TheBanyanTree: Shade of a Guanacaste

[B Drummond]

Found another tree on my last business trip that I've come to love.

It's the Guanacaste.

We had to make a trip a couple of weeks ago from San Jose to the  
providence of Guanacaste to check some equipment installed there.  We  
left San Jose around 6:00 AM and drove up over the mountains,  
arriving at the Reserva Conchal around 11:00 AM.  On the way up one  
of the Costa Rican guys riding with us pointed out a big one that  
cast a huge shade over the area where we turned off a main road onto  
a unbelievably rough rock-strewn path, a secondary road down to the  
Pacific coast and on the Conchal.  "That's a Guanacaste," he said  
proudly.  "The providence here is named for it," he continued.  "In  
fact, it's our national tree."  You could see his chest swell with  
pride as he declared its importance to Costa Ricans.

In Reserva Conchal parrots and iguanas coursed the branches of a huge  
tree where we, after the work was done,  took a late lunch;  a lunch  
interrupted by  iguanas occasionally dropping down from the sparse  
branches of an old, old Guanacaste tree onto the metal roof with a  
heavy thud, followed immediately by a wild skittering, a frenetic  
scratching of claws on the roof as they hurried off of the scalding  
hot surface to the relative coolness of the underside of the roof.

We later sat in the shade of another Guanacaste, snacked on  
patacones, chimichurri, gallo pinto and Imperial beer, all the while  
admiring the view of the Pacific Coast with its deep blue waters and  
islands just off shore.   And then at the close of the day we each  
drank a toast with a shot of Cacique guaro to the work accomplished  
and to new found friends.

Like the huge live oaks with canopies as wide as their height that  
the Seminoles and Creeks prized so highly for their great shade, so  
did the indigenous people of Costa Rica with their Guanacaste trees.   
And the other bonus to me was their similarities to the mimosas that  
grew so abundantly back home.


Yep, from the first moment I laid eyes on one, the Guanacaste had yet  
another admirer.