Day 7: CSI osa and Treebeard.

Strangely enough at this point, we have gotten to the point where we go to bed around 9:00 and wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning. Without all the artificial light at night, we got sleepy a few hours after sunset. And those howler monkeys made sure to wake us up early each morning. Quite a few other couples were up as well. Anyway, after a breakfast of eggs Benedict we were off to the biggest adventure yet- Climbing trees in the rainforest followed by a chance to rappel down two waterfalls.

At 7:15 our driver, Maverick, picked up our group, which consisted of Deric Rebecca Liam and Dorothy. We all piled into the land rover and chatted for the 1.5 hour it took us to reach our destination.


The house where we began our hike was situated on beautiful land , right next to the ocean on a beach. There were a pair of snakes in a rusted glas jar filled with formalidyhide, and an energetic small boy running around and playing with toys, sans a stich of clothing. We started hiking from here and ran into wildlife right off the bat. We saw a frog and a Jesus (or baselisk) lizard running across the water. A king Vulture (with a large orange flap of skin around it's neck) flew out of the forest , followed by several normal vultures.





Our guide, Andy (picture) decided to delve into this, stating "Okay, CSI Osa Peninsula". He and his co-guide Justin were able to run down into the ravine and collect some of the remains that the vultures had been snacking on, including a skull and several pieces of Jawbone. In the end they were unable to determine what it was (although the consensus between Andy and Justin was that it was probably several different animals). Andy capped off the investigation by saying, "And that is why you don't drink from the creek."

We hiked UP these waterfalls where the rock was like sand paper, so you could grip it with your shoes, even under water.



Andy gave two other lectures as we made our way to the climbing tree, both very interesting. At one tree that we stopped at, we learned the story of a Costa Rican Shaman. The story goes that local villagers were being given large amounts of alcohol and then encouraged to barter, and that they were losing their shirts . . . The shaman had a vision and was told to add the sap of a local tree to the diet of the villagers, who were then unable to consume alcohol. And that a pharmacist from Eli-Lilly was skeptical of this, and asked for some of the sap. The result of this was anabuse.

Now I haven't been able to find any corroborating evidence, but it's an interesting story at the very least.

At another tree he talked about the latex like quality of the sap. Very interesting stuff. At yet another tree he offered us leaves to chew on that tasted like the skin of a green apple. We learned:

• What a beer belly tree looks like.
• That butterfly wings were once used as part of the process of making U.S. currency (though, to be fair, I couldn't find any references to this either)
• That he was once nearly flattened by a dog that jumped off of a waterfall and knocked him over.

About a half hour in to the tour, we reached the tree we were going to climb, named "Tree Beard."Tree beard, interestingly enough, was not actually a tree, but a strangler vine. The vine had started at the top of the tree and made it all of the way down, wrapping itself around the tree and putting roots into the ground. In time, the host died, and treebeard was all that was left. This vine was now over 400 years old. At the very top of the tree, there was a nook where a family of baby bats was living, all huddled in a corner. . quite cute.


Climbing treebeard (with a harness & belay) was more difficult than I thought it would be, but an exciting challenge. For Shana and her 5' 1" frame, finding all the grips to climb was difficult. The most daunting part, I think, was jumping off the tree after the climb and letting Andy belay you back down to the ground by swing.






After everyone had climbed treebeard, we all hiked ot the next spot, a short waterfall that we were to rappel down.






This was kind of scary as well- leaning backwards into nothing, hanging backwards from a rope with a waterfall cascading on & around you is . . well I'd say it's kind of terrifying until it becomes beautiful. Kind of have to just trust the rope in the end (pictures).

The second waterfall was actually longer, but not as rough, because the waterfall was directly to the left (as opposed to on top of you), so it was possible to rappel down at a leisurely pace and just look at the surroundings.




After the second rappel, we hiked back to Andy's cabin and all decided to head over to a small lodge for ping-pong and beverages. Andy was quite a player, and not only held the table, but won several beers with his pong skillz.




I also met a friendly bird before we took off and made our way home with Maverick.


On the drive home we had a great discussion with a french couple Guillaim and Dorothy who were involved in improv in France. Shana got to chat all about the kinds of improv the were involved in, and imporov history in general. It shortened the bumpy hour and a half ride considerably.

Even though we were home by 4:00, we didn't do much else. All the climbing and hiking really takes it out of you. After dinner, we played some cards and called it a night.