Christmas Winds

David: Merry Happy New Years Christmas! We are experiencing some Christmas winds. Our Christmas winds did not bring new and exciting love to us like it did for our friends in “The Holiday”, most importantly Jack Black, but it did bring my little sister Jenna. As Sarah had said, Jenna dropped down to Costa Rica for a short stint after serving at an orphanage in Guatemala called Casa Bernabe for two weeks. She got here just in time to spend some relaxing days at QERC followed up by a Christmas day trip to the beach. Christmas morning was extremely rainy and windy at QERC but by the time our 2 hour trip to Playa Dominical was over we were watching the sunset over the Pacific in 80 degree weather. Playa Dominical is an interesting and entertaining hotspot/ laidback town for expatriate surfers and vacationing Costa Ricans. We were able to find a nice little hotel to stay in and enjoyed the waves and fresh waterfalls the next morning. All in all we had little time with Jenna but it was very special to have her to ourselves for Christmas.




This time of the year usually is the windiest but last night and today we have had gusts of wind that were very, very powerful. Here is a good example. We have a 9th grader from Houston, Texas who is fulfilling an internship experience by doing a three week research project in partnership with QERC. His name is Zach and he is attempting to see if any morphological changes can be seen in amphibian species inhabiting areas affected by deforestation. Pretty good for a 9th grader, I would say. Anyway, we were heading up into the forest today to work on his survey quadrants when we heard the thunderous sound of a very large tree toppling to the ground and ripping down everything that was unfortunate to be in its path. In these tropical forests, tree falls like this open up the under story to sunlight which encourages pioneering plant species that love sunlight. The small little habitat created attracts all kinds of organisms that prefer this type of environment. So, a natural tree fall is great for biodiversity but bad for researchers that happen to be in the vicinity of a tree fall. Needless to say, a little while later my caution got the best of me and we decided that our work in the forest could wait for another day with less wind.

So…. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all of you that keep up with our lives. We appreciate knowing that you care about what we are doing and experiencing.