Wild Barley

The long, narrow boat skims over the brown murky water of the river, sending white water rolling from its hull, creating a loud rushing sound. The boat has a solid roof and plastic sides that are rolled up, straps flapping in the wind. On both sides of the boat the wide brown water stretches away, meeting a wall of green where rainforest meets river. Up close it is a tangle of the greens of a huge variety of plants, trees, bushes, vines. A textured living wall, impenetrable from this view. Above, taller trees break through the green ceiling, trunks and branches reaching through the canopy into the sky, capped with hats of vibrant green leaves.

Eventually the boat slows, pulling alongside a wooden dock protruding from the green wall. Nestled in among the trees of this rainforest is a lodge. A collection of buildings swallowed by trees. A clearing reveals a shimmering swimming pool in the shape of a turtle, it’s head a bubbling spa where leaves swirl, a never ending job to clear. Tall trees surround the pool and the large building of the restaurant behind it. The exotic calls of birds ring out and there is a continual low thrumming hum in the background replacing the rush of the boat on the water. The hum swells to a crescendo before falling away into the background again. Cicadas. The sound of them brings to mind that crazy frog song that was so popular so many years ago. If you know it, you know it.

Walking around the lodge, huge fronds of green leaves bend over the paths that connect the pool and restaurant to the log cabins. Beyond, the green deepens as rainforest closes in. The foreground alongside the paths is dotted with beautiful flowers, the reds, yellows and vibrant pinks of Heliconia. Some are shaped in a tight ball of waxy deep pink petals, others hang with flowers shaped like the claws of crustaceans giving them the name Lobster Claw Heliconia. Yet more are like delicate flames of yellow and red tendrils. The colours are vivid against the green canvas of the trees. Above the trees the sky is filled with light grey clouds and where the sun breaks through it lightens the greens, glistening in water droplets from the last downpour. Flocks of noisy parrots and parakeets fly overhead, vultures circle and soar on broad fingered wings, a multitude of different bird song choruses with the cicadas and other unseen insects.

Between the flowers and trees, hummingbirds zip, a flash of iridescent, hovering with wings moving in fast forward, a blur of motion holding them stationary in mid air. A long tongue flicks in and out, tasting sweet nectar before zooming off once more. Following one leads to the most delicate and tiny nest hanging under a large frond curving over and above our heads.

Giant spider webs stretch between leaves, tree trunks and the upright posts of the buildings. Beautiful, intricate, huge webs, with an equally beautiful spider nestled in its midst. A long legged beauty with bands of yellow on the legs and bright yellow dots on the body. The webs are everywhere so that you instinctively duck when walking along the paths not wanting to get caught up in such a masterpiece and come even closer to its beautiful architect.

A rustle and flicker of movement among the crinkly brown leaves on the forest floor reveals the long, supple body of a snake, chequered black and yellow, its dark red tongue flickering in and out. Amongst the leaf litter are dark holes, disappearing into the soil where one constantly expects to see a giant spider emerging. But it is not tarantulas inhabiting these dens, but rather surprisingly land crabs. They sit near the edge of the burrow, still and silent, a pale blue body that scuttles away to disappear down into the darkness at the slightest movement nearby.

A tip tap on the cover of one pathway draws our attention upwards, thinking perhaps it has started raining again. But it is not rain drops pattering on the roof, but berries, twigs and leaves. The rustling of leaves and trembling of branches in the canopy above reveals the culprit. A Squirrel Monkey shimmies down a trunk to settle on the roof and promptly carries on delicately picking off dark purple berries and munching them with apparent delight.

Away from the lodge itself a trail winds through the forest, a wooden boardwalk meandering through trees and undergrowth. The path twists and turns past the huge roots of giant trees, the buttress alone taller than a person, a wall of wood supporting a giant tree that soars skywards, spiralling out in a beautiful canopy of branches and leaves. We stand and stare, necks craning backwards, awed by these sentinels of the forest. Liana’s, vines and epiphytes cling to the branches and trunks, draping them in scarves and trailing tendrils of green.

In the days that follow at this our first stop on our Costa Rican adventure, we wander this trail through this small patch of rainforest many times, day and night, with always something to see. During the day we are surrounded by the sound of cicadas and birds, we catch sight of a multitude of different species from beautiful woodpeckers to small manakins. Delicate butterflies of so many colours briefly alight on leaves before flittering away. Streams of leafcutter ants crisscross the pathway, marching up and over tree trunks, branches, posts, anything in their way.

At night the green is replaced by an impenetrable blackness, the thrum of cicadas by the piping of frogs. Our torch cuts through the darkness, briefly illuminating the trees and leaves in a bright white light. It reveals the leaf cutter ants still marching and carrying their harvest of leaves and petals, a miniature scorpion, a snuffling Nine-banded Armadillo, and my favourite of all a stunning Red-eyed Tree Frog. What a beautiful creature, vibrant bright green, strips of yellow and blue on its sides, brilliant orange toes and those stunning red eyes. The colours are designed to over stimulate and confuse a predators eyes, and is known as deimatic behaviour, allowing the frog to escape. It is an iconic amphibian of the rainforest.

Our Costa Rican adventure has begun, we have arrived in the northeast of the country and immersed ourselves in the rainforest of Tortuguero National Park.