January 9: We checked into our gorgeous litle hotel. It's really small and cute and tropical like. There was a porch with a hammock where I slept all three nights (until the sun came up very early in the morning). The plants looked like the big tropical ones Gustavus plants every spring. The difference obviously being that these were natural looking if not native to the area. When I was sleeping in the hammock it felt like there was a tape of "sounds of the rainforest" playing. Not that I heard any exotic animals or anything but just the birds and water (I'm not sure where it was coming from) sounded cool. After we checked into the hotel we went walking on some trails to some small waterfalls. It was really cool to see was just in the "backyard" of the hotel.
The greenery around us as we hiked through a stream.
Our group hiking through the stream.
A moth on a tree
Joaquim (He's 51!) climbing a tree to get us coconuts to drink from.
Me and Joaquim.
January 12: We went to the plant of the Michelin tire company. They tried to convince us that they were trying to do things that were in the best interest of the environment. Although I doubt they were lying to us about what they are doing it wouldn't suprise me if they were exaggerating the impact of their actions on improving the environment. Anyways it was interesting to see how the liquid rubber is collected from the trees. They have to be cut at a certain angle and a certain depth into the tree. Cutting too little will affect the flow of the rubber out of the tree and cutting too much could shorten the life or even kill the tree. They also showed us that there is a certain pattern for cutting the tree which gives it the optimal tapping life of thirty some years. The reason that the average farmer doesn't plan rubber trees is because it takes 10 years from planting for the tree to be ready to be tapped. This time is an investment that they are unable to make therefore they continue growing other crops and some of their methods often times damage the environment.
After the tour we went to a waterfall that is open to the public but is actually on Michelin owned land. We ate dinner at the Michelin plant and prepared to spend the night in our interesting accomadations. We slept in a old hospital on the Michelin property. There were wheelchairs that looked like they'd been around a good number of years. We kept ourselves entertained with spoons (a game), tunes and the sounds of Juan (our van driver). Juan was amazinly good at animal noises and he got pretty competitive at spoons. Late that night we had a scare with a bat so I don't think anyone had the best sleep ever.
A "master" rubber tapper showing us all how it's done!
Me attempting to tap a rubber tree.
A row of tapped trees.
Rubber as it looks when it's collected. It looks like the white part of a cooked egg.
Part of a giant waterfall (61 meters tall) owned by Michelin.
Links
Last Updated: February 10, 2005