Monteverde

So I have little to do at this point. My paper is nearly complete, pending only a few changes from the research paper/statistics guru hired by the ACM, Mike McCoy. I haven't really been up to a whole lot of interesting stuff since the last blog post. I spent a weekend with the host family in San Jose and then went to Monteverde, which was one of the highlights of the past 4 months.

Though Monteverde is relatively close to San Jose, the bus ride there is pretty long (about 5 hours or longer depending on traffic). 2 buses a day leave for Monteverde from San Jose. As our bus left on a Friday afternoon, you can imagine that it was pretty packed, but hey, it wouldn't be Costa Rica without the sweaty buses.

The first day in Monteverde, Kelsey and I went to the Selvatura Reserve to walk on the bridges they have in the canopy. Although there were no Resplendent Quetzales (see below) on this walk, we did manage to see a Coati Mundi foraging for insects about 150 feet above the forest floor. How it got there, we are not quite sure.

After that, we took a taxi straight to the Bat Museum. It's a place that was opened by one of the world's foremost bat scientists to educate the public about what I have come to realize are the most important mammals on the planet (and the most diverse). A single bat colony can eat 250 million tons of insects in a single night. Bats are also crucial pollinators for a large diversity of plants that humans rely on for agricultural and medicinal purposes. Their poop (guano) is also rich in phosphorus, the most important building block for DNA.

After that, we walked backed into town (Santa Elena) and went to an ice cream shop. There we met up with another Macalester student who is on a different study abroad program based in Santa Elena (OTS - owners of La Selva). She asked us if we wanted to climb a tree. No person in their right mind would ever refuse such an intriguing proposal so we followed her to the most impressive strangler fig I've ever seen. After climbing at least 100 feet up the inside of the tree's "trunk" we emerged at the top for a breathtaking view of the valley below. I wouldn't recommend this for people with a fear of heights.

The local supermarket had bratwurst. Kelsey and I ate 6 for dinner.

The next morning we woke up early and went to the Monteverde Reserve in search of the quetzal. After 4 hours of hiking, we had not seen a single quetzal despite hearing his melancholic call many times. It wasn't a huge letdown as the forest itself was one of the more beautiful I had ever seen. I'd been to Monteverde about 10 years earlier but we never made it to the reserve. For anyone thinking about visiting Monteverde, this park is the one attraction you must be sure to see!

Anyway, back to the story. We walked around for 4 hours but saw no quetzal. After the hike, we found a seat in the plaza in front of the reserve to wait for a taxi to swing by and pick us up. We had been seated for about 15 minutes when a woman began to scream in delight. She finally came to her senses and told us that a quetzal had landed in one of the only trees bordering the plaza. We raced over to see it. I caught a 2-second glimpse of his front before a clumsy Tico, obviously in awe, backed up into a trash can (knocking it over), trying to get a good view. The bird took flight and its long tail feathers followed its red belly and then it landed on a branch further away. We got to admire his backside for a few minutes and then he flew away in search of a more private piece of cloud forest canopy. It was really cool.

We took the taxi back to the hotel in Santa Elena, ate a quick lunch, and boarded the bus back to San Jose. All in all it was an excellent trip and I'd say that Kelsey and I were very efficient with the time we had in Monteverde. It is a place I'd say that every visitor (and resident) to Costa Rica must see.

Anyway, that's all for now. This Friday we are off to the Nicoya for the last trip in Costa Rica. I will be returning to the US on May 28th.

Rounding out Sarapiqui

The two months are up. I'm back from Sarapiqui, quite tanned, speaking fluent Spanish, and missing it already. I've come to realize that I rather don't like San Jose. As a young adult it's probably a fascinating place to be but to me it is a place of chaos (fueled chiefly by the total anarchy on the city's roads).

Currently I am in what you'd call "crunch time." I have only 2.5 remaining weeks to analyze the mountain of data I collected over the past 2 months, and then the idea is that I write something. I actually put off writing this blog for so long for that very reason. There is so much I'd love to do with the spiders that currently sit on my desk in my San Pedro house, but unfortunately I won't have time (and so for now on they are not spiders, but rather numbers and dates). My young host brothers take an inordinate amount of joy from pulling a random spider from my bag and asking me (the spider "expert") if it is venomous. To their disappointment, most aren't.

And now to pick up where I left off the last time. My Semana Santa was pretty brilliant. I left Puerto Viejo around 7:30 and met up with Kelsey in San Jose. We boarded the bus to San Isidro and eventually ended up in the hotel around 9 o'clock that night. I'm telling you, the ACM needs to start providing jets to each student - it would really help us get the full Costa Rica experience (actually, I suppose 75% of the authentic Costa Rica experience would involve some form of traveling - a healthy portion of the other 25%, at least for me, would involve fighting monkeys).

Uvita was waaaaaaay different from Dominical (though a GPS would disagree). We came during Semana Santa, Costa Rica's spring break, but Uvita was empty. The hotel was about 2.5 km from the beach, where we headed for the first day. Kelsey and I walked until we decided that the beach was empty enough. Only one person passed the entire day.

The next day we went to a nearby waterfall. This one perhaps not as dramatic as the one I previously described, but much more fun for thrill seekers like myself. I had the chance to slide down the waterfall (something Kelsey also tried after some coaxing). I jumped off a 35 ft. cliff time and time again, and I also had the chance to fly from a rope swing that hung even higher above the water. It was AWESOME. The waterfall was a nice contrast to the beach for it's shady environment (it was also hidden within the forest) and it's refreshingly cool waters. Unfortunately the falls were not as deserted as the beach, but the people there (all of whom were ticos, were very friendly).

On our third and final full day in Uvita, Kelsey and I splurged on a trip to Isla de Caño - a place I had been lucky enough to have seen before. The boat ride out lasts about an hour and a half and we saw plenty of sea turtles (who are actually very conspicous as tired birds fancy them for places to land in the open sea) and even dolphins jumping out of the water. When we arrived at the island we started snorkeling in the surrounding reefs but the water was a bit murkey. That lasted about an hour and then we headed to shore for lunch and relaxation time. After that we went snorkeling again, but this time in a much more vibrant site. Immediately after plunging into the luke warm water, I was confronted with a school of hundreds of enormous fish. I took the liberty of diving down to join them and for a few seconds I knew roughly what it felt like to be one of these fish (though I guess if I am self-conscious enough to make that reflection then I can never really know what it's like to be a fish - but that's more of a philosophical question, isn't it?)

The trip home from Uvita was unconventional. It involved a Mitsubishi Eclipse on the brink of collapse and a lot of water - I'll leave it at that (it's a shame I don't have pictures).

The rest of my time in Sarapiqui was spent working far too much. For a lack of other things to do in the final weeks, I worked about 12 hours a day with my spiders. I did, however, manage to snap a picture of a baby hummingbird seconds before it took its first flight:


I may have accelerated her departure from the nest - oh well, she'll be fine (her brother had already left, anyway).

Over the last few days, this very large insect could be found crawling on the window sills:


On my second to last day in Sarapiqui, I took a heap of photos of my house and the surrounding gardens, here are a few pictures (including: a delicious type of lime used to make a refreshing drink, La Guaria Morada (national flower), the a view of the backyard, the front porch, and one of the organically-grown pineapples in progress in the backyard):






Overall the rural stay was excellent. I was only glad to leave the heat (it rarely got below 90 degrees). On the return to San Jose I felt like a scientifically-inclined relative of Santa; hauling my huge sack of spiders along with all of my other luggage. The best news that came from leaving Sarapiqui was that my host family got me a La Selva t-shirt with a spider on it. It's awesome, I'm wearing it right now.

After a week in San Jose, I went back to Cahuita last weekend with some of the guys in the program. Overall it was very relaxing and I was happy to have had the chance to make it out to the point. The hike out there is about 40 minutes long through a very beautiful trail bordering the beach - I recommend it, though I do warn you that the monkeys are even more numerous out there. I got a good workout chasing those little buggers away from our backpacks, they are fearless, that is until a really big monkey (me) comes charging at them using its fiercest battle cry.

This week is pure work. I was happy to see Manchester United beat Arsenal with outstanding style. After seeing the Barcelona-Chelsea match I came to the conclusion that it would be an injustice if Manchester United is not victorious in the final in Rome - but I don't think I have much to worry about.

This weekend I have no plans but to work a fair amount. The following weekend I will most likely be traveling somewhere (perhaps Monteverde), and for my final week here I already have plans to stay in the country's first natural reserve on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula (in Guanacaste). Should be a blast - I'll keep you updated.

What the heck I'm working on

By popular demand, I shall tell you.

In my room, as I mentioned, I am have about 550 arachnids preserved in 95% ethanol. I have a Nikon stereoscope, and I have a fiber optic light to illuminate stuff.



With this scope I can look at small details of the spiders in high-resolution and this helps me group individuals of the same species. I spend a lot of time in front of this apparatus. After plenty of separation I quickly estimate I have about 70 species of arachnids (and when I say arachnids, I limit this to the true spiders, Opiliones (daddy-long legs), and Ricinulei - google them, they're cool - I am not including mites etc. because they are simply TOO diverse).

Every other morning I walk about 2.5 km to a nearby forest to collect leaf litter. I am taking litter samples from three different types of forest: and abandoned cacao plantation, secondary forest, and primary forest. My goal: to determine whether species diversity increases between these different successional stages. The results of this study will have conservational implications in addition to the fact that I imagine I have a few undiscovered species in my collection (as the leaf litter of the hyper-diverse tropics is sort of a final frontier for taxonomists). I will donate my specimens to the UCR for identification when the project is over and they will keep me updated as to what they find.

I owe much of the current success of this project to the practical expertise of my biologist host father and the equipment he has provided me. I finally feel like a real biologist and I'm happy to spend 12-13 hours per day working with the leaf litter (and that which I pull out).

If all goes well, I will be looking to publish the findings of this project in a smaller journal for tropical studies. This would be an ultimate success but I don't see it as an impossibility.

It's been awhile

And that, readers, is precisely why I imagine the following will be one of my more substantial entries. These past 30 days have provided enough sights and sounds (and smells) new to my experience that the way I understand our place and responsibility (as proud, sapient beings) on this planet has completely changed.

I don't remember what I've told you previously about my host site but I am going to start from scratch (and do it right) My house in Sarapiqui is wonderful - the nicest-looking in the neighborhood. It's built upon one of three adjoined lots that are the property of my host father, Danilo Brenes. With the other land the family has chosen to develop an enviable garden where one can find a diverse assortment of fruits I wouldn't expect you to know (some are heavenly, some not for me).

I sleep at night, like the rest of the family, with a mosquito net draped around the bed posts. There are plenty of mosquitos (zancudos) around, but more than anything I'd say it's for peace of mind. I yucca almost every day, and never has it been out of the ground more than a few hours beforehand. Of course, rice and beans are served with every meal. Combine them with a strong cup of Costa Rican coffee and a plate of fried plantains and you've got a real Costa Rican breakfast. I can see the travel slogans now - Costa Rica: come for the beautiful beaches, stay for the sensational, jaw-dropping bowel movements.

My average day consists of about 3-4 hours of walking during the morning to collect leaf litter samples. 5-6 hours of separating leaf litter in search of three families of arachnids, and about 2 hours of separating "spiders" into groups of the same species under a Nikon stereoscope. It is nirvana for the Scott of many years past (and the agenda is more than agreeable for the current Scott, too). At times I find quite sizeable arachnids which is always a treat (see below). Currently I have about 550 individuals and hope to gather about 700 more before the project is up. Anyone who has more than a passing interest to know what I intend to do with these arachnids is more than free to shoot me an e-mail.



I also went to Dominical a few weeks ago. I suppose this could also be considered part of my agreeable agenda. The beach is kind of out of the way but the destination more than justifies the schlep (sp? - sorry Jews). From my house to Dominical, one takes 4 different buses and a taxi. A private aircraft would get you there in 20 minutes but, alas, I had lent mine out for the day (HAHA!).

Though weary from the long trip, the scenery on the last leg of the trip was enough to re-stimulate my interest in remaining conscious for at least a few more hours. We got to Dominical just in time to bear witness to one of the majestic Pacific sunsets advertised on Hawaiian postcards. Proof (needless to say the picture does not do justice):


Dominical is a good beach. I'd recommend it to anyone over the more crowded (and more expensive) beaches in Guanacaste. The waves are excellent for body surfing (and the kind with the board). I'm beginning to realize that when guide books tell you beaches are not good for swimming, it really just means that the waves are bigger and more fun. With this sunset on my back, I body-surfed a wave nearly three times higher than my head and felt a flying sensation (if only for a brief moment before the monster crashed and sent me tumbling and bending like a wet noodle).

What's better than the beach, however, are the waterfalls hidden far from the road, deep within the forest. We were lucky enough to be traveling with a tico who knew how to get to these cataratas and on our last morning in Costa Rica's south Pacific we drove his car as close to the waterfalls as possible and walked the rest of the way in the hot sun (it was about a 40 minute walk). After huffing and puffing our way through farmland we reached the edge of the forest and descended for about 10 minutes. This awaited us at the end:


You won't get a good idea of the size of this waterfall from the picture, but I would say that it was a good forty feet high. The water was crisp and refreshing and it's a shame that we could only stay for about 30 minutes before having to turn around so people could catch their respective buses home.

So that was Dominical. The next weekend I went with my host family to the grandparent's papaya/cattle farm. The farmhouse is old and rustic and built completely out of wood. There is no electricity. Despite the heat, it was the most peaceful home I'd ever seen in my life. Here it is below:


Food there is prepared on a wood burning stove and the flavor of smoke from the hard, tropical wood is out of this world. First thing when we got there, they hung strips of pork over the stove and we ate it later that night. It was, needless to say, the best pork I'd ever had.


After chopping wood to earn our keep at the farm, we rested for a while and then I went for a walk around with my host father and brother. We explored the surrounding banana plantations and I learned a lot about the way they operate. It's a tough, dangerous job to harvest bananas, trust me.

The farm is also located next to a river with a wide, sandy beach. It was nice to walk along the bank, cooling off our feet and looking for wildlife.

The next weekend I met up with the program director, Scott, and a small ACM-related posse to take a cacao tour at a plush nature reserve not far from my house. We got to sample plenty of chocolate and it was delicious (and I understand this tour was something of a religious experience for one of my female predecessors). In stores one can find dark chocolate with about 75-80% cacao (for steep prices). I got to try 100% cacao which hardly tastes like the chocolate to which we are accustomed.

The next day I woke up early to accompany my Dad to his place of work at La Selva (the fancy OTS base in the middle of primary forest). I imagine there is nothing else like it in the world. Inside I was surrounded by dense forest and expensive German microscopes, a winning combination in my book. It was a great day. Here is a picture of the lab in which I parked myself for the day:



After that I returned home and I've been working pretty intensely on my project since. Next week I am returning to the Dominical-vicinity for a few more days to enjoy Semana Santa. It's going to be sweet. More to follow.

What´s to Come

In a week I will update this blog hardcore. Posts will be about: my trip to Dominical, my trip to a papaya farm, my project, and general life in Sarapiqui. Many pictures. Get pumped.

Scott

Bienvenido a Sarapiqui

Okay, so I am actually at an internet cafe in San Isidro on the way to the beach (Dominical). I am typing on a Spanish-adapted keyboard and I don´t have the time or the patience to locate certain buttons so excuse typos and the like.

The last week was splendid. A bus from San Jose to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui takes 90 short minutes and cuts through the heart of the thickest rainforest you could fathom. When I got to Puerto Viejo (town and surrounding area pop. 40,000) my host Dad was waiting to pick me up in his small and nimble Suzuki SUV. We drove around and he showed me the sites, recounting perfectly all of the times the Rio Sarapiqui had flooded the area in the past few years. Then we returned back the house I visited a week earlier and I dropped my luggage in my room and enjoyed a fabulous lunch made by new host mother, Levinia. I have a prodigal 12 year old brother who is dominant among his peers in Uno, Dominoes, and, less important to him, academics (he is a real smart cookie).

Later that day I went for a walk in the rainforest with my host Dad Danilo and we saw hundreds of poison arrow frogs, howler monkeys, bullet ants, and tons of plants of which my dad new the latin name for every one. I fell in a swamp crossing a narrow bamboo bridge and flooded my rubber boots with water but it only added to the experience, the squish squosh of me eagerly following my host dad through previously unexplored forest.

We did a lot more and I would love to tell you about it but my time here at the internet cafe is up and I must scurry. Never fear, I will tell you about falling Caimitos and other adventures ASAP.

Scott

Going to the field

Tomorrow I am headed to my rural site for a month. I will come back to San Pedro for a few days after that and then it will be another 4 weeks in the field to finish with data collection. It is my intention to update this blog regularly from an internet cafe in town but we will have to see how that goes.

Not much to report from this week really. Tomorrow I am waking up early to catch the 7:30 bus to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui and my host Dad is going to pick me up there. I managed to get everything that I anticipate myself using over the next two months (including all equipment I will need for my project) in my school backpack and a 70L backpacking pack. It was a tight squeeze but I'm almost proud of myself for packing so light.

Next weekend I am going to Dominical with 5 other students. It's a beach on the south Pacific side of Costa Rica where the water will be exceedingly blue and warm. I will be sure to let you know how that goes.

Scott

Only the drunk drive straight in Costa Rica

Only the drunk drive straight in Costa Rica. My adviser mentioned this to me on the way back from Sarapiqui and it's true. Most roads seem unnecessarily curvy and even the straight ones are decked out with an obstacle course-like arrangement of potholes that require an impressive level of control over the car to avoid bottoming out. Otherwise, regarding private transport, Costa Ricans are not the most courteous nor sensible drivers (far from it, in fact running a red light is commonplace even on busier roads - traffic police are scarce). I speculate that every Costa Rican has a bolder alter ego whose emergence is prompted only when the Tico gets behind the wheel.

Anyway, this past week was, for the most part, great. I spent the majority of it here in San Pedro but for a few hours on Saturday when I visited my rural site. I played soccer with some Ticos earlier in the week and the level of play was better than what I had experienced earlier. I was beginning to think that Costa Ricans, though completely enamored with futbol, simply weren't very good. A few players from the upper division at the University of Costa Rica joined us and it was a vigorous hour of uninterrupted play.

On Friday, Kelsey and Amy (Howard - a student from Colorado College) went (e)Spinning at the Outlet Mall 200 meters from the ACM. For those who don't know what Spinning is, it's basically a workout on a stationary bike that you do standing up in front of an overly-enthusiastic (given the banality of the exercise) instructor. They play music loud enough to get a comatose patient's blood racing and apparently it's a great workout. I stayed behind to play Solitare (I had just learned to play and was determined to win although I had no concept of the strategy needed to do so).

About 14 unsuccessful games in, Amy returned, out of breath, yelling, "Scott come quick!". Both myself and the program's director (remember, our fearless leader with whom I share a name) walked over (ironically, we were both "needed"). Amy told us that Kelsey fell from her stationary bike and cut her leg and assumed that she would need stitches. We hopped into Scott's car and drove over to the Outlet Mall. We got to the spinning club to find Kelsey and what remained of her leg (I kid), wrapped and elevated. I understand the wrap job was courtesy of the concerned women across the hall at a nail salon. Kelsey, understandably, seemed too distressed at the time to speak/understand Spanish. The loud music at the club probably didn't help either.

We moved Kelsey outside and waited for the paramedics (who at been called prior to our arrival) to arrive. They told Kelsey that she'd have to go to the hospital for stitches and that they'd take her there in an ambulance. We got in the ambulance, it was the first time for both of us, and took a short ride to El Hospital Casa de la Biblia. We immeadiately went back to a room where they do "minor surgery." After a few questions and minutes of waiting, in walked the doctor (he introduced himself and now I forget his name). He began the procedure and I was impressed at the sterility of it all. That being said, the doctor's unbuttoned dress shirt revealed an immensly dense patch of chest hair which I imagine must have been at least as biodiverse as one of the nearby rainforests. This forest hovered above Kelsey's sizeable gash for the entirety of the procedure. Her leg, up to this point, has not rotten off or even begun to turn black so I'd imagine that all is well.

Anyway, during the stitching, to pass the time and break the awkward silence, I asked the doctor what he thought of Costa Rica's next qualifying match against Mexico (in Mexico City). He responded with an elaborate, yet ill-informed analysis of how he thought things currently stood in CONCACAF (which includes the Caribbean, and North and Central America). I didn't have the heart to correct him, though I would never question his abilities in medicine (Kelsey's stitches are beautiful), he seemed like a stubborn and simple-minded man.

The whole stitches incident was over in a flash and we were back in the ACM building before we knew it. I spent Friday afternoon playing with an 8 month old Border Collie (pastor overjero or sheep dog - they don't have a specific name for Border Collie in Spanish). My host sister is caring for him while his owner is out of town. He's rambunctious but far less neurotic/psychotic than my Border Collie.

The next morning (Saturday) I met my adviser at 9 to visit my rural site. Kelsey had planned on accompanying us but she stayed home to nurse the leg. It's a shame too because I must tell you that I will be spending the next two months in an absolutely magical place. The road there cuts through primary forest as far as the eye can see for the first hour and then through banana plantations for the last 30 minute stretch. My house is small and very pretty and I have will have a younger (slightly shy, but very curious) brother named Esteban. My host mother seemed pleased that my Spanish is pretty good and behind the house is a beautiful garden where the family grows pineapple, yucca, avocado, a large squash-like vegetable (I forget the name), sweet lemons, and probably more. After taking a tour of the house we drove back through the town of Puerto Viejo (which has internet cafes all around so I will most likely still be able to update this blog every week) and then turned off to enter La Selva (the OTS-run research station) to meet up with my host father, Danilo. We found him finishing lunch in the mess hall and then he led us across a suspension bridge over the Rio Sarapiqui so we could discuss my project in his office (he will also be my primary adviser). Danilo seemed quite interested in my project and generously offered me access to any equipment I might need from the OTS even though I am here as a student from the ACM. He's going to take a few days off of work to help me get started with my project (which is in both of our interest as he is currently is working administrative duty at La Selva and working in the field is his true passion).

After the meeting was over with, he hopped in the car and headed back towards San Jose. I spent 5 minutes outside at La Selva and saw 2 species of toucan, a pecarry, and howler monkeys. When I got back to San Jose I called some of the other students to see what was going on for Saturday night even though I was already well-tired from the day's trip. It turned out that they had planned on going dancing (MUCH) later that night. I obliged, not wanting to be the lame one. When I got to the club, it turned out that most of the other students had decided to stay home and rest. It turned out being just me and one other student (with his host sister). It was a late, but decent night.

On Sunday, Kelsey and I walked through San Jose looking for an artesenia where I could find a Guatemalan-style belt. We found a crafts bizaar type thing but I didn't find my belt. I might try again this afternoon.

It was a less eventful (relatively speaking) week but a good one. I learned how to prepare plantains today which should help me make friends in the future. Anyway, that's all for now.

Scott

Trip to Cahuita

Since the last blog post, much has happened. It has become even more apparent, not that it wasn't blatantly obvious when I got here, that Costa Rica is a pretty nice place. Yesterday, the thought occurred to me that in the (distant) future I would have leave here. I quickly relegated that thought to the back of my mind and continued to enjoy myself.

The past school week was fun. Highlights included meeting with my adviser over lunch to further discuss my project. As I said, I'll be in Sarapiqui. It's a vast and speciose jungle and I understand that researchers who spend their fair share of time there are wise to wear rubber boots as the Fer de Lance (terciopelo), Costa Rica's most dangerous snake, are quite common.

Another high point from last week had to be watching the Costa Rica vs. Honduras game at a bar with 8 other ACM kids. We were the only gringos there but it was all the better as the atmosphere at the bar was electric (in a good way, I can see how things could have turned sour had Costa Rica not won 2-0).

Two more days passed and then it was time for Cahuita. It's a small town less than an hour south of Limon (and the drive from Limon is made all the more bearable by the fact that it's entirely parallel to/over the Carribean). I won't go into enormous detail about the bus ride down other than the fact that it was especially cramped because there was really no space to place any bags larger than a purse. I rode with my backpack on my lap and we got to know each other splendidly.

When we got to Cahuita, I could tell right away that it was the most relaxed place I've ever been. For the most part, it's populated by people who immigrated from Jamaica a few generations back (mainly because of opportunities to work on farms in Costa Rica). Almost everyone speaks English (normally that would be good, but I really want to be practicing my Spanish).


We walked through the entire town, taking the most wrong turns possible to ensure that we saw it all before finding our hotel, Cabinas Smith. I threw my backpack on my bed, put on a bathing suit and met up with the other boys. We decided to walk directly towards the water, which was a bad idea as there was no beach where we ended up. Instead we had to traverse our way through fairly rocky terrain to reach the real beach. When we got there, we jumped in the water for a quick swim and then we relaxed for a while. After that we walked around town for a while and then found an Italian restaurant.

The next morning, we woke up fairly early and tried to find a place to snorkel. We ended up deciding that it had been raining too much lately and that the water would be too murky. I'll have to return to Cahuita just to snorkel because I hear it's the best place to do so in Costa Rica. Instead we gave our donations to the people at the park entrace (they do donations at this park instead of require the $10 park entrance fee so that they can keep everything they collect instead of have to send it all to the government only to receive a small/insufficient piece in return - the people there seem very proud of this).

The first 400 m of the beach in this national park is not safe to swim in because of strong riptides. You have to walk until you see green flags to know that you are in a zone that is safe for swimming.

On our hike towards these green flags, we passed a sloth making his way up a tree, tons of leaf cutter ant superhighways, and a brilliantly colored yellow viper (which we didn't notice until our walk back).

We found a nice picnic table under a thatched roof but this discrete shelter was really the only evidence of human occupancy in Cahuita I could see. Otherwise, this beach was a veritable prototype of the kind on which we'd imagine Christopher Colombus landing.

We all mistakingly decided to leave our stuff on the picnic table and go swimming on the beach. Cahuita and many other beaches have a large problem with theft of unattended bags and it's almost inevitable that unwatched bags will be searched. You are probably thinking that our cameras and other valuables are all gone but these theives were not your ordinary person. They were smaller, hungrier primates known as white-faced monkeys (cariblancos). They are intrepid little buggers and are cute until they begin to fight you for your trail mix. Everything had been going fine until lunch, when we ate, played some cards, digested our food, and then went back in the water. When a few of us returned there sat a proud looking specimen with chip crumbs all over his mouth. He retreated to about eye level in a nearby tree but waited curiously to see/get pleasure from our reaction to his mischeif. We ended up cracking open a coconut that was lying on the beach and offering him the meat inside as a healthier alternative to tostitos. He accepted. Many of the students have pictures. I forgot my camera.

After that, we finished up our long day at the beach and returned to Cabinas Smith for a shower. We went out to another restaurant for dinner and watched the first bit of the Count of Monte Cristo. I think we were all pretty beat after that so it ended up being kind of an early night.

The next morning we woke up, packed our bags and then went for another walk on the beach before our bus left at 11:30. It was a short bus ride back (seemingly so, as I slept the whole way) and I returned with enough energy to go play some more mini golf with my host brothers.

I have to go sure up my research project proposal, which is due tomorrow. My future travel plans include a field trip to Sarapiqui (my rural site) with my advisor this weekend. That will be only a day trip. The weekend after that I will most likely go to somewhere on the Pacific coast (i.e. Jaco, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, etc.) with a smaller group from the ACM (the trip to Cahuita was all 14 of us). Pura vida.

09/02/09 - San Gerardo de Rivas Field Trip

Hello all,

It's nice to see that I have multiple species following this blog. For all of those reading, I returned yesterday from the program's first field trip. We went to a pueblo situated near the base of Costa Rica's tallest mountain, Cerro Chirripo (3,820 m), called San Gerardo de Rivas.

The bus the ACM chartered left from San Pedro around 7:40 am and it took us only a few minutes to escape the concrete jungle and transition to a greener version. After about an hour of driving we took a rest stop at a small roadside restaurant. I can't imagine that they were thrilled to receive us as we were only interested in using their bathrooms and the toilets didn't necessarily flush.

After getting back on the bus, we drove for about another hour through clouds and rain. I'm sure the surrounding landscape (paisaje) was extraordinary but the fog made it impossible to see. As we lowered our elevation a bit, the rain and fog immeadiately disappeared and we took a right for a stop at Sol Colibri, an organic, (previously) shade-grown, fair trade coffee farm owned by Arturo Seguro. This man helped to create an alliance for the benefit of organic, fair trade coffee farmers. When we got there, Arturo gave us a small tour to demonstrate how coffee farms (specifically organic coffee farms) operate. After that, he put us to work and we took to the forest with baskets wrapped around our hips to collect coffee berries. It's hard work. Luckily the farm is a shade-grown operation so we were, for the most part, shielded from the intense sun. I collected about half a basket of berries in an hour. Rumor has it that tico workers get only $1 for collected an entire basket (which, when full, must weigh around 45 pounds).

When the work was over, we were rewarded with a fabulous lunch made entirely with organic, fair trade ingredients. They also treated us to some coffee made from the beans collected on the farm (which Arturo roasts himself instead of shipping the beans to the US for roasting as do most coffee farms). By cutting out the middle man but still charging the same amount, Arturo makes more profit from each bag and with this money he invests in other Costa Rican organic farmers who are "doing the right thing." The coffee wasn't too bad either.

After the meal, Scott (the director) got us back onto the bus so we could continue our journey to San Gerardo (we still had about 3 hours to go). On the way, we passed through a point called Cedro de Muerte which is the highest point on the Interamerican Highway (which goes from Mexico to Colombia). The temperature there is much lower and at night there have even been reports of snowfall. I hear it is a good place to find the Resplendant Quetzal this time of year.

We reached the highest point and then we began to descend rapidly out of the clouds. At one point we overlooked an incredibly lush valley with a rainbow on top that screamed "postcard." Didn't take a picture, but I think one of the students did. A little more driving and we made it to our rustic lodge in San Gerardo. Our meal orders were taken and then I went for a short walk down to the rushing Rio Blanco to sit on rocks and contemplate stuff. We went back up, ate dinner, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and getting to know each other better. The next morning we ate breakfast at 7 and were on the bus by 8 for a 4 hour hike. The hike that was originally planned had to be scractched because strong winds blew over some big trees making the trail impassable. Instead we took another pretty sweet hike and learned a lot about the local culture/environment from our guide for the day, Denis. After the hike, we returned to Denis' house and he gave us a tour of his garden while his wife made us a very large and savory lunch. We petted his 20 year old dog who still had his wits about him (though I don't think he could hear).

After lunch, we returned to the hotel for a short swim and then we were back on the bus and we headed into town for a game of soccer against a local women's team. A bunch of younger tico boys supplemented our group and we had a really good game out of it. There was one older tico boy who had problems with passing the ball so I had little choice but to level him. He learned his lesson and passed from that point on.

After the game, we returned to the hotel for another swim and then we showered and had dinner. After dinner, we had more "getting to know each other time" and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

The next morning, we went to the house of the famous philosopher and birder Alexander Skutch. After getting the tour, our guide Andres took us for a walk through the rainforest surrounding the house and we saw: a chameleon, bullet ants, parrots, a flying turkey, and many other interesting things. We stopped at a picturesque creek running through the forest for a breif respite and then the tour was essentially over. We got back on the bus and began our bus ride back to San Pedro.

You would not believe it, but on the way back , we passed a three-toed sloth (oso perezoso) trying to cross the Interamerican Highway. The driver stopped the bus and our fearless leader, Scott, quickly exited the bus and signalled for traffic to stop as he picked up the poor little guy and brought him to the other side of the road. The sloth seemed pretty pleased that he made it across unscathed.

We made it back to San Pedro and I returned to my house exhausted. However, my host brothers were rearing to go and I "taught" them how to skateboard and then we went to play a little bit of soccer. I read for a while, ate dinner, did my homework, and then decided that it was time to go to sleep. The entire group here loved the adventure and we plan to go on an unoffical field trip to Dominical (a beach on the Pacific side) this weekend. We'll be camping on the beach for $5 a night. It should be pretty awesome. This is better than normal school.

Scott

Hello all,

I made it to Costa Rica! My host family seems incredibly nice. I will give you an account of what has transpired so far:

I...

got through customs here in Costa Rica even though apparently they frown upon filling out the immigration papers in pencil (so I got plenty of practice with filling those out). Then I met up with my host family who drove me from the airport back to their house in a rather roundabout way so that I could see what San Pedro is all about. Then we settled in the house, and I unpacked in my new room. The room itself is very nice. I have plenty of space and I have a bathroom all to myself. After a few minute of unpacking I watched bullfighting with my host father for a little bit and he tried to explain to me what I should be looking for in a good bullfighter.

After that, I played video games with Sebastian (11) and Nicolas (9). They are into the exact same things as little boys in the U.S. (monster trucks, japanese cartoons, sports, video games, and toys). We then ate dinner and watched a bit more TV. Then we tried to get the wireless internet to work on my computer but that proved to be difficult without the correct password so my host mom called a computer-savvy neighbor to help out. Then I decided to head to my room for the night (I had to be up at 3:30 am to catch my flight to Houston that morning).

I slept from 10 to 8 am and this morning I watched soccer with my host dad, played video games with the boys, and played with the dogs for a while. Then the boys decided that they wanted to go meet my "novia" so we took about a 10 minute walk over to her house. When we got there, it did not appear that anyone was home so we turned back and the boys spent the rest of the walk home throwing rocks at each other. As a third person, I came in handy as a human shield.

When we got back to the house, we went to the mall for an afternoon of pleasure. First we had lunch in the food court and then I went to play mini golf with the two boys and one friend named Jose (11). The youngsters weren't overly concerned with the mini golf rules and usually resorted to using their hands after not finding the hole after a few strokes. We only made it to the 16th hole of mini golf before we went to the movie theatre to watch the Spanish-dubbed version of the new Disney movie Bedtime Stories (Cuentos que no son Cuento). It was entertaining and funny to see Adam Sandler's lips move to the sound of the Spanish language.

After the movie we picked up some cups of Mr. Mango, a stand that specializes in shaved mangoes with sweet/salty toppings. I had plain old mangoes with lime and salt. It wasn't bad. After we got back, we watched Costa Rica lose to Panama in penalty kicks in a World Cup qualifier (Sebastian seemed quite displeased with the result). During the game, we also played Jenga. Let me tell you, 9 year olds don't have the motor skills for Jenga, but it was fun anyways.

Now I am in my room getting ready to hit the hay for the night as I have to be up at 6:30 tomorrow to catch the bus to the ACM building because classes start a bit earlier than usual on the first day.

This is all for now,

Scott

Actually, he's still in Maryland

Okay, so I haven't left yet, but I thought it would be appropriate to begin this blog prior to my departure to capture the entirety of this thing.

I quickly estimate that I write this blog riding day 43 of an overly-generous winter break. The Republican National Convention (held in Minneapolis) prompted an early beginning to Macalester's academic year. If I was informed a few months ago that I would be feeling lethargic and glum in the coming January due to Sarah Palin and crew then I would most likely have had to launder my pants. Luckily, her affect on my procedings will be, from this point on, short-lived.

Anyway, I'm going to Costa Rica in 112 hours. Subtract out sleep time (which will constitute a shameful portion of that 112) and we're getting pretty close! I still need to pack. That will take some time. I need to shop for some stuff. That will take time. This leaves, me, I'd guess at least a couple dozen hours to continue with what I've been working on all break. Er, I haven't been doing anything productive on a regular basis for the last 6 weeks. Go ahead. Hate me.

I'm excited for Costa Rica. Not because it signals an end to my boredom here (despite the fact that as of late, as a friend put it, D.C. has been like Mardi Gras without the boobs or the booze - but still happening), but because I really think it's going to be swell. My host family(ies) seem neat and the program gives its students a certain amount of freedom I think I will enjoy having in a country like Costa Rica. Though I've been down to Costa Rica twice before, I have little idea of what to expect for this go-around (other than the beauty/richness of the country itself).

Okay, this is enough for now. I won't touch this blog until I have something actually interesting to post (probably in 5 days or so).

Weeeeeehaaaa.