Caribbean Amphibian

We just got back from a amazing (and amazingly quick) journey to the Caribbean Cost this last weekend.
It was so beautiful!

The Rainforest!

And so beautifully wet! We're talking some serious rain, people. The wonderful, warm, soak-you-to-the-bone kind of Caribbean rain. It may not have actually soaked us to the bone, but it definitely did soak my backpack to whatever is its equivalent of bone.

On Friday, we all met up early in the central park of San Rafael to head over to the east side. We stopped in a banana plantation for a tour in the morning.

The Banana tram

We talked to one of the supervisors, and he took us on a tour of some of the field, explaining the process of growing bananas. This picture shows the rails were the banana bunches ride out of the field to the packing area. On the trees you can see the blue plastic bags that keep out bugs, protect the bananas, and provide a good micro-climate for growing the bananas uniformly.

Two of the workers, showing us the tricks of the trade

So it turns out, bananas take a ton of work! At pretty much every stage of growth, bananas need a lot of TLC to get to the stores in fashion pretty enough to satisfy us American consumers. The plants have to be sprayed to protect them from diseases that will scar the bananas. The workers have to removes all the flowers by hand, and use leaves in between the hands of bananas in the bunch, so that the juice from the flowers above doesn't stain the bananas below. At another stage of growth, the bottom bananas are thrown away to make sure the top bananas grow big enough. Then, when they are ready, the cutter (the man with the stripy shirt in the picture) uses his machete to hack down the plant, then carefully cut the bunch from the plant while another man carts the bunch to the banana tram. Nearly every plant we saw had three "generation," one that had been harvested (just a four foot tall stump) one that had fruit on it, and another baby growing to take its place.

So, it was very interesting to me, obviously.

But enough about bananas.

We finally got to our destination for the night (a hostel right on the ocean) just in time for a good downpour. But we still jumped in the ocean the first chance we got, and swam until dinner. We ate a lovely seafood dinner at the restaurant at the hostel, and then just chilled for the rest of the night.

The Caribbean Sea, 5:15 am

Golden Orb spider, the size of my hand. No joke.

The next morning we breakfasted at 5.30 and took a bus a little further south to Manzanillo, the end of the road on the Caribbean coast. We then took a chill, slow-paced 4 hour guided hike through the rainforest to Punta Mona.

On the hike, we saw howler monkeys, a bright yellow poisonous snake, a few very dinosaur-like lizards, and termites. We even got a few snacks, the termites for one, and a much more tasty fresh-from-the-tree green pipa. To enjoy this delicious rainforest beverage, you just hack the top off with your machete and slurp the juice out of the hole. Quite good, and also an excellent source of electrolytes, I'm told. After we drank them dry, our guide sliced us a nice little "spoon" from the rind/husk and cut the pipa in half so we could eat the yummy jelly textured goop that lines the inside. Delicious!

When we finally got to Punta Mona, we again jumped in the ocean for a time, enjoyed a lovely lunch of tortillas, falafel, and salad, and waited for the next group to arrive. When they did, we all settled into our rooms. Hollie and I had the coolest room in the whole place, in my opinion. It was in the "back house" in the loft (third floor) and had an amazing few of the surrounding jungle.

Our loft room.

 There were definitely a few golden orb friends to keep us company, but Hollie picked the bed the furthest possible from any webs, we tucked in our mosquito nets nice and snug, and the view was well worth the arachnid company, in my opinion.

The view down our ladder. The buildings all have lots of paintings.

The view right behind my bed.

In the afternoon, we got a tour of the farm from Steven, the owner. He is a very enthusiastic ex-Floridian very passionate about permaculture and sustainable farming. He and his wife, Sarah, live on this farm with a few other workers and can pretty much live completely off the land. 

Jackfruit, quite yummy and giant.

You would not believe how many different types of fruit they have, most of which I haven't even heard of. Jackfruit; delicious. Two different tropical cherries; fantastic. Bidiba; like lemon pie in a fruit form. "Miracle fruit"; made everything sour taste super sweet, which is about the best idea ever. Darian: smelled like death and tasted like garlic and green onions in smashed up bananas. Not the best. But five of six isn't too bad.

After a tour of the farm, we had a lesson on herbal medicine from Sarah that was quite interesting. The bad news is, the best medicines are the really bitter leafy kinds. Who wants to eat that? 

Right before dinner, we all got to help make fresh homemade chocolate. AMAZING! Steven toasted the beans (from their trees, they had been drying/fermenting for a little while) and then we cracked the skin off of them. Then we sent them through a hand crank grinder, mixed them with freshly ground coconut and grated raw sugar cake, and sent it through the grinder again. Then the wonderful smelling goop was rolled into balls, covered in coconut, and devoured. Soooooooo good!

Making the chocolate

After dinner, we went on a turtle walk to try and see turtles nesting on the beach. Although we never did get to see the turtles, it was a lovely nighttime stroll on the beach, and I'm fairly certain we walked to Colombia and back. It turns out that a few hours later several turtles came up onto the beach to nest. Apparently they are shy and didn't want a group of thirty gringos watching them give birth. 

The next morning was quite relaxing. I had time to wander around since I got up earlier, we ate breakfast, listened to Steven's life story, and then the boat captains came and told us we had to leave before the rains came, so we all ran around frantically getting everything ready to go and loading up the boats to return to Manzanillo. Then for the very long and more than a little smelly journey home! A fantastic weekend!

Boat ride on the way out.

These are the main leaf in their salad, and they taste sort of like peanuts!

Photo Credits:
2nd: Alexandria Roullier
3rd: Heather Kennison
4th, 5th, 9th, 10th: Lauren Davies