By Esther Daranciang, Westminster College
We hiked into the Parajeles property from the main road with the help of one of the sons, Javier, and two horses to carry our food. As we hiked down through the secondary forest between the road and the property, we emerged into a potrero (pasture) that backed up to the Sierpe wetland, where the family home was located. We were greeted by the moos, snorting, barking and clucks of their homestead. We were excitedly greeted by their small herd of bread-loaf sized dogs, which we referred to as loaves for the rest of our time. We also met Don Alcides Parajeles and his wife Doña Isabela, who both so kindly offered us rooms in their home to stay during our visit. We spent the rest of the afternoon settling into our new home. In the evening Don Alcides started the daily ritual of recounting stories of conservation conflicts in which he was involved in the community. Each story was accompanied with laminated photos and documents.
A view of the portrero from the hike in. Photo by Esther Daranciang.
As all of our host families before, the Parajeles were intrigued by our different food choices. While we do eat rice and beans regularly, unlike good ticos, we did not eat them with every meal. The Parajeles were good ticos and ate gallo pinto every morning for breakfast and Doña Isabela generously made extra to share with us. We gladly accepted her offer to get a break from our oatmeal breakfasts. She also made us rice and beans for lunch, which were ready for us every day after returning from our morning bird surveys. We shared our foreign dinners with her every night which she reportedly enjoyed.
Carolina May and our favorite compost machines. Photo by Chris Smith.
Our first morning on the property Alcides showed us around. He took us to his orchard of bananas and African oil palms that he keeps almost exclusively for wildlife to feed on. He also keeps a wallow wet for peccaries even during the dry season by hauling water to it from a nearby stream with a bucket. In his stories, it is obvious he has a real love for the local flora and fauna. He also showed us where a few years ago, a research group had set a baited trap for jaguars. They were able to catch photos of jaguar walking past the trap regularly, but it was too smart to fall for the trap. During our nightly lecture later he showed us the videos of puma that another research group, Yaguara, had caught on his property.
Don Alcides Parajeles posing after chopping down a bunch of bananas for the peccaries. Photo by Eli Brunner.
Granular poison frog we spotted on a river transect. Photo by Chris Smith.
We spent every morning that we were on the property hiking around the ridgelines and streams documenting the biodiversity of the property. We suspected that this was the hottest place we had been and this was confirmed by the fact that our butter was constantly liquid. We soon became plagued with itchy chigger bites from the grassy pasture and looked forward to our days back at our favorite research station. After 5 days at the last finca we hiked out to the main road and headed back to Osa Conservation’s Piro Research Station for finals.
Final farewell photo in front of the ancient Ceiba (Ceiba pentantra) tree 100 meters from the family home. Photo by Chris Smith.