COSTA RICA TRIP (Part Two)

CARLOS AND ALEXIS' TRIP TO COSTA RICA

From Quepos to Puerto Viejo

Part Two

June 26, 2007

On Tuesday morning we got up early to prepare for the trip down the southern Pacific coast, we took care of some last minute things in Quepos

- picked up our laundry, went to the ATM, and filled the car up with gas- and the we were on our way south to Dominical and Uvita. It was one of the roughest roads that I had seen yet in Costa Rica- over 35 km of unpaved road that was totally covered with huge potholes, many road sections looked like they had been totally carpet bombed in an air raid. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride with many different things to see, we drove slow took a few photos and enjoyed the beautiful day. 

There were many oil palm tree plantations here in this section of the central coast.  There were many workers coming out of the plantations with long sticks with a very sharp knife attached to to it, this tool is used to cut the palm seed pods from the trees. There were also many tractors pulling cartloads of palm nut pods and transporting them to the processing plants near the road. The processing plants continue to produce huge black plumes of smoke polluting the local environments. On the road from Jacó to Quepos to Dominical- the United Fruit Company introduced the African oil palm ( Elaeis oleifera) cultivation for export of palm oil products.  The palm oil production became a focus of the local export economy after the banana plantations had been affected by a plague that destroyed  most of the crop in the region. Bananas continue to be dominant crop in the area even though United Fruit Co. has been gone

 for quite some time, there are extensive plots of land on both coasts cultivated with bananas for export. The interesting thing in all exporting countries is that the worst quaility of crops remains in the country for local consumption while the best quality crops are sent abroad to Europe and the United States.

Elaeis oleifera known as coquito, corojo, or palmiche is the source of the various forms of palm oil used for food and ritual ceremonies in the Caribbean.

The road continued thru many isolated beaches and interesting places in the rainforest such as Matapalo. We were quite relieved when we reached a nicely paved wide road at Dominical and the car felt like it was flying after about 1.5 hours of driving on the rough terrain. We stopped a a fantastic fruit stand that had an extensive variety of delicious tropical fruits such as mamones chinos, granadillas, pejibaye, mangos, pineapples, jocotes, papayas, and fried banana and yuca chips!!! 

Passiflora ligularis- Sweet Granadillas. Passion Fruit, totally sensual and delicious taste of the tropics. There are many varieties of passion fruits in Central American tropics. The sweet fruit is eaten raw and it's sweet and refreshing. Some varieties are made in juices and drinks taken cold to relieve heat and exhaustion. In medicinal use various parts of the vine are used as a sedative.

Spondias purpurea- the sweet taste of tropical heaven. Jocotes are eaten when ripen and are sweet and have a thick and tasty juice. They are prepared in syrup or candied in many parts of Central America. The leaves of the tree can be eating with salt and lemon. They are called ciruelas in Mexico.

Mamones Chinos are Nephelium lappaceum- an introduction from Asia, sweet and delicious inside.

 

After our stop we drove another 30 km to Uvita, but the road was 

smooth and wide and we were able to make it there in no time. Uvita is in reality a hamlet, just a hand ful of houses, rental cabins and a few restaurants by the beach, the set of homes is 2 km away at the side of the road. At Uvita we ended up getting a very small but clean room at local Inn. 

After we settled down, we walked about 500 meters to the beach, It was overcast and the clouds soared above and around the 

rainforest covered mountains around Uvita. 

The waves had receded a long way into the beach and later the tide began to change. We were here 2 days and we only saw a handful of people at the beach and during our second day we spent hours alone 

at the beach, there were nice waves and the ocean was peaceful. Our time here was mostly overcast and it rained heavily at night and in the morning but even after the rain we were able to fully enjoy the hammocks at the Inn. The second day we went to Dominical for lunch and spent a few hours there.