Day 10 – Exploring the Cloud Forrest

Today, we had the chance to observe the incredible amount of biodiversity that The Ticos mentioned first hand during a two hour hiking tour through the cloud forest, and it was beautiful. There were so many different organisms, with trees germinating on and growing off of other trees, insect zombies with mushrooms for brains, completely translucent butterflies, orange wasps with purple wings and so much more; it was breathtaking. And our tour guide was so knowledgeable as well. He had carried a telescope with him to give us a close look at the treasures “his office” (as he put it) had in store and could spot micro orchids less than half the size of a fingernail from 20 feet away effortlessly. With the help of his bird calling, we even saw a Quetzal, a very traditional bird with of lot of symbolic significance throughout Central America.

We then listened to a short lecture about the history of Monteverde from a coffee farmer named Guillermo, and I feel he affirmed a lot of points made in The Ticos. For example, according to the book, Ticos are increasingly holding individualism dear to their heart, and indeed Guillermo cited the local farmers desire to work on their own individual farms as a reason why coops have been successful. Additionally, the text claims that family ties are strong and that farm life encourages large families. According to Guillermo seven out of ten founders of the coop were directly related, and he currently has 85 cousins on his mother’s side alone. Finally, the rising demand for labor on farms as a result of locals seeking better pay and working conditions in the hotels of Monteverde, as Guillermo explained, shows the effects of the transition into a service based economy as mentioned in The Ticos. While these are only a few examples and a small sample size, I think it still speaks volumes about the accuracy of the book. This makes sense to me because in my own experience, I think it prepared me fairly well for the trip. Reading about the history was particularly interesting to me because it’s pretty unique to Costa Rica, but I think the first section on the land and the people (particularly the parts about the people) were the most helpful overall. It gave me a good set of expectations of cultural norms and such during daily interacting with the locals and a good base of knowledge on how to present myself while doing so.