Watching plants grow.

The jungle grows quickly, and the life and death cycle makes for a lot of debris on the jungle floor.  Leaf Cutter ants were abundant and you could see them carrying large pieces of leaves or flowers, some of which were removed directly from the tree and plants around us, taking them to wherever their home lay.  Where there is death, rot and decay, there is also life. An abundant amount of life. I saw more butterflies in Costa Rica than during my entire life to date, including a large blue butterfly that seemed to follow us throughout a nature walk;  chattering monkeys, one who, at first, looked as if he were smiling but, we learned, was demonstrating a sign of aggression; we noted the tourists he chased down the path, all  running at a very fast pace. The birds of prey and birds of a less aggressive nature came together in a large cloud of wings, catching the heat and circling, soaring so high that they were dots in the sky;  way too many dogs (many running in packs and clearly hungry) and bugs.  The big bugs, while scary looking, were not that difficult for me to deal with.  But it was the mosquitoes.  Deet saved the day, and the night, but there was an anxiety that I could not shake off during my entire trip of being bitten by a disease infected mosquito.  It so happened that we were in the one area of Costa Rica, the Limon region, that Dengue Fever caused a number deaths from the year before, as well as a record number of malaria infections in the same year.   
What caught me off guard was how loud the jungle is, all day and all night, reminding me of Manhattan, New York, which, like the jungle, never sleeps. This is one time I wish I had had my video camera just to tape the sound, just the sound, because the cacophony of the jungle has a musical quality that takes time to hear.

A funny thing happened on the way to Finmac.

Finmac is surrounded by banana fields; fields that are owned by a large well known corporation here in the US. Two problems with banana and pineapple fields, one is the deforestation of the jungle and the other is  heavy use of pesticides.  The banana fields surrounding Finmac are not organic and many different types of chemicals are used to prevent a myriad of issues that bananas are prone towards.  The bananas are covered, while on the tree, with large blue bags that are lined with a pesticide - this pesticide deteriorates quickly once the bag is removed - as well as crop dusting; this is done with special planes that spray the fields.  As we drove down a long narrow dirt road to our destination, a plane was dusting the banana fields with pesticide(s) while at the same time, many people and animals were working in the fields or walking along the road. The crop duster was releasing pesticide while flying directly over them which included the bus we were traveling in; you could see the droplets on the windows and sides of the bus.  We were shocked.  When we arrived at the Finmac, we were told that this was normal practice and, while the corporation verbally does not want them to do this, it is done and there is no reprisal from the corporation.

I wondered how a cacao farm that is certified organic can be surrounded by this indiscriminate dusting and still be certified.  Hugh, Finmac's owner, had a brilliant solution that took into account the beauty of the jungle; plant trees that will grow very tall, very quickly around his entire farm.  This forced the dust croppers to pull up very sharply when they reached the edge of Finmac's property.  This sharp pulling up of the dust cropper meant the pilot had to stop dusting and, combined with a buffer of land that allows for pesticide drift, the remaining cacao trees are not affected by this spraying. While this saves Finmac's organic certification, I wonder what the long term affects this has on people and animals.  I have been unable to eat a banana, and it has been nearly three months since my trip in Costa Rica. 

This shows the deforestation of the forest to plant pineapple plants. I am not convinced that this is necessary as the cacao and coffee farms are proving. 

The second day of our class...

began with a long drive to Finmac, a cacao farm owned by Hugo Hemelink.  He is dedicated to organic farming and the men and women who work for him seem to like and respect him very much.

If you look closely, near the middle of the picture above, you will see a sloth.  One man showed us his scars that were on his arms from the bites of these beautiful and slow creatures.While they are slow, they are quick to protect themselves if they feel endangered. 

At Finmac, we see an incredibly well managed farm, and the intense use of human labor.  Like most fruits and vegetables grown in this country,  it is often on the sturdy backs of men or mules that food, and here cacao, is carried.  In the picture below, this man is doing the pulling of this train of beans. Because Finmac is a certified organic farm, the use of mules and their byproduct is not worth the expense or spread of disease,  so it is men that harvest, clear and transport these beans to the building where the beans will be fermented, the next important process of creating chocolate flavor. 

More pictures from Catie.

These pictures were also taken at Catie.  Wilbert Phillips, who is head of Cacao Genetic Improvement, shows us the general process of identifying trees that are resistant to disease and still produce a bean with good flavor.   We learn different ways to graft the trees, how to plant from seed, the direct impact of soil on the plant and of good management of the trees, and if that isn't a lot of information to digest, we also get an  overview of the diseases that affect cacao around the world.  We are shown a true criollo tree, and the frames (top picture) that house the different types of cacao for research.
If you decide to visit Costa Rica it is worth the time and effort to tour Catie's Tropical Plants Tour.   Our tour guide, a lovely, vibrant young woman, was interesting and filled with loads of information of the many tropical plants.