SYMPHONY COMES TO CHIMIROL

September 15th was Independence Day in Costa Rica. As part of the celebration this year, Chimirol had its annual town festival. Most every town in Costa Rica has an annual festival or some sort. In the past, the Chimirol festival was held in February, the middle of summer, so as to minimize the effects of rain. This year was the first time the Chimirol Festival, Civicas Festivas, was held in September.

The festival start on Monday, September 13^th and ran for 7 days with various activities throughout the week including the usual bingo, desfile de faroles (see blog entry from Sept 2009 for more information), dances, karaoke, food, and the community horseback ride.

This year there were 2 very special events. On Monday and Tuesday, the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) from San Jose brought a traveling exhibition to Chimirol. It was very informative and well attended.

On Thursday night the Music School in San Isidro bought their Youth Symphony to Chimirol. The symphony consisted of approximately 40 children ranging in age from 7 to 17 years old. This is the first time a symphony concert has been held in Chimirol. The concert took place in the covered open gymnasium at the grade school. Despite the rain falling, it was standing room only. I think that every one that lives in Chimirol attended.

The first half of the concert was the full symphony playing classical numbers as well as show tunes and movie themes such as the theme from the Godfather. The second half of the concert was a smaller group of older students as a jazz ensemble playing traditional Costa Rica songs, salsa, cumbia and latin jazz selections.

It was a magical night sitting in country side with the rainforest and Rio Chirripo just steps away listening to a symphony concert. Everyone seemed to have a great time and was talking about the the Music School coming back next year.

I have included a few photos of the concert. These photos were taken by Hai Zhang from New York. Hai has returned to Monte Azul this week for the 2^nd part of his Artist in Residence. He is here continuing work on a long-term project with Monte Azul.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY THIS PLANT?

There is a plant at the farm that no one seems to know its name or anything else. There are several of them around Café Blue, the Casitas and the front gate. They are nondescript plants that fade into the mix of all the other greenery. They look like large shrubs with thick dark green leaves and woody stems. They are slow growing and the older leaves and woody parts are covered in moss and other plants. The plant never drops it s leaves and the new growth is cleaner and brighter than the older leaves. They tend to grow in the shade of all the plants that surround them. The leaves are about 4 inches long.

When the plant flowers it burst out of the shadows in a profuse and magnificent show of white and lavender blooms. These flowers are big and gorgeous. The center of the flower is 4 white petals, each about 1 inch long. The stamens are very long, about 3-4 inches, and go from white to lavender anthers. The flowers do not smell.

The buds form and begin to bloom around mid July and last through the end of August. The buds do not all bloom at the same time but new buds open as others start to drop their petals and stamens. Another interesting fact is that the plants on the property do not all bloom every year. The plant behind Café Blue bloomed in 2007 and has not bloomed again. The year it bloomed, the plant produced 1 large seed pod that was tear drop shaped. It was about 5 inches long and very hard. After months of watching it, it finally fell from the tree. We opened it up and tried to propagate the seeds but none of the seeds grew.

Last year a plant near the gate bloomed but did not bloom this year. Instead, this year a large plant between Casita Naranja and Casita Celeste bloomed. This is a very interesting plant that we will continue to keep watching and attempting to unlock some of its secrets. It also teaches us that there is a world of plant and animal life in the rain forest that still remains a secret.

If anyone has any guess as to the name of this plant or any other information, we would love to hear your thoughts