Sweet Chemistry of Chocolate

"A tiny fly no bigger than the head of a pin is responsible for the world's supply of chocolate."-Allen Young, a leading cacao expert.


In the effort to reduce my carbon "food"print, I switched my lunch from packaged apple slices that come from who knows where and are preserved in who knows what to fresh local organic apples. The truly local apples we picked in October have long since been consumed, but I did find apples from a farm 260 miles from Bergen County, NJ. That's local compared to the Washington state apples that fill the produce aisle even though apples are grown in New Jersey. The honey crisps are great with cheddar cheese produced by a small family dairy in Cape May. Water from the tap comes from the local town wells.  So far I have lunch food miles down to a radius of 260 miles! And then...
I ate a piece of chocolate. Just like that, I am impacting the rainforest again. However, there is some good news here.The cacao tree is part of the rainforest. While it may not have started as a native plant in Costa Rica, it has been growing there long enough to be considered a permanent resident, giving new meaning to green card. 


"Farmed on over 18 million acres (7.5 million hectares) of tropical land, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) provides a means of livelihood to an estimated 40 million people, including five million farmers, 90 percent of whom are smallholders, laborers and employees in processing factories. Like coffee, cocoa can be cultivated under the shade of native canopy trees and maintain a landscape similar to natural forest. This helps conserve the habitat of threatened plant and animal species, protect natural pollinators and predators of cocoa pests and create biological corridors that maintain large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes."- Rain Forest Alliance (Use the link to read more.)


Our Toyota International Teacher Program trip to Tirimbina Biological Reserve's chocolate tour and chats with our tour guide Julio Fernandez Amon, a chocolatier, inspired an interest in the chemistry of chocolate.

Cacao beans fermenting

Inside the cacao bean shell

Chocolate liquor

Steps in Processing Cacao into Chocolate

Link for Nutrition information (note Hershey uses cocoa although cacao is preferred)


Homework
During class you explored the melting point and solubility of cocoa powder and cocoa butter. View the video at Science 360 . Then view the video below to learn more about chocolate. Finally answer the Homework Questions.


The Sweet Science of Chocolate
Homework Questions
What are the health benefits of chocolate?
Why do the health benefits depend on the type of chocolate? Use examples.
How does tempering affect the appearance of chocolate?
Use examples to explain how melting point, viscosity, and crystal growth apply to the chemistry of chocolate.
Vocabulary: melting point, viscosity, flavonoids, crystal, theobromine, caffeine, tryptophan, tempering


More to Explore
The tiny flowers of the cacao tree depend on a single species of midge (a tiny type of fly). What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of relationship? AMNH website
Find out about fungal disease threats to cacao at the USDA website 


Sequencing the Theobroma cacao genome
Research paper The Genome of Theobroma cacao
Cacao Genome Database 

A Day at the Plantation, a Night at the Finca

"Saving the last remnants of the natural environment requires more than just scientific information. There are also formidable economic and political problems to be overcome. Growing populations need new land and increased food production. The priorities of the desperately poor do not include saving the fauna and flora of their country. Funds must be raised to purchase much of the land from private owners, and then to pay for the protection and management of the reserves. To gain the support of local peoples, educational programs are needed to convey the importance of wild lands to sustaining their own environment in a healthy state. The poor need to be helped to a better life on the land they already occupy." - E.O. Wilson, "Only Humans Can Halt the Worst Wave of Mass Extinction Since the Dinosaurs Died"
My Food-Life Crisis
I love to start the day with a hot cup of coffee sweetened with sugar and mellowed by cream. Add a small dish of pineapple, melon, and banana chunks and it's the breakfast of toucans. I am an unabashed consumer of Costa Rica's principal agricultural exports and contributer to the 6.5% of the Costa Rican gross domestic product they represent.

The produce for which Costa Rica is known is as alien to Costa Rica as I am.  The Spanish introduced coffee from Africa and brought bananas first to the Caribbean and then to Costa Rica. Pineapples are native to southern Brazil and Paraguay. Indigenous people spread the cultivation of pineapples throughout Central America and the Caribbean. Sugar cane originated in southern Asia.  Melons have their origins in Africa and Asia.  Despite their historical immigrant status, In the grocery store these foods carry the label "Product of Costa Rica."

My breakfast requires economies of scale to produce. Forests are cleared to create plantations that practice monoculture cropping in vast fields. Pesticides are required to control insects. 
The harvesting and processing of the agricultural products is a source of employment, but wages are low and conditions are rigorous.
More forests must be cleared for paved roads to transport the food from processing centers to ports for shipping to global locations. Fossil fuel is burned by transport trucks and ships contributing ancient carbon to the atmosphere. 
The agribusiness of Costa Rica is not so different from the agribusiness of New Jersey, but the ecological impact of agribusiness is greater in Costa Rica than in New Jersey. My consumer behavior contributes to the environmental degradation of Costa Rica's natural flora and fauna, loss of biodiversity, and global climate change. I am experiencing a food-life crisis.
A Day at the Plantation
EARTH University is a private education initiative that models sustainable agriculture and fosters entrepreneurship in Central America, South America, and Africa. EARTH University manages a banana plantation that provides a classroom for students and employment for the local workforce. The objective of research at the EARTH banana plantation is to reduce use of agrochemicals that contaminate water supplies, to decrease worker exposure to cancer-causing pesticides, and to improve working conditions in the field and processing facility. The plantation serves as a model for other large-scale growers.
Bananas are a monoculture crop. The plantation is a "forest" of nothing but banana plants in varying stages of maturity. The broad leaves of the mature banana plants block light to anything that might try to grow beneath the plants. The banana leaves are so large that they need to be cut back to limit competition among the banana plants.
Although banana plants resemble trees, they are really herbs and the bananas are berries. The plant produces male flowers, female flowers, and sterile flowers. Bananas grow from  female flowers. One plant will produce one spike-like stalk bearing a varying number of hands of bananas. As the berries develop, the male and sterile flowers wither and drop off the plant.
A hand of bananas is the bunch you buy at the grocery store. It you think of bananas as looking like fingers, the term hand makes sense. Once the bananas ripen, the plant dies. One plant produces one hand of bananas during its lifetime.
Mature banana plants reproduce by sending out roots that sprout into new plant stalks. When bananas are cultivated, only one shoot is allowed to grow to maturity. This ensures that the plant will produce bananas for the next crop. Workers must prune back all the suckers to ensure that only one plant will be the offspring of the parent.
 Banana plants require the rich, fertile, moist soil associated with volcanic activity and river floodplains. Because the large leaves lose vast amounts of water by transpiration, banana stands need deep watering. This requires irrigation during drier periods of the year.
Bananas are a high maintenance crop. Once the bananas begin to grow, they must be covered in tough plastic bags to protect them, not from monkeys, but from insects and the sun. Normally the bags are treated with chemicals. EARTH University does not embed chemicals into the plastic. 
Fungicides and pesticides must be applied by spraying even at EARTH University. These agriochemicals contribute to soil and water contamination. Leaves that might damage the bananas need to be pruned. Emerging shoots need to be managed. 
As the bananas reach their harvest time, foam inserts are slipped between the hands to keep the fingers from bruising during transportation to the processing facility. At most plantations, the heavy spikes of bananas are carried from the field by workers. At EARTH University, workers remove the bananas from the plants and hang them onto a transport system called the "banana train." The banana train carries the bananas from the field to the processing plant. This innovation uses fuel, but improves conditions for the workers.

After the bananas reach the processing facility, workers remove the plastic bags, spray the bananas with water, and inspect the hands. Using a machete, the inspector cuts one banana from each spike checking for quality. At most plantations the plastic bags are left in the field or enter the trash stream. At EARTH University the bags and foam inserts are recycled.

The bananas continue to a water bath for cleaning. Bananas are sorted by hand into first and second quality. First quality bananas will receive labels and be sold in stores such as Whole Foods. Second quality bananas will be used in baby food. Excess bananas will be shipped to other retailers with a different label from the EARTH label sold at Whole Foods. Some will be sold domestically. 
The final step involves an organic fungicide that kills any fungus that might still be on the bananas. The use of an organic fungicide was pioneered at EARTH. Damaged waste bananas are transported to the universities livestock farm and fed to the pigs.
Processed banana hands are packed and shipped by truck to the Port of Limon. From Limon, bananas travel by ship to ports along the Gulf Coast and East Coast of North America. Trucks carry the bananas to distribution centers and then to local grocery stores. It takes about a month for a banana to reach the produce aisle after leaving the field.
Watch the video to learn more.

Back in the field, the spent banana plants need to be cleared. EARTH University converts the banana plant fiber into paper by mixing the fiber with used paper collected for recycling. The paper product is rough and fibrous. Although it is too rough and thick for writing paper, it is good for notebook covers and packaging material. 

Consider the following
Large-scale commercial banana plantations use fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. What is the difference between an organic banana and a nonorganic banana? 
Another label that appears on imported foods is "fair trade." What does fair trade mean?
A Night at the Finca
After a day at EARTH University learning about sustainable agricultural practices, we board a bus for the short ride to a finca (farm) at Barrio la Argentina that participates in EARTH University's homestay program. The homestay is a way for tourists to experience Costa Rican family life. Think of it as a bed-and-breakfast with lunch and dinner thrown in.
I and two other teachers are dropped at the Finca Maria Jose. Kelly is a Spanish teacher. John and I do not speak Spanish. As we walk up the path to meet the Jose family, Kokia's song "The Power of Smile" runs through my head. It's a great thought, but Japanese song lyrics stuck in my head isn't really helping. Every phrase in Spanish I ever knew is gone. If I were to try to speak Spanish, i'd be channeling Mayor Blumberg during Hurricane Irene (that's not a good thing). So, I smile, my teeth showing like a monkey and hope that I am saying "Hello, my name is...".
I had no need to be concerned. Although this was new to me, it was just another day at the office, er finca, for the Jose family. Ecotourism is just one aspect of the finca's diversified business plan. Through Kelly we learn that the farm is named for the Jose's youngest daughter Maria, who was born the same year that the family joined the EARTH University finca program. 
The family matriarch Dona Ana Jose is a member of a women's farm cooperative. Her husband Don Rogelio Jose works from just after sunrise to just before sunset at a local pineapple plantation. Three of the five Jose children are grown and have moved away from home. Two daughters still live at home. Maria who is 10 years old attends school. and takes care of the small animals. Laura is a high school student. During the day she babysits her young niece  and at night attends school. Laura is also responsible for the family food preparation.
In addition to traditional farming activities, the family manages a sports field and concession stand. The concession area is also rented out for events. As we were leaving the finca on Sunday, the food area was being decorated for a wedding scheduled for the afternoon.

The finca is a small scale family farm that uses sustainable agriculture best practices that we saw in place at EARTH University. Dona Ana Jose grows medicinal herbs that she sells locally for income. Her greenhouse collapsed under heavy rainfall and, while we were visiting, local construction workers were making repairs. It's hard to think of needing a greenhouse in the tropics, but young plants need to be sheltered from heavy rain, excessive sunlight, and insect predators. Ornamental plants also need protection in order to develop attractive leaves and flowers. In addition to managing a garden that rivals any pharmacy, Dona Ana Jose makes organic soap and dries rice.
During the evening of our stay at Finca Maria Jose, we make soap. Three teachers staying at the neighboring Finca Chiquita stop by for soap making. The fat needed for soap comes from pigs grown on the farm that are slaughtered for food and sold locally. Lye, a caustic base needed to break down the fat, is purchased. I was surprised by this because my grandmother made lye from wood ashes and water. However, after thinking a little more, the wood ash my grandmother used came from northern hardwoods burned a fireplace and wood stove. It's not a local ingredient here at the finca. 
The scents and oils used in the soap come from the herb garden. The soap is molded into rainforest animal and flower shapes and packaged in origami boxes made from recycled paper. Soap products are sold locally and to tourists.

Organic bananas are grown on the farm for local consumption. The bananas that do not go to market are fed to the pigs. What goes in to the pig, must come out. Even the manure finds a use on the farm. The pens and pigs are washed daily. The manure is captured in biodigester bags and decomposed into methane and compost. The methane is captured for cooking fuel and the compost is used in the garden. 
Pork is a staple meat in Costa Rican cooking and the star of Christmas dinner. The immature and suckling pigs sold to market are part of the business of the farm. In addition to pigs, chickens and eggs are also sold to produce income. Other farm animals include cows and goats for dairy products and sheep for wool. I am not sure if lanolin from the wool is used in the soap. 



Some farms such as Finca Chiquita also have tilapia ponds. The fish are managed so that only juvenile male fish are harvested for sale. The reproductive females and adult male fish are retained in the pond to continue fish production. As we caught fish, we inspected them to make sure that the pink females and large speckled males were returned.
Electricity to run modern conveniences such as lights, a computer, and television is purchased by the family. This may be one of the few things not produced on the farm, at least not yet. Although there is dependence on fossil fuels for electricity, the net carbon balance for the farm is zero because of the carbon capture and cycling that occurs during the sustainable agricultural practices.
More Photos from the Finca
Compare a day in the life of Maria Jose to a day in your life. What would you need to learn in order to live on the farm?

 

Back to My Food-Life Crisis
Suggest changes in my consumer habits that could reduce my impact on the environment. For example, giving up coffee with sugar and cream is not negotiable, but I could purchase shade tree grown organic coffee.


Check This Out
How to Grow Bananas at Home


photo credits for finca pictures: Kelly Foss, Chuck Palmer, John Elfrank-Dana, and Lori Chen

The Rhythm of Life

"It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt." - E.O. Wilson
There’s a rhythm to life in the tropics rooted in seasons that are measured by differences in rainfall not variations in solar insolation. Tropical forests flourish year round. Trees lack the growth rings that record seasonal changes in temperate climates. 
The dawn chorus of birds in the forest is triggered by the first rays of sun brushing the treetops. With little variation from day to day in the time of sunrise, the birds of the forest are a dependable alarm clock.
In the symphony of the forest, the songbirds are the flutes and reeds, the wind in the trees the strings, and the rain the percussion. And the brass and bass sections? There are howler monkeys, toucans, and frogs who punctuate and enrich the acoustical improvisation of the forest orchestra.
Humans are edge species. We visit the interior of the forest as tourists, scientists, hunters, and scavengers. Our way is marked by paths as naked as the lahar of the volcano. Humans mark their territory not with pheromones, but with fences, cultivated fields, and tree stumps. 
When no plain or field exists, we clear the forest for open space converting the trees to shelters of our own design. We engineer a world apart from the natural world. Our food web is designed and controlled by our human enterprise. Finding the balance between the natural world and the human engineered world is a slack-line balancing act that requires practice and careful, deliberate planning. 
Costa Rica, a nation the size of West Virginia, claims nearly 5% of the world's biodiversity. Prior to the 1950s, Costa Rica had contiguous forests with well-developed biological corridors that encouraged genetic diversity within species. A growing human population and demand for cheap  fast food beef in North America fueled deforestation to establish cattle ranches. 
The maps below show the dramatic change in forest cover that occurred between the 1950s and the 1970s.  Changes in agriculture and public policy reversed the deforestation trend. By 2005, reforestation rates were outpacing deforestation. The challenge of re-establishing biological corridors remains. 

source: EOSL/CCT/FONAFIFO 2002; FONAFIFO 2007, Weblink

Conservation efforts are focused on preservation and reforestation. However, the forest that was is lost forever. Although the secondary forest will be a different forest, reforestation is a step toward ensuring a future planet that is habitable for our species and other species. In the end, we may live on the edge, but we are part of  the natural world and responsible for our individual and collective impact on all the species with which we share the planet.
. 
Consider the Following
School children in Costa Rica are required to participate in conservation service projects to preserve and improve the environment. Should U.S. schools be required to have similar service projects for students? What types of projects would improve the environment in your school, community, state, or region?


Up next: A Day at the Plantation, a Night at the Finca

6 Reasons to Wear Closed Toe Shoes

"Rain gear and good walking/hiking shoes are critical. In some areas, closed toe shoes will be mandatory!!" Toyota International Teacher Program, Costa Rica 2011, Travel Information

"You may just think I'm gilding the lily pad here. But as a tadpole I always wanted to be a dancer. But you know what they say, the first thing to go on a frog are his legs. " Kermit the Frog, The Muppet Show: Episode #1.1 with Juliete Prowse
Reason #6 Poison Dart Frogs
The reason poison dart frogs make the list is that their skin is toxic and frogs  are usually on the ground. It is number 6 because, unless you are an ant or other insect, you will likely experience only happiness upon encountering a poison dart frog. They tend to be heard more than seen. 
Photo: Green black-spotted poison dart frog 

Video: Bluejean or Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Video credit: Kelly Foss) 

"Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?" - Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reason # 5 Snakes
"Armadillo..." and with that a dozen teachers ran into the field to take a picture. Our EARTH University host shook his head urging the photographers to return to the concrete surface of the dining patio and  strongly suggesting that we remain on the covered walkways at night. There are snakes in the tropical paradise of the rain forest. Not little garter snakes, but large and/or deadly poisonous snakes. Pit vipers and the dreaded Fer-de-Lance (Terciopelo in Spanish) are at home in the tangled forest understory and fields of Costa Rica. We occasionally saw snakes coiled on rocks or tree limbs catching the few solar rays piercing the low cloud ceiling. We had no firsthand encounters with the Fer-de-Lance, only secondhand tales from guides and hotel workers that begin "Oh, this morning..." or "Late last night..." Although snakes would be the most deadly encounter with bare feet, it was the least frequent and therefore is fifth on the list of six reasons to wear closed toe shoes.

On the left, hog nose pit viper warming up on a rock at Guayabo National Monument. On the right, an eyelash pit viper curls up on a tree limb at Arenal Hanging Bridges.

"I got killer buds / A power stem / Nasty pods..." Audrey II, Little Shop of Horrors

Reason #4 Poisonous Plants

The good news first. There is no poison ivy in Costa Rica. However, tropical plants have evolved toxins as a means of survival. Although not aimed specifically at humans, the toxins can have consequences ranging from an itchy rash to death.

The sap of the manzanillo tree is acidic and milky white causing temporary blindness on contact with the eyes. Smoke from burning manzanillo wood can irritate eyes, skin, and respiratory tract tissues. The thorns and bark can cause skin irritation. The sap is toxic to aquatic organisms. The apples are poisonous. The tree is easy to recognize because nothing grows on, in, or around it.

The photo shows a group of teachers helping clear trees at Finca la Chiquita, a farm that hosted a homestay. The manzanillo tree is in the background on the left side of the photo behind the man in the red shirt. The tree was left standing. (Photo credit: Kelly Foss)

Even pretty flowers needed to be respected. Xanthosoma, dieffembachia, and alamanda all have caustic saps in their leaves and vines. 

Stinging nettles spring up in fields and off the path. As the name implies, they are itchy and irritating, but otherwise harmless. Their seeds are hitchhikers and cling to wool socks. I picked seeds off my socks prior to packing.

Clever plants appear poisonous even when they are nontoxic. The color red is usually the warning sign of a toxic plant. The young leaves of the cycad Ceratozamia are delicate and nontoxic. However, they are red. As the plant matures, the leaves develop toxicity and toughness. The mature leaves are green. Cycads were the food of the herbivorous dinosaurs. They are currently being studied at La Selva Biological Station because of their diversity and conservation issues related to plicate-leaved Zamia species.

"A web would indicate an arachnoid presence." Dilbert McClintock, Arachnophobia

Reason #3 Spiders and Millipedes

Anything that crawls underfoot, climbs, or spins a web should be respected, but not necessarily feared. A nip can cause a welt, swelling, or in the most sensitive individual an allergic reaction. Tarantula holes were spotted, but the spider was not seen. A wolf spider and golden orb spider were seen with their webs. Millipedes were observed. Because no one was actually bitten by an arachnid or millipede, they earn the number 3 spot as reasons to wear closed toe shoes.

(Millipede and wolf spider: Gregory Regalado)

"None of the ants previously seen by man were more than an inch in length - most considerably under that size. But even the most minute of them have an instinct and talent for industry, social organization, and savagery that makes man look feeble by comparison." Dr. Harold Medford, Them! 

Reason #2 Ants

When I first heard the warning about the Fer-de-Lance, I thought it was a warning against stepping into "fertile ants." (Say fur-tuh-lance aloud.) With queen ants that lay thousands of biting and stinging offspring each day, fertile ants is reason #2 to wear closed toe shoes. 

An estimated 84 genera of ants live in Costa Rica. "Costa Rica Ants" is an entire section of AntWeb.org. The ants climb on trees, live in trees, build nests in the soil, and swarm across the forest floor. 

Leafcutter ants have highways that intersect trails and cross walkways. Compared to other species they are benign and indifferent to humans. These industrious little fellows actually inspire humans to be careful not to disrupt the 24/7 rush hour rhythm of their super highway infrastructure. 

In contrast, bullet ants lie in wait on handrails and posts. Their acid injection causes a painful swelling that burns like a bullet wound. (photo credit: Gregory Regaldo)

Army ants swarm in fronts. The soldiers have impressive machete-like mandible tips that decapitate small prey.  Those same mandibles dig in and hold onto human flesh as they inject acid. Run and stomp your boots is the best advice anyone can receive regarding an encounter with a moving front of army ants.

The phrase "ants in your pants" takes on a whole new meaning for anyone who sits down on the ground, a log, or a rock or fails to tuck pant legs into boot tops. Cecropia and acacia ants will defend their home trees with a vengeance. These little red ants leave small welts along the legs and arms of those who brush by the plants on which they live. 

Ants marched through hotel rooms and made themselves at home in suitcases and beds. A teacher let the front desk know the room had ants and was told, "Yes. That is normal." Fortunately, these ants didn't seem to be bothered by humans in their habitat.

One group of intrepid pioneers set up camp in my laptop keyboard. In the absence of a taxonomic guide and magnifying glass (they were tiny), I dubbed them MacBook ants. I feared that my laptop would be confiscated by U.S. Customs agricultural control . Getting rid of the ants before returning home redefined debugging the computer. On the advice of our school technology teacher, I chilled the laptop. The ants did not like cool conditions and either evacuated or died. My MacBook needs a spa day at the Apple Store. It had a stressful adventure in the rain forest. (More on technology challenges in a later posting.)

Because of the frequency of ant encounters, this is the number 2 reason for wearing closed toe shoes, although teachers who felt like ant-bait might argue it as the number 1 reason.

"One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We've been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain...and big old fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night." Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump

Reason #1 Mud and Rocks

The number one reason for wearing closed toe shoes is rain. Rain turns soil into mud and makes rocks slippery. I am the bog huntress. Even if the bog defies the law of gravity and lies uphill, I will find it and step into it. The sneakers I wore the first day of walking in mud never came clean and never dried in the humidity of the rainy season. I left the sneakers in Costa Rica with a charitable organization that repairs clothing for donation to the abandoned elderly.  My hiking boots survived, but getting the mud out of the treads and laces took some doing. It was worth the effort. The boots were inspected and made it through U.S. Customs. (On a farm, mud may be more than just soil.)

Think About It
Why are species that produce toxins successful in the struggle for survival?
How does a species benefit from mimicry?

Pura Vida- Arenal

 "Soy Tico y si me asomo a la ventana me cautiva la montaña y se me alegra el corazón. (I am Tico if when I look out the window the mountain captivates me and warms my heart.) "- from "Soy Tico" by Carlos Guzman
December 1, 2011
Like aloha and shalom, pura vida is more than its simple translation of "pure life." Pura vida can be a greeting, a response to "How are you?," or an expression of contentment. In the context of Costa Rican culture, pura vida is a philosophy of life that embraces the richness of living and embodies a connection with the land.

I am not Tico, but I am fascinated and awed by the mountains that form the backbone of Costa Rica. Evidence of the power of tectonic activity, these are relatively young mountains. Located near La Fortuna, Arenal is estimated to be about 7000 years old. A stratovolcano, Arenal is composed of successive layers of ash, rock,and lava.  

After 400 years of inactivity, Arenal was presumed to be extinct. However, the subduction of the oceanic plate beneath the continental plate was slowly building up a pool of magma and pressure. In 1968, Arenal violently burst to life spewing rocks, ash, and lava into the valley below. The eruption killed 87 people and completely buried three small villages.  Evidence of the eruption is apparent in agricultural fields littered by boulder-size rocks called  lava bombs.
Seismic activity is monitored and hiking is permitted in the national park - at your own risk. Following our knowledgeable guide Eduardo Baldioceda, we walk along a flat smooth sandy path cut through tall waving sourcane. A trail maintenance worker responds to Eduardo's greeting with "pura vida." You can't help but smile when you say pura vida.

As we move along the trail, the peaty smell of the sourcane fields becomes more herbal and the vegetation more forest-like.  Tree limbs are homes to insects, ferns, epiphytes, and parasitic vines. At the base of the trees, lycopodia thrive. Looking like a forest of miniature pine trees, these clubmosses are among the most ancient of vascular plants and in the tropics are limited to mountain habitats.

Tubular flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies who enter the flower for sweet nectar and carry away pollen. A few insects have an adaptation that allows them to pierce the tube of the flower and extract the nectar without assisting with pollination.

 The one-day orchid blooms and dies within a 24-hour period.  As we stopped to inspect these randomly dispersed beauties it is apparent that they are food for insects. A few have already begun to loose their petals to browsers.

Although the plants are diverse from the tiny lycopodia to enormous kapok tree, it is the Insects that are most abundant in number and variety. Ants are everywhere in the cecropia tree, marching along with leaves, and swarming like an army in a disorganized front of vicious biting soldiers. Mosquitos buzz exposed ears, necks, and arms in search of a meal. Dazzling jewel-like beetles cling to tree trunks. Butterflies dance through openings in the forest. 

Life and death in the forest occurs on a small scale- insect as predator and insect as prey. Bromeliads are plants that obtain moisture and nutrients from a reservoir at the top of the plant. Insects take advantage of this little pond for water and nutrients. The predatory wolf spider spins a web over the top of the reservoir. An unsuspecting insect stopping for nourishment can quickly become dinner. But there are the scavengers who outwit the predator. A thread-leg insect can walk on a spider's web and steal a spider's prey. Although at first the thread-leg insect looks like a spider, a leg count confirms that it is an insect. 

 A lahar snakes like a riverbed between the sourcane marking the place where a thick slurry of hot ash raged down the mountain slope. The pioneer species of the lahar, sourcane, grasses, and trees, gradually brought life back to the barren gray lahar. A thin layer of organic material is visible above the thick layer of ash and fine sandlike particles of rocks.





Root systems are shallow. It is not uncommon to walk past a toppled tree uprooted by wind and rain. Opportunistic organisms will decompose the tree drawing nutrients from its bark and core. What remains will enrich the soil increasing the fertility of the volcanic ash.

Beyond the lahar lies the lava field. Huge boulders and rocks of balsaltic Andesite are a testament to the explosive power of the 1968 eruption. Pioneer species of lichen and mosses have begun the slow biological process of breaking down the rock into soil. 
But the volcano is still alive. Natural hot springs are warmed by the volcano. Small quakes occur daily. Stand quietly and you can hear the volcano breathing and the low hum of a heartbeat as magma flows through its veins.

Arenal disappears into mists that veil the summit of the stratovolcano. The chance that the clouds might clear to reveal the symmetry of the cone is tantalizing. As the rainy season comes to an end, a burst of sunshine teasingly parts the clouds. The breeze whispers that if we could but linger here a little longer the clouds will lift and Arenal will be bathed in the rays of the morning sun.

The clouds descend again as we prepare to return to San Jose.  Ah, pura vida here in the mountains. Perhaps I am a little bit Tico.
Map source: http://www.costaricaguides.com/map_costa_rica_.html


More to Explore
The formation of the landmass known today as Central America was a major global climate change factor. Learn more about the tectonic activity 5 million years ago that closed ocean circulation between the modern Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.
Read "How the Isthmus of Panama Put Ice in the Arctic" at Oceanus.