Going to Costa Rica...will hack coconuts

E

Eager

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Oct 9, 2002
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I'm going to Costa Rica for a couple weeks in early August. I've been there several times before since my wife's from there and I met her there. She's down there already with the kids. I'll mostly be at the in-laws place in the mountains which is right near this resort http://www.chachaguarainforesthotel.com/ Here's a pic. of what it's like there
foto8.jpg


The in-laws have access to this creek so I'll be swimming and try fishing (for god knows what creatures, maybe trout) in it.

Anyway, It's always fun to hack open coconuts there so I'll be doing that. I just bought the BlackJack Panga (I know it's too thin! but I couldn't resist) ordered from NewGraham but it hasn't arrived yet, so I can't comment on it yet. I also sent a Helle stainless mora off for a Kydex sheath that seemed like it would make a good small knife for the wet environment. I read where Costa Rica has a blade length limit of about 3.6-inches on carried folders and my favorite Blade Tech Large Hunter exceeds that so I gives me a (weak) excuse to order a Para-Mili, which I'll do soon. I also think I'll get a BK9 maybe with a custom kydex sheath to try out there. I have a BK7 and Swamp Rat CampTramp but prefer the BK 'cause of the thinner blade which I think will be more useful there for what I'll do (mostly open coconuts) and maybe hack at vegetation. I'll also buy one or two local machetes as I have done in the past and try them out too. Since my spanish is good now (after 10 years of listening to my wifes Mexican, Venezuelan, Peruvian, and Colombia soap operas) I will ask around as to what is the best quality local machete (they're not expensive) and get one of their handmade leather scabbards. Good knives are very popular there amongs my in-laws espesically multi-tools. In the past I have left a leatherman (basic model) a SOG paratool, and a leatherman wave with in-laws. I may leave anything I bring as gifts. I'll also bring a couple of Sharpmakers and a Lansky with an X-tra course diamond hone and I think I'll try one of those diamond files from Harbour Freight to test on machetes. I've also sent down two sets of two MAC kitchen knives (one paring, one 6" utility) with my wive to give as gifts for her mom and dad and one set for her sisters family. These are the most practical kitchen knives for me. I'll bing sharpmakers to them when I come and show them how to use them then they'll be set. Foriegn technology is expensive there. They mostly use Tramontina (Brazillian) knives there. I might be able to get some Cocobolo. My brother in-laws freind owns a furniture (making) shop (down the street), and he (my brother in-law) has incredible (dense) furniture made by this guy.

I'll try to take some pics, particular of any knife work, but I'm pretty easy on knives so we probably won't learn much. Anyway, it should be fun. Oh and I'll be drinking the (tap) water as I always have before so don't give me that old rubbish line. The biggest danger in Costa Rica are the women. Just ask all the gringos who went and are still there, or (like me) left with a bit extra baggage (a wife and one kid). That tropical aroma is like a drug.
 
Sounds like a great place and your are already almost a "local". How are you getting all those blades down there? On the bus? This is a great adventure and lots of fun with the in-laws. They really know hospitality down there.

I, also a gringo, used to visit extended familia in Mex and we had some great times.

Buen Viaje, send pics.
 
How are you getting all those blades down there?
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On the plane in my luggage. Why do you ask? It's worked for me in the past and It just worked for the wife with the four MAC knives. It should work for me (as long as they're not ripped off by baggage handlers, which is a risk).

Since I have red/blond hair and my skin is almost albino white, I'll always be seen as a "gringo". But that's OK. They fear me.
 
Since I have red/blond hair and my skin is almost albino white, I'll always be seen as a "gringo". But that's OK. They fear me.[/QUOTE]

I'd fear the Bot Fly. My son, a PhD Biologist is at the ACG Bio Preserve right now. The high point of his last trip was when a couple of German Entymologists got all caught in his bat nets.

Enjoy your trip.
 
To split open coconut (green not dried coconuts) I use (and coconut shops around in PR) a short, thin bladed machete. Sheffield Brazil and tramotina are economical and all you need. If you enjoy coconut water (as I do) a long, pointy knife to make a pyramidal hole in the top is best. I use an old frost chef knife that has lost its curvature due to years of sharpening and now has an almost perfectly triangular tip. Thick knives or machetes hace no business opening coconuts.

Hope it helps,


Robert
 
I'd fear the Bot Fly.
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Now why in he!! did you have to mention that. I'd heard of this before but upon looking it up I see that a good many of the (too many) cases originate from the area right where I'm going. Damn you. I'll have to query the wife on this and see what stories her folks have (and I'm sure they'll have some).

Once my wife's grandfather cursed me for taking her german shepard up the nearby mountain with me because of some type of similar fly. I didn't thjink about it much at the time.
http://www.vexman.com/botfly.htm
 
Thick knives or machetes have no business opening coconuts.
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Well then maybe the BlackJack Panga will work out better than I though after all. I have opened a few coconuts too and my results match what you've said. I figured out early that one needed his own machete to open the plentiful green coconuts throughout Costa Rica, so I got a nice short one and still have it, and it is very thin, too thin I think 'cause it flexes too much for my taste. But I'll see soon enough. I will try the BK9 on the cocos, but I suspect (like you say) that It could end up binding. I see that the Costa Ricans prefer the long models for opening cocos with the knife like blade shape (almost exclusively) so I think I'll try one of those this time. I'ts all about experimenting and having fun. I was first attacted to the BlackJack Panga for that very reason (It looked like a good coco cutter) plus I love stuff made by Bark River Knife and Tool who make the new Pangas for Ken Warner of BlackJack.
 
When in Rome do as the Romans do. I'd keep a low profile that way and try to blend in with the clothes I wear and yes, even in the knives I carried just so as not to stand out as one of the 'haves' to all the 'have nots' if you get my drift.
 
If you get a fly larvae in, although not pleasant, it can be fairly easily removed (by a doctor, that is).
 
Sounds like what you tried to split was a dehusked coconut. I've never seen those in Costa Rica, only real coconuts with the husk still on. No one bothers with mature cocos like that there that I've seen 'cause what people want is the liquid (lightly sweet water). Most dumb gringos think that milk comes out of a coconut. That's BS. The milk that you buy in can is condensed coconut juice (which is basically water with only a little natural sugar) purreed with all the meat there is in the coco. It probably takes a lot of nuts to make one can of "milk". But coconuts are very cheap.

Anyway what most do is hack off the side of the coco. Hacking off slices of the husk stroke by stroke like chopping wood until "ding" you hit the hard wood ball of the "nut". Then with enough of the husk hacked away so you've exposed part of the hardwood ball laying to one side, you start shaving chips off the wood. Ding, ding, a little at a time until youve exposed the white meat. You want to leave a membrane of the meat so that the juice doesn't run out. Then, with a straw, you peirce the meat membrane and drink the untainted water like from a big cup. Alternatively, without a straw you can rip open the meat membrane with your fingers and drink from it like a cup. Then you scoop out the gelatinous meat (of the young green coconut) with a slice of the wood ball that you've shaved off. If you can't find a tree, you can buy them at that market like a giant bunch of green grapes for like fifty cents a bunch. Nobody bothers with mature coconuts 'cause there's very little liquid. Just a lot of dry meat that tastes like straw after the first little bit. The only down side is that It generates a whole pile of husk debry pretty quick that is ugly and difficult to get rid of.

Anyway, I love opening coconuts. I wish I had one right now with a machete. Once we were at a resort on the Caribean side swimming at the pool with the kids. Every hour or so I go get a coco from a tree, open and drink it. To one side of the pool was a lime tree. So...I put the lime in the coconut and drank 'em both togetha. And then I felt better. Maybe I'll find some sugar cane there this time.
 
Eager, I think you will like the Panga. I just got back from Costa Rica. Very nice country and nice people. Rainy season as you likely know, but a lot of sun most of the day. Clouded up around 3PM daily. Kinda weird getting dark before 7PM though.
Enjoy the Panga and your trip.
Regards, Mike
 
You are pretty much on target with what you are taking. Tramontina machetes are the most common there and can be picked up at any Fereteria. If you will chop away the top of the coconut, you'll find it each to "drill" the point of the knife into the top. Just watch out since they sometimes spew all over the place when you break through the membrane. :eek: You stand out alot less with a machete and a V'nox (very available as well) down there. I lived there for a little over a year and love it!
 
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