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We have 20 or so banana plants on our property. Nothing commerical. Just for our own enjoyment and to cook with in the house or make icecream with, like all our mango, guanabana, avacado etc etc. When they are almost ripe enough the weight of the hand usually breaks over and so you hack off the raceme/hand and hang it somewhere out of the rain, with an old shirt wrapped around them if you want to keep the birds and bugs off them. Eat them as they mature or give them away, its a 20 minute job. I just cut down some half an hour ago, there are approx 120 bananas on the raceme and they are hanging in my garage. What we don’t eat or give away we will toss to the cows and horses (yes, my horses LOVE bananas but don’t eat carrots or apples. Tico horses!)
Sometimes we cut a hand off the raceme and hang it out for the birds which makes it easy to bird watch! Then as Costaricafinca says, that stem dies away and one of the root clones will start the cycle over. I would guess your squirrels probably planted them for their own enjoyment, but they are never going to be much work and certainly unless you had upwards of 50 plants and were attempting to sell commerically you couldn’t justify hiring another squirrel.Our electricity bill is less than $50 per month so we have decided not to install solar panels as the energy used in making the panels and the financial outlay will outweigh energy and cash savings. Instead we plant 100’s to 1000’s of trees a year on our farm to get our “nice warm feeling” and invest in working with our local schools on environmental projects and education.
I went in November last year with my boyfriend on a bus excursion with “martha’s golfito trips”. Found the number in a local newspaper listing. It cost 18,000 colones / person, left SJO on friday night 10pm and arrive golfito saturday morning. Saturday had all day in the deposito and saturday night the bus left for the panama boarder where people continued shopping. Sat overnight at the boarder (accommodation included but basic cheap shared rooms with random strangers), sunday past golfito deposito to pick up all the purchases and send big stuff by transport (3% cost) to central valley store sheds, and returned to SJO late sunday night. We did not wish to go to the boarder so we negoitated with Martha to stay in Golfito, as we bought other peoples unused allowances in the final hour before they had to check out and lose it, and bought more stuff. What can I say. It was a long trip, but we paid Colones 205,000 each for a top of the range whirlpool dryer and same prices for the latest model whirlpool washing machine. With all the other stuff we also bought and kept or sold on, we saved over $600 on purchases based on price comparisons in Heredia, and acquired almost twice our actual allowance of stuff (allowance is $500/person each 6 months). You have to balance out what your time is worth, if you would enjoy the experience (many would hate a 24 hr white good shopping endurance trip) and are going to buy more than one large household appliance, AND do your homework before going by contacting shops in the deposito before to check availability on models and prices then it maybe worth it for you. If $600 is a drop in the ocean of cash you have, then don’t bother. Its definately not 5 star travel. We were going to drive, but in Novmeber the cost of gas was much higher for our vehicle than the transport costs to Heredia and the trip costs with Martha. I didn’t want to drive that far either and then try to shop for 24 hrs.
You need to pay an extra 5,000 colones at the rip off doctors to have your blood type checked as it is now law that you type goes on all new licences. no other changes.
Thank you all for your great input. Chromebuilder, we suspected layers of felt paper and vapor barriers would be the answer, but I had no idea if they were available here in CR, and now we can go and evaluate the cost of those options – you comments were super helpful. Sprite, I think you misunderstood, we ARE going to build a concrete block house, just exploring options for floors. We are neither committed to one or the other, we just have two huge trunks of hardwood in an old bridge on our farm that we wish to dismantle (MINAE have given us permits and all that), so we were wondering if that would be our floor or if putting in wood floor would be too much hassle and we should the wood for doors and trim (as you suggest funnily enough), or make some cool sculptures out of it and have lots of fun.
While deforestastion is a huge issue throughout the tropics, Costa Rica actually has stringent laws that protect (mostly! *** see below)its forest resources and a very active support program run by incompedent Fundacor that pays envrionmental services for maintaining forest, and pays per tree to reforest agricultural land. We are a part of both these programs. ICE also has local nursery set ups that give conservation groups free trees (we just picked up 1200 little babies as their nursery at Carriblanco go hit by the earthquake and they are busy rescuing seedlings). Current data (remote sensing images) show lots of cutting prior to 1975, some up to 1986, but very little to date – I don’t have the paper to hand but it is less than 5% since 2000. In the latest FAO state of the forests report Costa Rica has the lowest level of deforestation in central america and the highest level of increasing secondary forest cover. Ask any kid 12 should we look after our forests they will say yes first for tourism and secondly for the ecosystem. Or ask about recycling and they will tell you that you need to split and sort your trash but no rural community has recycling pick up. I live in Sarapaqui, we are setting up a non profit (but may give up thanks to all the red tape), and I have a huge reforestation experiment going in this year (I’m a biolgist). This is a great region to get involved with environmental education – there are many active groups nearby us that we already are or hope to collaborate with in the future. For example, Organization of Tropical studies (OET in Costa Rica) has full time community education workers that use National Science Foundation funds to bring local school kids to the La Selva Biolgical station for educational tours. The do lots of workshops that focus on adult education also – which is hugely lacking here. Another cool group is the Sarapaqui Learning Center based at Selva Verde – I think its US funded and runs lots of envrionmental and english classes. It uses volunteers from the US to teach for free. There is also Tirimbina rainforest reserve, these last 2 have reforestation projects running or getting going. If you ask me where the money should go, last week I would have said give it to the earthquake victims to rebuild, but now I know Costa Rica has raised over 150 milllion colones already! So, today, I say, contact any of these 3 organizations, talk to them about their role in the regions San Juan Ecological Cooridoor that runs from La Selva to Nicaragua and their hopes for reforestation projects across this agricultural landscape that is key habitat for the Lapa Verde (great green macaw). There is a group of San Juan corridoor charities (50 plus I think now) that are all working collaboratively for the Lapa Verde and other forest animals. It seems to me your money could go a long way if you collaborate with the experts, and you can decide as you go along if your focus should be education, reforestation, science, volunteer programs or pretty much anything you can think of. Good luck.
***(see the current battles in the sala IV (aka Costa Rican equivalent of the supreme court) over development in Braulio Carillo national park (all prevented now), development in buffer zones around Tamarindo (500 m buffer zone just authorized last friday, no extensions or new permits to build, all current structures/businesses have to do huge eco evaluations), las cruitas gold mine (currently going to the sala IV for cutting almendro without MINAE permits for their new gold mine).
Scott, helicopters charging victims for extraction: I saw this reported in premire impact on saturday or sunday night (can’t remember which), where stranded tourists were giving over wads of cash and one guy was signing a credit card receipt from one of those machines that makes an impression of your card. I personally didn’t hear any names of operators. From what I understand from the head of our nearby red cross is that private helicopters were asked to help under the agreement that CNE (national emergency service) would cover their costs including fuel and labor. But this maybe inaccurate.
Costaricafinca, I apologise for being snide in my comments, I intended to make it clear to readers not currently in Costa Rica that this wasn’t a little tremor but something huge for our region. I am sorry for that.Did anyone see the outrageous reporting on Teletica7 this morning (7am news) where the La Paz waterfall garden owner took a filmcrew in (I assume by private helicopter the site is only accessible by hiking up 5 hrs. He was filmed pointing out all the standing buildings and trying to hug a captive monkey that was having none of the “presenidents kissing babies before election day” crap. And announcing that they would be bulldozing damaged buildings and rebuilding and would be opening again in march, april, august, september – whenever it was possible. Not showing a single shot of reported landslides, the absence of the waterfall walks or the missing gift shop and bus at the end of the waterfall walk. It has been reported that they have 1.2million tourists a year which would mean 350 – 500 people including staff were at the attraction last thursday given its high season. Anybody know how many were airlifted out? 275 staff and tourists hiked out the day after, reporting terrible sights. Perhaps I am being cinical, but it smelt to me like damage control advertising. Guess he is a smart guy. I wonder however how he could ever be permitted to build there again given the damage seen on the helicopter footage and the inherent instablity of the steep slope to the river.
Scott, hope I didn’t say anything akin to liable- I want to make it clear I have no personal vendetta with this business, I have taken loads of friends and family there over the past few years. I just know the area very well and fear for the worse.
It occurred to me that everyone living in Costa rica should have an emergency response plan. Regardless of snake bites, what happens when you break your leg, or have a heart attack. Be a good boy/girl scout and be prepared.
We live below San Miguel and felt the quake and many of the aftershocks (and are still feeling them). There is 4wd access past our farm into Cariblanco and heavy equipment, quad bikes and 4 x 4 ambulances have been using it since the quake. Although the area at the epicenter is largely rural fruit and veg productions along the Vara Blanca road (the old highway to Sarapaqui that was used before the building of the Zurchi pista to Limon) there are some very large tourist attractions, in particular the $200 / night Peace Lodge and the La Paz waterfall gardens. As of tonight, it is believed that all surviving turists and locals are out of the area, indeed Cariblanco was evacuated amid fears of further landslides. The only access to La Paz has been through helicopter rescue – many foreigners were charged $500 by privateer helicopters to be evacuated which was pretty disgusting – but the current death toll (18, with 64 missing) is only the start. 275 people (turists and employees) hiked out of La Paz for 5 hrs on Friday morning, many giving first hand reports of watching landslides wipe out the resturant where people were having lunch, and indeed some watched their family memebers being buried alive. Other reports include 29 turists looking at the lowest waterfall along the road side and not being accounted for. Their bus fell 50 m in a landslide and amazingly the driver survived. There is always 4 or 5 stands at the waterfall selling fruit and trinkets and all these people perished too along with several truck drivers about to cross the bridge heading north. Of the 64 missing currently reported to the red cross only 4 are foreigners (all from the UK) and no other turists are as yet considered missing. OIJ gained access to the La Paz car park today by helicopter and have started the process of recording all car number plates and tracing owners and rental agencies in order to account for missing people. There will be additional fatallities that may never be located along the road as many cars were simply washed away down the hillside and may be under literally thousands of tonnes of soil. The rio sarapaqui ran like molasses for 24 hrs full of mud and tree debris and there are dead fish everywhere. The 2 major businesses in the area, La Paz and the El Angel jelly/jam factory are close to totally destroyed, and over 3000 people are without habitable homes. The 3 yr old dam and hydro electric plant at Cariblanco was damaged – the dam has been checked and is in good shape, but the turbine hall was flooded by a tidal wave of mud and debris, and many of the ICE supertowers are down throught the region. We have intermitent power, many thousands of people have none, and no water. We are considering ourselves very lucky as I drove that road on wednesday and was due to drive it less than an hour after the quake hit. All our family, friends, animals are all in excellent shape. 6.2 may not seem much in guanacaste, but if you are right on the epicenter it can destroy everything. This is a huge human and ecological disaster and I truely hope all of the members of this website get their credit cards out and make a sizeable donation to the red cross (Cruz rojo Costaricences) online. One day, if you live in Costa rica, it could be your area that is smushed into oblivion and you will be grateful for all that the emergency services do for you then. Pay it forward as the american saying goes.
Edited on Jan 10, 2009 19:57
Thanks for the response, they were drawn by a tico architect but she lives in the US. her consulting engineer is too busy in guanacaste to review them and we want to make a few changes to them that seem to move the structure from simple into complicated. I know there is a college of afflicated engineers and architects but I don’t have much faith in them having seen some really badly engineered designs in my area – you know the type that follow what the client wants without pointing out that it won’t work for an engineer. 🙂
You should spend some time talking with your local red cross clinic and seek their advice. Many more people have complications as a result of being given antivenom than from the actual snake bite as more than half the cases of snake bite in costa rica are actually dry bites – where no venom is injected (this is data from a friend who works for the unit that produces the antivenom in CR). The main reaction is a severe allergic reaction to the types of antivenom available/produced in Costa Rica because in CR they use horses to produce antivenom. In the US they use monkeys which results in less anaphalatic allergic reactions to the antivenom. Coral snakes need a different type of anti-venom than the pit vipers so its critical to know your snakes and which one bit you/your friend. Size of snake that bites you is also important as the smaller the snake the less deep the injected venom goes. Rattlesnake boots are a wize and usefull (but expensive) purchase from the US that have a mesh design that is supposed to stop a strike. Excellent flashlights such as a 4D maglite for each one of your friends and never ever walk at night in flip flops or with a crap flashlite like a LED one. Only use LED lights to read in bed as they do not project light far enough in darkness to use in the countryside or forest. I say these things from experience. I am a plant biologist and work in remote parts of national parks across CR for weeks at a time. I have never carried anti-venom as I am hyper allergic to lots of medications and my tico assistants would rather be injected by a red cross doctor than me. But I do have the local red cross clinic on my cell phone and am very well informed of the best practices to treat a snake bite victim should it happen (and its not happened yet). Quality information is your best defense.
Thanks gepaq for the advice. I also heard from another board that there is a factory in Pavas called Cosey that manufacture safes here in CR. You are spot on, buy it new from a reputable dealer. 🙂
AlexI have several friends teaching english in heredia. They get paid 4 days of work to leave and go to panama for the required 72 hr absence each 90 days. Cheaper, easier, less like banging your head against a wall, and fun to know you have a paid mini-vaccation each 3 months.
Hi, maybe too late to be helpful, but I got my car and truck licence 2 months ago and the office is nolonger in San Jose but in La Uruca. Its on the main road from San Jose to Heredia, papaya colored, opposite the Mercades benz dealership. It cost 10,000 for a 5 minute medical inspection (total ripoff) and lots of guys hang around the entrance gate to “help you” 200 yards up the road to a dubious doctors office. Took 15 mins. Then, with the med cert, your home country licence in hand you have to walk all the way to the far end of the complex where they process the new licences. If you are getting a licence for the first time you need to go upstairs to see the “fat lady”. Depending on what you want you ask her nicely and she will grant it or not. A car licence is easy. My B2 truck licence was a fairly long conversation (half hour) as its not a standard thing and I’m female. As she pointed out several times – apparently girls don’t drive trucks in Costa Rica …often. She can ask you to go to your embassy to verify documents if she is in a foul mood. Be very nice! Then, when she has stamped your paper you go downstairs and line up on the right side to be entered into the computer. Then you need to pay for the licence (maybe $20, but can’t recall, sorry) and that means walking almost to the main road, and going into the bank on the left 10m before the main exit. Then you walk back through the complex to the licence building and line up on the right side again to see the guy you just saw to have entered in the computer that you paid. Then you line up on the left side for a digital photo. If you paid in advance of arriving you can skip the lines but I wasn’t sure what I was going to be asked to pay with the truck licence. Nothing extra as it turned out. Its fast. Especially if you go midweek and arrive at 8am. I was done by 10am with my new B2 licence in hand. Fabulous.
