The Summer Visit to 8º North
 

We cooled off from heat wave in South Carolina and headed for Finca Ocho Verde in Costa Rica for seventeen 85ºf warm days and cool rainy nights. We had a lot of adventures and took many pics. I'll post the banana pics first.

An Ice Cream(helado in Spanish) and a Dwarf Namwah somehow were prepped in S.C. and ended up in Costa Rican soil on our very first day there!




The Ice Cream stalled and should be fine.

The Namwah never missed a beat putting out 2 leaves in 14 days. The cows got loose and they not only munched off the leaves, but completely uprooted the sucker and we found it 15 feet away in relatively good shape, so we replanted it.



We discovered that we were actually growing a Praying Hands banana which is not a very common type in CR. That said, my wife spotted another Praying Hands on the gravel road near the farm.

The back pasture has a banana patch as well. They are not really tended much except by the squirrel monkeys. These plants are 15-20 feet tall so that will give you an idea how tall the bamboo is behind the plants!



We think this is one of the Saba types. I cut it down. We made a video which I may put on youtube later. The bananas were covered with ants when I lifted them up.




I sectioned it up with my handy banana knife!


We made maduras(sweet bananas) from the ripe ones



and tostones/patacones from the green ones.


The maduras were ok, not as good as ripe plantains. However, these green bananas made excellent patacones/tostones. We did a taste off with plantains and these won hands(pun) down.

Since we were there 17 days, we met some of the local ex-pats. All were characters! We eventually found our way to the Paradise Botanical Tropical Gardens owned and run by ex-pat Robert Beatham. He has been in the area for many years. He was an employee of the United Fruit Company before they left Golfito and stuck around with his Tico wife. He is high energy and talks rapidly with a thick Maine accent. We spent over 2 hours touring the gardens with him as we picked out our favorite plants.

My favorite were of course the Banana plants. Robert's favorite edible banana was one he called The Red Banana. Plants and fruit. His were huge!



He got free incinerated rice hulls from a local rice place that he used like bio-char.
These are red bananas growing from the bio-char rice hulls.

I also purchased a Bordelon/Blood Banana type and a Musa coccinea. He steered me away from velutina, as he referred to it as an invasive species. The other ornamental that I did not get was one he called "the Banana Company" banana. He said that he knew an important meeting was about to happen when he walked into the room and these ornamental blooms were in a vase on the table.

the plants were very tall!


I'll be buying a few of those later!

Ok....thats mostly it for the banana portion of the trip. I'll post more after I make dinner.

Re: The Summer Visit to 8º North
 

Robert Beatham had a huge selection of Heliconia and Gingers and many fruit and palm trees.

One of our favorite heliconias was 'pussycat':



When you arrive in the drive this magnificent palmetto/palm tree greets you!




Robert's place should not be missed if you are in that part of Costa Rica.
With advance notice he sets up tasting area with the fruits in season. I heard they even make a really good oil palm soup. we cannot wait to get back for some other plants!
Here is his old website: Paradise Botanical Garden: Rio Claro (Golfito), Costa Rica

When we arrived, the caretaker, Esteban, informed us that the dog that came with the property, "Mona", was in heat. We called the vet and he made a house call to spay mona:

His operating table was our porch table wiped with alcohol.

He free hand shaved her belly with a double blade razor:



Esteban's family all watched the entire procedure


One day we drove to the famous surfing beach Pavones. These were the sites along the way:




When the cows escaped and pulled up the Namwah banana, I had to call for some fresh teak trees and they were delivered via dump truck.


Esteban cut them into shape.


with a chainsaw...


We made guacamole from 3 varieties of avacado:


and had fresh pineapple from one of the 3 small pineapple patches:




We did NOT eat this bizarre mushroom:


next up...The Critters @ Ocho Verde!

Re: The Summer Visit to 8º North
 

Looks very nice.

"The Red Banana" is what we call 'Red' or 'Tall Red', and "The Banana Company Banana" is Musa ornata. It is always impressive to see what good soil and enough water does to the vigor of bananas. Especially if they have some shade, that's when they really get tall.

Re: The Summer Visit to 8º North
 

OK...
Now to the critters...

When we arrived, Esteban and his boys came and got us to show us the juvenile Fer De Lance that was not very far from our bedroom!


We left it alone! A day or two later Esteban found a juvenile boa that had fallen from a palm tree. Not long after that, Esteban alerted us to a snake in the loft. It was a Mica. A non venomous 'rat snake' that was eating chicken eggs that the chickens had laid in the the rancho loft.



I caught it and released it in another part of the farm.


We found several frogs which I have not had time to identify:
From the pool--a type of narrow mouth toad I believe:



and some tree frogs:





some insects/spiders



and the whistling ducks--arborial, insectivorous, nocturnal:


finally... the squirrel monkeys...




Several troops passed through each day to eat the bananas that were harvested for them.