Disorienting defined: finding yourself in Hotel Balmoral in San Jose, the place where you first met the 22 people you have been with 24/7 for the last two and a half weeks almost two months ago.
And with a three or four hour bus ride between San Jose and Monteverde, we are now home.
I have no idea where to begin. Maybe at the beginning?
On March 15th, we shouldered our packs and set off on a ten-mile hike through the Children's Eternal Rainforest, to a little place called Eladio's Refuge.
We spent five days living in close quarters, loving the cooler weather and the insane diversity of the -true- rainforest.
Everything we owned was reduced to sogginess and mud.
Things that we saw near Eladio's: about five species (each) of mist-netted bats and birds, clicker beetles with glowing eyes, umbrellabirds, bellbirds, helmeted basilisks, red-eyed tree frogs. We learned some quality Spanish profanity from our professors and role models, and heard some pretty incredible stories from the legend, Eladio himself. His horse Nino, gray and willfull, was always meandering around the cabin at all hours, keeping Johel up by playing with abandoned plastic cups on the front porch all night.
We had a mud fight of epic proportions, showered in the rivers and waterfalls, and thoroughly enjoyed the suspension and tree bridges on the trails close by. One of the days we were instructed to competitively collect species of fungi, with prizes awarded to people with the most diverse collection. The only lights in the cabin were old bottles of hotsauce stuffed with wax candles, and the mix of guitars and voices around the wooden dining tables at night...Dear goodness, I am doing this entire trip a terrible injustice by glossing it over like this...but there's just -so-much- to cover. Ask me about the stories. There are many.
After our stay in Eladio's, we hiked an additional 11k to Poco Sol, full of nesting orapendolas and opportunities for swimming in a mysteriously formed lake. This place was heaven: it was the peak of bird diversity, and we spent most of our time with binoculars. Most of the time. There was an interesting stats lecture somewhere in there, and learning that Alan plays some pretty sick harmonica.
The place was basically a resort.
See the hanging nests? Orapendolas make the coolest noises.
Decent views, yes? The valley was spectacular.
The lake! Swimming, anhingas, wood rails, and canoeing.
The best way to start the morning was in the lake.
And I thought this was super cool: some leaf cutter ants using a manmade wooden bridge.
There was a short trail to a waterfall lookout, where we found some american swallow-tailed kites (the best), swirls of martins, and a pair of lattice-tailed trogons nesting in a tree.
More views!
There are trees named after Eladio. What a man.
Male lattice-tailed trogon!
...nesting.
Mmmm Poco Sol.
Poquito sol.
Mas pequeno sol.
And then we were off to La Selva! La Selva is a hugely managed, institutional bio preserve that is a living laboratory for about 300 scientists at any given time. On our first orientation hike there, our guide told us that La Selva puts out an average of one scientific paper every three days, and has for years. We only spent two nights here.
It is here, on our last day, that I turned 21. Not like it's a big deal in Costa Rica; but we got cakes that night in Tirimbina, another lovely bio preserve, of which I have no photographic evidence for some odd reason.
Hmm.
....peccaries!
It was odd, at La Selva, to move around the forest on concrete paths. A lot of the scientists had and rode bikes around--the large suspension bridge in the pictures above is almost iconic in Costa Rica.
We held our lectures in classrooms previously occupied by our TAs and professors as they went through grad school or field work past.
Also, we had the pleasure of a night hike guided by Dr.Richard LaVal and Branko, meaning herps and bats galore. Other points of animal interest: a curassow and a guan both with chicks, a kinkajou, a three-toed sloth with a baby, peccaries for days, three types of toucan/toucanet, and thin hopes of snowy cotingas.
Some of the paths weren't exactly paved. All were extremely well-marked. Very different feel.
Spot the viper!
For a few days, we were extremely fidgety and rowdy in lecture. Maybe it was the humidity? Maybe it was how our professors decided it would be a good idea to give us party hats to illustrate the principle of "random walk to extinction" in tree fall gaps.
We left La Selva and found ourselves in Tirimbina, where we had one day devoted to learning about the tropical lumber industry, sustainable logging attempts, and tree plantations. We visited a plantation and a primary forest extraction site.
And tried to be good in lecture.
And tried to pay attention.
But with a select few members of our group pulling out absurd questions and absurd humor--
Somewhere in a pineapple field ("side-project" of the tree plantation owners)--
...we failed.
Rowdiness ensued.
SO GOOD TIMES WERE HAD BY ALL. Our next stop was Parismina, a town by the coast, closer to Panama, where we would be heading for four days of snorkelling later. I don't have a single picture of Parismina: there was a large main pavilion, a small pool with a swim-up bar we used for bananagrams, and fairly standard rooms. It was on an island, meaning we boated to the town and the turtle conservation station. The turtles were our main focus there: leatherbacks for the beach where we were, but we were close to Tortuguero, the national preserve where a large number of green turtles nest.
In the top three things I have seen on this trip: seeing two near-seven feet long leatherback turtles lay eggs on a completely dark stretch of Atlantic coast under the stars. Goodness. A bunch of locals keep track of the turtles and relocate their eggs to decrease poaching and increase the survival rates of hatchlings, under the title of "ASTOP: Save the turtles of Parismina association".
Then, it was off to Bocas del Toro and Panama. Paradise in the Caribbean, marine diversity lectures, one insane talent show, and hella snorkeling.
Our accommodations, as usual, were tops.
D'awww.
We got to see about six different kinds of reef and offshore habitat through our masks: turtle grass, open ocean, shore shelf, mangrove--all of it teeming with the same life and color we've grown to know above water.
Our classroom and the restaurant we frequented are at the right. I guess we never really confirmed this, but in my head Bocas del Drago definitely means mouth of the dragon. We stayed in the mouth of the dragon. Fantastic moonlit Caribbean seas and pretending to be pirates: a talent show that we will never speak of again, and singing on the beach in front of the professor's house until two in the morning.
Did I mention it was paradise?
Friends on beaches with hammocks.
...many souvenirs. (Kayla: graduation is fast approaching.)
The professors' house.
Despite being in "class" the entire time...it was still spring break 2012.
And it was gorgeous.
There was one day where we got to visit BIRD ISLAND off the coast. A large, arched rock riddled with caves and thick with trees and vines that looked transplanted for some new Pirates of the Caribbean movie: covered in tropicbirds, boobies, terns, and frigatebirds. Incredible.
Animal sightings worth mention: many invasive lionfish, three nurse sharks, a black-tipped reef shark, jacknife fish, a spotted ray of sorts we never formally identified, moon jellies, terns and tropicbirds, and Richard's favorite: brown boobies. Plus so much more.
Post-Panama, we were back to where we started: Hotel Balmoral in San Jose. Goodness. I feel like I've known these people forever. Sitting at a table in a group of nine playing telephone pictionary, making plans to head to the mall to see Hunger Games and Clash of the Titans 2, playing in arcades and laughing to tears--
I wish I could live like this forever. Biology and hilarity and music in the tropics.
Apologies for the lack of coherency. It's super late.
So there you have it! Field trip two: complete. We have five days of homework, midterms, and preparation for our research projects before we are in our homestays, so I may not post too much between now and actually meeting my new, Costa Rican family. Seriously, though: ask me for stories, because I have so many more.
And that's it for now, folks.
Cheers.
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