Bill had picked up the rental car the day before, and we left after breakfast to drive to La Fortuna. Roads off the main road are pretty rough - this was when the car wasn't bouncing around so much so I could take a photo!
I don't know how we would have driven if the rain was like the night before (a solid two hours pelting of rain.) We were grateful it was fine . . .
. . . and that we had been upgraded on the car, after the one we were supposed to have had a flat battery from the rain when Bill had gone to pick it up. (We're the Suzuki on the right.)
La Fortuna: It had started raining when we arrived. The volcano at La Fortuna is not visible.
From Wikipedia: "La Fortuna" is Spanish for "The Fortune", and aptly named due its ample supply of tourist attractions and extremely fertile lands. Although there is a common myth that the town got its name due to its sparing from the Arenal Volcano's eruptions, the town actually got its name before the latest eruption cycle and was named for the fertile lands ("The Fortune") where it is located.
Arenal Volcano is often cited by scientists as being in the top 10 or top 20 of the world's most active volcanoes. La Fortuna is less than 10 kilometres (6 mi) from the 5,480 feet (1,670 m) peak of Arenal and less than 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Arenal Volcano National Park entrance, which is west of the peak, whereas La Fortuna is east of the peak. La Fortuna has tourist attractions such as the 70 metres (230 ft) La Catarata de la Fortuna waterfall, hot springs and day-trips that involve horseback riding, whitewater rafting, hanging bridges, a "sky tram," zip-lines, mountain biking, kayaking, stand-up paddleboards, ATV or dirt bike rentals, "butterfly farms," the Venado Cavern tours,[13] bungee jumping, Laguna Cedeno, El Salto Swimming Hole, and canyoneering.
Next morning Bill and I head off to Sloth's Territory to spot more sloths. It is raining heavily. We have a super guide, and thanks to the rain we saw a sloth drinking.
We saw the three-toed sloth.
"The three-toed sloth is active during the day, unlike the nocturnal two-toed sloth, and so is seen more often. This sloth only eats leaves from trees and lianas, but may feed on fifty individual trees of up to thirty species, eating leaves of different ages. Sloths live, feed, mate, and reproduce near the upper levels of the forest canopy. They move to a new tree often enough to balance their diet, or about once every 1.5 days. Home ranges of different individuals may overlap considerably and females tend to be more social than males, but usually one adult (or female with young) will occupy a tree at any given time. Sloths may use different food sources depending upon what their mothers taught them to eat.
Though large for an arboreal mammal, the three-toed sloth must also be light for its size to live in the treetops, so it has reduced muscle mass. They also have an enormous gut capacity-nearly 30% of their body weight! The sloth's diet of leaves is digested very slowly, so they need a large capacity. Sloths consume a significant amount of leaf material in a forest (about 2% of total annual leaf production in Panama). They have a slow metabolism, though, so they have thick fur to insulate them when their body temperature drops at night; their temperature peaks during the day when they bask in the sunlight.
About once a week, the sloth descends from its lofty living space, digs a small hole with its stubby tail, defecates and urinates in the hole, then covers it with leaves using its hind legs and return to its preferred heights. This ordeal lasts less than 30 minutes, but during this time the sloth is vulnerable to predators. While mortality of young sloths is high, individuals that survive to adulthood suffer low mortality rates; they are recorded to live as long as 9 to 11 years, and are thought to live as many as 20 to 30 in the wild.
Several kinds of arthropods live as adults on these sloths. These arthropods leave the sloth to deposit their eggs on the sloth's dung; the hatched larvae feed on the dung, pupate, and after they emerge as adults, fly in search for a sloth to live on. A single sloth may carry nine hundred or more beetles and three species of mites.
An adult female spends half the year pregnant and the other half rearing her single offspring. Young sloths can begin eating leaves when they are two weeks old. As the mother carries the young with her, she shows it which trees and lianas are fit to eat within their home range. When the baby is 6 months old, the mother suddenly leaves the young to her home-range and moves to a nearby range. The young and mother maintain contact through vocalizations, and the young continues to use this portion of her range for a while and then departs."
(Edited from the original for brevity, Ed.)
A snake in a tree.
Apparently brightly coloured frogs are that way to pretend they are poisonous. They are not, but it assists in their survival.
The cloud clearly briefly that afternoon and we saw the volcano (for ten minutes out of the 3 nights we were there). This is in La Fortuna.
This is the Air Bn'b we stayed in - it was named Tropical House ... We all agreed the spa pool would be good. It turns out the pool was rundown and the water yucky looking and warm. The house didn't quite look like it did in the website but it was comfortable and did the trick for the three of us.
Next day we all headed off to do a zip line. The guy that led us had been in the job for 30 years!
There was a tractor ride half way there, then we walked for ~30mins up to the top.
Lachie cruising in on an early line. The first few were shorter. There were 12 in total, the longest was 800m. It was a lot longer and higher than the Waiheke zipline!
Then that afternoon we went to visit a community and environmental restoration centre that Bill had got an introduction to. We took a slight wrong turn, and I sighted my first sloth without guide! (I was the guide!) That was very exciting! And it was the best sighting we had (by far).
It was Mummy with baby. These sloths sleep for 20 hours a day so to see it on the move like this was very exciting!
Then on to Brave Earth. Bill works with Matthew, Brian and Catlin in Upper Hutt and Mathew set up for us all to visit.
Brave Earth is an 80 acre commons that is a community, ecological, educational and restorative centre. We are met by co-founder Yael and community leader Alain. They gave us their undimmed attention for 2 hours.
From the Brave Earth website https://www.braveearth.com:
"At Brave Earth we are in an inquiry about how to adapt, create more resiliency and become more attuned to the current cultural context. This context is referred to as the Anthropocene, late-stage capitalism or the Kali Yuga.
Regardless of the description, to be a contributing force for cultural evolution we will need to embody new and ancient ways of being. This requires great acts of courage as we shed our old belief systems and programming.
As a living laboratory we are holding the questions of how do we decolonize our minds from the dominant culture of capitalism, patriarchy, racialized hierarchies, scarcity logic and oppressive systems of control? How do we become stewards in service to all Life?"
Yael and Alain took us first to this "nature designed" common room. Yael has studied and put into practice the principle of biomimicry - design based on nature. I thought this was super duper and could see it immediately shaped like a magnificent palm leaf.
We were joined on the table where we talked.
I couldn't help take a photo of Lachie either.
After a good introduction chat, they took us on a tour. Another bug (a dead one).
Fresh veggies..
A massive central dome for hui / meetings / yoga / other.
It is like an eco village. If you stay here, you give back to the land. If you want a conference here, you pay and give back to the land. Rooms are like pods spread over a small area. They have been built over the last 6 years. They are incredibly well designed and built - by locals.
Compostable toilets, yay!
View from loos. I know because I used one. Amazing.
Outside basins, with branches as taps - amazing.
More rooms to stay in ...
Check out the beautiful wood work.
The roof is made out of up cycled plastic - so cool.
A ceremonial room where you can clear out your emotional worries. Light the fire outside, take the stones inside, and talk or burn your worries or . . . ?
And this is Brave Earth's pool. No filter. Plants filter the water. I just wanted to jump in. Maybe I would check for crocodiles first.
Thank you Yael and Alain for sharing your wonderful home with us. It was inspiring. All the talk on the way back was how we needed to come again and stay. Lachie said he would be for at least 2 weeks!
The next day it was a drive back to San Jose. Same hotel near the airport we had stayed at at the start of our trip. Very early the next morning Bill and I left to head back to New Zealand, Lachie left later in the day to fly to Poland.
Pura vida Costa Rica - thank you for having us!
