Trips

My first stop after arriving in San Jose was to take a bus to the Caribbean coastal town of Cahuita.   The Cahuita National Park has a long trail that runs along the beach and the entire area had but one species of Costus - Costus woodsonii, which is the most popular species in cultivation around the world.  I was amazed to find that it grows in the sandy (presumably salty) soil right up the edge of the ocean.

Reserva Hitoy-Cerere

From Cahuita I made my way to the ranger station at the Hitoy-Cerere reserve.  I took a bus that wound its way through miles of banana plantations in the Valle La Estrella as far as I could go toward the reserve.  At the end of the line I managed to find a taxi that I was told could take me the rest of the way to the reserve.  As we started up the mountain the road got worse and worse until it came to a point where the taxi could go no further, slipping and sliding on the muddy road.  My only option was to walk the remaining 5 kilometers with heavy backpack and small bag in tow.

When I finally got there, the guard (who was the only person there) told me yes, I could stay there and sleep in the ranger quarters.  The manager showed up later and told me there were strict prohibitions on doing any kind of research there without having a special permit from San Jose.  I finally convinced him that it was no different from being a bird watcher - I just wanted to look at the plants.

The guard quarters there were pretty crude with no electricity and matresses that had seen better days, but I could not complain about the free lodging and meals they shared with me - basically rice that sat in a large pot for several days, and maybe some meat and vegetables. I was the only person staying in the guard quarters, but I had plenty of company. That night I had trouble sleeping because there were swarms of bats flying in and out of the quarters.

The next day I hiked some trails close to the guard station and I did find the rare species Costus nitidus there, although it was not in flower so I could only guess what it was. The area at Hitoy-Cerere is truly beautiful with a raging river coming down from the mountains and pristine forest leading up into the Talamancas. There are some overnight hiking tours starting from the other side that cross those mountains and terminate on the eastern side, but I have not made arrangements to go there. Someday!!!

Shiroles

From Hitoy-Cerera I managed to catch a ride back down the mountain with the manager, then went by several buses from the Valle Estrelle, south on the coastal highway, then west to indigenous town of Bribrí, and finally on a bus going to the village of Shiroles. This time I managed to tell the driver I needed to be let off at the escuela where I had arranged to stay at an educational center for indigenous young people. The school had some baracks with bathrooms nearby and they brought me a meal that was prepared by a lady in the village. They also arranged for a guide named Maynor to take me to the nearby Cerro Mirador for a day hike. On Cerro Mirador I found the beautiful species Costus bracteatus as well as a huge Costus that turned out to be Costus kuntzei in the "maximus" form.

It was late in the afternoon when we finally got back down to the village of Shiroles, so we stopped at the house of the lady who was preparing my meals. There were pigs and chickens running through the little house and the meal had been prepared a couple of hours earlier, without refrigeration. I should have known better, but it was like the old song "Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now'" "It was rotten, it was rotten, it was rotten just now" "Ate it anyway, ate it anyway, ate it any way just now", etc. No doubt that's what led to my terrible gastro-intestinal problems for the next several days.

On Sunday, December 3rd I wanted to go across the Telire River at Suretka to enter the indigenous lands of the Bribri indians. My guide and I walked a few miles to a river crossing where there were "taxi" boats taking people back and forth across the river. Then we walked past a number of small huts and my guide asking people where to find the chief. We had to find the chief to get permission to go back into the forest, and it happened to be election day, so he was not available. So we just walked along the small road there where everything was deforested and did not see any really interesting Costaceae.

I did, however, learn a Bribrí greeting phrase which sounds something like ISbay SKEENyay (Ìs be' shk?`na), which according to a Bribrí language website is used as a standard, friendly, and informal greeting to ask how someone is, often used regardless of the time of day, though it stems from a morning greeting. Twenty years later I still remember the phrase by thinking "EBay Skinner".

Golfito and Osa Peninsula

The next day I wanted to return to San José where I was going to catch a flight down to Golfito on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. I was still suffering from diarrhea, and was really dreading the long bus rides back to San José. I walked down the long driveway from the school to the highway and just waited in the pouring rain for the next bus heading east toward the town of Bribrí. There I would catch another bus that would take me all the way back to San José with just a short stop in Limón. There are no bathrooms on these buses. Absolute misery!!!! I finally made it back and stayed in a hotel in San José for a couple more nights until I was over my bout with that stomach bug.

After returning to San Jose from my Limón adventures and recuperation from the stomach ailments I took a flight to Golfito.  Here I met a Swiss lady, Anne Laure Berrut who was vacationing in the area and we hiked several of the trails together in the hills above Golfito. Most of the Costus were not in flower but I again found the species Costus ricus in full flower there.  It is one of the few species of Costus that flowers in the dry season instead of in the wet season.

Friends of the Osa

From Golfito I took the ferry across the Golfo Dulce to Puerto Jimenez and attended a meeting of the organization Friends of the Osa.  Here I met several biologists who are researching on the Osa Peninsula, as well as Bert Kerstetter and Adrian Forsyth, the author of Tropical Nature,  a popular book on tropical ecology.  There were several presentations given by the attendees and I was asked to talk about Costus, so I gave an extemporaneous talk in my best (poor) Spanish.  We then went to the location on the Rio Piro where the organization was developing a biological station to be opened a few months later.

Los Charcos de Osa

I left Puerto Jimenez to visit with Reinaldo Aguilar and Catherine Bainbridge at their new farm, Los Charcos de Osa. I was able to get a ride with one of Reinaldo's friends, Raynor. On the drive north we took a short detour to the flood plain of the Rio Rincon, and Rayner showed me a plant that he had seen there. This plant is believed to be a natural hybrid and has now been registered with the cultivar name Costus 'Tico Tower'.

Reinaldo is famous for his many plant discoveries and has researched on the Osa Peninsula for over 20 years.  I first met him and Catherine on my first trip to the tropics in 2005 and we would continue to be good friends for many visits and many years to come.

Reinaldo with his son Nilo and wife Catherine developed Los Charcos as a place for visiting botanists to stay while exploring the Osa Peninsula. There are several acres of forest there and a plant nursery where Reinaldo grows local collections. I have visited there several time during my trips to Costa Rica.

During the covid epidemic when travel was severely restricted, Reinaldo lost his only source of income so I set up a Go Fund Me page for him to help him replace his camera equipment and other expenses to keep things going until researchers could resume their work in the Osa region. Included on this Go Fund Me page are two beautifully produced videos by Reinaldo's now-grown-up son Nilo, in which Nilo narates his father's commentary in English and in first person as if spoken by his father. Reinaldo has never himself really converted to English as a second language.

Talamanca Mountains

My last stop on this trip to Costa Rica was a place Reinaldo told me about, a reserve in the Talamanca mountains called Fundación Reserva Biológica Durika.  I went by bus to Buenas Aires  where I found the Durika in-town offices and then was driven by 4 by 4 vehicle up into the mountains.  This is a beautiful place, with cottages clustered along the mountainside and many trails leading farther back into the mountains.  My little cabin did not have electricity. The place is totally vegetarian with goats providing milk and cheese.  My guide there was Eugenio Garcia Lopez.  As it was the beginning of the dry season in mid December, there were not many Costus in flower, but I did see for the first time the species Costus wilsonii.  Also, unusual at this high elevation, I found a population of Costus kuntzei (f/k/a Costus laevis).