We Can Find Wine Anywhere!

Yes, we found a little winery on the road to Atenas.  I've read that Costa Rican wine is in its infancy, so we didnt expect much. Seems a wine maker from Napa has been involved in selection and planting in an area near Terrazu where they are anticipating their first harvest and bottling in 2015.
But we wanted something now, and we found the only currently active winery in CR.   The Turk and I dropped our visitors from Atlanta off at the airport and were passing the winery at 9:30 in the morning and thought - why not stop in.  So we did - probably to the chagrin of the owner who was busy doing business.

The owner didnt speak any English, so there was alot of shaking of hands and handing out of tiny wine samples.  The wine was mostly sweet and very light.  Best for drinking by the pool.

owner kindly took our pic - probably so he could get back to work!

looks pretty legitimate to me!

Happy Cows

Calf is sucking my thumb!!!

Just south of Poas Volcano is the town of Poasito where Judy's friend, Ricardo Gurdian has a dairy farm.  He and one of his daughters, Liz,  kindly agreed to show us around.  We started with the calves who were staying in their 'nursery' barn until they grew enough to mingle with the older cows. The calves are fed with bottles, get time to frolic in the nearby field, and receive lots of attention while they grow.

Ricardo showing us the calf barn

Ricardo, Liz and granddaughter Claudia watching the cows come in for milking

Cute calf!

We looked up the hill to see the cows coming down from the pastures for their milking - something they very much want to happen. Cows are not stupid animals and quickly learn the routines. In fact, Ricardo told us that the cows figure out which field they are to graze by noticing the single wire closing the path to the pastures they will not use.  They change pastures twice a day - after each milking.

Here come the cows

Cows having their afternoon 'cocktail' of water before milking

The cows arrive and immediately get to the water trough. Once they drink, they enter the feeding barn where they get to eat their special mix of grains, molasses and vitamins. Then comes the milking.  The herd is typically around 200 cows and with mechanized milking, it takes about 2 hours to milk all of them.

Cows having their dinner before milking. Each one knows their special spot

10 cows getting milked at a time - and they seem to like it

Later, we hopped into the Land Rover to get a tour of the pastureland, and to hear an amazing story about the big earthquake in 2009.  The quake almost destroyed Ricardo's home at the dairy farm, and it tore up the dairy equipment, putting the cows and the milking process in jeopardy.  Lucky for Ricardo, he had an electrician visiting the day of the quake and he stayed at the dairy until they could repair the milking machinery and get the cows back on their schedule.  Meanwhile, Ricardo stayed at the house without water or electricity to keep it and the dairy safe while the country started to recover.
Ricardo showed us where there used to be a small stream. After the quake, the stream disappeared completely.  Several years later, the water exploded from the source of the stream, tearing open the earth, destroying trees and ground that lay in its path as it made its way down the hills narrowly missing the town.  Today,  we saw this path of destruction and tried to comprehend what had happened.

Ricardo and Claudia getting past the cows

At the top of Ricardo's pastures, accessible only via Range Rover or horse - amazing views

More Volcanos!

The Turk and I welcomed old friend Judy and new friend Dee to our casa costa rica for a long weekend.  Lots to show them as we played the locals.  Friday market was fun as always and we decided to try lots of things we had never seen before.  And we brought home lots of fruit which was somewhat the theme of the week.  But after the 'hard' work of food shopping, we headed back to the house, to the pool and to fruit drinks and yummy food by the Turk.  After all, we had to rest up for the next day of volcano hiking!

Poas Volcano is an hour and half north of us, into a cloud forest.  The volcano is still active - the last big activity was February 25, 2014.   The phenomenon, called a phreatic explosion, occurred due to a reaction between magma and water at the southern border of the lake inside the volcano. However, this was not an eruption and the volcano did not spew lava. Instead, a column of steam, gas and other materials formed and spouted out the top of the volcano, confirmed the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI).

You must get to the volcano to see it before 10am when the clouds move in so we were all up by 6:30am and out the door by 7:45. We had great views of everything, and earned those views with some sure footed hiking up and down the trails from the active cone to the cone that is now a lake. 

 The hiking was fun because it was cool - we were in a cloud forest, and there were interesting plants along the way. My favorites were the bromeliads which have been plentiful across Costa Rica. I never tire of them!

We were surprised at one point to hear the obnoxious roar of a leaf blower.  It seems that volunteers come to maintain the trails. There were some leaves on the trails, but nothing that remotely required effort to move, much less an annoying leaf blower - gas powered.  Throughout this trip, I keep seeing that Costa Rica advertises itself as environmentally focused and working towards more sustainable businesses.  But I dont see this coming to pass by Costa Ricans, only by ex-pats who are investing in CR.  We still see alot of garbage along the roads, people burning anything they can, black smoke coming from vehicles.  It will be interesting to see how the country's approach to sustainability develops.

The gift shop had the typical souvenirs, but also had a display of tires, recycled as art - in this case the tires became toucans!

I Love Volcanos

The central spine of Costa Rica is a mountain range made up of a string of volcanos. The most recently active one is Arenal, about 3 1/2 hours drive north of Atenas.  I am fascinated by demonstrations of Mother Nature's power, and the reminder of our insignificance in comparison.  So the Turk and I hopped in out travelmobile and headed north to explore the Arenal area including the volcano, cloud/rain forest, hot springs.

Arenal has 2 cones -you can see old one on right, new on left

Arenal was dormant since approximately 1500 AD, until 1968 when it erupted, killing 87 people. Through the years ending in 2010, there has been visible volcanic activity, with several more deaths as a result.  Today, even with the volcano considered dormant again, people are not allowed on the mountain.

Heliconia

 The Turk and I stayed at Arenal Observatory Lodge, a former dairy and macadamia nut farm that converted to housing for the scientific community who moved to the area to study the volcano since it is only 1.7 miles from the volcano. 

view from hot tub

our room overlooking Lake Arenal

A surprise on our bed

Note that the prevailing winds and location of the modern day eruptions determined this area to be safe while the volcano was active. Today, you can see some of the monitoring equipment still set up in the observatory tower.  The Turk and I passed a heavy duty vehicle near the lodge that was marked as being a Swiss research vehicle.  With the 8.1 earthquake in Chili and 6 ft tsunami the day we returned, its clear that lots is still going on under the topsoil.

We were told that you can see the volcano peak only 25 days a year, and it was visible for us all three days.  We could even see the smoke - though likely it is steam from water hitting the lava within the mountain.

Smoke coming from the new cone

The grounds of the observatory are beautiful with planted tropical plants and trees - looking much like Hawaii with heliconas,  gingers, orchids, palms and very low grass.

Bromeliad

Swinging bridge! no jumping allowed - but that didnt stop the Turk

River down the steep climb from hotel - first leg of the 'Old lava flow' trail

Cerro Chato in distance

We hiked them all,

More swinging bridges

View of Arenal from dairy farm on the hotel property

Breadfruit

Cowled Oriole

Hummingbird outside of our room

including the 2 very difficult ones: Old Lava Flow-which is actually just to the river since the rest of the trail is now closed, Cerro Chato - a hike up a neighboring, and older, dormant volcano.  Both of these hikes required arms, legs, walking sticks and endurance.  And my new knee -10 mos old - weathered it all without a hitch.  We climbed Cerro Chato to the peak where we could see the water-filled cone.

Easy part of the trail to Cerro Chato volcano

Vertical part of Cerro Chato trail

Reward! Water filled volcanic cone

Stomachs were growling so we got in our travelmobile and headed to El Castillo, the nearby town on lake Arenal - largest lake in Costa Rica.  It is man made and provides water and electricity  to the Guantacesta region.

Lake Arenal from hotel

The bumpy dirt road ends past El Castillo and you can continue on only on foot, or by horse. But we were headed for John's Pizza!  The Turk is very picky about his pizza and requires think crust, fresh ingredients. And we found it here. The sign for John's Pizza is about 6 x 10 inches on the side of the road indicating you should turn down an alley. We found a dilapidated structure, with a pizza oven, and knew we were in the right spot.  John, formerly from Los Angeles CA, died last summer.  But his wife continues the business and the pizza was perfect!

Happy Turk - beer and pizza

Signing the wall at John's Pizza

What better way to recover from a 4 1/2 hour hike than to immerse yourself in the hot springs!  We headed for Eco Termales, a smaller springs that has 3 pools of progressively hotter water leading to the source. We went in the evening and the Turk was in heaven.  He really hates to be in cold water - anything cooler than 85 degrees is cold to him. We floated around each of the pools, cooling off a bit in the waterfall pool - at least I did. It was too 'cold' for the Turk.

Eco Termales entrance - low key compared with the others

2nd pool looking toward 3rd pool

This is hottest pool, starting with hot tub at top. Hot water runs into lower pool which is a bit less hot, then a 3rd pool that is just...hot.  Next to lowest pool is a small pool with waterfall and cool water.

Our room was half of a duplex with large porches facing Lake Arenal. We woke each morning to the sound of birds and cool breeze. In the morning, we hiked uphill to the restaurant deck overlooking the volcano to watch the morning birds, coatis and critters foraging for their breakfasts - until we could get in to get ours.  A Tico breakfast! Beans and rice, eggs, fruit - pineapple, mango, watermelon, cantalope - and french fried bread fruit. This definitely held us over during our morning hikes looking for creatures.

Montezuma Oropendolas eating watermelon and papaya

Montezumas' homes - new ones are built each year. Females can reject what the male has built and the male has to build a new one. 

flycatchers

Coati - like a raccoon

Each evening, we were witness to amazing sunsets over Lake Arenal to the west-obviously.

Alas, it was time to head back to Atenas. The Turk is getting used to the twisty, narrow roads which are considered main roads, and even complains less about the pot-holed dirt roads that we often have to drive for almost an hour to get somewhere - including to the Observatory Lodge.

Soon out of Arenal, we saw Coco Loco and had to visit.  Its a gallery run by a German  woman who is an artist, and who sells her own and other artists' work.  What a find!

Turned wood bowl with resin/metal and different types of wood pieces

Masks that show animal faces, but also birds and flowers. Love these!

mirrors on wood with metal/resin highlights

We got to pass through the Angeles rain forest area where the road was less windy and the vistas were gorgeous looking across hills of cow pastures and farms. There were - as usual - many roadside sodas (very small diners) and food stands.  We stopped at one to discover home made coconut cookies - my new fave - and a traditional milk, sugar sweet thingy. Not sure its my favorite.Grand Prix from Malaysia was on TV so we watched a  bit.

farmland in cloud country, with greenhouses lined up

Malyasian Grand Prix, and motorcycle sitting next to our table at the soda

Lots of one lane bridges, but this one had style