Museo de Oro

Inca, Maya or Aztecs never were in Costa Rica, but the indígenas here also produced very beautiful artworks in gold, jade and other materials. Today I visited the "Museo de Oro" (Gold Museum) en San José.

Talamanca

At uni I take the course "Geography of Cultures". It's a very interesting course because we talk a lot about different groups of indígenas (indigenous/Ureinwohner) in Costa Rica. Sadly there are not many left and the tribes that still live here have lost a lot of their culture.

This weekend we made an excursion to a little village in the mountains of Talamanca to live with some of the "Bribrí" families there.

Just to get to the village already was an adventure! First we had to store our bags on the roof of the bus of the uni... of course everything in plastic bags because it's still rainy season.

About 4 hours later we reached the "Reserva Indígena de Talamanca". From here on we continued our journey on boats.



The majority of the bribrí families live from the agriculture of bananas, cocoa and plantain (=Kochbanane).

Another hour later we took the next bus on the other side of the river. Of course the bus broke... but we had we had enough strong men in the group ;-)

Finally we reached the village and the family where we stayed welcomed us very warmly. They live very rustically in wooden houses with open walls and without running water or electricity. Their life is still very connected to the nature and animals that surround them.

(Just joking... we had a toilet inside a little house)

This is a "casa cosmica", something like the spiritual center for the community.

Cocoa plant
(by the way, chocolate is here more expensive than in Germany! They produce the cocoa here, but the chocolate is fabricated in Europa and then re-imported to Costa Rica.)

Starfruit

In groups of three we investigated different topics and interviewed the bribrí which was very interesting. But the climate here is soooo humid that the highlight everyday was a swim in the river.

National Holiday of Independence

 The 15. of September is the National Holiday of Costa Rica. At this day in 1821 the war of independence was won in Guatemala and Costa Rica therefore received there independence form Spain automatically. A funny fact is, that Costa Rica got this massage only about a month later! Sadly, with this massage started a civil war in the country because the different political parties had very different ideas about how to organize the country after the independence. In 1823 it was decided that Costa Rica became a republic and not a monarchy.

 

Today they celebrate this day with parades in different parts of the city. All the schools and social groups, for example scouts, march in the parades.

Playa Ostional

Once a year for 3 or 4 days something incredible happens a the beach of Ostional.
Hundreds of turtles come to lay there eggs! Of course I couldn't let this opportunity pass and went in a very very very old bus over very very very bad roads to the tiny village Ostional in the middle of nowhere a the pacific coast.
But it was definitively worth it!!!!

Earthquake

Today was an earthquake with an intensity of 7.6° (maximum is 9°) . Probably many have heard of it over the news because it was so strong. Gladly me didn't happen anything. There were only damages in buildings and streets but no one got insured.
The ticos (costaricens) are already used to earthquakes. They occur everyday but normally they are so weak that you can't feel them. For me it was the first time I felt one and it was a bit of a shock. It's not a very pleasant feeling if EVERYTHING around you is moving. Also it's extremely noisy, like a very deep growling.

At uni a have a course about geography of Costa Rica and last week we talked exactly about this. Central America is (with Japan) the tectonically most active zone in the world. Five tectonic plates meet here and there is movement and vulcanism all year round. It's always good to experience the theory in practice =)

Parque nacional Caraca

On the next day we continued to the next national park a bit further up the pacific coast. Here the main trail was closed because of the flooding in the rainy season... and the crocodiles.
The only possibility to enter was with a guided tour. We decided to take this adventurous option. We all received gumboots and off we went!!

This was a lot more adventurous than many of the other national parks! There were only very small trails and from time to time we had to wade through water up to our knee. We hoped a lot that the guide new what he was doing... but he assured us he knew this forest very well because he had 10 years of experience as a guide and 10 years more of illegal hunting in this park before he became a guide...

At leased he spotted many wild animals for us.

 We even found some poisonous frogs!

While we were walking it started to rain like crazy and when we reached the exit we were soaked but happy!

To do us a special favor the guide took us in his car to a bridge over a river near the park. From the bridge we saw huge crocodiles with more than 5 meters. It's one of their favorite places to relax.

Parque nacional Manuel Antonio

This weekend I went to the national park Manuel Antonio with some friends. The park is on the west coast of the country. So for me it was the first time to go to the Pacific here. Right next to the park is this beautiful public beach and because it´s rainy season here there are not that many people. Although Manuel Antonio is the most touristic national park in Costa Rica.

In the national park we decided not to pay for a guided tour but we had luck and right in front of us walked a photographer from the journal National Geographic with his personal guide. The guide was very nice and didn`t mind that we followed them around.
Without the guide we would never have seen this little bird. It's a hummingbird (=Kolibri) in his nest. It's soo tiny! The bird with his nest hardly has a height of 5 cm.

 

This sloth (=Faultier) was on a tree right next to the trail. The guide let us take a look and photo through his telescope. 

 

 

This is the beach inside the national park. That`s the reason why you should always bring your swimming suite and a picnic to the park :-)

 

 

On the beach we found these nice food prints...

 

 ... and its owner!

This raccoon (= Waschbär) tidies up the rubbish of irresponsible tourists.

 In the trees above us we heared monkeys sceeming and some times we saw them, too.

It's easy to understand why so many tourists come to enjoy this view!

Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto (= spotted rooster) is the national breakfast here. It's rice with black beans and other vegetables. It often comes with an egg on top and bread aside.
One might wonder why it's called "rooster" if there is no chicken in it... the reason is that it's cooked early in the morning when the rooster crows.
It's a very rich breakfast! You won't be hungry until lunch. :-)