you want bananas? You got it.

This blog post is dedicated to Kevin´s friend Besty Delph , who has been incessantly complaining that there are simply not enough pictures of bananas on this blog.

After hiking Mt. Chirripo, Tasha and Kevin decided to take it easy on their next days off and take the farm horses out for a ride. Above, Tasha is getting ready to saddle Malao.
Kevin, riding India.
Kevin, giving an impromptu sex ed lesson to his fellow WOOFERs, making sure that the ladies know not to believe any man who claims that he is "too big for one".
Fellow Earth Rose Farm WOOFER, Tiana, featured in the first photo intended for Betsy´s benefit.
Rosie Maji and our breakfast buffet... wait, are those bananas?!
too many to eat!! here, bananas are being peeled and processed for freezing. later to be reincarnated into delicious banana smoothies, or just a nice frozen treat on a hot day!
bananas hangin out in the cage where they ripen and are kept away from all manner of pesky things that like to eat them.
Tasha, holding the trunk of a banana tree. (which is actually a grass!!!- or something like a grass- they hae a basal meristem, growing from the base instead of the top)
Kevin, preparing to massacre a defenseless banana trunk with a machete.
bananas on the tree. banana trees take 1-2 years to produce fruit, and once they do, that is all they will produce. once the bananas are harested, the tree is cut down and more trees will sprout from the runners of the first. aboe, you can see the deep purple flower at the end of the raceme of bananas.
inside the WOOFER dorm at earth rose farm, complete with mosquito nets, sarongs, and flip flops.
Laundry hanging out to dry outside the WWOOFER dorm.
mmmm.... hammmock....
Kevin, Kyle (behind carlos) and Carlos (the local Tico worker who helps on the farm 3 days a week) replacing the plastic over the raised garden beds in the lower garden.
Kevin, Tasha, and Carlos on their last day of work together.
This is a stool that Kevin manifested in his time at earth rose farm using nothing but a chainsaw, a machete, and about 2 meters of bailing wire.
Above is a rotating cradle for the solar hot water heater at earth rose farm. Kevin built this swieling cradle for the outdoor shower so as the sun moes from the south to the north with the changing seasons, the collector can be turned to face the sun.

Also while at earth rose farm, Kevin constructed this massive soar dehydrator for the majis. it has 14 3 foot by 3 foot drying racks for dehydrating everything from bananas to coffee to cacao to mangos. Here, you can see the solar collector on the back of the dehydrator which proides extra surface area to pre-heat the air entering the collector and create a draft through the drying racks.

the racks up close.
After leaing Earth Rose farm, the couple boarded a bus and headed south to the Peninsula de Osa. Above, Tasha sits on the bay in Puerto Jimenez before she and kevin headed into the parque Nacional Corcovado, which dominates most of the peninsula.
The transportation collectivo truck that took our two travelers the 42 km arond the peninsula to the small town of Carate where they would begin their trek.
a horse-drawn luggage porter bringing belongings to the la leona eco lodge along the beach.
Kevin, making his way down the unspoiled coastline of the osa peninsula, one of the last great stretches of pacific coastal rainforest in central america.
Kevin, pulling his socks back on after a river crossing.
Tasha, along a stretch of beautiful, rocky coastline.




here you can see a flock of pelicans taking turns diving in to the water in search for food.
the pair spotted this coati along the trail. shortly after this photo, the animal walked oer to a burrow and pulled out a giant crab to start munching on.
a spider monkey investigating strange, greasy animals in his home.
Kevin, after "wading" across a river near high tide to get to their destination (packs were on heads and water was up to the armpits)
Tasha, standing at the end of the air strip at the sirena biological station, 7 hours hiking into the park.
just after leaving sirena on the second day, the couple caught this picture of a wild boar in a pack of about 30 that they stumbled across on their way through the park. the next day, a local laborer told them that the pigs were very good to eat.
Jesus rays slanting through the tropical forest.


A River of leaf cutter ants, pourin off into the distance. these little things were eerywhere, haresting little bits of leaves to innoculate with a fungus that the ants grow underground and then feed off of.
this tree´s got stilts!!
Kevin, enjoyin his morning oatmeal at the Los Patos Ranger Station perhaps just a bit too much...
Kevin, showing off his newly converted "water boots" (just add water!!!). also notice the missing top to kevin´s hat. his maintenance log printout reported that there was excessive pressure building up under the top of the hat, causing superfluous leakage through his pores. the team maintianing kevin´s diagnostic systems recommended turning his hat into a visor to avoid further complications.
Look ma, i´m in the jungle!
A sunrise photo over Puerto Jimenez the day after the couple made their way back to town.
Tasha, in front of the boat that will take them across the bay to Golfito.

what could these expressions possibly mean? nothing good, no doubt.
after Golfito, the intrepid pair bussed their way to the panama border crossing to obtain their exit visas and head south to the country that their fellow countrymen seem to have already had their grubby little fingers in for quite some time...
A taste of panama... stay tuned for the next edition...