The first time my friend, Ethan, mentioned Corcovado to me he ran through the highlights: bull sharks that come into the river as the tide rips up its banks, all four species of monkeys found in CR, untouched primary forest, miles upon miles of hiking trails, and, the most enticing tagline I’d ever heard, “the most biologically intense place on Earth.” My first response was ‘hell yes’ and slowly, over the next month and a half, we began to put together our trip for semana santa (holy week) 2011. We had a lot of challenges to overcome: the fact that we only had six days, the difficulty of getting to this remote destination, the cost of the trip, our limited and questionable gear (tents borrowed from the center), the decision not to hire a guide, the concern we were idiots for doing so, and, ultimately, the question of whether we would even be in good enough shape to complete the hikes. People do die in Corcovado, usually about one every season. Most deaths have nothing to do with the dangerous wildlife; besides sharks there are poisonous snakes, crocodiles, peccaries, jaguars, pumas, and tapirs, all of which could and have killed people in other situations. Most people who die in Corcovado lose the trail in the dense forest or wander off it a few paces in pursuit of an animal and, when they try to find the trail again, find themselves hopelessly lost.
We also knew that we didn’t have the gear we’d want for such a trip. No backpacking stove or water filtration system was readily available, the tents the center has are meant more for backyard campouts, and one of our friends, Caity, borrowed both hiking boots and a pack for the trip.
The promise of being in such a remote and, I’ll admit, I totally bought into this: ‘biologically intense’ place outweighed the challenges and we went ahead with our planning. Things began to fall into place. We spoke with our Professor, Achim, who has visited the park several times. He gave us some useful pointers including telling us to cut out one extremely difficult and unrewarding hike from our itinerary that stretched some 27 kilometers (16 miles) along a hot beach, unsheltered from the sun. Our Lonely Planet guide, usually indispensable, had some maps but didn’t even have a correct number for reservations for the park. We were lucky to be able to confirm our reservations in time. Semana Santa is the busiest vacation week in much of Central and South America but emailing far ahead of time and jumping through all of the bureaucratic hoops set up for us finally allowed us to confirm our reservation and make our payment (the park charges a $10 per person/day flat rate plus $4 per person/night for camping; total $260 for the five of us). We also made a crucial decision about transport. We decided that taking the nine-hour bus both ways would be too much torture but we didn’t want to lay out too many hundreds of dollars on round-trip flights. Finally, Achim suggested that we take a bus down (San Jose-La Palma; $14/person) and fly back (Carate-Alajuela/San Jose Intl.; $184/person).
Having no stove, our food options were limited. We ended up with 7 boxes of various granola bars, about 70 tortillas, refried bean paste, cookies, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, granola, almonds, pistachios, cereal, snack packs, salami, and cheese.
Five days ago today Caity, Ethan, and I set out from Atenas to meet with Ethan’s cousin, Allison, and her boyfriend who came down from Minnesota to join us. Then, at 7 am the five of us began our adventure hoping to see everything that has made this country a world-famous destination for ecotourism.
Day 1
5:30 from the field station to Atenas, bus to San Jose.
7:00 meet up with Ethan’s cousin and Ethan’s cousin’s boyfriend
7:45 make it to the obscure station for the only crazy bus company that will drive all the way from San Jose to the Osa Peninsula, where Corcovado is located. We realized that the bus was entirely sold out and after basically begging the driver to let us stand in the aisle, we gave up, bought tickets for the same bus at noon, and went to get breakfast. We hung out around central San Jose for a while, walked to the Mercado Central, got accosted by a Nicaraguan named Felix who offered to help us find our way, then asked for money, then hugged me repeatedly when I begrudgingly handed him a thousand Colones. We sat on the steps of a monument and talked and people-watched while Allison and her boyfriend got their first taste of Costa Rican sun. Both were absolutely pink by the time we made our way back to the bus station around 11. While waiting for the bus, I started talking with one of the workers about where we were going, where we were staying, etc. At that point, we didn’t have a place to sleep (we were planning to camp in a lot somewhere in La Palma), and, more crucially, we didn’t yet have a 4-wheel drive taxi for the next morning. There’s no proper road from La Palma to Los Patos; most of the route follows a riverbed which is only passable during the dry season. The bus worker, Alexandro, told me he ‘knew a guy with a pickup,’ made a call, and when we arrived in La Palma, our taxi driver, Christian, was waiting for us. It was about 8:30, dark, and had been raining for hours and Chrsitian gently persuaded us that camping on a beach 2 km away from the bus stop was a less good idea than staying in the cabinas right around the corner. After some shaky negotiation in Spanish, we got two rooms, arranged to meet up with our driver in the morning, and passed out. Caity and Ethan shared the double bed and I slept on my sleeping pad in a room that must have had a healthy population of chinches (the bug that carries chagas). However, after a nine-hour bus ride over paved roads which had partially crumbled and fallen away into the river-valley below and unpaved roads which we thought we would slide off of at any moment, we were happy not to be moving any more.
Day 2
6:00 am picked up by Christian in his pick-up truck. We threw our packs in the back and three of us sat in the bed on a board lain across the sides of the truck, backs against the back of the cab. The 17 km ride took about an hour as we crisscrossed back and forth across the river bed. We saw toucans and scarlet macaws on our ride and got jostled around.
7:00 we arrived at Los Patos ranger station, the first point inside of Parque Nacional Corcovado. We turned over our reservation documents, signed in, and a barefoot, sleepy-looking ranger pointed us towards the trail. We stopped quickly to eat a couple of granola bars and re-divide our food between all five of us then started hiking around 7:15. Less than 100 yards down the trail we had to balance on logs to cross two streams. Then, almost immediately, we started to climb the slippery trail over root-steps and typical red-clay tropical mud. Allison and her boyfriend, still jet-lagged after having barely slept on their flight and then arriving at 5 am, and never having backpacked before in their lives, took to the challenge doggedly but it was clear they were a big shell-shocked by what was before us. None of us knew quite what to expect of the trails and even Ethan and I, who had done the most reading about them, had never backpacked in a tropical forest before and we knew it wouldn’t be easy. Though the trail leveled out (and even descended) after the first hour or so, the forest quickly closed in around us and, as the day went on, it became much more hot and humid. The air was thick enough in some places that you could see the moisture hanging in it and at some point, it was hard to tell what on our bodies was sweat and what had condensed there from the forest. It was also some of the most impressive forest we’d ever seen. The first part of the hike was mainly through secondary forest but even that had some huge trees. Because the growth patterns are so different, in the tropics, it’s much harder than in a temperate forest to tell the age of a tree by its size. A tree so large that three people can’t put their arms around it could be just 50 years old, or 150. We saw three species of monkey before 10 am, we saw army ants and the ant shrikes (ant birds) which follow in their wake, eating the bugs they scatter, and we saw trees that ten people couldn’t put their arms around.
We made frequent stops and by noon, we were all ready for a lunch-break. We had gone through much of our water and treated some from a stream with iodine tablets to make it potable. After an hour break, we continued to walk. About 45 minutes later, still exhausted, we stopped again for a snack break. At this point, everyone was feeling exhausted and we thought we had at least two more hours of walking before we reached our destination, Sirena field station. When we got up from our break, we crossed a stream, turned a corner, and the station was in sight. A wave of relief passed over the group as we dragged ourselves across the open lawn surrounding the buildings and to the cement stairs leading to the porch. We must have looked half-dead as we approached, covered in mud to our knees, no dry clothes anywhere on our bodies, and faces wearied but happy to have accomplished our first big hike with heaviest packs through tropical forest.
That night we managed the 300 yard walk down to the beach to watch the sunset but not much more. As we walked back to the station along the grassy airstrip that stretches between it and the Pacific ocean, a large tapir crossed into the tall grass 50 yards ahead of us and disappeared. Upon returning to the station, we fell asleep soon after dark. Unfortunately, all of the covered tent shelters at the station were taken and we spent a damp night in our leaky tent. Despite that, I was able to sleep most of the night, floating on my sleeping pad above the lake which formed in the bottom of our tent.
Day 3
The next morning we woke up to the calls of hundreds of birds in the trees and the air over our heads. The Sirena field station in Corcovado was built on a green lawn neatly carved out of the surrounding rainforest making it an excellent place to be able to see wildlife as they cross the clearing. In the first morning I saw more scarlet macaws than I’d seen in the rest of my time in Costa Rica. The colorful pairs of macaws flew in every direction over the field and sat high in the trees, passing fruits and nuts from beak to beak.
As the morning passed, people began to clear out of the tent shelters and we were able to move our gear under them and hang our wet clothes on lines in the sun. We also hiked during the day, but nothing more than 5 km, we were still tired and sore from the day before. A network of trails branch out from the Sirena station since this is the locus of the park for seeing wildlife. Many visitors only see the section immediately surrounding the station, arriving by air or boat.
Day 4
Our second day at Sirena we decided to visit a swimming hole on the Rio Claro. We hiked towards it and arrived a little before noon. The water was clear, cool, and refreshing. In places it bubbled quickly over shallow rocks and in others, the river narrowed and deepened to over ten feet. We built a small fire on the shore and watched as massive king fishers flew up and down over the river, dodging between branches and leaves with ease and making their cackling call to one another. Ethan spent some time fashioning a net out of his t-shirt and sticks and fishing unsuccessfully in the river.
After a couple of hours we decided to return via the other half of the trail that looped out towards the river from the station. Our simple map didn’t show elevation and we ended up taking a mountain route which ascended high into the park, giving us a view of the coast before returning back and coming out at the back of Sirena.
Soon after returning to the station we set out again towards the Rio Sirena where we hoped to see sharks and crocodiles feeding at the mouth of the river. High tide was sometime around 6 and we left the station around 3:45. As the tide moves up the beach and river banks become virtually impassable as the surf pushes up the sand towards, and eventually reaching, the edge of the forest. As soon as we turned off the beach to walk along the river bank a tico couple told us that there was a tapir right around the corner laying in the sand. We found the massive animal stretched out in the shade of a cashew tree trying to stay cool. As we watched he stood, turned, yawned, and lay back down again. The tapir is the largest land animal in Costa Rica and used to being at the top of the food chain; our presence didn’t seem to bother him at all. Later, he swam in the river and munched on some leaves which he tore from a nearby tree, all while ignoring his human onlookers.
We did see a small caymen on the beach as well as a larger crocodile floating lazily in the river, rising and falling with the water as the waves swept through from the sea. Unfortunately, we missed the bull sharks which we were told come in from the ocean every high tide to feed in the river. Just before the water reached its highest point, we walked back along the beach and sat at the end of the airstrip watching the sun go down over the ocean.
Day 5
We woke up around 7:00, ate breakfast, packed up tents and packs, and were on the trail by 8:15. The rangers had told us we had to leave by 8:30 in order to make sure the tide was low enough to be able to cross the rivers and navigate the trail along the beach. In fact, there was one point on the trail where we had to take off our shoes to climb around a massive rock formation that jutted out into the water. The entire hike was beautiful. After we forded the Rio Claro, the trail sometimes followed the beach and sometimes snaked into the woods or followed right behind the first row of palm trees between the woods and the beach. The ocean was pure wilderness with massive waves crashing on the beach and a rocky shoreline. Though different, this hike was just as challenging as the first day. It was slightly shorter, a little under 20 km but most of it was on sand, making it hard to feel as though we were making any progress at all. On the unprotected beach the sun beat down on our heads as we walked along the slanted surface, feeling off balance with our still-heavy packs. Of course, the view was worth every second. At the very beginning of the hike we saw a pack of peccaries and we continued to see amazing wildlife: a four-foot long eel near the shore, a green and black poison dart frog, scarlet macaws, and so many other kinds of birds that we couldn’t identify. Once again we overestimated the length of the hike and when we thought that we still had two hours left we met up with a family that told us we had a half hour until the La Leona ranger station, the last station in the park. When we told them we were just looking forward to our first cold beers in five days he pulled a few out of his pack and passed them around. Our spirits significantly lifted, we continued on the final half hour or so to the station, signed out of Parque Nacional Corcovado, and all went for a well-deserved swim in the ocean. The current was strong but it was totally swimmable and we were so happy, feeling completely satisfied with our trip.
It was another forty minute walk along the beach to Carate, the tiny town which we were set to fly out of. The center of town is soda (small restaurant) owned by a Canadian expat from Vancouver. We ordered drinks and dinner and found out that we would be able to camp on the land that he owned. He has a 400 acre wildlife refuge which is mostly made up of virgin rainforest and doesn’t have any trails through it at all. Close to the beach he planted about 60 almond trees about twenty years ago and the nuts attract huge flocks of scarlet macaws to his property. The rest of the night was taken up with re-setting up camp and then making a huge bonfire on the beach and just relaxing.
Day 6
At breakfast (at the same soda) the next day, our pilot came and found us asking what hotel we were staying in because he hadn’t been able to find us anywhere. He then explained that there was going to be a big storm in the afternoon and that we would be better off taking an earlier flight from Carate. He offered to make a ‘tour flight’ out of it, to take us up the coast and show us the parts of Corcovado that we hadn’t seen. We were scheduled for 3:30 originally but we shifted our schedule to leave at 11:00. We spent the next hour on the beach, chatting with some local fisherman one of whom was more than willing to tell us all about the fish he catches from the beach and about a massive manta ray he had caught a couple of days ago. He drew a picture for us in the sand with a stick with a diameter about 6 feet across. We talked fishing with him for a while longer before going for a swim then packing up and walking the fifty meters to the airfield. Our pilot was waiting for us with cold cokes and bags of some Costa Rican cheeto-esque snack. We piled in with packs on our laps for the forty minute ride to Alajuela airport and taxied down the runway for takeoff. He took us all the way down the coast at a low elevation so we could see where we had been and also see the Corcovado lagoon and the Isla de Cano, an hour’s boat ride from the shore but also a park of the National Park. We could see the change in water color where the continental shelf was. Soon we touched down in Alajuela, went through ‘security’ (a small shack with one police man who asked for our passports and kind of searched our bags), grabbed a cab, and headed back towards Atenas.
A separate post with photos soon to come! Comments Welcome!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
vamos a ir a corcovado
Tomorrow morning two friends and I are taking an early bus to San Jose to an early bus to one of the southern-most parts of Costa Rica. Once we reach the Osa Peninsula we're going to the park National Geographic called 'the most biologically intense place on earth.' I'm going there because, among other things, I want to see cool animals. Living in the park are all four species of monkey present in costa rica (spider, white-faced capuchin, howler, and squirrel), the infamous and poisonous fer de lance snake, tapirs, jaguar, tons of birds including the harpy eagle, the largest bird of prey in the Americas, bull sharks in the rivers, 30 ft. crocodiles, the list goes on. The park also conserves a large old-growth tropical rainforest which I’m just as excited to see as the fauna. I look forward to updating everyone on what I actually see while I’m down there but more on that once I return…
The past few weeks have been exhausting and so good. After we returned from Panama, we had two free weekends in a row and a lot of data collection in the field.
I spent both of my weekends on the Caribbean coast in a rasta town of 600 called Cahuita. It’s incredible to me that this part of the country hasn’t been developed as much as the Pacific. Some people here have suggested that there’s a kind of cultural barrier in Costa Rica between the Caribbean and the Central Valley. Historically, the majority of the slave trade affected the Caribbean and for a long time, the afro-Caribbean population was restricted from traveling into the central part of the country. The division remains and though the Caribbean is even more beautiful than the Pacific, it’s relatively under-developed. I like it that way.
In time, the development will come to this part of the country and I’m sure it will come to look like much of the Pacific coast. One town down the coast, Manzanilla, only got paved roads in 2003.
Cahuita represents the common Costa Rican phrase pura vida in all ways. The people are very laid back, the beaches are beautiful, and the food and drink are delicious. Even the national park here has entrance by donation, the only park in the country where such a system exists.
Our weekends were spent with bonfires, swimming in the waves, and lots and lots of beach time. We camped at a placed called the Reggae Restaurant and chilled with the people who own the restaurant. True to its name, there was always reggae (much of it Costa Rican) coming from two massive speakers in the open-air restaurant.
After our two weekends away we had a full week of directed research data collection in the field. For my group, that meant setting up sample plots, measuring trees and coffee plants, taking soil and leaf litter samples, gps-mapping farms, eating rice, beans, plantains, cheese, eggs, and tortillas out of banana leaves, and a lot of hard, hot hours scaling steep coffee farms. We did our research on three separate coffee farms of three different types in the Atenas area. The first farm has been managed organically for almost ten years, the second was conventional, “shade-grown” (though for this farm that just meant there were a couple of trees on the property, no real shade at all), and the third was an abandoned farm which the owner had been cleaning up for the preceding three years. That last farm was absolutely my favorite: it was wild and overgrown and the hills were so steep that you couldn’t climb them without swinging on coffee plants to pull yourself up or lower yourself down the slope. We all helped out with each other’s work but my job was to take soil samples. I took 60 25 cm samples over the course of the week using two different corers (one of which I eventually shattered) and a big metal sledge hammer. Everyday was hard but it was great; I could have done with a couple more weeks of collecting data. Unfortunately, it’s over now and we have to analyze our data and, after break, write our research papers.
For now, I’m focused on the Corcovado adventure. There will be a big picture post once I get back from there!
Comments welcome as always! It’s crazy to think that I’ll be back in the states in 16 days; what a trip.
The past few weeks have been exhausting and so good. After we returned from Panama, we had two free weekends in a row and a lot of data collection in the field.
I spent both of my weekends on the Caribbean coast in a rasta town of 600 called Cahuita. It’s incredible to me that this part of the country hasn’t been developed as much as the Pacific. Some people here have suggested that there’s a kind of cultural barrier in Costa Rica between the Caribbean and the Central Valley. Historically, the majority of the slave trade affected the Caribbean and for a long time, the afro-Caribbean population was restricted from traveling into the central part of the country. The division remains and though the Caribbean is even more beautiful than the Pacific, it’s relatively under-developed. I like it that way.
In time, the development will come to this part of the country and I’m sure it will come to look like much of the Pacific coast. One town down the coast, Manzanilla, only got paved roads in 2003.
Cahuita represents the common Costa Rican phrase pura vida in all ways. The people are very laid back, the beaches are beautiful, and the food and drink are delicious. Even the national park here has entrance by donation, the only park in the country where such a system exists.
Our weekends were spent with bonfires, swimming in the waves, and lots and lots of beach time. We camped at a placed called the Reggae Restaurant and chilled with the people who own the restaurant. True to its name, there was always reggae (much of it Costa Rican) coming from two massive speakers in the open-air restaurant.
After our two weekends away we had a full week of directed research data collection in the field. For my group, that meant setting up sample plots, measuring trees and coffee plants, taking soil and leaf litter samples, gps-mapping farms, eating rice, beans, plantains, cheese, eggs, and tortillas out of banana leaves, and a lot of hard, hot hours scaling steep coffee farms. We did our research on three separate coffee farms of three different types in the Atenas area. The first farm has been managed organically for almost ten years, the second was conventional, “shade-grown” (though for this farm that just meant there were a couple of trees on the property, no real shade at all), and the third was an abandoned farm which the owner had been cleaning up for the preceding three years. That last farm was absolutely my favorite: it was wild and overgrown and the hills were so steep that you couldn’t climb them without swinging on coffee plants to pull yourself up or lower yourself down the slope. We all helped out with each other’s work but my job was to take soil samples. I took 60 25 cm samples over the course of the week using two different corers (one of which I eventually shattered) and a big metal sledge hammer. Everyday was hard but it was great; I could have done with a couple more weeks of collecting data. Unfortunately, it’s over now and we have to analyze our data and, after break, write our research papers.
For now, I’m focused on the Corcovado adventure. There will be a big picture post once I get back from there!
Comments welcome as always! It’s crazy to think that I’ll be back in the states in 16 days; what a trip.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sloths in Panama
About four days ago we returned from a week in Panama. While there we visited two different Smithsonian research centers in Panama City. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute studies sloths amongst other things. The day we were there, an ordinate number of the creatures were climbing around in a line of trees between the road and the beach. Their presence here (not even close to a forest), and in such high numbers was suspicious and as we counted sloth after sloth (some said they saw more than ten), we realized that the three-toed creatures must have been planted for our benefit. The experience was sullied but being able to examine the animals at such a close range was still neat. I want to share this article written by one of the researchers at the Institute about his experience working with Sloths in the wild (credit goes to Sarah for showing it to me, thanks!). http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/why-do-animals-sleep/?ref=science
Also, if you want to see some great pictures of sloths, my friend Justin has an album devoted to the ones we saw in Panama. I highly recommend it : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=349914&id=612682362&l=12298ffbcb
Comments are welcome as always; more about Panama soon to come!
Also, if you want to see some great pictures of sloths, my friend Justin has an album devoted to the ones we saw in Panama. I highly recommend it : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=349914&id=612682362&l=12298ffbcb
Comments are welcome as always; more about Panama soon to come!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Off to Panama
Today's our last day in Costa Rica before we head to Panama for seven days. It's a chill day for hanging around the center, packing, and doing last minute errands. And of course, for me, that means it's time to do a huge project. There's a cob oven here at the center; we've been here a month and a half and it hasn't seen so much as one sorry loaf of bread. Therefore, today, is pizza day. Twelve hour marathon kitchen sesh. So so good. Off to Panama in three hours! Oh, and it was Edgardo's (tropical ecology professor's) birthday so of course cakes were in order.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Organic Coffee in Atenas
We visited a local organic coffee farm on the other side of Atenas last week. We learned about agroforestry, the harvesting and processing of coffee, and the worldwide organic food market (only 1-2% of the entire food market).
Coffee's the second most traded commodity in the world after oil.
Here are some pictures from the farm.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink
Today seems to be the end of our three day water shortage. When we got back from our weekend away the taps and toilets were all dry. Water coolers were placed around the campus for drinking but the pool was the only thing resembling a shower.
This morning I got about two minutes of cold water before the pressure dropped and the flow slowed to a trickle. That's still promising though; it's the most water I've seen coming out of a shower for a couple of days.
It's the dry season here in Costa Rica and the conditions can get especially dry where we are in Atenas. All water must be piped from the wetter Carribean side of the country and we happen to be right about at the end of the line. Any water flowing through the aquaducts is accounted for by the time they wind their way through the mountains to us.
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Weekend
We returned last night from our weekend away from the center. Myself and a few friends went on a hiking adventure to a 300 m waterfall near the Tarcoles river. The sun was hot even at 8 am and we sweat all the way up and down but the views and swimming in the pools below the waterfall were totally worth it. The owner of the waterfall was a flakey woman from miami/ daughter of the CEO of the venezualan airline/ dancer/ who knows....? She told us all kinds of wild stories almost none of which made sense or held together. As we were hiking up the dirt road to the entrance to the waterfall she pulled up in a big 4x4, introduced herself, and told us just to be careful because she'd gotten pregnant in one of the pools. "I must be some kind of turtle or mermaid or something," she said and drove off. About three minutes later she was driving back the other way and we finally met her at the top of the hill. She introduced us to the waterfall, to her 'yoga studio' (a wooden platform overlooking the valley), and to her property which she claimed to be selling to the Chinese for $37 million. On the way back down she offered us a ride for $15 a person to the beach we were planning to camp on. When we finally agreed she said we'd have to wait until 5 o'clock (it was around 1). We decided to walk.
We made it to the beach on a public bus and after eating dinner in one of the 3 restaurants in town, we sat out on the sand, drinking Costa Rican rum and enjoying the stars. All of us were exhausted since we had hiked between 8-12 miles that day. We had decided to spend that night and the next day (Sunday) in a little beach town called Esterillos Oeste on the pacific side.
This beach was a lot quieter than tourist centers like Jaco but still, it was clear that the development was coming here next. Most lots had ‘for sale’ or ‘sold’ signs on them and we could see the beginnings of infrastructure creation in the form of entire communities with roads and cleared lots but no houses. The town was by no means unvisited. There were a number of other tourists and a good proportion were American but I’m sure that in the next ten years there will be massive hotels and resorts where the small houses and stores used to be.
We spent the rest of Saturday night exploring tidal pools with our headlamps and playing cards. The next day we woke up around 7, ate, and headed for the beach were we spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading in the shade of a tree. On the way back we were lucky enough to be offered a pretty cheap ride by a guy with a van who was going our way after the bus we wanted to catch was entirely full. The ride was a welcome surprise and ended up working out. Our planning for the weekend had been minimal but everything ended up working out.
We made it to the beach on a public bus and after eating dinner in one of the 3 restaurants in town, we sat out on the sand, drinking Costa Rican rum and enjoying the stars. All of us were exhausted since we had hiked between 8-12 miles that day. We had decided to spend that night and the next day (Sunday) in a little beach town called Esterillos Oeste on the pacific side.
This beach was a lot quieter than tourist centers like Jaco but still, it was clear that the development was coming here next. Most lots had ‘for sale’ or ‘sold’ signs on them and we could see the beginnings of infrastructure creation in the form of entire communities with roads and cleared lots but no houses. The town was by no means unvisited. There were a number of other tourists and a good proportion were American but I’m sure that in the next ten years there will be massive hotels and resorts where the small houses and stores used to be.
We spent the rest of Saturday night exploring tidal pools with our headlamps and playing cards. The next day we woke up around 7, ate, and headed for the beach were we spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading in the shade of a tree. On the way back we were lucky enough to be offered a pretty cheap ride by a guy with a van who was going our way after the bus we wanted to catch was entirely full. The ride was a welcome surprise and ended up working out. Our planning for the weekend had been minimal but everything ended up working out.
Free Weekend!
the waterfall.
gulf of nicoya and pacific ocean.
black and green poison dart frog dendrobatus auratus.
the bottom of the waterfall.Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Mi Familia
Hola! I got back from my homestay on Sunday night...
My family seemed great from the moment they picked us up in front of the church in the square of Atenas. Myself and two friends, Meagan and Caity were all with different related families. They lived in a building divided into three houses so we were basically next door neighbors. The first thing we did was go swimming at a local pool. Apparently the property was owned by an individual which seemed kind of strange to me. Pools are usually public or community owned in the states. We swam, had lunch, chatted in shaky spanish with the family, and of course, told them how delicious the food was.
Afterwards it was back to the house and then off to my 'mom's' friend's 25th wedding anniversary. We were picked up by one of her friends who drove us along crazy dirt and gravel roads which seemed to go straight up and straight down. He played American soul music for my benefit and talked about his trips to Vegas and Baltimore. After about 45 minutes we arrived on the farm/community/? where they were holding the ceremony and having the party. First there was a mass and a renewal of vows ceremony. People gave speeches, gifts were exchanged, communion was offered, a choir of kids sang, all overlooking the valley in this beautiful open air church with a dark-wood vaulted ceiling. It was a beautiful place. The service lasted about an hour and then we moved on to the party portion of the evening. Lots of dancing, drinking, and eating. A bit of garter and bouquet throwing and my rediscovery that I dance like a gringo. No surprise. Around 11 we headed back home this time with some different, much more sober friends of the family. Most of the people there had been friends with my host mom since high school; she told me that in August they're having their 35th reunion and a big party to celebrate. That's one distinct difference. Society is focused much more around small towns, the people you grow up with, and the family which is constantly around than in my experience in the states.
The next day I got up around 8:30 (sleeping in for me now), had breakfast (pancakes) with the daughters, and hung out while my host mom was at church. I had a chance to read and there was a beach volleyball tournament on TV. After a delicious lunch of starch on starch (fried fish, mashed potatoes, rice, beans, more potatoes with mayonaise on them), we set out for a walk. All three families went together and we walked across farms around central Atenas and eventually ended up at the top of a ridge overlooking the town and the entire valley. After navigating the cows and bulls on the way back down there was a bit of time to look at pictures from the walk (my host mom is a photographer), shower, and play with the new bunny my host sister had just received from a friend around lunchtime before it was already time for dinner.
We learned to make papusas (basically thick tortillas with beans and cheese inside) with repollo (a spicy, slightly pickled cabbage and carrot salsa) and once again, there was lots of music and dancing. Too soon we were saying our goodbyes before our host families drove us back to the field station.
There are some pictures on facebook and I'll try to post some here soon as well!
Comments are welcome as always!
Also, sorry if the change in my URL confused some people. It was danielatenascr.blogspot.com and now it's danielinatenascr.blogspot.com
Friday, February 25, 2011
Off to my home stay!
Hello! We haven't had a field trip in a while so I haven't posted but I wanted to write something before I head off to my home stay with a Tico (Costa Rican) family tomorrow morning.
Things that have been going on that I haven't had the chance to write about:
-We've met with a group of Costa Rican students our age who are learning English through an intensive (and free) government program twice now. The first time they came to the center and the second time (today) we went to their school. We've been playing games and attempting to communicate but of course, it's rough at times.
-There are a few projects that we're working on here at the center at the moment. The soil here doesn't hold water very well so our lettuce is suffering. To solve the problem, we've been constructing 'organoponic' beds. Basically, they're raised beds filled with dirt in which we can plant veges. Lots of hole digging and hammering together for this one. We're also working on intercropping some of the orange trees here on the farm with bananas. Again, lots of hole-digging for the new trees. In other news, the mangoes on the property are getting to be ripe and soon we'll be able to have fresh mangoes everyday. We already have fresh orange juice from our trees every morning at breakfast. I see mango-orange juice in my future. Also, while we were digging holes for the new banana trees, Don Macho Ernesto (don't ask me why he has so many names) brought us some sugar cane he'd just cut from the cane plants in the garden. I've never gnawed on fresh cane before- it was so delicious. Kind of pulpy and porous and once all of the sugary sweetness is gone you just toss the rest.
-I'm off to my home stay tomorrow. It should be interesting. Here's what I know so far: i'm staying with a widowed photographer, her three daughters (22, 20, and 17), and their perrito. We're going to someone's fiftieth wedding anniversary on Saturday night and apparently to the mountains on Sunday.
-I'm also planning next weekend. We have our first "free" weekend which means we get Saturday and Sunday (but can't leave on Friday night....?). Myself and a few friends are planning to go to the coast and to a 200 m (!) waterfall to swim. We also might go to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio where I'm told you're pretty guaranteed to see sloths.
-Final thought: a keel-billed toucan was flitting around in the mango trees at the center the other day. That makes my toucan count three: a pair of chestnut mandible toucans (one feeding the other in Poas) and one keel-billed. Not bad.
As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
El Futbol!
Yesterday afternoon as I was heading to the pool to listen to music and read, my friend Caity stopped me and said, ‘we’re going to a soccer game, get your money, get your stuff, put on some shoes.’ I’m pretty sure I was wearing hiking socks and tevas at the time, not exactly prepared to go out. I nearly ducked out, I was so exhausted after getting up at five to go on our Poas Volcano field trip. But I rallied and made it out the door and to the taxi that took us to the bus station in downtown Atenas.
About 45 minutes later we arrived in Alajuela, Costa Rica’s second city and home to probably its best professional soccer team. After we walked to the stadium we bought tickets for $4 a piece and then we split up to get food and beer. Four of us went to get empanadas at a fast food place and then met back at the stadium to go into the game. La Liga scored in the eighth minute and we were up 2-0 at halftime. After the half, the other team scored two goals to make it 2-2 but La Liga scored again almost immediately. The energy in the stadium was great with all the La Liga fans yelling obscenities at the players that scored on us. One section of the stands didn’t stop singing, waving flags, and beating drums the whole game. We sat in the ‘Popular’ section (aka the cheap seats) but we were right near the field and right near the half line. I was sure the fans were going to get out of control a bunch of times during the game but police in riot helmets kept them mostly in check. People were running up and down the aisles, jumping up on the chain link fence around the field and shaking it, and spitting at the players on the other team. It was a crazy experience and a great time- 'we' ended up winning 3-2.
While we were waiting for the bus back to Atenas a fight broke out in the line but before we even knew what was happening, two CR police sped up on motorcycles and pulled the two men apart. They cuffed one man who had attacked a security guard and when a police van showed up, they tossed him in the back. The whole time, the man was yelling in Spanish “so you think you’re big men?” As the police van pulled out of the parking lot, our bus pulled in and they nearly hit each other head on. Both slammed on their breaks which must have tossed the hand-cuffed man in the back around a bit. Narrow miss. After the bus ride and a quick cab home we finally made it back to the center to end our nearly twenty-hour day.
The Volcano
I’m sitting out by the pool writing the blog with views of the central valley and palms all around. The hammocks are swaying in the breeze and the sun is hot. Yesterday we had another field trip, this time to Parque Nacional de Volcan Poas. This is the most visited park in CR with around 300,000 visitors a year. It was easy to see why, the park was really nice and the Volcano was an impressive reminder that we’re sitting on the edge of the Pacific ring of fire. During our briefing for this trip our Professor told us that the last eruption was… two weeks ago. This thing is alive and massive.
The viewing deck overlooks the caldera, a pretty rare perspective and awesome to be able to look down into the middle of an active Volcano. From edge to edge it’s over a km wide but it’s the kind of situation where what you’re looking at is so huge that you can’t really conceptualize its size. At the bottom there’s bubbling, steaming, highly acidic water. The kind of thing what would burn your flesh. We didn’t get to go any closer than the viewing platform but Achim, our Natural Resources Management professor had been down to the pool with some park rangers and told us that the vents are so loud you can barely hear someone speaking next to you and that the steam is so harsh that it burns your eyes and you can't breath. From where we were, the only sounds we could hear were the tourists (“I thought a volcano was a big cone with red stuff coming out the top” –courtesy of an American girl on a trip with her high school class) and the wind moving clouds across the ridge of the continental divide and sweeping away the acidic steam.
While we were here we had our second research project asking guests of the park in Spanish and English to fill our a survey about their experience. Most people were really patient with our Spanish and with filling out the survey. I did have one couple who started making out when I was 5 ft from them… “hola…oh…” I awkwardly turned around and walked away. Still don’t know if I was intentionally spurned…
I'll be posting another about the La Liga futbol game we went to last night later on.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Parque Nacional Carara y el Rio Grande de Tarcoles
Hello! We just returned from a field trip to yet another amazing National Park called Carara and a boat trip on the Tarcoles River to the delta where it drains into the Nicoya Bay on the Pacific side of the country.
First, the Tarcoles River delta. SFS hired a river tourism boat to take us to our destination. It would stand to reason that tourism in this area would be really successful considering the natural resources. However, because of the massive amounts of pollution, opportunities are actually really limited. Despite the problems, the area is host to an amazing array of wildlife. Amongst the garbage, we saw a variety of birds, crocodiles, and cayman. The river is so polluted because the watershed originates in the densely populated Central Valley region of Costa Rica (this is also where Atenas is located). Only 25% of solid waste in the entirety of CR is disposed of properly in managed landfills. The majority is sent to illegal dumping sites or just tossed out; almost all of this unproperly disposed of waste ends travelling down the watershed to the bay and out to the ocean. During the rainy season, the situation is so bad that the massive garbage dams can cause flooding of municipalities. Costa Rica is still a developing country but many of the citizens have adopted 1st world consumption habits without the infrastructure to support them.
So, the beach on which we had our lecture about the watershed was littered with bottles, tires, dead birds etc. It also had crocodiles, living birds, and crabs scuttling around. Definitely a pretty stark contrast. On a local scale, for the people living here, the land has become almost entirely useless. The fisheries which were once the livelihood of these people are too contaminated to be legal for the market, the area has become undesireable for tourism, and the river can no longer safely be used for irrigation of crops. These facts rule out any kind of commercial investment but the citizens are still stuck living on this land, eating contaminated fish, and watering their gardens from the toxic river.
The effects are felt elsewhere as well. Across the bay, the beaches of the Nicoya Peninsula are often littered with garbage and much of the trash makes it out to sea. The pollution causes red tides, levels of heavy metals are extremely high, and the biodiversity of this area is decreasing.
After the first lecture with Achim, our Natural Resources Management professor, we got back on the boat to go to the mangrove forest for a lecture with Edgardo, professor of Tropical Ecology. We learned about the physiology of the mangrove trees growing in the forests here. I didn't know this but mangroves are not actually a taxonomic family. Instead, the name mangrove refers to species in 16 families which all share the ability to grow in extremely high-saline environments. In a case of convergent evolution, these species have adapted independently of one another. Normally, high saline content is fatal to plant life hence the lifeless salt flats found around the world. However, mangroves are able to either filter out salt, excrete it through their leaves, or send it to aging leaves which are close to dying. These are the three mechanisms by which they are able to survive the high salinity and they are specific to mangroves. I could go on and on about these incredible trees but I'll spare you. I would love to learn more about them and do research on them at some point.
After the lecture it was back to the boat and then off to Parque Nacional Carara by bus for a hike. Carara is where Edgardo has been working on a 'directed research' project with SFS students for a few semesters. Directed research is the portion of the semester at the end when our time is devoted to one of a few ongoing research projects at the center. Edgardo has been working on the effects of anthropogenic noise (i.e. roadnoise in Carara) on bird populations. We hiked in two groups and were able to see some really great wildlife and experience this new forest environment. Every forest I step into here is so unique since there are so many microclimates in this country due to the dramatic topography.
I had my first snake siting on this trip. I'm not sure of the name but he was a non-poisonous snake probably about three meters long which feeds on the fer-de-lance, a highly poisonous variety also found here. With some prompting, Edgardo grabbed him by the tail to show us. We were able to see his defensive mechanisms; he puffed up his head and mouth and excreted a bad smell from his skin. Later, I spotted a pair of Keel Billed Toucans. They were high up in the trees but really neat to look at through binoculars and I managed to get some pictures as well. We saw hundreds of leaf-cutter ants, one of the most fascinating animals I've ever come accross. They actually cultivate a mushroom in their nests as a food source. Using leaves which they gather from trees (they can carry up to 50 x's their weight!), saliva, and feces, they create a substrate on which the funghi grow. Pretty incredible. We also saw lots of termite nests, tons of interesting plants, too many things to name.
Being in these forests is so great especially with Edgardo as guide and teacher. He knows so much about the rain forest and is really excited to share his knowledge. It's funny, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of learning the plant species in north american forests but then I come down here; nearly everything's new and the number of species is amazing. I have to start learning from the beginning again but it's great.
Pictures soon to come!
First, the Tarcoles River delta. SFS hired a river tourism boat to take us to our destination. It would stand to reason that tourism in this area would be really successful considering the natural resources. However, because of the massive amounts of pollution, opportunities are actually really limited. Despite the problems, the area is host to an amazing array of wildlife. Amongst the garbage, we saw a variety of birds, crocodiles, and cayman. The river is so polluted because the watershed originates in the densely populated Central Valley region of Costa Rica (this is also where Atenas is located). Only 25% of solid waste in the entirety of CR is disposed of properly in managed landfills. The majority is sent to illegal dumping sites or just tossed out; almost all of this unproperly disposed of waste ends travelling down the watershed to the bay and out to the ocean. During the rainy season, the situation is so bad that the massive garbage dams can cause flooding of municipalities. Costa Rica is still a developing country but many of the citizens have adopted 1st world consumption habits without the infrastructure to support them.
So, the beach on which we had our lecture about the watershed was littered with bottles, tires, dead birds etc. It also had crocodiles, living birds, and crabs scuttling around. Definitely a pretty stark contrast. On a local scale, for the people living here, the land has become almost entirely useless. The fisheries which were once the livelihood of these people are too contaminated to be legal for the market, the area has become undesireable for tourism, and the river can no longer safely be used for irrigation of crops. These facts rule out any kind of commercial investment but the citizens are still stuck living on this land, eating contaminated fish, and watering their gardens from the toxic river.
The effects are felt elsewhere as well. Across the bay, the beaches of the Nicoya Peninsula are often littered with garbage and much of the trash makes it out to sea. The pollution causes red tides, levels of heavy metals are extremely high, and the biodiversity of this area is decreasing.
After the first lecture with Achim, our Natural Resources Management professor, we got back on the boat to go to the mangrove forest for a lecture with Edgardo, professor of Tropical Ecology. We learned about the physiology of the mangrove trees growing in the forests here. I didn't know this but mangroves are not actually a taxonomic family. Instead, the name mangrove refers to species in 16 families which all share the ability to grow in extremely high-saline environments. In a case of convergent evolution, these species have adapted independently of one another. Normally, high saline content is fatal to plant life hence the lifeless salt flats found around the world. However, mangroves are able to either filter out salt, excrete it through their leaves, or send it to aging leaves which are close to dying. These are the three mechanisms by which they are able to survive the high salinity and they are specific to mangroves. I could go on and on about these incredible trees but I'll spare you. I would love to learn more about them and do research on them at some point.
After the lecture it was back to the boat and then off to Parque Nacional Carara by bus for a hike. Carara is where Edgardo has been working on a 'directed research' project with SFS students for a few semesters. Directed research is the portion of the semester at the end when our time is devoted to one of a few ongoing research projects at the center. Edgardo has been working on the effects of anthropogenic noise (i.e. roadnoise in Carara) on bird populations. We hiked in two groups and were able to see some really great wildlife and experience this new forest environment. Every forest I step into here is so unique since there are so many microclimates in this country due to the dramatic topography.
I had my first snake siting on this trip. I'm not sure of the name but he was a non-poisonous snake probably about three meters long which feeds on the fer-de-lance, a highly poisonous variety also found here. With some prompting, Edgardo grabbed him by the tail to show us. We were able to see his defensive mechanisms; he puffed up his head and mouth and excreted a bad smell from his skin. Later, I spotted a pair of Keel Billed Toucans. They were high up in the trees but really neat to look at through binoculars and I managed to get some pictures as well. We saw hundreds of leaf-cutter ants, one of the most fascinating animals I've ever come accross. They actually cultivate a mushroom in their nests as a food source. Using leaves which they gather from trees (they can carry up to 50 x's their weight!), saliva, and feces, they create a substrate on which the funghi grow. Pretty incredible. We also saw lots of termite nests, tons of interesting plants, too many things to name.
Being in these forests is so great especially with Edgardo as guide and teacher. He knows so much about the rain forest and is really excited to share his knowledge. It's funny, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of learning the plant species in north american forests but then I come down here; nearly everything's new and the number of species is amazing. I have to start learning from the beginning again but it's great.
Pictures soon to come!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monteverde and the Continental Divide
Last post, I mentioned that we were at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve for a few days this past weekend. The day after our visit to the Aero Energia plant, we had an early, 6 am, breakfast, and then headed out to Monteverde by bus. Upon arriving, we sat down on logs or the ground beside the trail for a field lecture with our Tropical Ecology professor, Edgardo. After the lecture, we split into three groups and began the hike to the Continental Divide where we were all to meet up to eat our 'emergency' sandwiches (packed for all field trips) before heading back down the trail.
Along the way, we talked about the Cloud Forest, a unique environment existing in damp areas over 3,000 ft. Here, the trade winds sweep across the Central American isthmus, gathering moisture as they cross the warm Caribbean Sea. As the air crosses onto the land of the Central American, Caribbean slope and begins to climb in elevation towards the Continental Divide, the water is released in the form of rain creating the ideal conditions for a lowland tropical rainforest to form. On the other side of the divide, a rain shadow is created and the climate is much drier (this is where I live).
However, as the air is pushed up over the mountains, the clouds pass through and settle in the forests at the top, creating what is known as a Cloud Forest: extremely moist, extremely verdant, and extremely biodiverse. On our hike we saw a variety of hummingbirds and tolomuco (tyra in English), a member of the weasel family, playing amongst the trees. We also saw an amazing variety of plant life including tens of thousands of epiphytes, plants which live on other plants, completely disconnected from the forest floor and obtaining their nutrients from particals suspended in the water caught in the trees.
To hike in this forest was incredible, unlike any other place I've ever been. As we neared the top, the canopy opened up since the high winds don't allow for tall tree to grow here and the undergrowth became even more dense. At the very top, the trees looked as if they were combed over the scalp of the ridge. The wind was strong and the view was breathtaking.
The next day, we all broke up into pairs and completed a field research exercise. My friend Ethan and I measured the percentage of moss cover on leaves and compared it to the amount of canopy cover. Our research allowed us a great opportunity to explore the Monteverde forest on our own.
Pictures soon to follow!
Along the way, we talked about the Cloud Forest, a unique environment existing in damp areas over 3,000 ft. Here, the trade winds sweep across the Central American isthmus, gathering moisture as they cross the warm Caribbean Sea. As the air crosses onto the land of the Central American, Caribbean slope and begins to climb in elevation towards the Continental Divide, the water is released in the form of rain creating the ideal conditions for a lowland tropical rainforest to form. On the other side of the divide, a rain shadow is created and the climate is much drier (this is where I live).
However, as the air is pushed up over the mountains, the clouds pass through and settle in the forests at the top, creating what is known as a Cloud Forest: extremely moist, extremely verdant, and extremely biodiverse. On our hike we saw a variety of hummingbirds and tolomuco (tyra in English), a member of the weasel family, playing amongst the trees. We also saw an amazing variety of plant life including tens of thousands of epiphytes, plants which live on other plants, completely disconnected from the forest floor and obtaining their nutrients from particals suspended in the water caught in the trees.
To hike in this forest was incredible, unlike any other place I've ever been. As we neared the top, the canopy opened up since the high winds don't allow for tall tree to grow here and the undergrowth became even more dense. At the very top, the trees looked as if they were combed over the scalp of the ridge. The wind was strong and the view was breathtaking.
The next day, we all broke up into pairs and completed a field research exercise. My friend Ethan and I measured the percentage of moss cover on leaves and compared it to the amount of canopy cover. Our research allowed us a great opportunity to explore the Monteverde forest on our own.
Pictures soon to follow!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
WIND Power!
We just got back from a big field trip to Aero Energia (a wind-power company), and the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. In Costa Rica, the vast majority (about 90%) of electricity consumed is renewable. Only about 30% of total energy is renewable, however, accounting for the use of fossil fuels in transportation and other non-electricity-related demand. The distinction is that Costa Rica does a pretty good job of powering the country (electrically) through renewable but is still almost entirely fossil fuel-dependent when it comes to transportation.
Of renewable energy in CR, 80% is hydroelectric, 15% is geothermal, 5% is wind, and less than 1% is solar. The topography and abundant water resources (of the Caribbean side) make CR ideal for hydroelectric but the technology isn’t without its problems. Disruption of ecosystems and displacement of people as massive lakes are created to power turbines are two of the many problems which hydro power presents to CR. On the first day of our trip, we visited Lake Arenal, the largest lake in CR and also the largest hydro project, providing 32% of total hydroelectricity production in the country. In order to build this massive reservoir, two towns were flooded and still sit at the bottom of the lake. Over the course of the year, with the fluctuation in water levels from wet to dry season, the depth of the reservoir changes drastically. Some people said that during the last droughts in CR, the top of the cross of the church in Arenal was visible just below the water.
We also visited Aero Energia, one of four subsidiaries of EcoEnergia. EcoEnergia is certified under ISO-14001 environmental management standards, which ensures that the company is employing best practices for low-impact management and continually improving upon its environmental standards. All around Aero Energia, the hills are covered with wind turbines. The wind here is intense and nearly constant, averaging around 10 m/s. Trees on top of the hill are bent over by the constant battering. The nine turbines at Aero Energia are
44 m. high but others in the area stand about half that height. A lot of the turbines in sight are operated by Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the major government-run Costa Rican energy company. ICE has regulations which act as barriers to entry for private firms. Private companies like EcoEnergia produce 13.2% of Costa Rica’s energy but according to the Costa Rican energy law, no single company can produce more than 20 megawatts a year. All energy produced by private firms must be renewable and must be sold to ICE which then adds it to the grid.
As compared to the United States, CR is doing an excellent job making use of renewable resources to power its economy. However, it still has a long ways to go. After rolling black-outs affected much of CR a couple of years ago, the government approved an emergency plan to build a new thermal electricity plant (i.e. running on oil). Before a renewable project can begin, companies must go through up to ten years of environmental and social-impact assessments. Requiring minimal time to plan and build, the thermal plant was a quick fix. The government’s partial abandonment of renewable electricity is dangerous since it sets a bad precedent for future growth. It is projected that CR must double its electricity production by 2015 in order to meet demand. On the other hand, only 25% of potential renewable are currently in use in CR so electricity growth could be sustainable if the political will is present in the Costa Rican government.
In any case, it was great to be able to see the wind-power plant and to learn about a developing country which is so far ahead of the U.S. in terms of sustainably meeting its energy needs for the future. Enjoy the pictures, more soon to come!
Monday, February 7, 2011
In the beginning...
Well, I've been in Costa Rica for a full week now and it has been a whirlwind. I spent the first two days with my Mom at the beautiful Villa Blanca in the Cloud Rainforest. We did yoga, went on nature hikes, and had some really nice time to catch up. Definitely a good transition before starting the craziness of this semester with SFS.
The School for Field Studies operates programs in Mexico, Turks and Caicos, Kenya, Australia, and Costa Rica. Each field station focuses on a different topic, all loosely related to the environment. I'm at the Atenas field station, one of two in Costa Rica. Atenas is a town of about 8,000 people in the central valley region of CR. In 2004, National Geographic rated it the place with the best weather in the world. Not a bad place to spend a semester. Both of the centers in Costa Rica focus on Sustainable Development. We take classes in Tropical Ecology, Natural Resources Management, Economics and Ethics of Sustainable Development, and Culture and Language of CR. We also have a lot of field trips including one to Nicaragua to contrast practices and we end the semester doing research with one of our professors here.
So far, Costa Rica has been absolutely beautiful and incredible, the other students share a lot of my values and interests, and the program is shaping up to be very academically engaging and very rewarding. I would love to go through everything I've done thus far but instead I'll just provide a list of top six events of the past week, in no particular order.
6. Hiked to a 70 waterfall near the center to go swimming with friends from the program and a tico (Costa Ricans dub themselves ticos) guy who has been friends with SFS kids for the past couple of semesters.
5. Visited a Chiquita plantation and got to try carrying a bunch of bananas. They weren't so heavy but the pickers carry around 150 bunches per day. We also learned about Corporate Social Responsibility and Chiquita's efforts in Costa Rica to give back. I'm sure I'll write more about this at some point but note that Chiquita's income for 2010 was estimated at $80-90 million in their 2010 Q3 earnings report. The operating budget of the project which we visited (called Nogal) was $150,000 and that was in partnership with two other organizations: GTZ and Migros. It's a meek effort at best.
4. Saw hummingbirds on a hike in the Cloud Rain Forest (high elevation Rain Forests), learned that they eat about every 45 minutes.
3. Saw lots Coatimundi, a cousin of the raccoon.
2. Went mist netting to catch birds early in the morning at the Tirimbina Nature Preserve. Learned how to handle birds and how to use mist nets.
1. Visited the Demasa Heart of Palm plantation. Learned about their efforts in organic composting and microorganism fermentation. Got the perspective of a farmer who is working under the pressure of the company to which he sells his product. Of course, they're concerned about short-term profitability rather than the sustainability of the production chain.
I hope that this blog will become a great way for friends and family to keep up with what I'm up to as well as a way for me to keep track of this experience. Comments are always welcome and pictures will be coming soon!
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