6 th April Térraba and Los Santos

A late start today at 9.00 am. The tour is heading for an indigenous community and a mask making experience.

Intrepid likes to support local initiatives that directly impact on those individuals, such as some of the Soda restaurants or tortilla making. We haven’t been disappointed with the guides they use and the specialist guides that accompany our group excursions. All have been excellent. Our personal guide Ronny, had a hard act to follow from Mexico but as the tour has gone on he has become less reserved and revealed himself to be a very good wild life spotter and very knowledgeable. He is a quiet guy who probably found us a bit overwhelming at first. He is kind and thoughtful towards us. He told Lisa he is studying Archeology part time and hopes to move into that field.

We drove for a couple of hours along the beach highway until we turned into the hills. Up we climbed, deeper into the forest, following the pretty and wide Terraba river. The vegetation was so vibrant with many shades of green. Finally we arrived at the indigenous community. They have lived from the land for 500 years. It was quite a large community with many small homes, a school and high school. They have made a huge effort to save their language and it is now written as well as oral. Their society is based on equality of the sexes but it is the women who pass on the knowledge.

Our host Geoffrey was 47 and had recently had his first visit to a doctor. His grandfather lived to 105 and his mother was very young looking. They were a great example of the simple life.

He showed us some of the plants they used as herbal medicine for colds. He also showed us a plant that smelled like Coriander but didn’t look at all like what we grow. It was a broad leaf like a weed/ dandelion. The indoor (to us) plants were so vigorous and beautiful everywhere.

Geoffrey showed us his mask. A jaguar with feathers that he used in ceremonies. We were then given the task to paint an animal for ourselves. Many of us received a jaguar to paint. It was a relaxing fun experience and overall we did okay. I was amused by the different expressions our jaguars had. Amy and Julia turned out to be secret artists. The exercise reminds you how skilled the people are in many crafts and how much practice it takes!

I felt we could have learned a lot more about the community but language was a barrier. Julie and I sat with Geoffrey and learned more but Ronny seemed a bit distracted and didn’t translate enoug

Leaving this quiet community we encountered a thunder storm with lots of lightning. Our first rain all trip! It was very dramatic and cold. After days of over 30C it was a shock and we were all scrambling for jumpers.

We pulled into a service station where there was an attendant and there was a pay machine at the bowser.

Next stop back through the cloud forest to the hotel. Geoffrey told us it was the death road and we thought he was joking. When we reached the turn off it was a steep, steep descent and halfway down we were halted because an oncoming car had slid off the road! We waited until it was righted and the back log of cars passed. Some of the group were questioning why we were taking this diversion. Finally at the bottom, 12 kms down, we arrived at our hotel. It turned out that this is a famous place for bird watching, particularly for the quetzal! It would have been good to know. Our dinner was included and quite a lot of laughter ensued when Ronny was taking our orders. The choice was chicken or troot. It took a little time for us to realise he meant trout.

The food was good but no wifi in the rooms meant we all huddled round the fire in the restaurant until they asked us to leave at 9.30 am.