Pioneers, Bugs, Butterflies and Bidding Farewell

Sadly, we've come to the end of our Costa Rican adventure, with just a few stops to finish the blog

A Quaker Pioneer

We spent one of our last evenings with Marvin Rockwell, the gentleman in the photo, who lives at the bottom of a narrow, rocky road that tested Enrique's driving skills.  Marvin related Monteverde's fascinating history just as he lived it.  At 99, he is the last of the original Quaker pioneers who traveled from Alabama to Costa Rica in 1951 in search of a peaceful place to live.  He must have told his story a hundred times over the years, but he joyfully related it to us as if it was fresh in his mind - and his mind was exceptional for an almost-centenarian!

When the United States instituted the Selective Service Act and a peacetime draft in 1948, Marvin and his fellow pacifist Quakers objected to registering. Several men, Marvin included, were jailed because they refused to register.  They spent three months in prison, and when released, they and their Quaker community decided to move out of the country to find a home in a peaceful land.

At about the same time, December 1, 1948, Costa Rica abolished their army after a violent civil war.  This fortuitous event inspired the Quakers to pack their belongings and make their way to the area now known as Monteverde.  The going was treacherous.  There were no roads, and the group encountered heavy rains, mudslides and many other obstacles.  It took as long as a month to travel 12 miles.  

Eventually the Quakers established a community, named it Monteverde, and built a cheese factory to make their living.  The Monteverde cheese factory still operates today.  Much of the land around Monteverde has been protected from development due to the Quaker stewardship.

99-year-old Marvin Rockwell and his wife, Flory

We enjoyed a delicious Costa Rican meal cooked by Marvin's granddaughter, and felt a sense of the community spirit created by the early pioneers.

Butterflies!

It seemed fitting on our last day that we observed beautiful butterflies of all colors flying to their homes at the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens.  Amy, a recent graduate of Colorado State University, guided us through the arthropod exhibit and then into the 3 butterfly enclosures that contained species from three elevations in Costa Rica. I have never met anyone so passionate about bugs!  She was an exceptional guide, and her enthusiasm prompted most of us to hold beetles, millipedes and stick insects in our outstretched hands.  She is an unpaid intern at the sanctuary, so if any readers have connections to entomologists, Amy would be an exceptional hire!

Stick insect, an ancestor of the praying mantis.  They reproduce by parthenogenesis -- without the need of a male partner.  Smart bugs!  

Giant cockroach (ugh).  An interesting fact:  You can freeze them and later thaw them in the microwave and they still live!

Iron clad beetle, named because its shell is so strong you can run over it with a car and it doesn't die.

Amy, our enthusiastic guide from Colorado.

Hercules beetle, named for its size and extraordinary strength.  The beetles have been known to push open the lid of their terrarium homes.

Our first butterfly garden.  Amy told us the names of all the butterflies, but too quickly for me to write down.   I thought I could look them up later, but that's proving to be difficult.  Maybe my butterfly-raising friends can help me out.  Suffice it to say, they were all very pretty.

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Owl butterfly caterpillar

Pupa

Owl butterfly - pretty cool camoflage!

Pelican Flower - one of the world's largest flowers.  It smells like rotting feet.  The flies say, "yum!"

Blue-frosted Banner (blue is on the back edge)

Tiger Longwing

Social Butterfly?

Back to San Jose for the Trip Home 

Alas, we left the butterflies behind and boarded the bus for the 2.5 hour drive back to the capital city of San Jose.  Along the way, Andres asked Enrique to stop the bus.  He jumped out and picked this "fruit" from a nearby tree.  Can you guess what it is?

It's a cashew nut.  The tree produces flowers; the flowers turn into the fleshy fruit; and then one cashew nut grows from the top.  The outer covering of the nut is toxic and must be removed.  It's no wonder cashews are so expensive!

We pulled over for a farewell look at the Montverde cloud forest and the view toward the Gulf of Nicoya and the Pacific Ocean. 

Then we boarded the bus for the last time before reaching San Jose.  

Home

The majority of us were booked on the 7:49 a.m. flight to Miami, which meant our ride to the airport arrived at 4:20 a.m. Yikes!  In Miami we parted ways.  I flew on to Philadelphia; my fellow travelers to other parts of the country.  

It was nice to be back on US soil.  It was a fabulous trip and I enjoyed every minute of it, but I missed my pups and was ready to come home.

I must say the 25 degree Fahrenheit temperature at home was a shock to the system.  It was 90 degrees when we left San Jose.

So I put on my souvenir Costa Rica shirt and started planning my next travel adventure!

Pura Vida, everyone!  Thanks for traveling with me!

Jane