Implicit Self
Images from my soul, dedicated to the world that makes me
Where butterflies come from: CR and caterpillars
There are thousands of species of butterflies in Costa Rica. Apparently 90% of the butterflies of Central and South America can be found there! Photographed beautifully by many photographers. The number of blue morphos that accompanied us down and up every trail we took was astounding (in Peruvian Amazon, we saw maybe 3 in total, in Costa Rica we saw one every 5 min in some places, like Monteverde). What really amazed me were the caterpillars we saw, I have honestly not seen so many types, with so many spines ever before!
CR stories #1: Marvin Rockwell, a pioneer, a businessman, naturalist, paramedic, rockstar-superman!
For my trip to Costa Rica, I am relegating my trip experience to the photos I took…..As in any tropical country, the jungles made me feel alive and the birds and animals, much closer than I have usually seen, reminded me of Trinidad more than ever. We had great company for the tour (just like in Trinidad), Ricki and Bill made us feel more at home (about the US), outside of US than we ever do here. This time, I want the pictures to tell the story of the wildlife. I will use words for the story of a man who changed an untouched part of the world into something better than it was, while still retaining all its wonders and moreover, added to them. As a doctor, a businessman, a pioneer, a founder member of a settlement, a unique father, husband, tour guide; owning a simplicity that few leaders have ever had (and none that have made history) mixed with innate courage and an indomitable sense of humor, Marvin Rockwell drove through inaccessible parts of Nicaragua, built his own road (with friends who were moving with him) when there were none, swam with sharks (almost) to finally reach his country of choice: Costa Rica, in 1951.
Marvin Rockwell belongs to a religious group called the Quakers. Quakers are Christian, do not believe in war or holding weapons. That was the primary reason they left the U.S., they had be conscripted once for a war- World War II, where Marvin refusing to hold arms so was given medical training instead. But once again, they were about to be drafted for the Korean war and this time he simply decided to be a conscientious objector. He was imprisoned, with a sentence of a few years, released after 18 months. As soon as he got out, his family and about 11 others were ready to move to Costa Rica: some friends had found it to be an good option, the country also had no army at all. They started the treacherous journey to central america, on the Pan- American highway that existed more in name than in kind. Especially towards south of Nicaragua where it is supposed to go through to Costa Rica. It was on the way that they were swimming in a river that locals told them to be beware of sharks, that came in through a bay. They didn’t believe it, until they saw a few fins…
Finally reaching Costa Rica, they lived close to San Jose, while the whole group looked for a more permanent abode. They wanted to live in a higher altitude to protect against mosquito borne diseases and in their search were led to a place, partially cleared, with rich soil, up in the cloud forests of Costa Rica. This place was the beautiful Monteverde, a name they gave it themselves, later adopted by the municipality ( which, for a long while, didn’t have a name for a place with only 500 dwellers up in the mountains, of course). Here was another road they had to clear and widen for their jeep and belongings because the only road up to the area (it only had a shack to indicate signs of human presence, when they first saw it) was an oxcart trail. Even today, it takes a great driver and a car with good suspenders to get to Monteverde, a journey on pot holes in dirt roads. The beautiful home of the Quakers now has a significantly larger population of about 8000 people.
Once there, these enterprising people did many remarkable things, but I will only mention two (or three, as the third is related). They built their own hydroelectric plant, being a rainforest, water wasn’t scarce and one of them was a handy engineer. State power lines wouldn’t get there for a few decades yet and all the while the settlement had electricity for farming and other needs. Then to make a sustainable community with a reliable source of income they chose to make cheese, from milk of their own cows. They named the cheese too: Monteverde. Interestingly, the first molds used for the cheese was Quaker oat containers, the first type of cheese was Gouda. It was a corporation with all Quakers holding shares and only residents of the area could hold shares. From what I recall of our conversation (and I apologize if it is not entirely accurate) Marvin Rockwell was director of production there for a while. He was also of course the medicine man, treating all kinds of ailments, broken bones, serious cuts and injuries and at one point there was an outbreak of hepatitis that he treated, making tireless journey after journey to San Jose to get the medicines for people in the area.
Given the state of the drive even today, it is not surprising that the settlers at one point thought that an airstrip would help. One was even made, where Marvin, now tried being a pilot. I have no doubt he would have succeeded in almost any other place. However, the airstrip ended in a cliff and wasn’t very long to start with. The winds beat at the small airplane he was trying to fly (I think he had a co pilot too), till even for Marvin it appeared to be quite dangerous. And I say that with a grin because I remember Marvin’s sheepish smile, despite an experience that must have been frightening. No one ever took off that airstrip again. However as luck would have it, the government was sending out map tracers right at that point of time and they quickly made note of an airstrip in Monteverde. That stayed in the map for decades, even today, apparently it is there as ‘abandoned’ airstrip. Abandoned indeed. I remember Marvin’s laugh when he talked about the map, made me think of the some lives that have such far reaching consequences in some places. He could possibly have looked for gold or martians and found them!
On that note, I bring up the third point, that of the small area of land (about 500 hectares, I think) the settlers wanted to protect, as it served as a watershed, a source of water for their hydropower and other needs. This protected area had such diversity of flora and fauna, it attracts all kinds of naturalists from all over the world. Scientists found hundreds of species of birds, frogs and the diversity of plant life. This diversity is unimaginable for people unfamiliar with how many orchids and epiphytes one single tree in a rainforest can harbor (the answer is greater than 200, that is 200 different species and innumerable specimens of each). I just want to mention here that we had the best possible naturalist guide for such a scenario. Jonathan Sequeira, he knows so very much about plants that one wonders how he can tell one green leaf apart from a very closely related green leaf among thousands of green leaves…He has his own stories, I will get to a couple of his in a bit. Getting back to Monteverde, more rainforest, thousands of hectares more, was added to protected area by a large contribution, initially started by children in rural Sweden(who wanted to save the rain forest after hearing about it in a talk) and later joined by more children and students from 44 other countries. The area is called Children’s Eternal Rainforest.
One wonders how many years Marvin lived in a year, as in between all this he found a child, who looked tiny and under-cared for and adopted him. Not being married, or knowing what to do with one. He was still confident that the child would be better off with him. It was later that he met his would-be wife, who came with a new Quaker family. They got married and had children. Marvin wanted his children to be fluent in English and obviously, nothing less would do, so he moved back to the US. Gave up his shares in the cheese factory and started selling chocolate. Hundreds of pounds of chocolate. He was a tall man, age has only added a slight bend, but one can imagine him selling chocolate and telling stories to managers of big stores and in fairs. Eventually, his children did become bilingual, they came back, the Quakers opened a bilingual school in Monteverde which is still running.
At 81, Marvin decided he better get to Africa before it was too late, after all starting a restaurant, then a hotel and being the tour conductor for International Expeditions: he took tourists to see the beautiful Cloud Forests of Monteverde of course, and then to Galapagos (where he had never been before), had given him insider’s knowledge of nature travel. So off he went, on his own. Landed and looked for affordable options, found a driver he liked. Lived in a youth hostel ( he said, with a chuckle ‘I was only 81 then!’). Went on safaris and slept in tents, he saw all he big mammals he wanted and probably some more.
I remember considering missing the meeting with Marvin Rockwell (it was pre-scheduled by International expeditions) as I was a tide tired and it was a nature tour, I didn’t know why we were meeting a person. I can assure you, it would have been a big mistake, as I would have missed this 93 yr old superman. Loping, lanky, full of good spirits and nearly able to fly. He is my superman for sure. Reminds me of Kipling’s :’ If you can make one heap of all your winnings/And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss/ And lose, and start again at your beginnings/And never breath a word about your loss/ If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew/To serve your turn long after they are gone/ And so hold on when there is nothing in you/ Except the Will which says to them “Hold ON!” …. Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it/ And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!’
Marvin Rockwell does own the Earth, in my mind, because he never tried to keep it for himself, never raced to get it before anyone else and never hesitated to give all he had gathered on this Earth for the people he cared for. He knew what a soul needs. My superman, knows how to be truly content and happy while doing things that bring success to some, power and more to others, but never the merry twinkle in the old eyes and the hearty laugh from the soul, I saw bursting from him. I don’t have a photo of his hands or the photos he had of his life’s journey (he tells his story in pictures). But I held them. His hands and his photos. And that warmth, such generosity of spirit, no Walmart, Forbes # 1-100 CEO ever had. None of them probably had a fifth of contentment Rockwell had in a year either. After all, he never let anything own him, while, he belonged to all his friends and even to us, for the time we spent with him. He gives of himself and his kindness so easily. Its like he wants to flow through everything and make it better. He had the power to really change his life and with it brought change to a part of the world: at no hidden cost to those less powerful (by will or design).
Collared Aracari (and its berry)
It has been months since our return from Costa Rica, and as I sort through photos and wait for the right day that I feel up to the task of making a photo gallery (instead of a trip report this time), I lag further and further behind.
But I don’t want to lose everyone who glances at my blog, hoping for something new that I fail to provide at regular enough intervals. If such persons exist, I apologize heartily. I would promise that what does come, when it does would be worth the wait but realistically (and humbly), that may or may not be so.
I can however, provide the glimpse of one of the birds that truly emerges as one of our high points of Costa Rica, captured in Tortuguero (and again in Sarapiqui). Aracaris are medium sized toucans. The berries in the first photo are growing on a melastoma tree.
My collared aracaris.. Thank you.
Endangered
These are a couple of endangered birds, one of which we saw in the wild too. Photos are taken in the Belize zoo. We are yet to see a Harpy Eagle in the wild, but we saw the yellow headed parrot (using a scope) at Lamanai outpost, Belize. The yellow headed parrots are very quick at learning to mimic human speech and one of them in the zoo kept saying something like “whatever”. (Belize is an english speaking nation, more or less)
A wolf howls as wilderness calls: two days in Yellowstone NP
There was a time I thought I would not return to any place until I have seen all I want to see. I was wrong, won’t be the first or last time of course. I have returned to Peru and to Yellowstone only to fall in love more! I have now decided what I want to do is know more than the surface of a place that touches my soul, and go back as many times as it takes (as long as I can, anyway) to find its pulse.
Our second trip to the Yellowstone National Park came after 6 years, but it was as if I had dreamed of the mountains and valleys often enough for it to remain fresh in my memory. This time the start of the trip was from Billings, Montana where my husband had a trip for work. Billings is about 4 hours from Gardiner, the north entrance to the park and its only entrance that is open year round.
As soon as I knew we would go, I also knew that this time, we had to go on a wolf tracking expedition. It is not as grand as it sounds but every bit or more as fantastic. I found several companies that had guided wolf tracking tours and wrote to two. I do try to keep it local, not a huge company and preferably owned by people who are naturalists. ecologists by profession. The wild side, is indeed a company started by two naturalists who also conduct research on wolves of Yellowstone. It was pretty short notice, I think I emailed with little less than two weeks left to leave, however, being slightly expensive it is not that sought after I think. Also, it was August, a little late in summer and early for winter wolf watching.
We left for Gardiner in the afternoon. Billings is a nice town but I looked at it mainly a gateway to Yellowstone. We had strong recommendations for taking the slightly longer, but jaw-droppingly gorgeous beartooth scenic highway. Nothing better than local opinion, I say and it was a great tip, proving my point, yet again! Of course, as long as the locals are reliable, anyway. So, we drove to Red Lodgeand started onthe beartooth highway that goes through the Shoshone national forest. The highway was in one word: poetic. As we wound upwards we passed melting glaciers feeding into prussian blue mountain lakes that changed colors as we moved. Every turn out was beautiful, as we passed wild flowers of all kinds by the roadside. August end is late in the season for them, we hardly saw any in the park, but on the highway fireweeds waved us into the mountain passes with multi colored slabs of rock.
At one of the overlooks close to the top of the beartooth drive, we got off the car to look over the valley, along the pavement I saw a fluffy mountain ground squirrel making a very good imitation of begging. Except it wasn’t an imitation and have you ever seen a ground squirrel begging? At that point I forgot that we are not supposed to feed wild animals and also, in my poor defense, there were no signs forbidding us to feed them in that overlook. So I used the little box labeled chipmunk food and was quickly surrounded by little chipmunks that were only too happy to climb up to my hands and take their food. It was nuts and seeds, not human food. At least that is something, I suppose. I was overjoyed as I watched them stash their finds into the mouth for later or nibble. Kids all around were probably just as excited, not more.
At the very top, I only call it that as we sort of went down after that, is a ledge like overlook with slabs of rock. As the clouds swirled around us, I caught a few glimpses of one or may be more, pika with a hankering to rush from one hidden crevice to another.
Right from the beginning, even if I didn’t know it, seeing the pika should have told me it was going to be a lucky trip. On our way to the motel we saw a bighorn (young) who was of course being gawked at by people in and out of five or more cars in the curve of the road which was not very broad to begin with. The mountain side it was on was all loose rock and gravel and it would clearly have preferred to simply cross the road but after much contemplation he decided to keep going on the sliding slope. Big horn.. check.
Our motel had also been a last minute booking. Staying inside the park is nonsensical even when you book months in advance, august is a warm month and people visit with family and like to stay inside the park, I think. We found decent reviews of the Yellowstone River Motel. Very very reasonably priced. And for some reason, they also gave us the room with the best view of the Yellowstone river flowing by. The room was a suite and pretty clean and comfortable. The owner has what I would say, not a typical personality of a manager, but he runs the business smoothly. We would need to change our room over the three nights, and he informed us they would do it as long as the bags were packed, they weren’t picking our dirty socks, he said. We loved the motel and would recommend to anyone who is staying at Gardiner and doesn’t want to pay a fortune for a comfortable place to sleep. They do have to want to spend more time in the park, although they do have a lovely lovely place to read books overlooking the river.
Next day bright (well, not outside) and very early at 5:30 our guide and wolf-tracker, Bonnie, came to the motel to pick us up for wolf tracking.. she had scopes and stories of wolf packs, there are two main ones in Yellowstone. The one we were going to track (which basically means trying to look for) was in Lamar Valley. Famous for wolf watching. It has had many many good hunters, including a female, in the past and a lot of people came to watch her hunt and take down deer. She dies a few years ago. And the pack has had a treacherous year, with the alpha male also dying as they went into the territory of the other pack. Where he was injured fatally and the alpha female barely escaped. She continues to be the alpha female, but a couple young ones from the other pack have now joined her in the valley and one of them is alpha now. She had 4 pups this year, one of them grey. We saw her, at least two of the black pups, and the grey one. We heard her howl echo in the valley. Over and above the crowd of people gathered in the place much before 5:30 with scopes and chairs. One or two veteran wolf trackers who do this every morning. All year. Years and years. They stay in contact with others who are in surrounding areas they have previously seen the wolves. And track every movement.
After many hours of wolf watching, we went onwards to some more wildlife watching. Bonnie knew we like birds so took us to a spot close to floating island but more in the valley here sandhill cranes are often seen, we had caught a glimpse of a couple flying overhead (which, by the way counts, but I don’t count instances where I can’t remember seeing the bird). We did see a leucistic red-tailed hawk, which has a whole lot of white all over, especially the head and back. It was too far for a good photo. We also saw mountain goat, white fluffy things high, very high up on the mountains. I always see antelopes’ face markings and their horns as a sort of V , without binoculars. We saw many of them, practically half the population (Bonnie said there weren’t that many only about 400, and we saw a very large flock which had a hundred, we thought that were visible). The park is huge (in case you forgot!!).
Bonnie showed us on the map other places we could find birds and she said that in the Hayden valley there had been sightings of the elusive (well, we had already seen wolves, so elusive is a relative term as usual) grizzlies. We were done with our eight hours of wild life watching, with many short snacks in between and a nice picnic lunch by 2 pm.
In the evening we returned to the park and just around, saw elks around Mammoth Springs. We went back to the amazing formations of mammoth springs which have 500 yr old junipers (not alive) on some of the older sulphur springs. Then we went to the artist’s point, which is on the Grand canyon of the Yellowstone, which looks over the lower falls. Then onwards to the upper falls and then to dinner. See where to eat below.
Next day we drove towards the Hayden Valley with frequently watchable wildlife. Highlight were the trumpeter swans sitting serenely by a lake, visible from a mile away. The serenity was sort of tempered once they started trumpeting, but their gorgeous white was bewitching. I stayed as long as they didn’t swim away to the other shore. We went looking for harlequin ducks in LeHardy rapids.. , the fast moving waters there are ideal for them, but we had to be satisfied with a very close and fantastic look of an American dipper! I am quite sure she thought we couldn’t see her, she was still, only blinking sometimes.
We stopped over at the Yellowstone caldera (the yellowstone supervolcano) and saw the dragons mouth hissing and the sulphur huffing and puffing. On the way back we saw an entire group of common mergansers that appear to spend the evenings together as we watched them swim towards a tree trunk and small beach. I think there were eight, all males that I counted. There had been two to begin with, then all the others swam from upstream and downstream to the spot!
We decided to head straight back so I could go back to the restaurant we had gone to the first night and found closed the previous one. On the way, and here is a permanent tip for Yellowstone, to be used with discretion of course, like all tips. Every time you see a whole bunch of people standing on only one side of road, parked both sides. At least one good scope, maybe more and everyone looking with binoculars there is a good chance it is something you don’t want to miss. I forced my husband to pull over. And crossed the street, asked the guy with the best scope what they were looking at. It was a grizzly. He offered his scope. I jumped on it. Impossible to spot while driving, he had clearly been looking for this guy. But clear as day on the scope (it was a swarovski). I think I monopolized the scope for as long as it seemed polite (and maybe a little longer). My husband was delighted!
I can’t imagine a better two days in Yellowstone. Or anywhere.
Yellowstone: where we ate in Gardiner or around
The first night I saw a sign that beckoned to me. They do that. And I have learned to listen. The sign was for Antler Pub and Grill (located inside the Comfort Inn hotel, where we weren’t staying). I tried a beer recommended by my husband’s colleague “Cold Smoke”.. it is dark but very drinkable. I had speciality bison burger which had cheese and jelly and bacon with the perfectly cooked burger, it was wonderful. My husband had pulled pork on chips and that was great too. I immediately decided we must come back, the very nice bartender was a definite draw too. The whole place has mounted animals and yes, antlers. Not too fond of the prize hunts.. but, thats the owners of the restaurant and hotel.
Next day I persuaded my husband to go back, it seemed like the ideal restaurant, in the smaller town of Yellowstone, where nothing else talked to me. Local food, they also have elk and another bison burger i had seen on the menu. However, they were closed. And then my husband got the perfect opportunity for us to drive about 5-6 miles on the highway to a restaurant with very good reviews: The Lighthouse restaurant. This one is less local, opened by people who chose to live in Gardiner and start a restaurant and also, given the name and the distance from sea, by a sailor. The whole restaurant has fixtures and little souvenirs from sailing and nautical trips. Their menu was more varied, with sushi and oysters, and a sriracha cake (hot an sweet), Taj Mahal Vegetable curry and Bengal Beef. We had the oysters and sushi and I tried the bison burger here as well. Pretty good, great looking waiter (as the giggling teenagers totally ogling at the poor guy would testify, if they could stop giggling and spoke in sentences, he must also have been very young, but spoke well. I will not be surprised if he wasn’t american). But I preferred Antler pub and grill.
Last day we were back to my favorite place, it wasn’t crowded and the bartender asked us to take our favorite seat (he remembered). I forgot to mention that when it wasn’t overcast they have a terrific view! He suggested Plumb St Porter and that was better than Cold Smoke. And he was really nice too. This time I had the hoagie, not as good as the burger the last time. But the service was great and Moniraj’s pork hoagie was pretty good with an awesome sauce on the side or in it.
We also had breakfast at Rosie’s bistro which was a good hearty breakfast. I am surprised that the lighthouse restaurant in #1 in Tripadvisor whereas Antler’s Pub and Grill is not mentioned. I guess Trip advisor’s isn’t always right.
Implicit Self 