is constant activity - Poas was the epicentre of 6.1 magnitude earthquake in 2009, killing at least 40 people in nearby areas and there was also minor eruptive activity then, while the lake often erupts in a geyser-like fashion. All very impressive! (And smelly too, the sulphurous fumes catching the back of your throat... After suitableapprecative  grunts and oohs and ahs and picture taking, athletic Ros continued on a circuit to an even higher, but now inactive crater, which last erupted in 7500 Bc, while Juan & David ambled back to the visitor's centre for a well-earned coffee. Then down back the road, taking pics of rhubarb-like "sombrillo de pauvre" - "poor man's umbrella", before stopping for lunch at a big coffee plantation. All in all quite a day!

Museums of San Jose

Forgot to mention in our shock at arriving in CR with the President that the country's immigration procedure at San Jose Airport (About the size of Sola Stavanger) was the easiest, quickest and friendliest we have ever experienced.... And the friendly approach continued today, wherever we were, whatever we did during our visit to San Jose itself - described by Lonely Planet as "not a pretty city, what with the unremarkable concrete structures, clogged pedestrian arcades and fast-food monstrosities dominating its cityscape". A pretty jaundiced view in our opinion - we visited 2 world-class museums and ate a very good "menu del dia" lunch at what was a very Costa Rican and not fast food restaurant - the owner chatting afterwards to be sure we had enjoyed our meal.

The first museum, dedicated to "Pre-Colombian Gold" (www.museosdelbancocentral.org)
and a prize-winner on Tripadvisor, in fact gave an excellent overview of life in the region before the Spanish conquest - clearly showing a well-organised and not at all primitve society, in strong contrast to the European thugs who raped and pillaged the place! A view strengthened by the Jade Museum, (http://portal.ins-cr.com/portal.ins-cr.com/Social/MuseoJade/) which showed how this semiprecious stone had great religious and ceremonial use and significance in the pre-conquest societies.

Ah well, back to geology tomorrow and a visit to the active Poas volcano, less than 50 km from San Jose - after almost 45 years as a qualified geologist, this will be my first visit to an active volcano!!!!!! 

So here we are on a trip again, what a welcome!

Costa Rica: A Good Place to Be a Woman

10 SEPTEMBER 2012 NO COMMENT

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda

Mary Liepold
Editor in Chief

Here’s the data. Costa Rica ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the international women’s bill of rights, in 1986, and its Optional Protocol in 2001. (The US has yet to ratify it.)

An Act Promoting the Social Equality of Women became law in 1990. The Beijing Declaration and World Platform for Action that followed the 4^th World Conference on Women in 1995 inspired a new series of laws and policies in Costa Rica. Its National Institute for Women (INAMU), established in 1998, oversees all policies that affect women. A cabinet-level Minister on the Status of Women serves as Executive Secretary of INAMU.

• At least in the formal sector, Costa Rican women earn 90% of what their male counterparts earn.
• Women hold 39% of the seats in the national legislature.
• The 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index ranks Costa Rica #2 overall among 86 non-OECD countries, up from 5^th place in 2009.

“Non-OECD” means that Costa Rica, like first-place Argentina, is classified as a developing country. What’s more, it’s a Latin country, one of those whose language and culture gave us the word machismo, and its complement, marianismo.

So, yes, there’s a gap between law and practice. Those of us who live in one of the 34 OECD member, or most-developed countries, know we have gaps here too―some big enough to swallow lives.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda is committed to closing the gaps. “Women continue receiving less salary for the same kind of job,” she said in a 2011 Forbes interview. “Women have a higher unemployment rate in our country. When you analyze the composition of poverty, you will find that most of the families in poverty are being run by a woman. Also, a big issue is violence against women.”

Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve learned about policy and practice, from both research and conversations with those who know the country best.

Family Status

In 1973 Costa Rica became one of the first countries in the world to pass legislation granting parental authority to both spouses. This law also provides for equality in the case of divorce. A 1995 law on common-law marriages took it a step further, providing for equality between cohabiting partners. The 2001 Responsible Paternity Act outlaws discrimination against women with children born out of wedlock or not recognized by the father.

The government of this predominantly Catholic country considers sexual and reproductive health a fundamental right. Women’s access to contraception is guaranteed by the General Health Act, and the Ministry of Health runs outreach programs to increase the use of reproductive health services, including access to contraception. According to the CIA’s 2012 World Factbook, Costa Rica’s birthrate is 1.92, below ZPG and slightly below the US rate of 2.06.

The legal marriage age is 18, but 15-year-olds can wed if both parents give permission. In 1986, 20% of marriages involved teens. By 2010 that number had been almost halved, to 10.5%.

And who does the dishes? As in the US and other “developed” countries, the domestic power balance is tilting toward equality, and it’s still far from ideal.

Education, Employment, and Economic Status

According to UNICEF, enrollment and attendance rates at primary and secondary schools are higher for Costa Rican girls than for their brothers. The high school enrollment rate is 92% for girls and 87% for boys. High school attendance rates, at 65% and 59% respectively, are lower for both genders but follow the same proportion.

The rate of women’s employment grew 26% between 2000 and 2012, according to an August 2012 World Bank report. The law requires that Costa Rican women and men receive equal pay for equal work. Women are entitled to four months paid maternity leave at 100% of wages, plus three months more in case of medical necessity. Half the payment comes from the national social security system and half from the woman’s employer, as long as she was contributing to Social Security for six months in the year preceding pregnancy. When that’s not the case, the employer pays two-thirds of her salary. Pregnant or nursing mothers cannot be fired except for cause, like any other employee. These rules apply only to women in the formal economy, and not to the many in domestic service or the informal economy.

Even domestic workers have some security, though. Along with Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Panama, Costa Rica has instated means-tested national pension programs for both women and men that do not depend on money paid in. This is especially important for women because we live longer than men. The nation’s poverty rate is just 2%, according to the PensionWatch Country Fact File.

Political Power

Central America

Observers note that quotas have been more effective in Costa Rica than in any democratic country anywhere. President Chinchilla Miranda, who took office in 2010, is the nation’s first woman president, one of three currently serving in Latin America and twenty worldwide. The deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court is a woman and so are the presidents of the High Court of Civil Appeals and the Constitutional Chamber and the ambassador to the US.

The country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) now requires that a minimum of 50% of candidates for elective office be women and, significantly, that women’s names be placed alternately with men’s on the ballot for each party slate. In August the TSE reported that 49% of the candidates running for office in the December local government elections are women. Women are almost 39% of the legislature, holding 22 of 57 seats and including the vice president of the assembly, the government party leader, and nine legislative committee chairwomen. (The percentage is 17% in the US.) There were 7 women in the 21-member cabinet as of May 7, 2012.

Violence against Women and Children

The National Institute for Women is particularly active on issues relating to violence against women, providing services to victims as well as advocating for better legal and practical protection. Sex work is legal, but pimping is against the law. Sexual violence remains a problem, with some evidence that rates have increased in recent years. Trafficking in women and even children is a growing concern.

The burgeoning eco-tourism, which has been a boon to the economy, brings sex tourism as well. Prisons, including the women’s prison, are overcrowded, mostly because of drug-related offenses. In the Forbes interview, President Chinchilla described her country as “caught between the producers in the South and the consumers in the North.” She was talking about drug traffic, but it’s also true of traffic in persons.

These are serious, serious problems. “It’s easy to come and do bad stuff because there aren’t a lot of police outside the capital,” says Sharon Ann Wildey, an American resident of Costa Rica who loves the country and its people and generously shared her impressions. Even one incident of sexual violence or child abuse is one too many. Yet there is no widespread impunity, according to the US Department of State’s 2010 Human Rights Report.

Ticos support their government because it provides them with education and what Wildey calls “heroic” medical care. They don’t want government involved in their everyday lives, and outside the capitol and the coastal regions, where crime and police power are both concentrated, they have a rough, macho way of taking matters into their own hands. Overall, perhaps it’s still a good thing to have more teachers than police, as my previous article suggested.

Or maybe not. Is Costa Rica one of the best places in the world to be a woman? Newsweek’s 2011 list of the 20 best places had no winners in Africa, the Middle East, or Latin America. Can a country that loves peace be a bad place to be a woman? What do YOU think? We’d love to hear your opinions.