Experience a la Tica

Tag: Nature

Las Cataratas – A day trip to the waterfalls

One Friday morning in Jacó Beach: Our group of seven Academia Tica students was being picked up in front of the apartments by Alan, our tour guide for the day. A 45 minutes drive southbound along the coast led us to the beginning of a narrow path through private farmland. First we passed chicken and horses, then the trail continued through the forest, crossing some little streams. Finally we reached the waterfall that made its way down through the jungle like a stairway for giants. Beautiful to see…and now what? I thought the hike would continue to the other ones – since the only thing I knew about the waterfalls back then was: there are at least 3 of them. And it did, just not in the way I expected. Alan began to climb up the rock wall beside the waterfall. We all watched him disappear as he jumped into the pool above. So we left our things at the bottom and followed him up. The second waterfall filled a nice deep pool where some of us dipped in (or in my case: half accidently slipped in). The others were already on their way up higher.

“Once you are up there, the only way down is to jump!” Alan pointed out to us with a provocative twinkle in his eyes. Hesitating and still not quite sure about jumping down the not entirely vertical rock face, I climbed up next to the waterfall holding on to roots and little ledges. Once up there you could see the third and fourth waterfall with their round pools caved out of the dark rock around. The view down into the jungle was amazing! After another swim in the refreshing clear pools and a little massage of the top one of the waterfalls, it was time for the way back down.

Academia Tica students relaxing in the refreshing pool between two waterfalls.

Jumping from the upper waterfall was really fun. One by one we climbed to a spot where you could just let yourself fall into the pool a few meters beneath. The more than 5 meter jump into the last pool was a bit more thrilling. You had to stand on a little ledge where only your heels could fit and from that point jump forward since the rocks were not that steep. But we all did it – there was no other way, right? At this point big respect for Bob, one of the students in his seventies, who enjoyed it as much as everyone else! Full of adrenaline some of us jumped over and over again while the others were relaxing in the pool or tried (and partly succeeded) climbing up beneath the waterfall not being able to see where your hands could grip since the water kept lashing down onto your face.

Perfectly content and definitely with an unforgettable experience more we later made our way back to Jacó. What a fun and unique day.

¡PURA VIDA!

Fresh clear water making its ways through the forest at “Las Cataratas Las Pilas” near Parrita.

– Susanna Kowalzik

August 21, 2014
A crocodile kind of day

If the crocodile cares when a tourist throws a coconut at him from the Rio Grande de Tárcoles bridge, his face betrays nothing. He lunges and snaps instinctively, but promptly discards it, coconuts being among the few things an American Crocodile won’t eat.

Still, there is no trace of disappointment in his reptilian eyes, no sigh like annoyance in the breath he may surface to draw only once every hour, nothing spiteful in the way his back scales (called scutes) ripple muddy water, patiently circling. For all humanity throws his way, the crocodile remains inscrutable.

By now, the American Crocodiles that hang out under this famous bridge in the Pacific Central region of Costa Rica are accustomed to diverse offerings from above, some tasty, some inedible, all launched by humans who stop to gawk from the relative safety of the bridge. Near this aerial viewpoint, the entrance to Carara National Park offers access to primary rain forest, waterfalls and ideal crocodile habitat, just a few minutes drive from Jacó. Biologists estimate more than 2,000 crocs inhabit parts of the Tárcoles River basin, a system that flows all the way from the volcanic highlands near our Coronado campus to the coast near our Jacó location.

Since it is World Environment Day and crocodiles are pretty timelessly fascinating, we decided to take a little extra time on our way between schools to loiter on the bridge connecting our campuses and consider one of Coast Rica’s most ancient predators, both fearsome and fragile in today’s world.

The average adult male crocodile is 4.3m (over 14 ft) long. He can live 70 years. His diet consists primarily of fish, but can include pretty much anything fleshy that crosses his path, coconuts excepted. He does not rely solely on eyes or ears to find food, but can sense its precise location using dome receptors — little black dots visible around the sides of his jaws. This sixth sense is a fortunate adaptation for the Tárcoles crocs, who may be literally blindsided by climate change.

Lately longtime observers of the river have noticed increasing cases of blindness in adult male crocodiles. Scientists initially hypothesized that contamination from cities and farms must be causing some kind of blinding infection. However, initial investigations (i.e. five people capturing, hog-tying and sitting on 1,200 lb. crocs while a veterinarian warily checks the eyes), revealed that blunt trauma is a more likely cause than pollution. It appears only adult males are going blind, seemingly due to gnarly injuries sustained in fights with other adult males.

Meanwhile, the gender dynamics of the Tárcoles croc population are changing. Where there used to be about three females for every male, now it’s more like 1:1. Theory goes, the decline of a female-dominated society is leading to more eye-poking feuds between males during mating season.

But why the sudden uptick in male crocodiles?

The sex of a crocodile is determined by temperature: the warmer the nest, the more the males. Leading crocodile experts believe that climate changes, particularly localized effects caused by deforestation in the Tárcoles basin, are causing warmer temperatures in the crocs’ nesting habitat. Less trees may mean more male crocodiles, more fighting over female crocodiles, and eventually, no female crocodiles at all.

From the Tárcoles bridge our coconut-throwing kind might imagine these enormous reptiles are living much as they did in the age of dinosaurs. However, rapid environmental changes instigated by humans are in fact changing their reality, perhaps disastrously. We scan the muddy banks of the river, looking for females jealously guarding nests dug into verdant cover. The babies will be born soon, entering the world with the first heavy rains. At first nurtured as a tight-knit clan by a protective mother, at five weeks they are capable of hunting insects and small fish and will eat each other should the pickings get too slim.

Sea turtles are less famous for this kind of unapologetic survivalism, but like crocodiles develop with temperature-dependent sex determination and face possible extinction by climate change, in addition to habitat destruction. Programs exist on both coasts to bolster turtle conservation efforts, for which our students routinely volunteer.

-Emily Jo Cureton

Sunrise over the Rio Grande de Tarcoles, where thousands of American Crocodiles make their home.

June 5, 2014
Into the volcano! (one of them anyway)

The distinction between earth and sky seems more an ongoing negotiation than a fact from atop Irazú, the tallest active volcanic peak in Costa Rica and an easy half-day trip from Academia Tica’s Coronado campus.

There are more clouds below us than above on this dry May morning. They unfurl at our feet like plush white carpets reaching all the way to the Caribbean Gulf on one side and the Pacific on the other.

The view from a ridge line above the principal crater at Parque Nacional Volcan Irazu, the highest volcanic peak in Costa Rica, an easy and incredibly scenic day trip from Academia Tica Coronado.

On a clearer day we could see two oceans at once, a staggering perspective unique to this place in Central America. But even in the company of clouds and intermittent fog we can take in all of Central Costa Rica, a dense mosaic of rain forests, farm, rivers and mountains, home to over 500,000 thousand species of life and counting.Looking away from the limitless horizon to the black sand underfoot. Eyes plummet 300-meters down to the bottom of Irazu’s principal crater, a monumental hole in the ground painted lifeless grays and blacks by the same process that created the brilliant greens surrounding us, highly productive and populated agricultural regions.

Irazú formed in the Pleistocene era, (between 2 million and 12,000 years ago). In the past 100 years the volcano has experienced seven eruption cycles, the latest occurring from 1963-65, when debris choked rivers and flooded the city of Cartago. San Jose (and nearby Academia Tica) are a much safer distance away, though one account recorded 20 inches of ash falling on parts of the city during the 1963-65 eruptions. While often pictured with an ephemeral lake, Costa Rica is in the middle of a dry spell (by tropical standards), and the bottom of the crater is dry and visible this year. This ever shifting topography masks two roiling magma chambers another 3000 meters below the surface.

Tempted to try out ground as nebulous and inviting as the sky, but signs warn us that gravity slides can result from the slightest disturbance of the barren slopes. The national park here provides drive-up access and paved paths to the principal crater, utilizing a relatively stable terrace on the south side called Playa Hermosa, where hardy plants and animals stake claim on the volcanoes first habitable areas.

Scraggly tufts of grass dotting Playa Hermosa eventually thicken enough to host picnicking Tico families, low shrubs make a tenuous comeback, and then the first fierce little Myrtle trees post up. Sparseness ends abruptly at a tree line so dense we can only hear the human visitors laughing, scrambling and clamoring within it. Climbing into this forest on the edge of desolation, we startle hummingbirds and lizards galore, ascending to a ridge above the principal crater where we are rewarded with even more epic views of this strange and wonderful place.

Uniquely accessible for an active volcano, Parque Nacional Volcan Irazu is an easy day trip for students at Academia Tica, who can go with an organized tour group or independently via bus, rental car or taxi. Irazu is but one of many volcanoes that forge the highland backbone of Costa Rica.

May 27, 2014