Sarah: Surprisingly for this time of year, we’ve been extremely busy this past week. Last Tuesday afternoon, Efrain came over for a quick visit and ended up telling us about the inauguration of
Los Quetzales National Park that was going to happen on Wednesday morning.
He was wondering if we had some of our butterflies in good shape that we could set them up on sort of a display. The more we talked, the more he came up with ideas of other stuff we could display for the ceremony. The Savegre Hotel had rented a space to have their own display, and Efrain decided there would be enough space for us to set up a couple of tables and show off some of the work QERC has done over the years. We spent the rest of the day sprucing up some butterfly and moth displays, put together a bat display with a couple of stuffed bats we had, put some homemade frames on a bunch of pictures we had taken in the valley, set aside all of the research books we had bound together, and gathered together the jars containing the lizards and snakes and frogs collected last year. We made a large sign, borrowed tablecloths from the hotel, and decided we were ready.
We showed up at the inauguration ceremony early, saw a couple of other hotels that had booths set up, and got to work with the help of Efrain to make ours look as professional as we could. Turns out it was a great idea for us to be there – there ended up being probably at least 300 people for the ceremony, and most stopped for a while at our display. The kids and the adults alike enjoyed seeing the bats and the jars of specimen from here in the valley, and everyone was interested in the work that we do here. Efrain and a few of his sons would grab people out of the crowd that they knew (usually important people) and proudly show off our stuff, so we felt like it was a great way to continue to build a good relationship with the hotel and have them take pride in having us on their property. Los Quetzales National Park also backs up to the Chacon Reserve, which is where we are located, so we are hoping to build a good relationship with them as well.
The next day the activity started up at QERC as well. First we had a couple of girls show up who were going to stay the next few nights. One was a former LASP student who was here last fall, and she was back visiting her host family in the city. When one of her friends came to visit her in Costa Rica, they decided to spend a few days out here with us. Later that day, another couple of people showed up. David’s friend Alyssa from college, and her husband Ken, are on vacation in CR for a couple weeks and came to spend the first few days with us as well. It has been great getting to know them, and catching up on their lives since college too.
The next day we had a couple more visitors come. Gary Keller, who has been here at QERC plenty in the past, is the Director of the Hispanic Research Center from Arizona State University. He was in Costa Rica for a conference and came just for one night with another professor to experience QERC and the quetzals. Also on Friday came a couple of girls who are here in Costa Rica for 8 weeks studying at the Firestone Restoration Ecology Research Center. They were on a short break and came to explore the cloud forest for a couple days.
Besides those who stayed, we have had an abundance of visitors who have come by to check out the building and see what we have going on here. Besides that, our aguacatillo tree right outside our building has hundreds of fruit on it right now, and the quetzals are going crazy. Every day we have 1-2 dozen quetzals flying right by our window and hanging out for a long time in the tree. The toucanets are also hanging out, and every now and then we have 3-4 quetzals and a couple of toucanets in the tree at the same time! That in itself has increased the number of people in our building, because many tourists come over just to check out the quetzals and take pictures.
One of the most exciting people we have had visit is a muralist. We have been trying to get a muralist interested and willing for the right price to paint a mural of the cloud forest in our museum for a long time now, and it’s looking like we have a winner. We got this guy’s contact information from a photographer who stopped by a month and a half ago, and he is pretty excited to get going on the project. We are thrilled that it’s looking like this will work out!
He was wondering if we had some of our butterflies in good shape that we could set them up on sort of a display. The more we talked, the more he came up with ideas of other stuff we could display for the ceremony. The Savegre Hotel had rented a space to have their own display, and Efrain decided there would be enough space for us to set up a couple of tables and show off some of the work QERC has done over the years. We spent the rest of the day sprucing up some butterfly and moth displays, put together a bat display with a couple of stuffed bats we had, put some homemade frames on a bunch of pictures we had taken in the valley, set aside all of the research books we had bound together, and gathered together the jars containing the lizards and snakes and frogs collected last year. We made a large sign, borrowed tablecloths from the hotel, and decided we were ready.
Besides those who stayed, we have had an abundance of visitors who have come by to check out the building and see what we have going on here. Besides that, our aguacatillo tree right outside our building has hundreds of fruit on it right now, and the quetzals are going crazy. Every day we have 1-2 dozen quetzals flying right by our window and hanging out for a long time in the tree. The toucanets are also hanging out, and every now and then we have 3-4 quetzals and a couple of toucanets in the tree at the same time! That in itself has increased the number of people in our building, because many tourists come over just to check out the quetzals and take pictures.
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