Sounds dramatic, doesn't it: "I live on a volcano." Yes, it's true, because even though the farm I own with @michelios doesn't sit directly on the cone, we are still almost one thousand meters up the northeastern slope of Volcan Miravalles.
The view from here is phenomenal. Directly across the road from the barn in my cover photo is an overlook, hence the name "Finca Mirador" for that working cattle ranch. The overlook, pictured below, offers a view not only of the Upala region of northern Costa Rica, but of the international border and Lake Nicaragua in the distance.
Volcan Miravalles hasn't erupted properly in approximately a million years, although it did indulge in a slight steam burp in 1946. It's considered dormant, but it still sits atop a potboiling amount of heat, enough to power a geothermal energy plant located on southwest slope near Las Hornillas. Volcan Miravalles produces the largest developed geothermal field in Costa Rica...not to mention several hot springs that are popular tourist attractions on the Guanacaste side of the mountain.
The next photo is the view I get of the cone during my drive home from Bijagua, which is the nearest town.
Then there's this view of the mountain range from Highway 1 north of Cañas.
And the view of the cone from my front porch.
In the region around our farm, nature often holds beautiful surprises. Like the end of the rainbow promising a pot of gold near the base of Tenorio, our nearest volcanic neighbor. (Photo courtesy of @sircork.)
And the stunning blue of Rio Celeste, taking its color from minerals produced by volcanic activity near its source.
Some of the surprises here are of the most unnatural sort, like an old North Allegheny District School bus parked at the local gasolinera. I assume that school districts in the U.S. sell their retired buses at auction, and buyers from Central America pay to have them shipped down for use here. The schools in Bijagua seem to have a rather sophisticated busing system for students who live in rural parts of the area. Costa Rica is definitely developing, less of a banana republic than some First World nations are becoming. But I digress. ;-)
Our farm is 2.4 hectares, or approximately six acres, of flat, usable land with a primary river forming the north border and three quebradas that feed into it. It has no flooding or landslide issues, probably because the family that owned and farmed it for generations did a great job engineering the water flow across this property. It has an old farmhouse and a barn, both of which were in barely salvageable condition when we purchased the land. We are in the process of restoring them, working from the outside in, leaving the main living area of the house as our final project.
We recently raised enough money through my pending 501c3 in the U.S. to renovate the barn. This is where we house many rescued animals, like several dogs and our goat named Alecia.
The barn was in terrible condition, with a crumbling metal roof and interior that was beginning to show water damage. Here is the before photo of the north side of the barn.
Then our favorite builders, Nano and his father Salomon, showed up for work and got the entire barn under a new roof in one day. They are pictured in the photos below as they tear off the bad roofing material in preparation to replace it, and then as they begin to raise and attach the new laminated panels.
The following two photos are before and after of the barn's interior. It went from a dank, icky, unpleasant place to a watertight graveled play area for our rescue dogs, as well as roosting area for our chickens and safe stall for Alecia to sleep in at night.
I think it looks very nice now. It's an old barn, needs to look like an old barn, but like an old barn that is loved. I believe we have accomplished that.
I have worked with rescue dogs for more than a decade. Here in Costa Rica, in my halfhearted attempt to retire, I decided our purpose was to not function as a rescue so much as a sanctuary. Instead of rescuing dogs from the street, I partner with established Costa Rican rescues to take in their most critical cases, whether that be for behavioral or medical reasons.
One example of this is Fenix. I will show her "after" photo first, because her "before" photos are shocking and hard to look at. I want to establish right away that despite the gruesome injury, she healed up just fine and is living her best life here, serving proudly as a diplomat to welcome new incoming dogs.
Fenix is the black and tan dog. You can see on the top of her neck what looks like a crease, or a large dimple. That's because some horrible excuse for a human tried to behead her with a machete. Below is the first photo that was sent to me by a local woman involved with rescues in the area. This is the photo she was circulating in case anyone had seen the dog, as she'd been made aware of the situation but could not find the dog.
Some days later, restaurant owners in the area of Tenorio National Park located the dog, captured her, and sought veterinary care. That's when I was able to assist and took her to the veterinarian I use in Upala.
The wound was horrific. But Fenix was in good hands now.
Dr. Ivannia debrided the surface of the wound and prescribed not only antibiotics but sugardine therapy. She did not stitch the wound closed but taught me how to pack it with sugardine and bandage it to hold the poultice in place.
It took several weeks, but the wound healed steadily and surely with no infection or setback. Fenix made sure to thank me for helping her every chance she got.
She was soon feeling right as rain, and even made it to the next sterilization clinic held in Bijagua by the town's local rescue organization.
Joining her at that particular clinic were two other dogs from my sanctuary, Celeste (who now belongs to Sircork) and Cerise, a dog who was thrown out on the street with seven tiny puppies. Well, we took care of Cerise and her puppies--they are all sterilized now and one of them flew to a home in the U.S. But Cerise will never have to worry about being abandoned with babies again, and her babies never have to worry about that, either.
Sterilizations are not the only veterinary issues we have with these animals, unfortunately. Some of the local wildlife is very toxic for them and encounters can be deadly. We've had two dogs poisoned from licking a cane toad. First was Dakota, one of the dogs we brought with us from Morocco. He had seizures for twenty-four hours, even after being treated by a veterinarian. It was a close call for him, but he survived.
More recently, our girl Raven played with a cane toad and became violently ill. She had extremely violent seizures for twenty-four hours, even after the vet administered anti-convulsant medication. We kept her on a fast IV drip until the seizures stopped happening, hoping the extra fluids would help flush the poison out of her system. It did, but she had a very, very close brush with death.
Cane toads are not the only deadly animals we find on our farm. We have discovered and exterminated multiple terciopelos, a snake commonly called the fer de lance. They are one of the most venomous vipers on the planet and even though we love all animals and hate to kill any of them, it would be utterly irresponsible of us to allow a snake this dangerous to co-exist with us here on this land. Locals kill them without hesitation, and we follow their lead.
We keep our veterinary kit well-stocked with emergency supplies. A medic in a former iteration of my life, I am familiar with using intravenous administration of fluids and giving injections. These skills come in handy with this many animals, especially when we live half an hour from the nearest town. Anti-venom for tercipelo bite is also available, and Dr. Ivannia has said she will help me obtain a supply.
All of the creatures we find here are not toxic or deadly. Take this basilisk lizard, for example. She was stuffed full of eggs when we found her. We did not keep her as a pet, so conservationists, please relax. She went back to the jungle where we found her, and we have seen many tiny basilisk babies around the farm, so we assume the hatching was successful.
I stepped out onto my porch one night to find a very large red-legged bromeliad spider staring at me from a porch picket.
Unlike their venomous cousins, wandering spiders and banana spiders, this species of arachnid is relatively harmless. Great for insect control. They weave webs like the common garden spider, like this one she wove the following night suspended between the overhead electrical cable and my car. I took these photos of her many weeks ago and she is still out there, weaving a new web every time I move my car, happily destroying as many flying insects as she can. We saw her just tonight. She is welcome to live here as long as she wants.
I'll continue sharing photos and information about Michel's and my life on the farm in a second post, coming tomorrow. I have pictures of the farm, pictures of us, many more interesting details to share. For now I leave you with a picture of Esther and Lollie, the two Amazon yellow-naped parrots we've worked hard to rescue and rehabilitate so they can now fly free. They had a frightening abduction by poachers not so long ago, so you'll definitely want to catch my next post to learn how we found them and got them back!
