Happy Birthday Di!
To think I was wondering whether I should spend the money on the horse back tour! I do believe it will be difficult to top that experience here. Javier, manager at Nosara Paradise Rental office, arranged to have the taxi, Daniel, pick us up at 9 am. The taxi ride up the mountain seems very expensive to me at $20, but fuel's expensive and vehicles don't last on these roads. Up, past Miss Sky's office, across the river 3 times (crossing fingers every time. water up to bottom of door).
On the way up we pick up Graevin, Javier's brother and the gardener for Nosara Paradise Rentals. He's going home to see Mama. We hear monkeys up in the trees above us. WROWWWWER-ER-ER. We were told on the canopy tour that the Howler monkeys are the second loudest mammals in the world. Blue Whales being the first. We wonder if that is in ratio to their size. I still am shocked every time I see how small they are in comparison to their booming voices. Daniel stops the vehicle and the bunch of us get out. Daniel and Graebin stay in the truck, watching us, watching their wild life. I think I could pick up a bit of their conversation. It sounds much like ours, only they were marveling not at the wild life, but at the tourists' awe. I heard the word "passione" in there. Daniel honks the horn a few times, stirring up much noise amounst the monkeys. The girls were thrilled. They'd seen only a few monkeys. there were at least a dozen in one tree, and several closer in one right above us.
We meet Eduardo, a 40-something man, who looks a lot like his brother, Javier. He hugs and smooches everyone on the cheeks, in Costa Rican fashion. The horses stand by, tethered to trees on the river bank. They're a lot smaller than our standard breds. We note that part of their gear runs under their tails and don't know what that's for. Mom, do you? One, Rainne's horse, has the tip of his tail tied to the saddle, so that he can't swish the person on him. Eduardo says the lashing tail will actually cut. We think they don't cut the hair so that he can still swish the flies off himself when not saddled. His name is Macho, I think I understand that Macho is a breed of horse here, and that he's mother was Macho and father a burro. His ears are donkey-like.
My horse is named (something in Spanish meaning star). We get right on, heading into the bush. Lindsay gives direction to those of us who're less horsey. Diane has ridden before, as have I, but Rainne wishes she has Lindsay's horse because her's is a bit spunkier. Erroll sits back on his horse, in last place and we all laugh. It's just like when he was small "Come ON Erroll!! catch up!" He smiles and says "my guy's taking his time. s'ok"
Unlike any of the trail horses I've ever been on, these don't mind switching up their order. Rainne's at the front, behind Eduardo and wants someone with more Spanish up there to get what he's saying. Diane has a bit of Spanish because of her Mexican co worker. Rainne knows she has only 10 days here and has the basics down hola, gracious, porfavor etc. Lindsay and I take turns being close to the front to pass on what we think Eduardo is saying. Erroll lags behind.
We are amazed at the beauty of this forest. Some of the trees are as thick as a man is tall. Some are white, my mind keeps calling them ghost trees. There are vines hanging everywhere, and running up the trees. One tree, Eduardo tells me, is 4 hundred years old. There are lemon, lime and orange trees, Cacao (mountain chocolate), and a tree that produces two fruits (I think, by his grin that the reference to "bolls" is what it sounds like). The horses grab twigs with leaves on them and munch, despite our attempts at not letting them. This is their food. No grass, no hay, just trees.
Tepescuintle
We are in the mountains. Some of the trail seems brutal on the horses feet. The terrain is very hilly, and we get a good sample of how it is to ride across it. There are steep hills up and down. One set of difficult highs and lows leads us to a beautiful falls. We all wonder how it would be to travel here in the rainy season.
The trail takes us to Mamma's house, her name is Jesus. She has raised 5 boys and 2 girls. There's no Papa. Strong little woman. Her home is modest. We sit at her table, situated under a canopy outside the front door, much like every other home here. The bathroom is just off the patio and is chirping. There is an outside tiled sink. Diane uses the facilities first, and finds many 2 or 3 day old chicks in the shower pan!
There are chickens wandering about everywhere, at all stages of life. At home, spring is for chicks, fall for killing roosters and fryers but the layers must endure the cold winter. Here, I suppose the chickens can survive any season. I ask about beef. They don't eat it here. Just chicken and pork. Their cattle are for milking only.
The farm spans many acres. Jesus' house and that of Javier, and another for Eduardo's family dot the trail. The hills rise up from either side of the house, one face is steep and grassy, the other full of trees, where we rode. This is what my husband should have seen. I wish he came.
We take a walking tour to see the protected animal, Tepescuintle. It's body is round, about as big as a basket ball. Short hair shows on it's rump, as it hides in a hole under a plank. There are stripes on it that remind me of a chipmunk. It's dark in there and we all skootch in to take a closer look and someone steps on a twig. The SNAP sends about 6 of them running into the bush. Eduardo makes an obvious sniffing face, and says "He says 'Gringos!'". One comes scurrying back on it's little legs and hides, face out so that we can see that it looks like a huge rat face. Eduardo tells us that it's Javier's idea to make a protected, fenced area for them. The meat is delicious, and many farmers kill them for their dinner, making them almost extinct.
Eduardo's Spanish becomes easier to understand as he slows down (thanks to Auntie Dee, who told me "lento"- slow). Many Spanish and English words are "equale" and thus easier to pick up the gist of what's being said. Understanding their twists in rules for letters, such as G has an H sound, J also, and LL sounds like a combination of Y and J together, and V sounds a lot like B...then one can pick up more.
He shows us Star Fruit in a tree, and explains that the name is something else entirely. Americans invented this name. He picks one for us, and we all take turns biting into it's orange flesh; a tart taste, much more powerful than the watery business we have tasted at home. We see soy bean fields, corn and coffee plants from which his cute, 14 yr old boy, Manuel (Lindsay=big eyes) picks reddish juicy berries for us to eat, they are sweet (both the kids with big eyes and the berries). Eduardo shows us the different berries' stages and explains in Spanglish and sign language and a lot of "Si!"s when I say the English words for things, that they make their own coffee here, by drying it in the sun, crushing it by hand, exposing the inner coffee bean, then roasting it. The plants are about 6' tall and 3' deep. The monkeys get into them and cause much havoc.
The boy, Manuel, shadows us, speaking very quietly and respectfully to his Papa. There is a shed with hand hewn wood stacked from naturally felled trees. Manuel climbs a palm and throws down some coconuts to Eduardo. We head back to the house where Eduardo uses a machete (another word that's shared in both languages) to open the tops of 5 to give us each a good drink of the milk. MMMMM. Then, a spoon to dig out the slimy meat. Yum. We're full.
We ride some more, looping around on a trail that leads to another water fall, and across the river. Eduardo grabs some leaves off of one of the trees and tells us to do the same. We follow his directions to crush them between our fingers and smell. Lemon! All of us sniffed and ahhhed! for quite some way. A crack and splash, made Eduardo stop his horse and peer at the river beside us. It was an Iguana falling out of a tree.
I thought that the fruit was lunch. We stop at the house again, and are delighted at the spread Jesus had out for us. The family eats later, I'm told. Our conversation ranged from the foods our respective cultures have, the reasons why the other language is difficult (same for each of us...es mui rapido), how vegetables grow, that children here are given coffee at a very early age, and the reason why the coffee beans and Lindsay are so white is because they don't get enough sun.
Di remarks that the chicken dish is much like East Indian cooking. We also have typical rice, beans, salad, green beans and carrots, and tortillas. The drinks are starfruit juice, water with the ever present lime, and home made coffee. All is made on a wood burning stove. Mamma doesn't have electricity.
The water came up about 3' last winter during the floods. They'd all heard on the news that it was flooding in the valley and so came up to rescue her. She works very hard say both Eduardo and Javier.
Rainne and I agree afterward that this part of the trip was very fun, trying to understand, and seeing that they, too wished to understand and be understood. Di was in awe of everything, cooing and ooing the whole way.
Graebin took me thru the horse pen to see the sugar cane. We all have a piece of it. It's very sweet, juicy and woody-grained. We suck the goodness out of it and give the remains to our horses. Eduardo asks us politely if we'd like to vamoose, it's 3 already, and Javier was going to be at the river to pick us up at 2 (something we weren't told).
We mount our steeds again, and ride to the river bank. When we get there, there's no Javier, but we get the treat of watching as Eduardo tucks the reigns into the saddles and lines all but his horse up then smacks them on the behinds to send them back. It's quite a site, seeing the bunch of them running (we marvel at this, as they were quite pokey on the trail) up the river, riderless.
Daniel shows up instead of Javier (sigh, quel surprise, not as planned) off we go back to the house.
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