Day 48 27.08.15
We woke up early to the intense rain coming down and crashing down on all the fauna of Puerto Viejo. Additionally to that the howler monkeys were defending their territories and shouting into the jungle.
We headed out to go to a day tour, starting off at Cahuita National Park. Still a little hungover after the previous night, we got to see sloths, monkeys, and birds around this little trek along a strip of beach as part of the Cahuita National Park.
We saw an agouti in the wild:
Little crabs in the sand:
We saw two turtle nests, that were highly fenced to prevent people from stepping on them and to prevent other animals digging the eggs out.
We saw a cheese fruit, that smelt horribly of the worst kind of cheese you can imagine. (Apparently when cooked great for stomach problems - I dont know about that..)
We also walked along the beach and marvelled at the different kind of seashells and pieces of corals that were washed onto the shore.
The next stop was the jaguar rescue centre. I absolutely loved this place!
We got an amazing tour from Rachel who guided us through the centre showing us the grand variety of animals held at this place. From different types of snakes both venomous and not, all kept in safe terrariums, we moved over beginning our tour in the monkey house.
The monkeys are rescued, kept in the centre, pampered to be able to stand up for themselves if they arrive injured, and then are taken when ready on the shoulders of the volunteers out into the jungle, where they can adapt to jungle life as well as possibly getting to know other groups of monkeys where they then could be integrated to live in outside of the rescue centre.
Their work is amazing and really inspiring as their main goal is to not keep the animals but to transition as many animals as possible from captivity, healing them, and setting them out into the wild again.
We also saw an ocelot, which was on the edge of being released (so we were really lucky!).
We saw another wild sloth, as well as a nursery of sloths hanging on the same tree. Just to cute and I think the closest we every got to sloths. Next to the sloths we found toucans and one agouti related to guinea pigs and rodents overseen by the watchful volunteers.
We even saw a pelican called Pistachio that apparently believes he owns the place..
We also saw some more parrots and another frog garden, where the same red-eyed frogs had camouflaged themselves on their leaves and were quite hard to spot.
Moving on we were shown a large sea turtle, that had been brought in with four other turtles, that had been victims of poaching. 3 of the other turtles were released straight away, one needed more care after the poachers had punctured the turtles shell and the last one, that we could see there had been so severely punctured that its lung had collapsed. It was getting better, due to the collapsed lung had problems with regulating its position in the water and could not dive down, but was left to always float on the water surface. (He was supposed to get another surgery the next day).
After the centre we went for lunch at a lovely little place where we had pork steak with rice and plantains and loads and loads of lemonade.
We then headed off to an indigenous reserve where we were shown how chocolate was made straight from the beans. We were also shown several other plants with different purposes.
Cinnamon tree:
Hummingbirds nest under Palm leaf:
For example a tree that produces long spikes that can be used as needles or for weapons.
If the hairs of the seed however are taken off before the tree is planted, no spikes appear and the same tree is left “naked”.
The chocolate making is a long process too, where first the cocoa fruit is harvested from the trees.
The beans are then extracted and are left to be fermented for a couple of days and then are left to dry from the sun, being moved every 2 hours.
The dried beans are then roasted over an open fire for about 20 minutes, where they start to develop a yummy chocolate scent, and pop up like popcorn, constantly being stirred.
When they are done, they are placed on a stone plate and are crushed using heavy stones. This crushes the nuts and breaks the texture of the actual chocolate bean. (Just trying this natural bean is really great and tastes like Toblerone. Chocolaty and Nutty at the same time…) After that the nuts are moved around to let the shell part or better said the little safety films protecting the nuts fly away, leaving only the actual chocolate bean.
This then is pressed through a meat grinder, and the resulting mass in then mixed with water or milk to make hot chocolate. If cooled it is then ready to be in bars of chocolate or whatever else you want to produce out of it.
We then headed on to not soo impressive waterfalls. Yes I have seen a few now I am aloud to say that :).
We headed back to the hotel, and after a well-deserved nap went to dinner at a place called Koki. This place is really beautiful with an amazing atmosphere.
I had some rice with seafood, which was delicious and then we sat down looking out onto the sea and the street doing some people watching.
We then headed back to the Lazy Mon where it was ladies night. I headed back though, as even after my nap it was time for my bedtime.
