old friends and new friends

Sarah: The last week with Matt was spent both here at QERC and in San Jose. We did some hiking, collecting plants for QERC’s native plant demonstration, and plenty of games and hanging out time. Matt’s friends from Taiwan, 2 of whom are Costa Rican and another who is Bolivian, were here in CR and came out to visit us at QERC. We took them out on the trails a little bit, looked for quetzals, and stayed up late playing games. It was a fun combination of Spanish and English being spoken over the course of a few days.

Unfortunately, our time with Matt was coming to an end, so we wrapped it up by spending a couple last days in the city doing some souvenir shopping and going to watch the Dark Knight. That was a fun evening, because we went to the fancy theater on Wednesday, when the tickets were half price. So for a mere $4.00, we sat in a huge theater in our own personal recliner seats and enjoyed a very good movie. On Thursday evening we got together with Alex Grant, a former LASP staff member who was around when David and I went through the program, as well as when Matt was here. It was fun to catch up on each others’ lives.

And sadly, we said our goodbyes to Matt early Friday morning. Also sadly, we had to take our car into the mechanics during our time in the city to get some more problems fixed on it. When it was finally ready to go again, we were able to make it back out to QERC on Saturday. It was fun for us to be in the city on Friday and Saturday, because Saturday, August 2^nd, was El Dia de La Virgen de Los Angeles. Thousands of people from all over Costa Rica come to Cartago (just outside of San Jose) for concerts on Friday and mass on Saturday, to remember the miraculous appearance of a small statue of the Virgen Mary, which is supposedly responsible for several miraculous events. Many come by car, bus, bikes, horses…..and many walk! People from all over the country start their journey many days in advance in order to walk all the way to Cartago. When we were coming into the city on Wednesday, we saw hundreds of people up on the highway on their journey. Those closer to Cartago actually make the journey completely on their knees. It was quite a sight to see thousands of people on foot headed toward Cartago, and traffic backed up for miles.

Chitwood-Hille reunion

Sarah: This past week and a half, Matt Chitwood has graced Costa Rica with his presence once again. Matt is David’s best friend, who also studied through LASP a year after David and I did. He is currently living in China, after living in Taiwan for almost 2 years. It had been 2 ½ years that we have seen Matt, given the fact that with all of us traveling and living abroad, our visits home haven’t coordinated very well together. Matt started off his trip here in CR by meeting up with a friend in San Jose, Chino, whom he met in Taiwan. Matt also is starting up an English teaching program here in CR, setting up recent grads with a teaching position and a host family for a year. He already has the program up and running in Taiwan, with 4 graduates teaching, and kicked off this year with one student teaching and living in San Jose. While Matt was in San Jose for the first couple days of his trip with Chino, he set the recent graduate up with his new family and started seeking out a place to teach. After a couple days in the city, we met up with Matt and brought him out to QERC. Unfortunately we had been having some crazy weather patterns and some heavy rain hit us hard for a couple days. It was nice to lay low and relax and catch up, before heading out for a beach trek.

We left Sunday for our beach time and started off the week at Dominical, a lazy surfing town only a couple hours from QERC. David and Matt tried out their mad surfing skills, and we enjoyed some time to throw the Frisbee around on the beach. Next we headed down to Uvita, another beach along the Pacific coast. We spent one day inside Marina Ballena National Park, where we walked along the beach out to the Whale Tail, only accessible during low-tide. We experimented a bit with snorkeling, though the water was pretty cloudy, and threw around the Frisbee some more, playing 500 a few times. Our national park pass allowed us entrance into other beaches, so we explored a few other beaches around the area as well, while David and Matt body-surfed the waves at each place.

After Uvita we headed even further south to Golfito, stopping in Palmar Norte to have a quick lunch with our old housekeeper Liseth, her son Diego, and Liseth’s in-laws (also Ana’s in-laws) Vera and Francisco. On Thursday morning we went into Piedras Blancas National Park to hike around. The national park was bought by Austria and given back to the Costa Rican government, and after visiting their research station near the entrance of the park (Tropenstation, best said with a thick German accent), we were given a map and some rubber boots. We took off for a hike and passed a waterfall, found the trails to be shorter than we realized, and decided to do the longer loop. Though the signs were maybe a bit confusing, we continued on the trail we were convinced was the right one. After about 2 hours of hiking…we started to second-guess ourselves. All of a sudden we came up with the idea that this trail could be a longer trail that would somehow lead us all the way to Corcovado National Park…which would have been bad news. We made the decision to turn around and make our way back to the confusing signs. Once there, we figured out that we were indeed on the right trail, and could have been within minutes of the end of the trail. Instead we hiked yet another hour to make it back to Tropenstation, passing Caiman Pond on the way and seeing a few caimans nearby.

Thursday evening we drove a short distance north to Sierpe to stay the night, so we could get up in the morning and kayak through the mangroves. This was a real highlight of the week, as we spent 4 hours out kayaking in search of wildlife. Matt saw what he was looking for – crocodiles, including 2 baby crocs that we were able to get very close to. And David saw a new bird, a hummingbird found only in the mangroves. And I found a snake – not the desired fer-de-lance, but close…a boa constrictor! It was a great morning. Friday afternoon we made our way back to Dominical to spend the night so Matt and David could get some last quality time in boogie-boarding.

And finally, after a good week of adventures, we made it back to QERC Saturday afternoon – just in time for community Bingo up at the school. Matt won a prize, a set of nice cooking bowls. And David…almost won a prize. It was a big box of a variety of stuff up for grabs, and once David got his beans 5 in a row, he stood up and yelled “Bingo” as Matt and I were going crazy at our table. Wendy, who was reading the numbers, then proceeded to read off the next number. So we yelled even louder, assuming she didn’t hear us. And it was then that we realized we were on the last round, which was a Blackout round. OOPS. Most people were laughing (hopefully with us rather than at us!) and especially our Costa Rican friends at our table were laughing very hard for most of that round. Good times with the community. :)

Quetzal parties

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!

Nicaragua

David: Back in February Sarah and I led a Nicaragua study trip for the QERC semester students as a part of their Applied Cultural Integration course. At that time I wrote a blog entry that was never posted. We thought we shouldn't let already written material go to waste. So, if you were just absolutely dying to hear about our February trip to Nicaragua, today is your lucky day.

David(5 months ago): We recently were in Nicaragua; “beautiful and unfortunate Nicaragua” as so insightfully stated by national hero Benjamin Zeledon. It is the land of lakes of volcanoes. It is a country home to mouth watering tortillas and generous and happy people. It is a history of inspiring patriots and corrupt politicians. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and it is the perfect place to take a group of students if you want them to face history and reality that encourages a deeper look at several aspects of life.

Our group of 5 students, Sarah, and I spent a total of 11 days in Nicaragua digging into the richness of the culture, complexities of the history, and beauty of the people. After a 10 hour bus ride from the San Jose to Managua our group stayed 2 days in Managua to explore historical sites. Among these sites where the Revolutionary Plaza where the Sandinistas rolled victoriously into on their tanks when they over threw the Somoza dictatorship, the old national cathedral that is in ruins from the devastating earthquakes from the 1970’s, and the Popes’ Plaza where Pope John Paul III spoke several times during his life of service.

The highlight of these sites was Loma Tiscapa. Historically it is a military base notorious for holding political prisoners and the location of years of torture of political enemies. It is here that the U.S. Marines trained the National Guard of the Somoza regime and where Augusto Cesar Sandino had his last meal before being kidnapped and assassinated. In fact there is a very large silhouette statue of Sandino on the Loma Tiscapa hilltop that can be seen from almost every location in the capital of Managua. The students were able to engage in this history and rightfully so as it is hard to be at these locations and not be enthralled with it all as you can see how history has shaped the lives of Nicaraguans.

After our short time in Managua we headed to the rural area of Niquinohomo for a service experience and home stay at a farm called Rancho Ebenezer. Rancho Ebenezer is a Christian organic farm that is dedicated to educating rural families in subsistence farming. If a family has 1/10^th of an acre they can teach them to supply all their family's needs in a way that is ecologically friendly. There is a strong emphasis on humanity's role of creation stewardship and ecological principles. The project believes in truly investing in a family's long-term well-being and it shows by the multiple year training commitment that is given and the importance that is put on family values. This location actually is an ideal place for service teams from the U.S. and the project is looking for groups who can help out with manual labor. If you are interested in setting something like that up here is there website. (www.ranchoebenezer.org)

While working at Rancho Ebenezer our students had home stay experiences with local families who have a connection to the project. Their work day started early at 6:00 AM. The daily chores usually consisted of watering and feeding the goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, and rabbits all being raised as demonstration projects for a sustainable protein source, cleaning out the pig sties, shoveling poop from multiple animals sources to use for feeding the worms that would then create good fertilizer, fertilizing the crops, harvesting foliage from the crops to feed the animals, and many other things as well. It was very educational and great experience. In the evenings the students were on their own back with the families they stayed with.

And finally, to finish our time in Nicaragua with a little relaxation we spent two days in the colonial city of Granada. It's a charming city with good restaurants and a hostel with hammocks that hit the spot.

All in all Nicaragua proved to be a very meaningful and trans-formative experience for our five students. "It was awesome", I say with a big smile on my face. The students were faced with the reality of a 3rd world culture. They lived, ate, and bathed in it all to find out that there is something very special about Nicaragua. It was fantastic to see them mentally, emotionally, and physically challenged, all which pushed them to maybe grow a little bit. Plus, Sarah and I successfully led our 1st trip to Nicaragua and felt good about it. We're excited to do it again this February.

The Wedding

Sarah: The last couple weeks I have spent in the U.S. of A. My older sister, Emily, was married to Greg Ford this past weekend in Chattanooga, TN. I flew up about a week and a half early to be of help with last-minute details, and also for some good quality sister time and bonding time with my new brother-in-law. Emily and I had a great time together, with many long days of running errands and finalizing everything before the big day. She was my maid-of-honor, and I was her matron-of-honor. We realized it had been a good number of years since the two of us had spent some quality time together, and we took advantage of our time together with lots of talking and catching up! It was also great for me to spend time with Greg, since I had only met him once over Thanksgiving last year. To get everything done, Emily and I would get up in the mornings and figure out a plan of attack for the day, put our game faces on, and go strong until meeting up with Greg for dinner. It was a lot of fun to be there during the hustle and bustle of wedding frenzy.

The rest of my family drove in the Tuesday night before the wedding and we all helped out with projects like assembling the programs and tying ribbons on the bubbles. Wednesday night we had a Gosselink Family Night, complete with Italian sausage sandwiches, games, ice cream, and walking around downtown. Though that also marked the beginning of even more busyness, it was great to have my family around. David also flew late Wednesday night, and I was really glad to see him too!

Thursday night we had a Girls’ Night Out with Emily – dinner downtown, walking around and hanging out, and spending the night in a hotel room. It was good for her to catch up with some of her friends who were coming from out of town, and good for us all to meet each other, since we all play a special role in Emily’s life but don’t all know each other well. David went out to eat with the guys that night and got to meet the groomsmen and the other usher (David was an usher as well). Since Greg is from the south, most of his friends and family have a thick southern accent. David said at one point during the dinner he realized that he could have understood a conversation completely in Spanish better than the conversation going on with such thick southern accents!

Friday Emily had a brunch for all girls who had a role in her wedding, and then we headed over to the church to begin decorating. This took us all the way up to the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner, and then all of a sudden it was the night before the big day! Greg’s 13-year old son, Hunter, was his best man, so Hunter and I got together Friday night to write our toasts together. Neither one of us was too keen on the idea of public speaking, but it was good to sit and work on them together.

And finally, Saturday came and went. Everything seemed to fly by! Emily was calm, but very excited. I stayed the night with her on Friday night and she came into my bedroom Saturday morning jumping on the bed chanting “I’m getting married today!” It was bound to be a good day. Emily said later that everything was perfect – just the way she wanted it to be. That’s a good thing to hear from the bride, after she’s spent months planning and dreaming up the perfect day! The wedding was beautiful and Emily was a radiant bride. The forecasted rain even held off, and Emily and Greg were able to drive off in their new convertible!

After a fairly short clean-up time, David and I went out to eat with my family and hung out with them the rest of the evening. They left early the next morning, but David and I didn’t fly out until Monday evening. We ended up getting together with the other usher, Ken, and his wife Renee on Sunday evening. It was great to be able to hang out with them and form a new friendship with a really neat couple. And finally, after a very long night of travel (due to fog, we landed in Panama and sat on the plane for an hour and a half before getting cleared to go back to Costa Rica), we arrived back in the country early Tuesday morning.

Tropical Storm Alma

David: We recently were hit, and hit hard, by a storm that formed over the Pacific that gradually escalated into Tropical Storm Alma. Alma is the Spanish word for soul and this storm definitely showed a lot of soul to us. Here at QERC we sustained over 15 inches of rain in three days. At one point we had 4 inches in 2 1/2 hours. Other parts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua received more than that. The Panamanian-American Highway between QERC and Cartago was closed for two days due to trees and landslides but between QERC and San Isidro it is still closed because the highway is just flat out gone in certain spots where slides took the whole thing. Apparently there were several hundred people stuck on the highway between two landslides for at least 2 days without food.

Here at QERC we endured the storm with no major damage and we were able to watch a powerful display of the force of water. The Savegre Valley was a mess. The river was so high that between here and the trail to the waterfall the river was up over the road at three places. In fact, right across from QERC the river was over the road and pounding into the bank of the property across from us. Logs striped of any kind of foliage were careening down the water on the road. The river was touching the bottom of the Hotel Savegre's bridge, about 3 feet over Fernando's bridge at Los Ranchos, and it completely took away the last swinging bridge before the big waterfall. The river was so powerful that for about 5-6 hours straight we couldn't see them but we could hear boulders under the water being pushed down the river and pounding into other boulders. Every time that would happen the whole building would feel the vibrations of the impact. It was like hundreds of little earthquakes. At one point I was outside watching the river during the height of our rainfall and I saw an Alder get ripped down up stream and it was past me in about 1 second and gone. It would have been instant, or at least guaranteed, death for anyone that fell in that river.

The storm let up on Thursday night and on Friday it was beautiful and sunny so we got out to check out the damage around the valley. Our valley road, which is our only road in and out of here, was closed for about 2 days due to trees and one big and several small landslides. We were without power for 2 days.

At QERC we were close to a few problems. At the height of the storm on Thursday, water was draining off the back property down to where the rain gauge is. There was so much water coming down that it formed a creek about 4 feet wide on our back lawn. The creek flowed to the corner of the building and split going on both sides. At the height of the rainfall we had water on all four sides of the building flowing completely against the building at about 2 inches deep. QERC was literally surrounded by a moat. The only door you could walk out without directly stepping in the creek was our apartment door. I was really worried it would come in the doors but the level started going down once it was about an inch from the bottom of the door frame. That would have been a muddy mess to clean up. The stream that was split by the building partly just flowed down the front grass area and joined other water to create a creek flowing down the road past Rolando's, Carlos's, and down to Pablo's. The water that didn't flow down there rejoined on the west side of the building and all flowed off the embankment right across from our apartment. There was so much water running off there, and also one of the gutters from the roof exits from under the ground right there as well. Unfortunately, all of that water, combined with an area that Pablo says was a lot of back fill from construction, with no large tree on it, created a fairly significant landslide into the river. This was the scariest thing for Sarah and I. The landslide slowly kept growing as the storm persisted. It is now stabilized but it is only 15 feet from the edge of the building.

Return of the Finkenbinders

Sarah: Though the busyness of the semester program is now behind us, May has continued to be full of activity and visitors. A few days after the students left, Leo and Zana Finkenbinder came to QERC with a group from Olivet Nazarene University (ONU). As you may remember, it was Leo and Zana who have the long history here in the valley and were the ones who actually built QERC. They hadn’t been back to the valley since they retired a few years ago, and Leo has since come out of retirement and is helping develop an Environmental Studies program at ONU. We were excited to have them here to follow around and pick their brains on the history and science of this valley, and a bit nervous with their return since we had made quite a few changes to the place since they’d been here.

Our visit with them was wonderful – they were complimentary toward the improvements we’ve made and the direction we are going with QERC, and we were able to learn a lot from them about their visions they originally had for the building and the way QERC was utilized. As it turns out, many of David’s ideas for the place coincide exactly with the visions Leo had, so David was able to run a lot of ideas past Leo and receive good input.

It was also a very good and much-needed visit with the Chacon family for Leo and Zana. Because of the long-standing history with Leo and Zana, it is them whom the Chacons trust and respect the most when dealing with QERC. Leo and Zana were able to see David and me as a positive addition to the staff, and in return, relay that to the Chacons. We have felt like we’ve had a good relationship with the Chacons for a while now, but with Leo and Zana here, it gave that extra confirmation, and in some ways symbolized the passing of the torch from them to us. We look forward to Leo and Zana returning with more groups to QERC in the future to continue that relationship with them.

After the ONU group was gone, Dennis Siegfried came down with a couple of professors from Oklahoma Baptist University to do a quick tour of a few places in Costa Rica, with the hopes of setting up their own trip sometime. We enjoyed having them at QERC and brainstorming with them on ways they can utilize QERC in the future.

Right after they left, we went to the airport to pick up Ted Bader. Ted is a donor and major fundraiser for QERC and has been a part of the project since it first got started. We also met up with his son, Sam, and Sam’s wife Candace. All three are here at QERC right now enjoying some relaxation time and a break from their busy schedules in the U.S.

Field Research and the Empty Nest

David: For the second time in our lives Sarah and I are empty nesters. I have a feeling that someday in our lives we'll truly know what that means but I can honestly say we kind of know what that means. All of the SNU students returned to the U.S. on Friday the 9th, over a week ago. It hasn't been exactly quiet around here since but nonetheless it has been very different. Needless to say, they are greatly missed and we often think about how their transition back into the homeland has been.

After we all returned to QERC from the 3 week Environmental Science Concentration the students had 5 weeks to take one more QERC course, finish up there distance learning courses from SNU's campus, and finish their research projects. It proved to be a busy time for all but it was great to see them work hard and finish well.

The QERC course was Biblical Theology and Global Stewardship taught by a member of SNU's theology faculty, Dr. Marty Michaelson. In the end it was one of the most valuable learning experiences for the students and a great class to compliment the issues looked at during ESC. One book that was part of the student's text was called Serve God, Save the Planet by Matthew Sleeth. If you want a thought provoking read on God's call to be stewards of the Earth I'm sure every one of the students would recommend this book to you.

As the students were busy finishing up data collection I stayed quite busy with two research projects involving jays and bats. One of our students, Meredith, was implementing a survey of bat species at different elevations and habitats. As adviser/assistant, Meredith and I were partners in bat catching crime for a good four weeks. We spent about 2-5 hours on 5 nights a week setting up and taking down mist nets, patiently and impatiently waiting in the pitch black, untangling extremely angry bats with very sharp teeth, and identifying the captured bats to the species using a dichotomous key. Sarah joined us a few times and also was an integral member of the identification team back in the lab. The project turned out to be very successful and laid the ground work for more in depth chiroptology (bat) research in the future. In total we caught 11 bats representing 6 different species. The majority of them were insect eaters but we caught a few fruit eaters and one nectar eater. One life lesson learned while assisting on this project is that listening to jaguar vocalizations on your Ipod while sitting in the pitch black is not a way to become relaxed in nature.

The other project that I dedicated several hours to was the nest description of a bird called the Silvery-throated Jay. It is a beautiful jay species that is endemic to the Chiriqui Highlands of Costa Rica and Panama. It is a under studied species and no scientific records have been taken on their nests and breeding habits. While Scott Smithson was here for ESC he discovered only the second nest known to the scientific community. In order to do my part for science I took part in several observation sessions at the nest. The gist of the work included hiking 1.5 km into the oak forest and lying on my back for 1-5 hours taking notes on all activity at the nest. It was an enjoyable experience and over the course of several sessions I was able to observe a large array of activity that will hopefully be combined with observations from a few others and put into a scientific manuscript.

One final activity of the semester was a "debriefing / reentry retreat" for our five remaining students. Sarah and I know how important valuable closure and reentry preparation is to bringing a cross-cultural experience full circle and we were enthused to provide this for these students to the best of our ability. We were pleased to be able to take the students on a retreat to the Volcan Arenal area. It was a great location to relax, detach from QERC, and begin an important reentry process. Our goal was to help the students pull out the life lessons from the semester that they felt were worthy to take home with them and then begin giving them the tools to integrate those life lessons into their lives back at home. This can be a very challenging, but rewarding, process. Often those who have experienced a cross-cultural experience return home feeling as though they have changed, matured, and grown and then find it very hard to reconcile those changes to who they were before they left and who friends and family view them as now. The integration process can be painful but ultimately very rewarding. Anyway, we had a great time beginning this process with the students and hopefully they feel like they are more prepared for being home. We felt like it went very well.

Part II

Sarah: I’ll help pick up the story from here since I got to join the group for the last week of the travels. (See entry below for David's Part I.) After a day of rest and recuperation (and laundry!) in San Jose, we traveled to Ostional, a beach on the Pacific Ocean to learn about environmental and community impacts of nesting sea turtles, and also about conservation done by the local community as well as national organizations. Ostional is one of the two beaches in Costa Rica where an arribada occurs on a fairly regular monthly basis. An arribada, meaning “arrival”, is when thousands to hundreds of thousands olive-ridley sea turtles come up to nest on the beach over the period of only a few days. The reason these particular sea turtles take part in this ritual is unclear, and this phenomenon has only been occurring in the past 60-70 years. For the first 48 hours during an arribada, the community is allowed to harvest the turtle eggs, since these eggs have no chance of surviving with the thousands of sea turtles who will come after them and dig their eggs up in the process of digging their own nests.

Though we tried to time it right, we missed the arribada by only a few days most likely. However, we did go out with a local guide at night and were able to see the entire process an olive-ridley nesting. Two highlights for me were the sunsets on the beach (and David surving while the sun went down), and the howler monkeys right outside the window at the house we were staying. The family David and I were with had a bunch of mango trees, and the monkeys would sit in the trees all day, lazily eating mangoes. Every morning we were woken up by their loud roar, sounding as if they were inside the bedroom – which wasn’t too far from the truth!

From Ostional we went to a place called Casa del Sol for a day/night. This place is incredible the way they do all their cooking by use of solar ovens (good food too!). We learned a lot about being good stewards of the Earth and how to go about doing so. In the afternoon we were taught the ins and outs of composting, and were able to spend a couple hours helping build and turn compost piles. All of the dirt made from the compost goes toward their own gardens, where they grow their own foods and herbs.

Our last leg of the trip was spent in northern Costa Rica, on a volcano chain called Rincon de la Vieja. We stayed at an eco-lodge, with no electricity in any of the rooms. Here we studied volcanology, complete with a rough but very cool hike to the brim of an active volcano. When we finally reached the top and were looking inside the volcano, it was like looking at a fake backdrop. The lava was a bluish color, and we were only allowed to stay at the top for 15 minutes because of the sulfur gases. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life! During all the hiking we did over the course of a few days we were lead by a mountaineer who had lived in the area all his life, so he was able to teach us about specific plants and what medicinal or other benefits they had. We also got to see two eyelash pit-vipers up close and personal, and spend some time sitting in hot springs, where the heat is produced by activity from the volcano underground. And though we were all excited about our travels and everything we saw and did, everyone was thrilled to make it back to the comforts of home at QERC at the end of the class.

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.