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An Isthmus Rabbit Hole

Writer's picture: Dan ShortDan Short

Updated: May 17, 2020

The rain continued long into the next day. With little work we could do in such heavy rain, I made us both an experimental breakfast. A fried patty of mashed breadfruit with rosemary, served with poached eggs on top. It was surprisingly nice. Once the rain had cleared, I weeded the pineapple plants that were becoming starved of light. Without any gardening gloves, it was impossible not to nick my hands on the serrated leaves of the pineapples. As i sat for a moments relief from the relentless cuts, I noticed a bright blue beetle with flat red feet and a shiny golden body wings. I couldn't help but sit and watch it until it eventually flew away. I then headed up to the lookout to take in the view and download some more podcasts to listen to in the evenings. On my way back down I fell over three separate times. Falling flat on my back, I slid half way down the hill only to do the exact same thing twice once I stood up. I was glad no one was there to see it but I'm sure it would have been quite amusing. I went down to the river to wash out my shorts, taking my camera with me on the off chance that I might be able to get some footage of the basilisks. This time I had the same issue, even with the learnings from my previous failures, I still wasn’t quick enough to get a shot.

One thing I did notice was some shells that, to me, looked related to clams or cockles on the river bank. The more I looked, the more of them I could see sticking out of the soft grey sandy rocks that lined the river bank. I even cracked open a couple of the rocks to find more inside them. It made me wonder how exactly would a cockle make it to the middle of the jungle. I thought, Costa Rica or at least the Osa Peninsula must have started beneath the ocean at some point. I went straight back up to the lookout, without falling this time, to research the geological history of Costa Rica.


It’s believed that about fifty million years ago, when North and South America were not yet joined by land and water passed between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Cocos tectonic plate (on the Pacific side of the two continents) began to push against the Caribbean plate. In doing so, this caused the Caribbean plate to run over the top of it, slowly pushing Central America up from the seafloor in the form of volcanic islands. Sediment from North and South America brought in by ocean currents through the gaps between these islands, deposited incrementally over millions of years until it was completely filled in and the isthmus that is Central America was formed around three million years ago. To me this suggests that shells might be commonly found inland across most of Central America but I couldn't find anything online to validate this. Other research suggests that the Osa Peninsula itself was formed in a similar way, the result of seamount accretion, sediment accumulating on underwater geological features during the same period. So, while I’m certainly no geological expert, I think it must be this formation that brought the shells to Tamandua. Geology is not a subject I’ve been tremendously interested in previously but a simple shell sent me into a rabbit hole of article after article about the geology of Central America and anew found interest was accidentally born.



Rebeca offered for us to use the WiFi at her house in town. So, the next day we walked into town together. Just before we arrived at Rebeca’s her WiFi reception had cut out, so the trip became somewhat redundant. Her house, however, was beautiful. It was built by her husband Ananyas who works in construction. Their dining table, where we sat, was on a large sheltered decking area overlooking the jungle canopy. After playing a game of catch and then piggy in the middle with her two children we headed further into town to get supplies to make the trip worth the walk. The second we arrived home another storm came in and we watched the lightning for a few hours.


Waking up to much drier day, it was the penultimate day before the first guests arrived. We’d been spoilt to have had the entire place to ourselves up to this point. We spent the day tirelessly cleaning the cabins with Rebeca and her sister-in-law in preparation for a French tour group. Rebeca also informed us that she was going to have to cut our time volunteering here short. She had lots of visitors coming over the next month. The only volunteers she could find to cover that period would arrive in a few days and she couldn’t afford to feed us all. It was really disappointing news. I loved staying and working here. But she needs to put the running of the station first, so could empathise with her decision. She agreed to let me stay for a few days after the volunteers arrive which I appreciated. All in all, there really wasn’t a whole lot to report for this day, other than the hard work and disappointing news.


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