Huele a Agua...

“Huele a agua,

Monte adentro,

Y en el cielo braman,

Tambores de trueno.

Huele a agua,

Decía mi abuela,

Golpean los cerros,

Y viento se ha puesto negro,

Y sabe a miedo,

Y allá vuelan zopilotes,

En torbellino sobre los trechos,

Y se enredan las arañas en mi pelo.

Huele a agua…”

(Presagio, Malpaís) A Tico folk song and famous music group.

So this song really resounded with me this last week. Wednesday through Saturday, the weather was, as the locals know, typical Monteverde weather. High winds and rain/misty at all times. It doesn’t even take a siesta! I can remember sitting in my room a couple of nights working on my homework, and wondering if I should be ready with my poncho when the roof gets torn off by the wind. Seriously, I have never experienced such sustained winds anywhere. Yes, in Iowa we have to worry about straight line winds knocking over whole fields of corn every now and again, but this was for 4 full days. Somehow the plants, trees, flowers have all been designed to survive, but it astounds me. I was nearly thrown off the road a few times walking back from Spanish in the unprotected parts of the roads.

But with this wind was also rain that did not fall down. In fact it was more often than not horizontal or blowing up my rain jacket. There is no way to keep dry, so fortunately it is a warm rain and wind. This was amazing and humbling just to get a little taste of nature’s full power. That is part of what the song is about. Its chorus rings with rich and poetic (for this is Spanish after all) words that describe black wind, and pounding drops of rain with drums of thunder. But more powerful than this entire scene that is portrayed is the “Smell of Water” or “Huele a Agua.” This is what this week has been about. The beauty of nature and the extraordinary smell of water that permeates everything and brings to life to our world. I am taken aback even as I write this on this beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon, because it was such a profound experience. Look up the song online and see if you like it.

The last few days have also been really amazing because I finally got a chance to get into the tropical forests of Costa Rica! And let me tell you, they were rainy, cloudy, misty, abundant with flora/fauna and VERY MUDDY. Still it was a very different experience than I had imagined. The first day, Friday, we went to San Geraldo Reserve, which is actually on the Atlantic side of the mountain range (Monteverde is on the Pacific side). This was a good 4 hour hike total.

Messy... messy... messy...

Wildlife... this is the Costa Rican Raccoon.

Here, smell this plant. No really stick your nose in it.

You see that, way down there... no I don't see it.

Then Saturday we as a group went to the World Famous Cloud Forest Reserve, know for its biological diversity and purity. It was very well kept up, because it is actually a national park. We did a 3 hour walk to get to the continental divide this time, and walked along that. The winds at the divide are so strong that they don’t let trees grown very tall, for fear of falling over. Plenty of moisture for sure. Oh yeah and as a side note… toe-ed shoes are not very good footwear for walking through a swarm of ants. I escaped with only two bites, though because I was paying attention. Others had then crawling up their pants!

It's Quetzel. A very rare species of Costa Rica, that I took a picture of through a telescope.

(At a humming bird garden I saw over 50 humming birds at once, of all colors. It was kind of dangerous though with that many birds flying around really fast. They need to make a no fly zone. Some even landed on people, repetitively.)

Climbing trees is very different here in the tropics. First of all you have to find a tree that has branches lower than 100 feet, and then you have to check to make sure there are no snakes. After that, you must make sure that you don’t disturb the epiphytes that live on it, as you climb a very slipper bark that is soaked in water and sometimes feels like a sponge. They look really good to climb though, which makes me really want to try. So I did; a couple of times. The best tree that I have found so far is actually called a Matapalo, or in English that would be “tree killer.” They are actually a group of figs that start as seed dropped high in the canopy of a tall tree, that then drop their roots to the ground, circling the host tree, and then establish a trunk around the host trunk, thus cutting it off from the world, nutrients and finally killing it. That host tree usually rots out, leaving a hollow really sweet looking tree to climb. Here are some of my attempts (both Matapalos) but I never got higher than 15 feet. Kind of disappointing when I think about the monsters that I have climbed elsewhere.

Yes that is the inside of a toppled tree, looking up from the base. No tarantulas though.

Keep enjoying the blog, letting me know what you think. I am having a lot of fun writing it, but I only get a good chunk of time to do so on the weekends, if that.



This is a sweet truck. It was owned by the Quakers in Monteverde, and helped them move in back in the 50's. All the way from the USA. Now it is a nice flowerbed.



This is from a Quaker homestead high up the mountain.