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View Full Version : Free Bananas on Playa Platanares with Pictures!


Simply Bananas
01-04-2009, 02:32 PM
In mid November, my wife and I traveled to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.
We had some time to kill before the room at the Palms Motel was ready.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/Palms.jpg

The Chef, Paulo, told us to go and see the Crocodiles, but we got lost and ended up in the Preciosa Platanares Reserve on Playa Platanares, not far from Puerto Jimenez.

We headed down the deserted beach on the Golfo Dulce and I stumbled upon this:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0494.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0495.jpg

It was a Banana plant that had washed up on the shore and had what looked like a healthy pup. It had likely been there a month or so. What was left of the mother plant was horizontal on the sand and the pup was growing strait up towards the sun. What do you think I did as a learned participant of Bananas.org?

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0498.jpg

I cut that sucker off and looked for a place to plant it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0499.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0500.jpg

I found an old coconut shell and scooped out a hole in a sunny place well above the high tide line.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0503.jpg

The soil didn't look great, but there is plenty of rain there. I suspect this young fella will do just fine in his new home.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0508.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0509.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y274/porkpi/IMG_0507.jpg

This just goes to show you that you never know what will wash up on Plantain Beach!

Bob
01-04-2009, 02:42 PM
Looks like you had a great time. What's with everyone here finding plantains washed up on the shore?..Nice to see you did your good deed and planted the little guy!

damaclese
01-04-2009, 02:58 PM
what a unique and charming adventure you had thank you for sharing it with us

Taylor
01-04-2009, 03:01 PM
What a find! One more saved from death. :)

Will anyone here be able to check up on it? Any members in that part of Costa Rica?

jack hagenaars
01-04-2009, 03:01 PM
:ha:Survivor man!...My hero....good for you ,what fun..now you have a perfect excuse to go back to CR and monitor your banana's progress.

Tog Tan
01-04-2009, 03:10 PM
Hey James, good job man! That's the way to go. Now I am sure you have something to look forward to the next time you go back for your hols.:ha:

MediaHound
01-04-2009, 07:25 PM
Nice find, congrats!!!!
I like how you planted it. I probably would have smuggled it home with me. I have been known to do that with banana plants, lol.

By the way, you aren't the first of our members to find banana plants washed up on the beach!
Check out Cassie's thread, she found one in the Dominican Republic:
http://www.bananas.org/f2/guess-what-i-found-1555.html
Daen found a few tonnes of banana fruits washed up there in the Netherlands:
http://www.bananas.org/f2/banana-coast-3848.html
Too bad he used photobucket and the pics are now gone. I made his avatar for him out of one of the pics before they were deleted, so at least you can still see one of them.

Chironex
01-04-2009, 07:27 PM
What a great story, most people would have walked right past it. It was touching to see what you did! Thanks!