The hike commenced at around 9:15 or so in the morning, and took until about mid-afternoon to reach Eladio's. We walked through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve for a while until we crossed into the Children's Eternal Rainforest, where we would continue on for many kilometers (I want to say the whole hike was 15k) to reach Eladio's. But we all met up a shelter approximately halfway through the hike to stop for lunch and enjoy some time in the sun and river. Everyone took off after lunch in groups, and we continued onwards towards our destination - Eladio's. I walked with a small group at the end of the pack - slow and steady wins the race, right? It was nice to enjoy each other's company and take in the absolutely stunning rainforest we were walking through. We got pretty close to the shelter when we actually passed the two rangers with the horses who carried our food for the 4 days we would be at Eladio's (that's right - all of our food had to be brought there ahead of time because Eladio's is the definition of the middle of nowhere). We had been warned about the horses before the hike - one was rather cranky and quite appropriately named Luis Suarez after the infamous biting football player from Uruguay. Clever, right!?
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| THEY WERE SO CUTE (Photo creds to Dan L. - I was a bit too excited to take a picture) |
Our first full day at Eladio's mostly consisted of orientation hikes through the trails around the shelter. We did numerous species reports and crossed a small river or two along the way. We got back to the shelter at around 11 or so, and had free time until 1, which was when we continued out for another short hike and did more species reports. We got back not an hour later, and I decided to spend my free time that afternoon before dinner reading by the river.
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| (Photo creds to the wonderful Lidia) |
After dinner, Eladio told us the story about the history of the property, which I shall share with all of you (It's a fairly long story, so bear with me):
So in 1962, Eladio came to Monteverde for the first time. He lived on his father's land. All of the valley was primary forest when they arrived, and it all belonged to the government of Costa Rica. The government gave away land to people if they worked it. At first, they only had a small trail to their property, which they used initially to carry grass (for the cattle to graze on) and banana shoots (to start a plantation). Eventually, he made the trail wider so he could bring cattle to his property. At some point, he sold his father's land.
In 1969, a Canadian mining company came into the area looking for sulfur, and was giving away jobs along with land. This company left in the early '70s because the Costa Rican government was selling the profitable land for more than the company was willing to spend. Of the land the mining company had, 70% had been logged. One miner sold 300 Ha to a quaker named Wilford (who Eladio worked for at the time). Eladio was given 50 Ha of that land.
So now Eladio had land once again. He was hired by many of his neighbors, as well as Wilford, to cut down trees on their properties. In 1972, the Tropical Science Center (TSC) took control of the land (now it's called the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve). Eladio began working for the TSC as a park ranger and started to learn a lot about conservation of land.
In 1975, the government declared the area around the Peñas Blancas river valley a protected area (for the watershed). The government then decided not to because it was too expensive to do so. If they had done so, they would have had to buy the land off of the people who lived in that area in order to keep it a protected area. The community actually wanted the government to buy the land. Now around this time (1985), Eladio lived on his farm with his wife.
At one point, the park decided to send tourists to live with Eladio, along with biologists and photographers. Eladio sold his land to the biologists, who wanted to put the land aside for conservation. The Monteverde Conservation League collected money to buy land through donations to give to the TSC. Eladio's was the first property purchased. They eventually made enough money to buy 10,000 Ha of land, but they couldn't decide who should own the land. The Monteverde League only purchased the land, they wanted nothing to do with running it. So this resulted in a long battle between the Monteverde League and the TSC over who should run the land.
Shifting gears a little bit. Some elementary school children from Sweden came to Monteverde and saw the rainforests here and decided they wanted to help raise money to buy the land. They returned to Sweden and were able to raise enough money to purchase the land (the money they raised was matched by the Swedish government). So hence, now it is called the Children's Eternal Rainforest. This is now the largest private reserve in Central America, covering 55,000 Ha of protected area in total. There is an estimated 70,000 Ha of protected area in total, which includes the land hotels use as part of their tourist attractions in the area.
So now back to Eladio's. Randomly, an entomologist from the United States was hiking through the rainforest and got lost coming from Pocosol, and ended up at Eladio's. This guy loved it so much, that he brought a group of his students (from some university on the West Coast) back to Eladio's. He showed up with 18 students, who camped outside in tents. Ever since then (1986), he brought students every year to Eladio's as a learning experience. In 1991, he came with a group from EAP (I don't remember what that stands for), and now Eladio's is exclusively for students and researchers.
Now that the area is all protected land, the forest has begun to regrow, which in turn means that animals have started coming back (including jaguars and pumas).
So Eladio is a pretty cool guy, with a pretty amazing life story and impact on the environment (both good and bad). He was also super sweet!
So the following day was when El Terimoto arrived to our group. And by that, we mean the stomach bug. I was one of the first victims, along with a few others who spent the day sleeping and making trips to the bathroom / forest. And since that day, El Terimoto took another victim or two every day for over a week (we are even convinced that it evolved into other sicknesses later on). Luckily, Eladio had some plants that grew around the shelter that help with upset stomachs, and he used it to make a tea for those of us who got sick. Unluckily, the tea was the worst thing I have ever tasted. Ever. Think of the smell of the most generic plant (not flowers, just the plant part). Do you have that image? Now imagine drinking that. Pretty nasty. Don't get me wrong, it worked really well, if you could drink the whole cup!
That night I was feeling well enough to go on a night hike to look for frogs and other cool swampy organisms. And this night hike very quickly turned into a mud-bath for almost everyone. We walked through parts that had waist-deep mud. We had a few unfortunate souls who got stuck in the mud (even losing some shoes in the process). But it was all worth it, as we saw so many cool animals, including a RED EYED TREE FROG!
The following day was our last day at Eladio's. It was the first time we had experienced a full day of rain our entire time in Costa Rica thus far, so needless to say we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. We spent the morning going over our independent research project ideas and their feasibility. That took numerous hours but was rewarded with numerous hours of free time, which was spent playing Uker, reading, and just hanging out. We also started our third and final field project. This time, the entire group "collected" data and we would individually write a paper on it. Our TA's (Moncho and Raquel) went out while we had free time and collected leaves of three types of palms (Geonoma, Calypterogyne, and Chamaedorea). Each had a different leaf morphology, and we had to count the number of epiphylls on 12cm x 12cm grid per leaf, on both old and young leaves. We did that on and off all afternoon as Moncho and Raquel returned periodically with more leaves.
In 1969, a Canadian mining company came into the area looking for sulfur, and was giving away jobs along with land. This company left in the early '70s because the Costa Rican government was selling the profitable land for more than the company was willing to spend. Of the land the mining company had, 70% had been logged. One miner sold 300 Ha to a quaker named Wilford (who Eladio worked for at the time). Eladio was given 50 Ha of that land.
So now Eladio had land once again. He was hired by many of his neighbors, as well as Wilford, to cut down trees on their properties. In 1972, the Tropical Science Center (TSC) took control of the land (now it's called the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve). Eladio began working for the TSC as a park ranger and started to learn a lot about conservation of land.
In 1975, the government declared the area around the Peñas Blancas river valley a protected area (for the watershed). The government then decided not to because it was too expensive to do so. If they had done so, they would have had to buy the land off of the people who lived in that area in order to keep it a protected area. The community actually wanted the government to buy the land. Now around this time (1985), Eladio lived on his farm with his wife.
At one point, the park decided to send tourists to live with Eladio, along with biologists and photographers. Eladio sold his land to the biologists, who wanted to put the land aside for conservation. The Monteverde Conservation League collected money to buy land through donations to give to the TSC. Eladio's was the first property purchased. They eventually made enough money to buy 10,000 Ha of land, but they couldn't decide who should own the land. The Monteverde League only purchased the land, they wanted nothing to do with running it. So this resulted in a long battle between the Monteverde League and the TSC over who should run the land.
Shifting gears a little bit. Some elementary school children from Sweden came to Monteverde and saw the rainforests here and decided they wanted to help raise money to buy the land. They returned to Sweden and were able to raise enough money to purchase the land (the money they raised was matched by the Swedish government). So hence, now it is called the Children's Eternal Rainforest. This is now the largest private reserve in Central America, covering 55,000 Ha of protected area in total. There is an estimated 70,000 Ha of protected area in total, which includes the land hotels use as part of their tourist attractions in the area.
So now back to Eladio's. Randomly, an entomologist from the United States was hiking through the rainforest and got lost coming from Pocosol, and ended up at Eladio's. This guy loved it so much, that he brought a group of his students (from some university on the West Coast) back to Eladio's. He showed up with 18 students, who camped outside in tents. Ever since then (1986), he brought students every year to Eladio's as a learning experience. In 1991, he came with a group from EAP (I don't remember what that stands for), and now Eladio's is exclusively for students and researchers.
Now that the area is all protected land, the forest has begun to regrow, which in turn means that animals have started coming back (including jaguars and pumas).
So Eladio is a pretty cool guy, with a pretty amazing life story and impact on the environment (both good and bad). He was also super sweet!
So the following day was when El Terimoto arrived to our group. And by that, we mean the stomach bug. I was one of the first victims, along with a few others who spent the day sleeping and making trips to the bathroom / forest. And since that day, El Terimoto took another victim or two every day for over a week (we are even convinced that it evolved into other sicknesses later on). Luckily, Eladio had some plants that grew around the shelter that help with upset stomachs, and he used it to make a tea for those of us who got sick. Unluckily, the tea was the worst thing I have ever tasted. Ever. Think of the smell of the most generic plant (not flowers, just the plant part). Do you have that image? Now imagine drinking that. Pretty nasty. Don't get me wrong, it worked really well, if you could drink the whole cup!
That night I was feeling well enough to go on a night hike to look for frogs and other cool swampy organisms. And this night hike very quickly turned into a mud-bath for almost everyone. We walked through parts that had waist-deep mud. We had a few unfortunate souls who got stuck in the mud (even losing some shoes in the process). But it was all worth it, as we saw so many cool animals, including a RED EYED TREE FROG!
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| RED EYED TREE FROG (Photo creds to Shane) |
So even though much of my time at Eladio's was spent sick, it was still an unbelievable place that I would HIGHLY recommend visiting if you ever get the chance. Eladio is an amazing man with so many stories to tell (like the time he got bit by a Fer de Lance).
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