Where the Wild Things Are

Sarah: The Osa Peninsula was fabulous. I’ll try my best to do it justice in this blog. We had the best time—it was so beautiful and wild and adventurous…the list could go on. We were the good kind of exhausted all week long—the kind of exhausted you get when you’ve had the longest most full day and you’re so hungry that everything tastes gourmet and anything feels good to sleep on. It was as if all of our senses were completely enriched for the entire week just because of all we saw and did. First off, let me explain that we were in San Jose on Saturday doing grocery shopping and taking a girl to the doctor because she blew a hole in her eardrum, so I was able to upload pictures without it taking hours. Thus all the pictures in this entry. :) AND…David is working on a recap of his first two weeks with the ESC (Environmental Science Concentration), so that will come soon as well.

So here goes…Monday morning we left at 3 a.m. on a bus down south. We arrived at the town of Sierpe in time for breakfast, all of us exhausted from very little sleep, and sweaty from all of a sudden switching to a very hot and humid climate. But that was only the beginning. After breakfast we got on a boat and met up with our biologist for the week, Pablo. Within our 2 hour boat ride to our destination, we stopped at some mangroves. They were fascinating. The students got out and walked along the root systems of the mangroves while Pablo taught about them. The rest of the boat ride was beautiful, and we even saw dolphins along the way.

We arrived in the Osa Peninsula at the Campanario Biological Research Station. Nancy, a North American, is in charge of the research station and was there to greet us as we stepped off the boat—the only way to get to this part of the country. She gave us the ins and outs of the facility—they use all solar energy, use all their rain water for showers, and recycle and compost everything—obviously, no trash trucks are able to make it out to that area—and Nancy also gave us the “be careful of poisonous snakes” talk. I was excited! Though we’d already had a long day, it was only noon. We ate lunch and had a quick rest before setting out for our first hike. Our group was split up into two groups for almost the whole week to make it easier to see things while hiking. Already on our first hike we saw lizards and spider monkeys and heard howler monkeys off in the distance. After a short talk by Nancy that evening, we were all too happy to crash in our beds.

Tuesday was our big hiking day. My group went on a long 4 ½ hour hike in the morning. We saw lots of birds, learned about all kinds of trees, and quite possible sweat more than we ever had in our entire lives. In the afternoon we switched, so my group had 2 activities. We hiked to this new “challenge” that they have set up—on one of their very large trees they have a very skinny ladder leading up to a platform very high off the ground. We got strapped in and were belayed up the tree, and after resting for a while and enjoying the view, we rappelled back down. It wasn’t quite as adventurous as the high ropes we did while working at Mission Springs, but it was still a rush for me being afraid of heights. The other part of our afternoon was hiking over to this VERY large tree, complete with a hole that we could climb down into. We took turns and took a flashlight down with us and were able to see a few roosting bats inside the tree trunk. Pretty cool.

Tuesday night we walked over to some bat caves nearby and waited until dusk when they all came out. And out they all did come. We saw thousands of bats flying out of the caves, and one of our projects was to catch about 10 of them. We took the 10 back with us and weighed them and recorded information about them, and almost everyone got a chance to either touch or even put gloves on and hold a bat! By this time if there was a student who wasn’t hooked on the trip before, they were at that point. Even in spite of the intense humidity and heat and long days with full schedules.

Wednesday we got up early and took a bus down along the coast (beautiful boat ride!) and were dropped off at Corcovado National Park. This is some of the most untouched land in all of Costa Rica and is known as the most biologically intense place on earth. We set off in our two groups, with only the intention of exploring and seeing anything possible. Our day started off great when we came across a troupe of squirrel monkeys (my favorites!). Those were the only kinds of monkeys the students hadn’t seen yet, so that was a real treat. We also got to see some large crocodiles swimming toward us in the river. Other than that, we really hit home on the mammals. We saw lots of monkeys (spider, squirrel and howler), coatimundis, a tamandua (type of anteater), agoutis, and the kicker—we saw a tapir. This is related to a horse, but looks like a mix between a horse, pig, and elephant. We first saw its tracks along the beach by the river, and our guide followed them until he found the tapir sleeping in a thicket. All of us crawled into the thicket a little bit, until we were about 5 feet away from the sleeping tapir. I think it looked like a small deformed elephant!

Thursday we got up and took another boat ride out to an island, where we got a chance to do a lot of snorkeling. It wasn’t the most colorful I’ve ever seen, but we saw some exciting things. Almost all of us got to see a sea turtle swim right past us, which was especially neat for the students who had seen sea turtles laying eggs on a beach only weeks before. And three people, David included, saw a shark. Out of the 5 man-eating sharks in the world, 4 of them can be found in the waters around that island. Not usually in the reefs where we were snorkeling, but nearby! And David happened to see a shark swim pretty much right under him...not a man-eating one, but a large one anyway. What a thrill.

So that about sums up our trip to the Osa Peninsula…I can’t believe we got to go to a place like that! Now that we’re back, the students are realizing they only have about 3 weeks left here in Costa Rica. Most of them are stressing about getting all their work done, so we had a meeting last night to help organize and plan what the next 3 weeks will look like. And after a few weeks of early mornings and early-to-bed evenings, their sleeping schedule has completely switched. On top of that, we are starting to transition back into a time where it is only sunny here in the mornings and a good chance of rain in the afternoons, so it is good that everyone is used to taking advantage of the morning hours. We’ll see if that kind of schedule can continue for them for the rest of the semester…

A Joyous Homecoming

Sarah: Hooray, they're back! Friday late afternoon the entire gang showed up at QERC, finally home again. It was great to see everyone (ok, mostly great to see David...) and fun to have life around QERC once again. And as a bonus, I finally got to see Scott! He was David's professor when he was here as a student 5 years ago, and then for the past 2 years when David and I lived in California, it was Scott who was our boss. Scott became a good friend and it has been a blast to see him.

It has been a full house this weekend. In addition to the 13 SNU students, we have 3 LASP students, plus Scott, plus their driver Franklin (who is a stud). We all ate dinner together Friday night and got caught up on their travels thus far. Again, I'm going to have to have David write about the highlights of the past 2 weeks, but of course he has been busy crazy this weekend, helping with the group and getting things taken care of here at home (and spending time with me). We all went hiking on Saturday morning and had beautiful sunny weather. It was fun for me to have Scott as my "Naturalist", since I was a Naturalist in California working underneath him. Plus, it was great to learn more about the valley in which we live.

Today we had a great time of sharing and praying together with those that wanted to get together this morning. I love those times and it is neat to connect with the students on a deeper, spiritual level. This afternoon everyone has been busy doing their reading for the ESC class and frantically doing laundry. We did take some time to go visit Laura, the Canadian who lives in the valley. She has recently opened up a cafe of sorts on her deck on the weekends. Our students have really taken advantage of it and we usually get a fairly large group to go visit with her and eat her baked goods every weekend.

Tonight we'll have some more time of frantic laundry loads and quick re-packing, because tomorrow we leave really early. It will barely be tomorrow when we leave--we need to load the bus by 3 a.m.!! However, it will be completely worth it. I'm really excited that the 4 students who didn't participate with the first 2 weeks of this concentration decided at the beginning of the semester that they wanted to be a part of this week, because it's supposed to be the best. We are going to the Osa Peninsula, out in the middle of nowhere, where it's supposed to be the most wild place in Costa Rica. My goal is to see a jaguar and a poisonous snake...

Ok side note, I was planning on posting pictures as well, but I've been trying to upload them for an incredibly long time now (thanks, dial-up internet), so I'll have to wait until a later time to add pictures.

Tribute to Rambo

Sarah: Today Lizeth showed up and told me that Rambo had been killed. I didn't believe her at first, I kept saying "No, please no". She and I were both on the verge of tears as she told me that on her way down to work this morning, she found him in the road. She thinks he was attacked by another dog in the valley. Her kids hadn't found out yet, but I understand how they'll feel once she gives them the horrible news. Here's another kicker to the already sad news--I think I heard it happen last night. I was making dinner and I heard some awful yelping outside, and I thought it sounded an awful lot like Rambo. I went outside and whistled and didn't hear anything else, so I thought maybe I was mistaken or it was another dog. Sad, sad day today.

So here, in honor of one good dog, is my list of 10 Good Things About Rambo:

10. He was a picky eater. Rambo would dig through the compost pile to find the one thing that he would actually want to eat, and then carry it around, eating it and savoring every bit.

9. He was protective over certain pieces of food--namely, toast. Rambo would take the leftover toast and bury it--but not eat it. If another dog would come around and sniff around, Rambo would growl and then take the toast and bury it in another spot.

8. He was a good guard dog. Rambo always seemed to run off and bark at things at night and come trotting back to QERC. We never knew if there really was anything there...but Rambo acted like he was on guard duty.

7. He had one incredible overbite. This made it look like he was showing off a huge smile as he'd come running to greet us.

6. He could be counted on to sleep anywhere. In Rambo's mind, anything was fair game. He'd find someone's laundry left outside all folded up nicely and make a bed out of it, or gather shoes together and sleep on them, or a happen upon a towel that someone "accidentally" left outside to snuggle up in.

5. He was persistent. Right around the time it started getting dark and cold outside, Rambo could be found hanging around any door, waiting for someone to open it. As soon as there was an opening, he'd make a mad dash inside in hopes of people having mercy on him and letting him stay the night inside.

4. He was playful. Rambo jumped like a mexican jumping bean and loved it when anyone gave him attention.

3. He was loyal to his family and to us at QERC. Rambo loved to sit and relax and keep people company--he'd follow David and me around everywhere and keep us company when we worked outside.

2. Everyone loved him. No matter how many fleas or ticks he had, everybody loved Rambo and enjoyed having him around.

1. He knew how to love. Rambo was a good dog, and will be greatly missed.

Spiders and Bingo

Sarah: Well David and the crew have been gone a week now and for the most part, it’s been pretty quiet around here. Actually the first night, everyone was gone and it was just me to hold down the fort. So I usually enjoy time to myself and I don’t really get freaked out, especially in this safe small valley. However, it does seem like when I’m here alone, the bugs come out in full force. Last Sunday night it was a particular spider. I went to brush my teeth, and there he was—large and hairy. I’m used to the small spiders that live in every corner in our apartment, but this one was BIG. I didn’t know what to do. I kept entering and leaving the bathroom, sorting it out. I couldn’t leave him there, knowing full well that he might not be there the next time I checked and he might be on his way into my bed. I also have a fear of killing spiders, did I mention that? So I did the only rational thing possible. I took a number of David’s shoes and started chucking them at the wall, yelping and running out of the bathroom with each throw. Finally he fell into the shower, so I tried to drown him with hot water, but he kept escaping the water spray. So I resorted back to throwing shoes at him, and finally I won. As I left the bathroom feeling victorious, I realized how ridiculous the entire past 20 minutes had been and what a scene I had been making. I have to admit I was glad that some students returned the next day…so far we have gotten rid of 5 spider egg sacs and about a dozen spiders in my apartment (ok so THEY have gotten rid of almost everything…)

There are 3 girls and 1 guy who aren’t participating with the other students on the Environmental Science Concentration (ESC). The girls returned to QERC on Monday night, and the guy has been in and out because his girlfriend was here to visit last week. Tuesday night we all went to a very special event here in the community—Bingo Night. These nights only happen a few times a year as a fundraiser for the school. We showed up not knowing exactly what to expect, and found most of the community ready to participate. There was plenty of food available to purchase and lots of prizes available to win. Apparently it’s a pretty competitive event, and even Efrain and Caridad come to win. We were having a lot of fun, though not winning anything, until at last one of our students, Laura, had a bingo. She ended up walking away with a new coffee maker!

The rest of the week has been pretty low-key. The students had a big test they were studying for, so they’ve been pretty non-social. Plus, I think they are enjoying having the building practically to themselves, so it’s been many late nights of them watching movies and chatting, and it’s been a rare day that I’ve seen anyone up and moving before 10:00 am! Ahh the life of a college student.

On the other hand, David’s reports have been really positive. They saw some turtles laying eggs on a beach at night, and now they are staying near Arenal Volcano to study volcanology. David says that everyone is having a great experience and taking away something new they are learning and excited about. I'm sure he'll have much to report on when he gets back!

Los Cusingos and the Trooper

The clouds are rolling through right now and our weather is beginning to shift a little. We still have beautiful sunny days that get into the upper 70’s but now we are getting a little moisture buildup in the afternoons that sometimes turns into a 10 minute downpour. And the Quetzal nesting season is in full swing. There are several nests that are being occupied and ready to be observed.

Thanks to an awesome birthday present from Sarah I cashed in on a day of birding with Melvin, a family member in San Gerardo that is also a bird guide. He took me to a place called Los Cusingos. It is preserve in the middle elevations of the pacific side of the Talamancan mountains and former home of famous late birder Alexander Skutch. Alexander Skutch is the co-author of the field guide for birds in Costa Rica. We had a great time and it was just really nice to have somebody to bird with. Along with all the birds, one exciting point was when Melvin convinced me we needed to run from a pack of peccaries, that weren’t really there.

And finally, we have our car. Meet the 1986 Isuzu Trooper that has been tied up in the shop and otherwise dark abyss of the unknown since we have been here. It has a lot of character and it is really old. It probably is not the most reliable thing out here, but it does help us not look like tourists and we can pick up like 10 hitchhikers in one trip because it has so much room. It gets horrible gas mileage. I guess hybrids were not popular in 1986.

Projects

Sarah: It’s been busy since we got back from Panama (isn’t always busy, no matter what you’re doing?). The students have come to realize that they don’t have too many more weeks here at QERC, so most of them are frantically working on their research projects. Those that had gotten a good start before their trip to Nicaragua have used this time to really be out there collecting data, and those that hadn’t had such a good start have realized that they need to kick it into gear. Needless to say, it’s been fun to see them out on the trails more and finding some good information for their projects. Both David and I have gotten to help with different projects (naturally David quite a bit more, seeing as he’s the biologist. However, my days teaching outdoor education at Mission Springs have allowed me to help a girl catch invertebrates in the stream—one of my favorite activities!).

David’s also been working hard on some other projects that he’s started. Lately he’s been pouring his time into an informational board for QERC so that the entire community can be a part of the work we have going on here, and also the museum. We are having a couple of ladies paint a mural of the cloud forest on one of our walls in the museum, which we are thrilled about. So David has been collecting pictures and video footage so they have a lot to work with. (This beetle is one picture he was really excited about.) We even had one of the boys in the valley find a dead snake and bring it to us to preserve for the museum! Both David and I are really excited about the transformation of the museum, since it was one of Efrain’s dreams from the very beginning to have such a room for the entire community, especially for the kids.

We have also had to make a couple trips into San Jose since returning to Costa Rica. Many students came back sick from Nicaragua because of change in diet (LOTS of food consisting of mostly rice and beans) and a couple actually contracted some kind of parasite from having drinks with ice in it—the water is not drinkable in Nicaragua. So, we’ve had to go into the city to get them all checked out and cured.

And today David is out with Melvin, one of the main birders in the community. For his birthday back in January, I paid for an all-day birding outing for the two of them, and today was finally the day that they are both available to take advantage of it.

Panama

Sarah: Last week we ventured off to Panama in order to get our visas renewed. To get there we rode a bus from San Jose down the Caribbean coast, and then literally walked across a bridge to get to Panama. It was the most relaxed border crossing I've ever seen. We decided to go to the beach to get a change of scenery and started looking for places on the Caribbean side, in this group of islands called Bocas del Toro. We found one for a reasonable price that seemed interesting, and decided to check it out. There were a lot of hotels that looked neat, and kind of randomly chose this one. It was completely off the grid—so they used all solar power, wind power, and collected all their rainwater to use as their water source. And they recycled and composted and all that good stuff too. Their location on the island was on the opposite side of the town, so it felt super remote, and was located a little higher up (still right on the beach) so there was a bit of a breeze and hardly any bugs.

It was run by a family from Colorado and was not like a typical hotel—there was no restaurant, but each day they posted on a board what they were having for dinner and if any guests wanted to join them, it was like family style. Each room also had its own kitchenette, and they had a pantry stocked full of food that you could purchase and make your own food instead. We ate breakfast and dinner with them and most other guests, and then made our own food for lunch to save some money. It was a great opportunity to get to know the other guests who were staying there, and it really felt like we were in town visiting a family and hanging out together. Our first night, the neighbor came over to play the guitar and hang out, and about halfway through we found out that he was a famous songwriter! His name is Clay Blaker, and has written songs that have been sung by Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, George Strait, and Barbara Streisand. He was a really cool laid back surfer and fun to get to know briefly.

The first day we had a huge rainstorm and the waves crashed and it was really cool. We hiked and saw lots of small colorful poison dart frogs and a sloth. We also took a full-day boat tour and visited lots of the surrounding islands. On that tour we saw dolphins, and one swam right underneath our boat! We also went snorkeling and it was the best I’ve ever seen—SO many colorful fish and beautiful coral and other underwater things. On our boat tour we heard that we were close to the island that they are currently filming a new Survivor—I wanted to go check it out and see if they needed anything (some food? A match?) but apparently there are rules and regulations about that. We even saw a helicopter fly over at one point and we’re sure that it MUST have been Jeff Probst. There was also an island that a previous Survivor had been filmed on. At the end of the boat tour we stopped at a beach and saw lots of starfish and an anteater really close. So, it was really relaxing and a really good deal. A great blend of hiking and relaxing and being on the beach and in the water.

Now we’re back, and it’s good to be back. The students got back from Nicaragua the same day we got back in town and it was really fun to hear their stories. They had incredible experiences, and I think it caused them to really think about their lives and analyze their worldview. That’s what the experience did for me when we went to Nicaragua as students, so it was really neat to see how they came back changed as well. We are all finding that this semester is going really fast—it’s already about halfway over! It just makes me realize again how we need to be taking advantage of each day, and be thankful for the opportunity we have to be in this position.