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Hone Creek has two restaurants, two supermarkets, a church and a bus stop. It's in between Cahuita and Puerto Viejo; both these places have diverse surf spots. When the swell is medium I surf Playa Cocles, when it gets too big up there I surf playa Negra and when it gets epic (not yet) I can only still watch Salsa Brava -aka- the cheese grater.
To get there from my house I either wait for a bus ($0,80), take a cab ($1,-) or I hitch a ride in the back of pick-up ($0,-) but I’ll anyway buy a bicycle soon. It’s a good place for mountain biking here!
So I live above the field station. Palm trees in the front and bananas in the back, lots of birds singing and cat’s and dog’s running around. At the moment there are five of us here, the Prof., a Colombian and an American girl, and two Dutchies.
Our very brave cat chasing a squirrel up palm tree (veranda view).
Like every place in Costa Rica the house doesn’t have an address like all of us have at home. In Costa Rica they’ll give a direction; for instance, the ‘address’ of the Hone Creek field station here is:
“From the intersection of Hone Creek, 50 mts left in the way to Puerto Viejo.”
And the ‘address’ of the head office in San Jose is:
“San José, San Pedro, Barrio Vargas Araya, next to soccer field of High School Monterrey, the color of the House white and green.”
It’s what they would write on an envelope too if they don’t have a PO Pox. They do have a PO Box in San Jose though: 170-2070 Sabanilla. Add the direction above and "Attencion: Hone Creek, Matthias" (they can’t pronounce Thijs) to it and it might arrive.
And finally I can be reached by phone, the number is: 506 2756 8120
The evenings in the institute itself have been tranquil compared to the last the three months; I enjoyed it though. But then it started to rain, and when it rains it pours, for days and then the rivers turn muddy and we can’t work, and when we can’t work I might as well hit the town (Read: tiny village).
So ‘Town’ (Puerto Viejo) is 5 km away. 95% of the population used to be Jamaicans but since the tourists arrived more and more Costa Ricans and Gringo’s came in and now it’s about 50/50. Still, lots of Rasta’s here which makes it smell about the same as the center of Amsterdam. There is a large expat community and I got introduced by a fellow Dutch guy who also lives at the institute and now I know half of the town already. Fun but sometimes crazy people. The nights are big so once a week is more than enough.
Like everywhere in Costa Rica you can’t walk the streets alone at night. I didn’t expect that but if you thought its safe here you are wrong. I heard so many firsthand stories during my trip about robberies etc. and it’s the same here, well, Hone Creek is fine, but everywhere where there are tourists like in Puerto Viejo, you have to be careful. They’ll, show their machetes, knives or guns to make you give your belongings, but like I said, only at night and if you are alone.
The work is really interesting, I love it. Field days are long and sweaty and start early morning. Temperatures are high here and the humidity makes it feel even hotter, luckily the streams are cool and shaded. The research sites are all over Talamanca (Province). At the sites we determine the biological integrity by looking at biodiversity of fish and macro invertebrates and also do a habitat assessment. The environment is of course way more interesting than back home in The Netherlands; like I said before, most of the sites are in an UNESCO world heritage site (La Amistad). We get about 40 different fish species, which we find in clear streams that often run trough wonderful rainforests. We catch the fish by electro fishing, which shortly paralyses them so we can scoop them up, 10 seconds later they’ll be swimming around in a bucket like nothing happened and after identifying we’ll release them. All pretty ethical, I don’t even get to fry the tasty shrimp we catch as well.
We go about 3 to 4 days a week in the field, the other days I spend in the office playing with the data. With the results we try to protect or restore the area which is heavily under pressure by construction of hydro dams, polluted runoff from plantations, habitat alteration, etc. Local communities are stimulated to be involved; especially the indigenous in the inlands seem to have a relatively high interest in, and awareness of their surroundings. Lots of volunteers to help us out.
Prof.
Anyways, the Prof. is very organized and has lots of knowledge since he has been coming here for about 30 years. Beyond that he has a very good staff, good materials and good planning, well, overall it’s a good experience so far, I’m at the right place.
Entonces..
Living it! Loving it!
Pura Vida
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