SPRING BREAK!

We packed up our things and headed to Santa Rosa National Park in the very hot and dry province of Guanacaste. We spent the first two nights camping in the park which is made up entirely of dry forest. It's a completely different ecosystem (and climate) than we're used to at the top of the mountain. There are lots of monkeys and iguanas lounging about. I saw spider monkeys and capuchins throughout the days, and in the mornings we woke to the sound of howler monkeys at dawn. Given the amount of noise they make, I couldn't believe it when I saw how small they are. I also saw an anteater sleeping in a tree. I didn't realized they slept in trees or that they were so cute. Camping was great fun, except that many of us didn't really have sleeping bags, and I got a cold from the drastic change in temperature and weather conditions.

The sleeping anteater:



A posing spider monkey:



The following two nights were spent camping on the soft sands of Junquillal Beach in the fishing town of Cuajiniquil. It was BEAUTIFUL and much more comfortable. Nobody else was camping there, so our group had our own private outlet to Pacific ocean.



Lunch visitor:




We spent the first day setting up camp and lounging on the beach. When we woke up the next day, we went snorkeling. Yes, I went snorkeling. In the water. Of the ocean. Where the water was over my head. I still have to get the pictures from my professor's underwater camera, but BELIEVE IT. It was great fun until I scraped my knee on coral, panicked thinking I would attract sharks, started kicking frantically, and was impaled by a sea urchin. I didn't realize that like car mirrors, the goggles had an Objects are Closer (and hurt a lot more) Than They Appear-effect, and I had made my way to a pretty shallow area. I quickly got back into the boat, and hid my bleeding legs under my towel. I was with some pretty serious ocean-hugging coral lovers, so I really convinced myself that I should keep quiet rather than potentially get scolded for the damage I'd caused during my panic-induced coral kickfest.


OH AND WE SAW A HUMPBACK WHALE ABOUT 100 METERS AWAY. I know I'm a huge baby about being in the water, but it was a very humbling experience to think I was swimming in the same pool as a humpback whale.


The next morning, we woke up bright and early, packed up our tents, and got ready for our trip to Nicaragua. The trip to Nicaragua was mostly just to get us out of Costa Rica because we're here as tourists and none of us have visas, so by leaving the country and re-entering, we can stay for another 90 days, but we were all excited to have a couple days without impromptu ecology lessons. The city of Granada is beautiful. I loved loved loved the colonial architecture and markets and bright colors. It reminded me a lot of Antigua, Guatemala.
Wandering around the market:



The first night we went out to a club, and somehow I was convinced that karaoke would be a good idea. Cally and I sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," and later, "I Will Survive." Both were crowd favorites.


The next night was Allison's birthday, so we went out to dinner where I proceeded to get VERY sick. (I really have to remember to quit my ice-eating habit while I'm in developing countries.) The group went out dancing and I spent the night curled up at the hotel. The following morning was Friday the 11th, and while we were eating breakfast and getting ready to think about packing for the beach, we received the devastating news about Japan, and found out that the entire Pacific coast was under a tsunami warning. Not the best time to head for the Pacific coast. It was a nice two days in Nicaragua, but it was time for me to return. One scary ocean experience was enough for one trip for me. It was sad to go, and even though the tsunami didn't amount to much here, I still think coming home was the right decision. Nicaragua was insanely cheap in comparison to Monteverde, and I came home loaded with souvenirs.

Quite silly:

Activities leading up to Spring Break

To briefly get us through the events leading up to Spring Break:
We toured a hydroelectric plant as well as a wind farm. You may notice in our wind farm photo that our group has grown. A group of 6 students in the Living Roots program, have come to the Institute, and while we take separate classes, they travel and take field trips with us. One of the girls is from UW-Madison! GO BADGERS! <3


In the week before we left, Ahdi and I tried starting on our final project for our ecology class. We were interested in studying the bee pollination of coffee plants, but the week we went to monitor pollination, it rained every day. The dry season is such a scam. We had to change our project topic, because we were running out of time, so we studied stream quality of a nearby stream. More on that later.
On one of our failed study days, I found a cane toad. Biggest toad I've ever seen, and far bigger than any toad I'd ever like to see again.


On another field trip, we went to a women's co-op that makes delicious jam, and we stopped by the house of another woman that makes paper. We got to make paper out of a mixture of scrap paper and orange leaves. It smelled wonderful, and I was sad that we couldn't wait for it to dry and bring them home.


Following this weekend, we had to get ready to leave for 4 nights of camping and our trip to Nicaragua!

San Gerardo and Carnavales de Puntarenas

Well, I'm behind as always, but I have a day off, so I'm going to try to get caught up again:
Since my last post in February, the group has been fairly busy.
Toward the end of the month, we went to spend a night at the San Gerardo Biological Station. The station is located on the Atlantic side of the Tilarán mountain range, and offers a magnificent view of the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal. Getting down to the station took a 3hr hike down a VERY steep muddy slope. For those without boots it was more of a 3 hour slide. It probably would have only taken an hour, but we got a very detailed tour on the way down. The hike was well worth it when we got to lounge on the porch and take in the view.


We took a night hike, which I was feeling a little nervous about. (The photos haven't yet surfaced of my hiking attire, which included pants tucked into socks, hood pulled tightly enough for only my eyes to be exposed, and my coat sleeves tucked into the socks over my hands.) It turned out not to be so bad. We saw snakes, frogs, spiders, and bioluminescent fungi!


When we woke up the next morning, we went on a morning hike. We saw an...army of army ants, and proceeded to stand and talk about them for 20 min while they were milling about our feet. (As an aside: my squeamishness has decreased exponentially since being here, but I HATE army ants.) I was also keeping my eye on my watch during this hike, because a group of us had arranged a trip to Puntarenas (the Pacific beach town about a 3hr drive down the mountain from Monteverde) for Carnavales. It's a huge 11-day party along the beach. The director had told us we could make the hike back up in roughly 45 min. I don't know why anyone believed that 3 hours down a mountain could take less than an hour up, but we took his word for it. Following the hike, the 9 of us going on the trip scrambled up the mountain. One even got sick on the way up. :( We decided not to walk together, and each go at our own pace. I made it up with 3 other girls in an hour and a half. We were the first ones up so we had the benefit of being able to wash up in the sinks at the top. It's a good thing our cab driver was Ahdi's father, because I doubt anyone else would have waited an extra hour for everyone else to make it. He was incredibly patient, because the trip did NOT run as smoothly as planned. The plan was to leave at 1 and drive straight down, but once we got in the car (at 2,) all sweating profusely, half decided they HAD to shower, while others remembered we had to go to the bank. He patiently drove us all over town to the bank and individual houses while we all got ready. (No extra charge. The man is a saint.)
We got down to the beach around 5, and enjoyed walking along the beach, dancing, and checking out the local vendors and street performers. It was like a standard street carnival on steroids. We wanted to go just to experience a true Costa Rican cultural event, because despite it's size, it's not geared toured tourists like all of Monteverde is. The food was also delicious. Whoever invented churros filled with caramel is probably my soulmate.





We got back to Monteverde around 1:30am, and I can guaranty everyone went STRAIGHT to bed. Weekend=success.