After returning from Ireland on
October 1, 2015, we both needed to address medical issues causing us pain. Diane started going to physical therapy
appointments, and I got an iliopsoas tendon injection in my left thigh. I celebrated my 75th birthday by going to the
Missouri Theatre to hear the inaugural lecture sponsored by the University of
Missouri Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy. It was delivered by two-time Pulitzer Prize
and National Book Award-winner David McCullough and entitled "The History
You Don't Know: Lessons from the American Founders." A couple of weeks later, Larry and Carl came
over for our second wedding anniversary dinner.
Later that month, Diane and I drove to Jefferson City for a reception to
celebrate the wedding of Sandy, Diane’s previous partner, and her new wife
Mary.
At my last vision test, my doctor
told me he could see corneal erosion and referred me to Dr. Moyes in Kansas
City. The first Monday in November we
drove to Kansas City for my appointment.
He told me if it got any worse that I might want to have the eyes
“sanded down” so the cells would regrow.
He said it was a very painful procedure, and I hoped I could avoid it. He gave me instructions on how to massage and
treat the eyes.
The next day there was only one
issue on our November ballot, a proposition for the sales tax to support our
city Parks and Recreation Department. It
easily passed. Diane completed the
physical therapy she started in August.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we attended a marriage ceremony for two
of our lesbian friends, Marta and Vic, at the Riechmann Pavilion in Stephens
Lake Park that was attended by a large number of their friends and family. The next day Larry and Carl drove us to
Kansas City to see the first major exhibition dedicated to the Missouri artist
Thomas Hart Benton in more than 25 years. It showed the connection between his
art and his work in Hollywood by pairing the art with historic movie
clips. We were glad we made the trip and
celebrated with a pasta lunch at Lidia’s.
Then Diane and I packed for our winter get-away to warmer climes.
For the second time in 2015, we
were taking a Road Scholar trip: The Best of Costa Rica: Exploring Natural
Wonders. We chose this trip because
it included stays on both coasts as well as the center of the country. We flew from St. Louis through Dallas/Ft.
Worth to San Jose, Costa Rica. The
program began with the usual orientation the next morning, followed by a visit
to the Doka Coffee Estate. The Vargas
family has owned the business since 1940.
They were ambitious and finally entered the international market with
their own brand, TRES GENERACIONES. We
were shown all the steps in the production of their coffee beans, and, of
course, purchased some to take home.
Tour showing highly mechanized
coffee production equipment
In the afternoon, we went to the
INBio Parque (National Institute for Biodiversity) where we had a lecture about
the biodiversity of Costa Rica and were given a general overview of Costa
Rica's major ecosystems. The facility
was home to re-creations of Costa Rica's various types of forests, wetlands and
farmlands. I could feel the difference in heat and humidity in each of
them. Interspersed throughout the park
were various collections of species, like insects, frogs and toads, tarantulas,
snakes, iguanas, turtles, caimans, fish, butterflies and more. These were mingled with free-roaming animals
and migratory birds. It was a fun
introduction to the rest of our trip.
Zebra tarantula
Iguana
The next morning started with a
long drive toward the Caribbean Coast. Our
guide had a driver and a large van that almost had enough comfortable seating
for all of us. The plan was that we
would rotate seats from front to back and window to aisle. At the end of the day, we were told to take
our belonging with us since no seats were reserved. We saw a lot of city life while we were
leaving San Jose behind, and then the scene transformed into the rainforest and
cloud forest of the Braulio Carrillo National Park. It changed again as we came down the
mountains to sea level. At a boat dock
we boarded a flat-bottomed river boat that took us to the village of Tortuguero
on the Caribbean coast (1.5-hour boat ride).
Cloud forest
Boarding the flat-bottomed river
boat
After checking in to Pachira
Lodge, we went on an excursion to the local village and continued to the Sea
Turtle Conservancy (STC) Tortuguero Visitor Center. This educational center is located in the
heart of Tortuguero National Park, one of the most important sea turtle nesting
sites in the world for green turtles. We
saw a slide show presentation and a local guide told us more about the green
turtle. He took us to the beach where
the turtles lay their eggs during their usual nesting period of July to October. They were gone by our December visit.
On the way to the village, we saw
this fiery-billed aracari toucan
Village scene
Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC)
Tortuguero Visitor Center
Beach where the turtles lay their
eggs
Early the next two mornings and
one late afternoon, we boarded river boats for a canal safari in Tortuguero
National Park. Based on the photos Diane
took, I identified over a dozen species of birds, as well as some wildlife. I was familiar with some of the bird species
like the great and little blue heron, the great and snowy egret, the anhinga
and jacana (the bird with the webbed feet that ‘walks on water’). Others were the gray-necked wood rail; the
South-American bittern; the little, green and Amazon kingfisher; and the
bare-throated and yellow-crowned night heron.
Most of the very colorful birds were up too high in the canopy for us to
see, but we did spot another fiery-billed aracari toucan. We saw iguanas and an unusual green lizard. We saw a snake, several tortoises and
caiman. The river otter was not shy nor
were the two species of monkeys, the white-faced capuchin and the howler.
Boa constrictor
White-faced capuchin monkey
Anhinga
Basilisk lizard
Otter
Green Kingfisher
Northern Jacana over its eggs
Great Curassow
The howlers loved to wake us up
early each morning by jumping on the roof of our cabana and, as might be
expected, howling. We were able to spend
a little time in the lodge swimming pool and strolling around the village
before it was time to leave the Caribbean.
We boarded the river boat for the
1.5-hour ride to our van. It was a 2.5-hour
drive to the Selva Verde Lodge located in Sarapiqui in the Caribbean
lowlands. Soon after we arrived, we went
on a guided hike along some secondary forest trails including a scary walk
across a swinging bridge over a rapidly flowing river. Back at the lodge we heard a lecture on The
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Well
over 400 species of birds have been recorded in the lowlands of Middle America
which consists of three main regions: the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central
America.
Me on river bridge
The lodge put out bananas to
attract birds (and other critters). The
back of the 2nd floor had a viewing area overlooking the bait and birds. The birds were different species than the
ones we saw on the river. Diane and I
loved to sit and watch them. I spotted a
black-cheeked woodpecker; the clay-colored thrush (the national bird); a
Baltimore oriole; beautiful blue-gray, common bush and hepatic tanagers; a
red-headed barbet; blue-footed and chestnut-mandibled toucans; the brown
Montezuma Oropendola; a green honeycreeper; and the great kiskadee. We also saw a green and black poison-dart
frog, a bushy-tailed squirrel and a white-nosed coati.
Thrush, green honeycreeper and
black-cheeked woodpecker
This Toucan wanted the whole
banana
Red summer and blue-gray tanagers
Palm tanager and great kiskadee
Montezuma Oropendola
White-nosed coati
Poison dart frogs
After lunch on the 2nd day, we
visited a small cacao plantation, Costa Rica Best Chocolate. They first showed us how the beans grow on
trees and then harvested one to demonstrate how chocolate was made from that
very bean. We learned about the entire
process of making chocolate, from the alien-looking seed pods to delicious,
creamy chocolate. I was very glad that Diane gave me her share.
Cocoa pod on tree
Beans from a ripe pod
Cocoa beans after cooking and
drying
Cocoa bean grinder
Finally, the chocolate
After our last bird watching, we
left the lodge for the drive to the Arenal Manoa Hotel. We were given some free time in the town of
La Fortuna and then headed to the Arenal National Park which is named for its
active volcano. We walked a while along
the Las Colada trail for views of the volcano and Arenal Lake. The top part of the volcano was clouded over. After checking into the hotel, we attended a
lecture on the history of La Fortuna Town and the Arenal volcano. Diane and I spent some time in the afternoon
relaxing in the hotel’s gorgeous swimming pool.
Clouds over volcano
The next day started with a hike
on a trail through the forest and up a mountain to the Arenal Hanging
Bridges. Oh, what fun to be suspended
way up, looking way down! It felt good
to go back to the hotel and calm down.
In the afternoon, we drove to Vida Campesina, a family farm that
maintains over 100 different species of plants and different crops with strict
organic techniques, partially stabled livestock, methane gas production and
tilapia. We saw how they made cane sugar and learned how to make tortillas and
cook them on a traditional wood stove.
The family hosted our group for dinner at the farm followed by a dance
presentation by local school children.
Me on bridge
Looking up at where we had been
Squeezing the juice from the
sugar cane
Early the next morning as we were
leaving the park, the volcano was clearly visible for the first time in three
days. Now we were headed for the Pacific
Coast. However, when we got to the van,
I complained to our tour guide that some guests had been leaving their
belongings on their seats at night and not rotating each day. The guilty women knew who they were, and then
they complained about me. They said that
it was my fault for not reminding them to move.
Now, Diane and I could occasionally have more comfortable seats with
better views. It was an almost five-hour
trip to Punta Leona on the Pacific Coast.
Volcano
We stopped for the Jungle
Crocodile Safari Tour on the Tarcoles River.
It was relaxing to take the boat trip.
There were many crocodiles from very large to babies. We saw so many water birds before, that I
won’t recount them all again, except for two new types of herons, the tiger and
boat-billed. There were also some cute
crabs along the river banks.
Crocodiles
Tiger heron
Boat-billed heron
Crabs
The Hotel Punta Leona was located
on large grounds with white sand beaches on one side and tropical rainforest on
the other. A guide showed us around the property,
and then we had a lecture entitled The Central Pacific Region: Conservation
and Development.
We left early the next morning
for an expedition to the Carara National Park.
A naturalist walked with us on the Universal Access Trail (meaning signs
in braille and three languages) and pointed out the interesting flora and
fauna. We saw some beautiful pairs of
the endangered Scarlet Macaws of which the park had a sizable population. Our
group had the afternoon free. The beach
and ocean were beautiful, but Diane and I are not sand and sun people. Instead, we walked to another of the hotel’s
amenities, the Butterfly Garden & Insect Observatory. A glassed-in, climate-controlled facility
wasn’t necessary here, just some wire mesh curtains to keep the occupants
inside. We appreciated the variety and
beauty of the Costa Rican butterflies.
Pacific Ocean
Pair of Scarlet Macaws
Butterflies
The next morning, we traveled
along the Pacific Coast for 1.5 hours to the Hacienda Baru National Wildlife
Refuge. A local naturalist took us on a
walk along a short loop trail and told us about Baru's Reforestation
Project. On the five-hour trip to our
night’s lodging, we stopped at the Restaurant La Georgina and enjoyed all the
colorful hummingbirds at their feeders.
We checked into our cabin at the Savegre Hotel before walking around the
cloud forest grounds. We met at the
lodge to hear a lecture on The History of the San Gerardo Valley.
Hummingbirds
One reason for staying at this
location was the possible sighting of the Quetzal bird. That motivated us to rise early the next
morning for some birding, but no luck. Seeing a black vulture with its young in
the nest was the best we could do. We
had to be satisfied with a talk about the Resplendent Quetzal, a colorful
bird. We then freshened-up and checked
out. It was a short drive to San Jose (about 2 to 2.5 hours). That night we had our farewell dinner and
packed for the trip home the next day.
From San Jose to Columbia through Dallas/Ft. Worth only took eight
hours. We had pre-positioned our car at
the Columbia airport for the drive home on December 19th. This hadn’t been our most favorite Road
Scholar trip, but we were glad we were able to see so much of Costa Rica.
The Quetzal bird that we missed
seeing
Black vulture
The busy holiday season was upon
us. On the 21st we attended a solstice
party at Julie and Lydia’s. We had
Friday’s Christmas dinner at our house with Julie and Lydia, MF and Craig. On Sunday, Mary and Christine came over for
lasagna. On Monday, the 28th, we had
coffee in the morning with the Bluedorns. We were glad to see and talk with their
son John about his job with Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund (the first woman to hold that position). Ellen and MF stopped by that afternoon. MF was joining Ellen this year on her trip to
India, and they were leaving in three days.
Tuesday evening Larry and Carl came over for stroganoff and noodles to
celebrate Larry’s birthday. Diane and I
spent New Year’s Eve by ourselves, going to bed at our usual time, but waking
up to the neighbor’s midnight fireworks.
We were ready for the New Year of 2016.