The Wild Rhino Ride
by: Margie Davis

Instead of going to the beach with the rest of the country for Semana Santa (Holy Week), I left the Central Valley and headed for a tiny town called Atirro, about 20 minutes beyond Turrialba, which is on the way to the Caribbean coast.

I had met Ginnee online and she invited me out to where she and husband Phil bought 1,270 acres of land - rain forest, cloud forest, 20 waterfalls, primary forest, pasture and farmland with jaguars, ocelots, anteaters, monkeys and all types of birds, including quetzals and toucans.

Ginnee and Phil moved from Florida to Costa Rica to be land conservationists. They are growing construction-grade bamboo, a wood that meets earthquake code because it has a stronger tensile strength than steel.

They are also growing vetevier, a grass from India with roots nine feet deep, which prevent erosion and landslides and stabilize land by the river that receives about 300 inches of rain a year. Their long-term plan includes growing organic produce for themselves and their workers, and a plant nursery, which was Phil's profession before moving to Costa Rica.

This couple is very generous with their time and attention to the Tico family that is the live-in caretaker for their farm, Finca Quijote de Esperanza. While I was there, Ginnee, an excellent cook, barbecued seven or eight chickens and made a big bowl of scalloped potatoes and pumpkin bread (pan de ayote), which we took to the caretaker's house for a big meal. Ginnee's housekeeper, Carmen, and her family joined us. In all, about 15 of us enjoyed the feast.

The mode of transportation to get to the farm and back to their house, a distance of about six kilometers, is in a beast called the Rhino, which looks like a souped-up dune buggy. It's a Yamaha quad vehicle that goes up to 40 mph, gets 43 miles per gallon, has roll bars and a hydraulic-assist dump bed.

There is no covered roof or sides - you buckle yourself in with the seat belt and hope you don't fall out on the sharp ruts and sudden curves. Ginnee drives the Rhino like a fearless rodeo rider. On the way back to her house from the feast, we got soaked by a chilling rain, but we had more fun than on a wild ride at DisneyWorld, opening our mouths like kids to drink in the rain. Yahoo!
Back at their house, I changed into dry clothes that had been donated for the schoolchildren in their town. While Phil focuses on land development, Ginnee is involved in raising funds and supplies to help the poor children in the community.

I got to see more of this community at the Easter eve church service where a couple dozen folks gathered in the community church. I was surprised to see the service led by two young women, wearing a t-shirt and a tank top, no less! Where was the priest, I wondered. The town of Atirro is too small to have its own priest, I learned. The priest who visits this town once a month is also responsible for 13 other towns. The young women who led the service (in Spanish) is from a youth ministry in Cartago, a city about an hour away. One of them even gave the sacrament and delivered a sermon - without notes! I was impressed with the knowledge and confidence that these young people showed. The people at church were very friendly, and insisted that we stay after the service to eat the dinner they had prepared.

One of the main purposes of my trip was to learn some basic cooking instruction from Ginnee. This is the year I am going to learn to put together menus and cook recipes that call for more than three ingredients. So when we got back from church, we set up shop in the very spacious kitchen.

I had bought big, ripe eggplants from AutoMercado in the Central Valley because her little pulpería didn't carry such an exotic vegetable. Working together, we made eggplant parmesan that turned out delicious. Ginnee's philosophy on cooking is: Cook once, eat twice or thrice. We made enough for a second dinner that night and for eggplant omelettes the next morning. And there was enough for me to take back home with me.

Although the drive to Atirro took me only two hours and fifteen minutes through tiny towns and beautiful coffee plantations, I felt like I had vacationed in a different country. I saw a part of Costa Rica that many vacationers and residents don't see.

Dining with a Tico family in the campo (countryside) was a heart-warming experience that I won't soon forget. And witnessing the plans and effort that Ginnee and Phil are putting into their land and humanitarian projects, I saw how expats can make a big difference in this beautiful country.

Written by Margie Davis - Retirement Advisor for Women in Costa Rica. If you're a woman thinking about moving to Costa Rica, Margie can help pave your way, please contact Margie at: bravamd@yahoo.com

This morning about 7:15 we went to visit the neighbors. I was hoping that they were out of bed and dressed at that uncivilized hour. You do not want to visit me at that hour, I don’t even take phone calls before 9. We discovered that this is the perfect time to get invited to breakfast; who knew? Our plan was to stop at a soda for a breakfast bite when we were in Turrialba. I would have ordered 2 slices of fried semi-duro queso while Phil had the pinto with lots of eggs.

The food was fantastic and I am not a breakfast person. Then I spotted the cheese, I am a cheese eater and I have missed great, creamy, French cheese, and Brie. After my first bite, “Where did you get this cheese?” May I have more? They make it, in their refrigerator and it only takes a week or two. My first batch of Turrialba Brie, is now aging in my refrigerator. Who knew it would, or could, be so easy. If I can wait for two weeks, I will give you a bite by bite review of my cheese. This is a brilliant discovery, a defining moment in my food history. I love good cheese. My idea of breakfast is cheese or soup. I have taught Phil to fix his own raw oatmeal and flax seed mixture in the morning so that I do not have to do it for him on a daily basis. If I am on the go it’s definitely cheese for breakfast as I can grab it and run. Soup gets so messy when you are running with it.

Mario, Michele, Deborah, and their dogs, Isis and Roger went riding in the Rhino up a muddy mountain to look at property with us today. The views were stunning. The mud, slippery and thick in places but the Yamaha Rhino was not challenged at all. This vehicle is totally amazing. Overloaded (it only has two seats) we locked into 4 wheel drive and picked our way uphill being careful not to launch ourselves off the cliff. The dogs actually climbed on their own but we brought them home in the Rhino as they were caked in mud. They had a fantastic time and when they were thirsty they found a spring with lovely fresh water.

The Yamaha Rhino is truly a superior vehicle in every way. It has high clearance, great traction; fantastic gas mileage, high speeds, and can really handle a load. We looked at diesels, they have no ground clearance, are as slow as a turtle, and not cute. If Dark Angel were still in production this vehicle would be on that show. It is that cool.

My friend Margie is a writer and a writing teacher here in Costa Rica. Following her visit during Easter she wrote an article what was just published about her visit with us. You can read her article as it is posted above on my blog.

We really enjoy company like Margie; fun, witty, quick to laugh and a pleasure to have. We laugh a lot here actually; it is a requirement for sanity preservation. No matter who you are or where you live, you must find time for a few good laughs.

Phil just loves his horses. Why you ask, well, because they are his and they look so pretty in the various pastures. As our man Dog was putting them in a new pasture today the little filly saw Phil and came running over to him. He scratched her favorite spot under her chin lovingly and when she was finished she turned a bit and tried to kick him. He deflected her “playfulness” and her aloft hoof merely touched his hand. Silly filly, Dog came, captured her and she joined the others in their paradise, guava-land.

Of course our man Dog has another name, it is Parro (Dog in Spanish).

Costa Rican rainforest weather has returned to normal with beautiful sunny mornings and cool afternoon siesta rains.

I went to see my Columbian friend Maria this morning. Maria is a wonderful cook, mother, and the wife of Dr. Alberto Gomez. She is also a great gardener with beds of herbs, collard greens, carrots, and lettuce. Her backyard has happy chickens of all colors, even very large blackish chickens with white poka-dots. Very beautiful birds that live in a protected sanctuary with herbs, water gardens, perches, a hen house and life could not be much better for a chicken. Just ask the very large Long Island Red that I saw yesterday on a front lawn in La Suiza with a string tied to his leg and a cement block. Where is my machete when I need it? I would have freed that bird from his prison but he would have probably flipped out thinking I was about to behead him.

On Sunday afternoon we will take the Doctor and Maria to the Mission for Sunday afternoon service. This will be their first visit and I look forward to this outing. I always enjoy our joyful time at the Mission. The return trip home with the live obstacle course of people in black and cows all over the excessively winding mountain road that follows the rivers course is stressful and my screams of terror bring my Zen down a bit. Other than those small details it is often a highlight of my week. Much to our delight we have not fallen down the ravine again. That was one of our most embarrassing moments of driving history and right there in the top 5 of the most dangerous category.

EARTH University student Karen Albuja, has started writing her blog. It is written in Spanish http://agriculturasostenible-karen.blogspot.com/ but if you do not read Spanish you can translate it at google http://www.google.com/language_tools Just cut and paste Karen’s web address in the language tool and it will translate the web page for you. It is not perfect but you will be able to read and understand it. This is a story worthy of your time. Please click on the link and read about her life threatening adventure. Karen is a very sweet, compassionate, bright young lady who has a lot to say regarding the future and life in our troubled world.

Her classmate Sharon is a another special young woman who is from Uganda and is in her second year at EARTH University in Costa Rica. When we met and she told me where she was from, I must have been mentally processing Uganda for she then asked, do you remember Ide Amin? Whoa! Ide Amin was a nightmare. That is Sharon’s country. Her first post is the one I promised you about the day the students were trapped on the other side of the Rio Oro due to the flash flood of water coming down from the mountain. I hope that Sharon will dig deep into her past and tell us the story of her life in the near future. Documenting her journey to this time and place is important. They do not believe in educating girls in her country, Sharon has achieved much in her short lifespan and she has much to teach all of us about life and the struggle to be educated. One statement from Sharon that is still ringing in our head is that, “Failure is not an option for me.” Think about that for moment, …… failure, is not an option for Sharon!

Sharon speaks many languages, 6 or more, but when she started at Earth University in Costa Rica, she did not speak Spanish. My first impression was the same as Sharon’s, that all of the classes were taught in English. Wrong, they are all in Spanish. You must be bilingual and speak English but all classes are taught in Spanish. Talk about a handicap on Day 1, but failure is not an option for Karen. I love smart, liberated, still struggling woman. It is the struggle that makes us stronger, smarter, and capable of overcoming every obstacle.

Sharon has a scholarship to EARTH, because of the generosity of 2 different people who found it in their hearts to pay her way. She is the first person in her family to go to a University, and she is a woman, from Uganda; that is big. I expect we have much to learn from Uganda’s finest young woman, including, “Failure, is not an option for me.”

EARTH University students have been visiting our home and farm since Friday. Thirteen smart, exciting, very bright, joyful students have enriched our lives. They gave us demonstrations as to how they make EM and MM as well as evaluating our farm and making recommendations. Then they went hiking to the waterfalls.

I gave them cooking lessons and taught those that were interested how to make hamburger buns, ajote pan, sopa de ajote, Asian pancakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, Thai lentil coconut soup and pizza.

Yesterday they went hiking to different waterfalls on the other side of the Rio Oro. On their way back down the mountain, it started to rain and they discovered how much water comes off of the mountain and down the river as they were now trapped on the other side of the Rio Oro. Cold and shaking from the freezing torrential mountain downpour, they were approached by an old rail thin man wearing a black garbage bag cape. Felipe the caretaker, invited them into his home. His home is the hotel we have been trying to buy for about 3 years. It has no roof, just a few black plastic bags that do nothing to keep the place dry. The entire floor was a puddle of water.

Gunther, the previous property owner of our land who is also visiting with us, called me to tell me the students were stuck on the other side of the Oro. I was wondering how I would tell their teacher Panfilo that they would not return because they were stranded by a now wild river filled with debris, bolders and rocks. This flash flood occurs with every hard rain, but the students were not prepared to see a sweet stream become a raging torrent of furry. Hours went by while they were stranded and Gunther was rescuing them. He tied a rope onto his Galloper and pulled the students across the threatening river. When they arrived back at our home they were swaddled in blankets and bedding from our caretakers house. Their clothing was so muddy that we washed them in the sink before we washed them in the washing machine.

The students told us today that they feel they must come back to help the old man at the hotel who welcomed them to come in out of the cold and to stand in front of his fire. They feel so bad that any human should live in those conditions.

The caretaker, Felipe, was hired to guard the hotel by a man who does not own the hotel. This is a convoluted story of a very dysfunctional family. The truth of what happened may never be known but still to this day the undercurrents of dysfunction continue to bubble up as ugly and deceptive as the vortex that destroyed the relationships within this family. Greed, false surveys, lies, theft, liens, corruption, debauchery, hatred, death, it is all here in one not-so-neat, ugly package that continues to ooze. Felipe has been guarding the structure for about 18 months now, he is about to come into his second rainy season.

Our EARTH students are among the finest group of young, caring people that exist. We were talking at lunch today with Gunther and we think that it does not get any better than these young people, in this age group, and in this year of 2007. We have had many young people stay with us, we were host parents of 16 kids at a time in Florida, and I have my own children who are now adults. To have 13 students, of this caliber, and so well behaved, was a privilege.

I look forward to receiving the student’s stories as told by each of them and when I receive them, I will post them on the blog for your enjoyment. Their adventure is one they will never forget, and one that most of you will never experience. Rural off the grid Costa Rica can be every extreme, and so very beautiful as the mist falls over the fila drenching the forest while giving life back into the rivers.

Costa Rica has been in a drought for months. It is the dry season but we should still have rain every afternoon because we are in a Rainforest. The result is that many areas are now having their water turned off by the government for part of everyday. Because our electricity is fueled by hydroelectric power plants and because our rivers are dry we have had country wide power failures this week from one end to the other. At some point everyday, our power goes off for 3 to 4 hours. We never know when that will be until everything fails. I am waiting for the switch to drop at any moment yet today.

We have water from a spring at the house and our spring has plenty of water. We have plenty of water at the farm but it is way down from what it should be. The farm gets about 300 inches of rain a year. It is currently in a drought. My 3,500 vetevier starts are hurting; I hope they will come back. In 3 weeks, I am scheduled to receive 7,000 more starts. My Guadua Angustifolia Bamboo has rooted in and is rocketing upward.

Our little house is looking good, the interior stucco is on and it did come colored in the sacks. The earthy color finished clay floor tile is down but not yet grouted. The kitchen is going in, compact and efficient. It is a cute little house; it is tiny, almost a doll house. I have been in Habitat for Humanity houses in the US and they are bigger. But what does a family really need? Shelter, a place to sleep, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, all very efficient and functional; I think it will meet their needs and be easy to care for.

Yesterday I saw a red Toucan outside my bedroom window. He had red feathers around his neck with what appeared to be a black body, but no, it was a red body under the black wings; very surprising and beautiful.

I had a witness here with me. My friend Blanca was here teaching me how to break into my account at our Costa Rican bank. It only took several hours and many phone calls to the bank until we had success. It was wonderful to have a bird interruption of the fascinating kind. She had never seen a roho (red) toucan before and neither have I. It is a good thing to have trees and plants all around your home because it invites the birds and animals.

I smoked bacon this week that I have been curing. Guava smoked, apple cured, no nitrate bacon. I know what we are having for breakfast tomorrow.

Earth Day, I think I will celebrate by enjoying and observing our piece of earth. It would please me if it rained hard all day long as Costa Rica’s earth and animals would love a cool refreshing drink.

We have many different kinds of beautiful birds at our Rainforest. This one has a lime green beak with lipstick red on the end. His beak is so big it is a wonder he can hold his head up.

This past week was Easter, known as Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Costa Rica. There are cultural ceremonies that continue on through the week at the local church. On Saturday evening, my friends and I went to a candle lighting ceremony that included a small fire outside the church.

The Priest or Padre as he is called has 13 churches to serve and is not able to be everywhere at one time. This year, two young women from Cartago held a full Mass on Saturday night including Communion. The church was beautifully decorated by our neighbor Maria and her friends. They picked tropical flowers, made bouquets, and had the church spic and span for the occasion. We have been in a drought and the unpaved road’s dust falls on the pews daily.

I was unprepared for the leadership of such young women in our very macho society. They could not have been much more than 20 years old wearing hip hugger jeans that are the uniform of all young girls here. I wondered if the one in the brown t-shirt with the silk screened cross on the front was a Nun, but she was not. She presided over a full mass with maturity, ease and skill far beyond her years. She delivered a sermon appropriate for the moment with no notes. She gave thanks to Jesus and to her Mother and Father. I am not a Spanish speaker so I missed a lot of the words, but the body language and her presentation was impressive. Her use of the floor, making eye contact with the believers, and her sincerity allowed her the command of her audience. I wanted to stand up in the end and say Bravo young women!!! Magnificent job!!!

Who needs Priests when you have young woman that are so capable and alive with energy, spirit and soul. Okay, so perhaps the Priest can think of a few reasons. I left the Catholic Church because of Priests and other reasons that are probably not appropriate for this moment.

The girls are part of a youth outreach mission from Cartago. What a brilliant idea, and a breath of fresh air for the church, for the parishioners and the community. Bravo young women!!!

Maria always makes everything special and at the end of the service, a special social dinner was served along with freshly prepared Mango juice. Living and participating in a community that is so small has its own blessings. People walk to the church easily as our town is only 1 block long with not many houses. Everyone knows each other and they welcome newcomers with eagerness and friendship. Everyone speaks to you and is accepting as if they have known you forever. It is the best way to meet your neighbors and I think that it means something to them that you took the time to come and participate in their celebration at their church.

So, you’re not Catholic? I think it does not matter much. This is a Catholic country, your neighbors are most likely Catholic, and I appreciate my wonderful neighbors. I also attend the Mission in Tuis (Voz Que Clama Mission), they accept all people and I have not heard them talk about denominations. Two young men, Hector and Daniel, serving their community’s needs above and beyond what most people are capable of. I applaud and support their work. http://www.vqcmission.com/work.html

If you would like to help the poor rural children and indigenous please contact me at ginnee@gmail.com . We always have a need for school supplies, art supplies, good used practical clothing, sweat shirts, pencils, and crayons. We can arrange for a drop off point near the airport or for a pick up. If we do not help, it will not happen for these children as their homes are remote and isolated on their high cold mountainous reservation.

Our caretaker’s new home is coming along. Building a prefab concrete and steel home is a unique learning experience. Last week we picked out the color for the interior and exterior walls. Our choices came from a palate of 5 colors, not a lot of choice. It is my understanding the color will be impregnated in the stucco. I’ll let you know how that turns out, or if I understood correctly.

Then we had almost as many tile choices but only two actual tiles to look at. These are my choices? No, no, we have more, look at the computer monitor, you can choose from these tiles. You’re kidding right? I know the color on the monitor is never the actual color, come on, I know how color works. “Simular”, the architect tells me in Spanish as she displays little 2 inch icons of tile on her screen. Right!

This is all very amusing. She understands English; I know this to be true, because she replies to my questions or statements, in Spanish.

At this point, I just don’t care. The interior and exterior are now a color I would not have chosen, put a solid earth tone color tile in there and make the grout the same color. We are done.

Well not quite, today the architect returns with two more tiles. One that looks like it must be a reject from a bad batch and another with some texture. I wonder if either of them were on the computer monitor, how would I know? Who could tell?

Phil has kept his eye on the project, recognized potential problems and pointed them out, the architect and or contractor said “good thought”, and then they went ahead and did it their way. Now for example, they had to move all of their supplies (concrete panels) so the gravel truck could get in with the foundation fill. Had they taken Phil’s advice, they could have saved a half a day of hard labor.

Well at least the front door is facing the street. It is not uncommon to show up and find your house facing the wrong direction. When pointing this out to the builder you may hear,” I thought it looked better this way.” I personally loved this one, “I thought the pond looked better over here.” Both of these owners went ballistic. The pond was filled in and redug. The other owner is now looking at a different view, nice, but not the one he had in mind.

Building in Costa Rica is a different game. Don’t take your eye off of the ball, don’t even blink. Yes of course they heard you, but no one was listening.

This adorable curved beak hummingbird thumped against the door of our house yesterday and it took him a few minutes to recoup and regain his composure.

I was preparing to wash a load of laundry this weekend and as I was adding the soap, this hairy fellow came walking up to the top of the dry but dirty laundry. Ethan came and picked him out of danger.

It has been an eventful wildlife week. I walked into the laundry room and found the most beautiful snake. It was either a Coral or King snake. I think it is a Coral snake. I have seen it 4 times now and it was last seen retreating under the washing machine. I came into the kitchen at 1 AM that same night and caught a glimps of movement past the kitchen island and was releaved to see only a giant toad sitting on the floor. Living in the Rainforest is always an adventure.

My friends Julie, Ethan and I went on a quad expedition through previously unexplored territory above and beyond my home. We saw amazing reptiles that were druckening in the jungle. Ethan has a quick eye for spotting wildlife. I was too busy keeping us from plunging down ravines or launching us off a cliff while navigating narrow passages on steep slopes to spot much else. At one point, I actually ran into a tree branch due to the fact that I was so busy trying to inch across a precarious piece of dirt that was a bit narrower than the rhino. I was looking down and a branch above hit my roll bar bringing the Rhino to an abrupt halt. It was good that my speed was sloth-like at that moment or we could have fell several hundred feet down or more than likely have been impaled upon giant primary forest trees.

This attempt reminded me of an enduro race I did on a moto-cross bike whose handlebars were wider than the distance between the trees. You just can’t go there painlessly.

The Yamaha Rhino 450 has performed well above my expectations. It is fast, agile, surefooted, has great clearance, and it take me places I could not walk to at this point in my life. It is a little workhorse as well as a pleasurable smooth ride.

This is a hawk that likes our front lawn. He is often seen on the ground in the grass. Notice his feather covered legs. He is so beautiful. We can spot him from the living room and Regan took this photo from inside of our home.

Regan is gifting the school bag filled with school supplies and homemade bread to Airminnnia our Indigenous neighbor on our side of the footbridge. The school supplies were generous donations from the Primrose School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. More school supplies will be hiked up to the reservation by Hector and Daniel, who operate the Mission in Tuis (Voz Que Clama Mission), this week.

The river looks really tame at the moment, but you can see how high it will come to when the rainy season starts. We have been in a drought for some time now. This is the dry season, but we should still have rain. Our rainforest receives between 200 and 300 inches per year.

Last week Bernie and Nhi , who own the Pura Vida Hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica, were kind enough to deliver donations of school and art supplies to our home. These gifts were left at the hotel by visitors who have read my blog. You can learn more about their hotel on their web site http://www.puravidahotel.com/ . Guests rave about the accommodations, the gardens and Nhi's cooking. They are also just 15 minutes from the airport and they will arrange to pick you up or drop you off as you leave our beautiful country. I can not think of a better way to end your vacation, than with Berni and Nhi. They are lovely people with beautiful facilities.

We are very grateful to them for accepting donations at their convenient location. No, you do not have to stay there, but it is the best hotel around with the finest food, great innkeepers and they get rave reviews. Friends helping Friends to help the poor rural children and Indigenous. Your help makes it possible for us to help children stay in school. Many of the Indigenous never actually go to a school, their contact with education is from a teacher or from folks like Daniel and Hector at the Mission who hike for 5 or more hours up the mountain to the villages. We supply them with paper, pencils, crayons, art supplies, sweat shirts and practical clothing for the children. It is your generosity and caring that allows all of us together to help make a difference in the lives of others. We each have a role in bringing education to the children. Thank you very much.

Here is a map of where our farm and rainforest is located in Costa Rica. We are at the point of the arrow. The Indigenous Reservation is an 8 hour walk to the South of our land. There is nothing between them and us except rugged terrain and rivers to cross.

If you would like to donate good practical clothing, school and art supplies and will be coming to Costa Rica you can drop off your donations near the airport. Please contact me at ginnee@gmail.com for more info and directions. We have kind people located near the airport who will except donations and we will arrange for me to pick them up or if someone is coming my way they will deliver the donations to me. Friends helping friends to help others.

It is very convenient to pack your donations in an old duffel bag or suitcase that you may want to get rid of, or purchase an old bag at the Salvation Army. Many thrift stores will give them to you when you tell them what you are going to do with it. They are not big sellers.

I picked up an indigenous man last week towards dusk. He had walked down from the reservation and I pasted him as I drove 2 of my workers home. On my way back down I stopped and motioned for him to get in. It took me a few minutes to talk him into getting in my Rhino. He may have never been in a vehicle before, and no one here has ever seen a vehicle like mine. He put his hand out to shake hands, they don't know how. I took him down to a road on our farm that leads to a dilapidated footbridge that I would not slither across on my belly. I have a posted a photo below. Indigenous live on the other side of this sad bridge , it is their only way in and out.