Postcard from Costa Rica
You see movement on the ground beneath you, and when you look closer, there is a parade. Small ants carry bits of green leaves, several times the size of the ants themselves, above their heads. They are farmers, used to hard work. They carry their prizes down the trunks of trees, along vines and branches, […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
The wind was strong when I went kayaking in Lake Arenal’s warm waters beneath the Arenal Volcano. A large, dreamlike, lone tree with orange blossoms stood on the lakeshore. With my kayak nestled between the wind and a marshy island, I was surprised to hear the familiar call of the Red-winged Blackbird. I saw Great […]
Hideaways
A wall completely lined with books may be a dream of mine, but there is more to this house than its perfection as a writer’s hideaway. The Casa Kiké by Gianni Botsford Architects features locally-sourced timber for the wooden structure as well as locally-sourced corrugated steel sheeting for the roof and siding. The architects note […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
Here is the perfect place to rest after a day of travel. The surrounding trees are filled with butterflies and birdsong; the Heliconia flowers attract hummingbirds. From the hammock, it may be hard to concentrate on the book you brought, because the sunlight shining through the leaves shimmers and captures your attention. The forest around […]
Hideaways
Does an environmentally friendly resort make you think of pig waste? Probably not, but the Lapa Rios Eco Lodge uses pig poo bio-gas to power their kitchen. In addition to that, the resort, which was originally established as a nature reserve, uses energy from solar panels, recycles 80% of its kitchen waste (either composting food […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
There’s nothing I love more than a fiddlehead, perfectly curled with potential and about to unfurl into full-leafed beauty. Maybe I have a special place in my heart for ferns. They blanket the forest floor in my woods at home and my father used to dig one or two up and bring them home and […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
At the fruit stand, I was in heaven. I ate mango: sun-warmed, sweet, juicy, a piece of the sun and earth. With sticky fingers, I tried guayaba, tough, seemingly unripe, and filled with small, hard seeds. The caimito, a fruit I had never seen before, was three consecutive experiences. First: soft and sweet, tender; second: […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
I found several beautiful green feathers littered on the forest floor before I found the Emerald Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus) camouflaged amidst the green leaves of the canopy. Smaller than the colorful Keel-billed Toucans we saw flying over an open field, these birds still have impressive beaks, used to pick fruit and capture invertebrates such as […]
Hideaways
Tim and Robin O’Hara of Rancho Mastatal, an environmental learning and sustainable living center, used Robin’s design to build their home out of cob, wattle and daub, lime plasters, bamboo, locally milled wood, and recycled fence posts. A cob house is made from subsoil, water, and fibrous organic material such as straw. Sourced from local […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
There is an abundance of wildlife in Costa Rica, and while traveling with a naturalist guide, we were shown the best hiding places for elusive animals. Though I usually looked to the trees for birdlife—quetzals, toucans, toucanets, hummingbirds, motmots, and more—one look up led me to this Mexican hairy porcupine (Coendou mexicanus). A nocturnal, arboreal, […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
Walking through the rainforest at night leads to many surprises. I went on a night hike with a naturalist guide and his ten-year-old son, who easily caught tiny frogs before the rest of us recognized their whereabouts. We were searching for frogs, in fact, and I searched for small snakes in each bromeliad I passed, […]
Hideaways
With a variety of accommodations, Tree House Lodge has a focus on sustainability. The buildings are built with fallen trees, the furniture is handcarved with sustainable wood, and one of the bathrooms is built around a living 100-year old Sangrillo tree. Water is gravity-fed and heated by solar panels, cleaning materials and detergents are biodegradable, […]
Postcard from Costa Rica
On a search for the elusive Resplendent Quetzal, my group heard its distinctive cooing high in the canopy. We kept turning our heads, following the sound, until finally we saw the beautiful bird fly over a gap in the canopy, its long, elegant tail feathers trailing behind the rest of its body. It landed in […]
Hideaways
Within driving distance from Volcano Arenal, this tree house is surrounded by mineral-rich, natural hot springs. The tree house sits in 35 acres of surrounding rainforest filled with two-toed sloths, iguanas, capuchin and mantled howler monkeys, tree frogs, toucans, hummingbirds, and butterflies. An afternoon on the balcony observing the sights and sounds of the rainforest […]
“Mystery Stone”
Rima de Vallbona is also the author of “Mystery Stone.” On a tourist trip in Guanacaste, Berta spends the night at the home of her two cousins. When she arrives at their home, I entered into a magic world, in which a certain something lingered in the air; the enchantment was enhanced by the vases […]
Rima de Vallbona
Rima de Vallbona has written twelve books of short stories, novels, and essays. These include Mundo, demonio, y mujer, Polvo del camino, Noche en vela, and Cosecha de pescadores. Among her several literary awards is Costa Rica’s Premio Nacional Aquileo J. Echeverría. She is the author of “The Chumico Tree,” a story that shows the […]
José León Sánchez
José León Sánchez, in a plan to reclaim the Virgin’s riches for indigenous people, attempted robbery of the Basilica de los Angeles in Cartago. At age nineteen, when he entered prison for his crime, Sánchez was illiterate, but he went on to write fourteen books. Among these are Tenochtitlán, La isla de los hombres solos, […]
“The Carbonero”
Carlos Salazar Herrera has a second story published in Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. “The Carbonero,” originally published in De amor, celos, y muerte: tres cuentos is translated by James Hoggard, who also translated “The Bongo.” Hoggard is the author of eight books and seven produced plays, and his translations have been widely published. […]
Carlos Salazar Herrera
Carlos Salazar Herrera is the author of two stories in Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. He was an art professor at the Unversidad de Costa Rica; the author of many stories, poems, and plays; and the 1964 winner of Costa Rica’s Premio Nacional de Cultura Magón. Originally published as “El Bongo” in Cuentos de […]
Samuel Rovinski
Samuel Rovinski is an essayist, playwright, and fiction writer. He is the author of Ceremonia de casta, Las fisgonas de Paso Ancho, El martirio del Pastor, and La hora de los vencidos, for which he won the Premio Nacional Aquielo J. Echeverría. His story “The Adventure” is not about an adventure in the typical meaning […]
Uriel Quesada
For ten years, I haven’t been to the sea. I want to see it so badly that this morning I begged my mother until I made her break down in tears. I remember the sea, despite how long it’s been and how small I was then. I can almost make out its rhythmic motion, its […]
Julieta Pinto
Julieta Pinto is the author of many books, including Tierra de espejismos, La estación que sigue al verano, and Los marginados, the latter two of which received the Premio Nacional Aquileo J. Echeverría. Her translated work appears in When New Flowers Bloomed, alongside Carmen Naranjo. “The Blue Fish” is a story of a child’s fascination […]
Abel Pacheco
Abel Pacheco is the author of Paso de tropo, Una muchacha, and De la selva a la embajada. His story “Deeper Than Skin” was originally published as Más abajo de la piel, and an excerpt appears in Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. This excerpt includes twelve short vignettes about the characters, animals, and landscapes […]
“When New Flowers Bloomed”
Carmen Naranjo‘s stories both open and close Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. The final story in the collection, “When New Flowers Bloomed,” was originally published in When New Flowers Bloomed: Short Stories by Women Writers from Costa Rica and Panama (1991). With Naranjo’s beautiful nature imagery and powerful storytelling, it is not surprising that […]
