If your fantasies revolve around 600-lb. beasts that look like a cross between a pig and a horse, therapy might be advised unless you happen to be Jack Ewing. As Director and co-owner of Hacienda Barú, a National Wildlife Refuge near the southern Pacific town of Dominical, Ewing longs for the day that this particular mammal, the tapir, will return to the vicinity, hopefully within 15 years. "The tapir has become symbolic to me," he elaborates. "The last one around here was killed in 1957, but this is just one of several species that we no longer see.
The scarlet macaw, for instance, the jaguar, and the white-lipped peccary, can still be found in other parts of Costa Rica, along with the tapir. Our mission at Hacienda Barú is to restore their natural habitats, to oversee the regeneration of forests that will link up their migratory corridor once more.
Hacienda Barú
That corridor is known as El Paso de la Danta The Path of the Tapir. A key section of it holds the 800-acre refuge and encompasses rainforest, mangroves, river and beach habitats. Ewing explains that 100 years ago the southern region was all forest, but became fragmented through agriculture, cattle raising and urban development.
Many species lost their homes, and others fell prey to hunters. Curiously, when Jack Ewing himself came to Costa Rica 31 years ago, it was not as an environmentalist, but as a cattle rancher who cleared trees for pasture and hunted for sport. His conversion began the day one of his men shot an ocelot on the land.
I looked at this beautiful, dead animal and felt terrible. Just awful I felt personally responsible, and wondered to myself if maybe that was the last ocelot in our area. After that I never hunted again.
Ewing gradually shifted his focus from cattle to conservation, and in partnership with Steve Stroud, began to entertain and educate visitors with wildlife tours. Cabins and a restaurant were added near the homestead, and in 1995, Hacienda Barú was declared a National Wildlife Refuge by presidential decree. A self-sustaining enterprise, it relies entirely upon eco-tourism and private donations.
The refuge is also the headquarters of ASANA, a local conservation organization dedicated to such projects as The Path of the Tapir and the rescue of Olive Ridley turtles. Recently, a butterfly garden has been added to the property, complete with a laboratory for the eggs.
Life on our planet, Ewing points out, is at its most abundant and diverse in the rainforest. With his wife Diane and their two children, he has made the forest his second home, encouraging others to partake of its pleasures with respect.
A 108-foot observation tower has been built in the trees, along with zip-lines which are 7,000-pound tested for soaring from one ridge top to another, emulating the flight of the toucan.
If you know the forest from the ground, you only know half of it, comments Ewing, but if you’re up in the canopy, then your reality expands into a sphere.
Overnight tenting in the jungle provides a unique thrill, while guided treks along the mangrove, riverbank and seashore inspire another kind of awe. Sightings of three-toed tree sloths are common, as well as hawks, turkey vultures, white-faced monkeys, river otters and two kinds of crocodiles. Although an epidemic of yellow fever in 1947 eradicated both howler and spider monkey populations, the howlers have started to re-appear south of the Barú River.
Diane Ewing, a dainty blond whose appearance belies her ruggedness, joins her husband's conversation only at intervals this morning. She is busy tending to two young adventurers for painful but minor injuries. A footbath of hot water and alcohol is prepared for a girl who stepped on a stingray in the water. Ointment and a gauze bandage are applied to a boy's foot for his broken blisters. "This seems to be my day for feet," laughed Diane. "I just finished taking a thorn out of a horse's hoof.
Okay, who's next? A pedicure, anyone?" Home remedies became her specialty while raising two children in a remote area that didn't have electricity or other services for decades. When she is not acting like a doctor and managing business at the refuge, Diane enjoys the freedom of the forest canopy, side by side with Jack.
Getting there
If driving from San José, take the InterAmerican highway to San Isidro de El General, then follow the paved road to Dominical, which leads to a gravel road parallel to the coastline. The refuge is two km. away the entire trip takes under four hours. Buses also go from the Coca Cola in San José to San Isidro, where local taxis complete the journey for $20.
