Costa Rica is mainly known for its beaches and volcanoes, but in the mountains near San José—just 1.5 hours from the city—you can drive up to 3,000 meters (~9,800 ft) above sea level and experience a completely different environment.
This is one of my favorite places to visit, and in the past, I’ve gone there a couple of times with my family to hike Cerro La Asunción.
However, last Sunday I went to an area called Siberia to learn about and observe mushrooms in this high-altitude ecosystem.
Here are my favorite pictures from the trip:
The forest exploration took about 2 hours, we were guided by a couple of young biologists but we also had time for our own exploration (I was lucky to find a yellow Amanita, second picture above)
Even though the hike was easy, you could feel the lack of oxygen when walking up even a small hill.
The climate wasn’t bad, I was expecting it to be much colder, but a rain jacket was enough. And even though we’re in rainy season we didn’t get any rain.
After the exploration, we enjoyed a fantastic lunch prepared by the family who owns the property.
We ate at their home, a traditional old wooden house with family photos on the walls and a kitchen featuring a large cast-iron range.
We then walked down the property to where Don Martín produces shiitake mushrooms using the traditional method of growing them on wood logs. I had seen this in pictures before, but seeing all those logs in person was an amazing experience:
After the shiitake tour, we returned to the house, where we learned more about the mushrooms we had collected, and enjoyed a cup of agua dulce and homemade bread.
The tour was organized by Oropopo Experience:
Sustainability is at our core, we promote Community-based Rural Tourism as a tool to enhance local economies and protect natural resources.
https://oropopoexperience.com/
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