Whew!

David: Sarah and I just finished a game of 7 up-7 down with some of our students and this afternoon we watched some episodes of L ost. I know that this may not seem that exciting but it sure felt great. I have been going strong for over a month now and things are finally settling down a little bit.

The main reason for the busyness has been the Environmental Science Concentration. SNU’s eight students joined four students from LASP for a three week course studying tropical ecology and sustainability. I co-lead/co-taught this course along with Scott Smithson and Natalie Villablobos from LASP. I took part in this course last year and was thrilled to be a part of it again this year. The goal of the course is three-fold: 1) expose the students to the diversity of life throughout all of Costa Rica’s biomes (give them some “WOW” experiences in God’s creation 2) visit and observe several different and diverse approaches to conservation and sustainability 3) challenge the students to integrate their faith, personal life choices, and global environmental stewardship. It sounds like a big task but in reality Costa Rica makes is a perfect place for this purpose.

We started the course here in San Gerardo de Dota and QERC studying cloud forest and paramo ecology and looking at the Chacon family’s attempt at sustainability through forest conservation, ecotourism, trout farming, and agriculture. We left from here to south central Costa Rica in the San Vito area on the border with Panama. Our purpose was to visit a forest restoration research project being conducted by a researcher from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her project is attempting to look at restoration ecology for tropical forests in the attempt to aid forest regeneration. One reason her project stands out as different is that she includes a social aspect in partnering with local sustainable coffee farmers.

From the San Vito area we left for almost a week to the Osa Peninsula to study the lowland tropical rainforest. This was my 4th time to the wild Osa Peninsula and my 3rd time visiting Campanario Biological Reserve. Campanario is a special location where rainforest meets ocean and you think you can’t find anything that looks more like paradise. On the other hand it is hot, humid, and full of insects. Those are some fun things that come with some of the best tropical forests. There is some give and take. In fact, one our students was actually bitten by a boa constrictor. Talk about having a good story to tell the parents. Our time at Campanario was inspiring as always and for me was highlighted by having a very close and prolonged encounter with a sea turtle while snorkeling.

Before leaving the Osa we spent a night at Sirena Ranger Station in Corcovado National Park. Our main goal was to see wildlife since this particular spot is well known for an abundance of it. It lived up to its reputation. We saw all four monkey species, one sloth species, two species of peccary, crocodiles, coatis, an opossum, and three individual tapirs. And that doesn’t even count the birds we saw.