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.

Visitors

Sarah: I have been putting off writing a blog entry because David has been in the process of writing one about our recent trip to Nicaragua, but so as not to wait any longer, I’ll write one now and let him backtrack later and catch you faithful readers up on our Nicaragua adventures.

We are well into the semester now, and after our trip to Nicaragua, 3 more students joined the original 5. We are enjoying the extra activity going on around QERC and are excited to see our numbers grow. Students have been busy working on research projects, classes from SNU, and finishing up their Applied Culture and Integration class here in Costa Rica. We had one visiting professor from SNU here for a week who helped finish up that ACI class, Dennis Williams. He has a long history here at QERC and it was great for us to talk with him about the progress and future of both the semester program and also other developments.

A bit of exciting news for me to share is that my dad and sister Rachel just spent a week with us here in Costa Rica. It was very special for me to have them here to show off where we live, hike around on the trails in the valley, and spend some good hot time at the beach. The first part of the week we spent here at QERC, enjoying the morning sunny hours, and relaxing the majority of every day. We all took a hike down to the waterfall one day, my dad and I hiked through the cloud forest one morning, and another day Rachel and I rode horses to the peak of some of our trails. Mostly, it was great to just have them here and be a part of our lives here in Costa Rica.

The second part of the trip we had even more company. Chad Frosland, one of David’s best friends from college, joined us at the end of the week. We all drove down to the beach together to soak in the sun and hit the waves. First we drove to the top of Cerro de la Muerte, the second highest peak in Costa Rica, and had a clear enough morning that we could just barely see both the Pacific and the Caribbean coasts. We were even able to see the waves crashing down at the beach at Manuel Antonio, which was exactly where we were going. We took another pit stop at a favorite stop of David’s, a swimming hole with a rope swing. He and Chad took turns swinging into the water, while my dad and Rachel and I took pictures and enjoyed watching the many Jesus Christ lizards on the rocks around us.

Finally we made it to the coast, which felt like paradise. My dad, Rachel, and Chad all felt like they were in heaven with the blue water, palm trees, and hot sun after coming from such a cold and snowy winter in the states! We stayed in a beautiful and comfortable hotel right on the beach, complete with a refreshing swimming pool. Most of the time we were at the beach we spent going back and forth between the ocean and the pool. :) One morning we spent inside Manuel Antonio National Park, and had the opportunity to see a number of coatimundis, agoutis, iguanas, a sloth with babies (from far away), and lots of white-faced capuchin monkeys up close and personal. We had some great monkey encounters as they jumped all around us, feeding on the trees, and crossing the paths on the ground in front of us. One even stepped on David’s foot as it was jumping across to the other side!

One afternoon Rachel and I got massages on the beach, complete with waves coming up underneath us. While we were relaxing, David and Chad rented boogie boards and hit the waves. Chad had never been boogie-boarding before, and they had such a great time tumbling through the waves and riding them into shore. Another highlight was watching the beautiful sunset a couple nights right over the ocean.

Our last morning we spend a few hours mostly on the beach, soaking up the last bit of sun we could before heading back into San Jose. On the (long) drive back we happened across a large number of scarlet macaws flying around and hanging out in a tree by the road. We also stopped at a river and saw TONS of crocodiles – I counted 27 at one time!

After our last dinner together, Chad and David drove back to QERC and I stayed with my dad and Rachel the last night and accompanied them to the airport very early the next morning. It was a sad departure, but a really great week with them. Chad just up his week here with us at QERC, and it was good to have him also experience our life in Costa Rica. We too walked to the waterfall, and David and he got some time up in the cloud forest. We enjoyed getting some quality time with him and were also sad to see him leave.

Another semester...

Sarah: Our students arrived a little over a week ago and we have had a good time getting to know them and seeing them adjust to their semester abroad experience. There are 5 students right now who will stay for the entire 16 weeks, and another 3 that will come down partway through and stay for about 9 weeks. We had a full day of orientation last week before their classes began on Tuesday. We are in full swing now, and they have Spanish classes every day, they are working on developing their research projects that they’ll work on the entire semester, and they have been going through some readings for an Applied Cultural Integration class. On top of that, all of them have at least one independent class from SNU to work on throughout the semester.

To get the students out of their comfort zone and get them interacting with the community, we have set each one of them up with a family here in the valley. They’ll eat dinner with their family a couple times a month, and conduct a series of interviews with them for a class that allows them to get to know that family on a personal level.

This past weekend we took the students into San Jose to familiarize them with the city. One of the highlights was going to a church service all in Spanish. The worship was led by our friend Alex Grant, a former staff member of LASP, who is a very dynamic Afro-Costa Rican and had a lot of fun dancing around and singing upbeat songs.

It has been a lot of fun to have the students around. Even though they are busy with classes and work, we still find plenty of time to play games in the evenings!

These pictures are of the completed newly-painted bodega (kitchen) and our library/common room with new furniture. All of these were taken before the students arrived, so it looks nice and new and fresh. :)

Crunch Time

Sarah: This is the time of the year when it gets pretty fun for David and me. During our rainy season is our slow time, and a time for us to continue to work on projects. Now we only have on week until the next group of students arrive to participate in our QERC semester program, and we are frantically trying to finish up a lot of these projects and program development to be completely prepared for their arrival! It is an exciting time of year – lots of tourists in the valley, many of whom come by our facility to learn about what we are doing here, and long days full of sun. Our “summer” has arrived.

One of the bigger projects we have been working on is transforming our bodega. This small building used to be a garage/storage area, but with our semester program last year it was turned into a small kitchen/eating area for our students. We were thrilled at that point to see it come together and turn into a kitchen, and this year we are taking it a step farther. To take away the feeling of it being a garage, we have torn off the garage door and built a cement wall and put in a door. Once that was complete, we began the task of priming and then painting the walls and the floor. Naturally, projects take a lot longer in Costa Rica, especially when our resources are a 2-hour drive away. We have made plenty of day trips into San Jose and will make at least a couple more before the students actually get here. We have already run out of both primer and paint and need to get some more before finishing that project. However, it is already starting to have a different feel as we can cover up the oil stains and cement walls.

Besides the bodega, there have been a number of small projects we are trying to complete before next weekend, and a lot of large projects that have to do with program development to create the best possible semester for our incoming students. We are excited with how it is all coming together.

On another exciting note, last week as we were driving into the valley it was already dark out. David and I both noticed what looked like a pair of eyes on the road, but were slightly confused because the eyes seemed pretty high off the ground. As we got closer, the shape became a little more focused, it was indeed a very large animal. Right in front of us was a tapir! I wish I could better describe what these animals look like – but they are sort of a combination between a large black bear, a small elephant, and a hippo. We knew they were supposed to be in our valley, but probably only a small handful of people have ever actually seen them. We were extremely excited to see it for a brief moment before it crossed the road and continued down a trail.

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.

Osa Adventures

Sarah: Our adventures down on the Osa Peninsula with Matthew and Cassie were…well, adventurous. These pictures can't do it justice. And remember that you can click on the picture to enlarge it if you want an even closer look at anything. :) The week started last Monday, when we got up early to drive all the way down to a small town called Puerto Jimenez. The actual drive took 7 hours, though the day was much longer with stops to eat and to look at birds. We arrived mid-afternoon with both our headlights out and a flat tire, so we took a bit of time to fix up our car. There aren’t many trips we take that go without a few car problems, and we were glad these were easily remedied.

Early Tuesday morning we got up and were driven to the beginning of a long day. The driver couldn’t take us very far, and dropped us off right alongside a river. It was a beautiful morning as we started off, crossing the river back and forth a number of times. We were told it was going to be a muddy hike, and that was a correct statement. 10 minutes into the hike we had mud almost up to our knees - which definitely made the hiking go a lot slower! Finally after 4 hours of hiking, 10 kilometers later, we arrived at the first ranger station. At this point, we paid our park entrance fees for the next few days, and took a short break for some tortillas and peanut butter before starting our hike through Corcovado National Park – one of the most wild, diverse areas in the world. We were already tired from the first 10 kilometers, and had another 17 to go! From this point on, we were hiking through the forest, transecting the park until we reached the ranger station located on the ocean, on the opposite side of the peninsula.

Overall, our hike on Tuesday took 12 hours, we hiked 27 kilometers (about 17 miles), crossed about 40 streams or rivers, saw lots of monkeys and lizards and frogs and peccaries (pig-like animals) and agoutis (larger rodents, with a rat-like face and moves like a rabbit) and toucans and scarlet macaws, and did plenty of bird watching. We arrived at La Sirena ranger station along the beach a little after 6 pm, JUST in time for dinner – which was a good thing because we were almost completely delirious! Had we arrived a few minutes later, the doors would have been closed and we would have had to eat a few more tortillas and peanut butter. As it was, we enjoyed a really good meal of rice, beans, meat, veggies, and fruit juice (the food MIGHT have tasted so good because of the fact that we had only eaten tortillas and peanut butter...). We were completely exhausted, had lots of sore muscles, a number of blisters, and had sweat through our clothes, so after a nice cold shower, we fell asleep quickly.

The next day we enjoyed a relaxing morning, nursing our wounds and sitting on the porch of the ranger station before hiking around on the trails close by. We headed along the beach to the river mouth, and saw 2 crocodiles and a bull shark swimming around. As we hiked around a bit, we saw all 4 monkeys within a matter of a couple hours and also a number of agoutis hopping around in the forest. After dinner we went out in the dark and walked a short walk to the beach, and ended up seeing a tapir feeding in the brush. Those animals look like dwarfed elephants or rhinos, and can weigh up to 800 pounds. Needless to say, it was impressive to see one walking around a short distance from us.

On Thursday we got up early to begin our final hike. Instead of going back the way we came, we hiked all the way along the beach about 15 kilometers. It was a beautiful hike, though we had to be careful to cross over rocks and walk along the beach when the tides were high! And although it was a much shorter hike than the first day, we weren’t completely recovered and it felt long and tiring in the sand. We were thrilled to arrive at our place to stay that night, which at that point looked like paradise! We stayed in tent cabins right along the beach, complete with hammocks and views to see both the sunrise and the sunset along the water.

Our adventures ended on Friday, when we walked the mile out of the beach (we had only been at places only accessible by boat), and met up with our taxi driver in a small town who would drive us the 2 hours back to our car. Turns out our taxi was a truck with a couple of benches in the back, which would have held a total of 8 people comfortably. It was also the public transportation for the people who lived along the road, so at one point we had 20 people in the back (or hanging off the side of the truck). We picked up our car and drove the 7 hours back to QERC, and were glad to sleep in our own beds that night. Cassie and Matthew and David and I LOVED the adventure.

After such a great couple of weeks with Cassie and Matthew, we drove them back into San Jose on Saturday and said our goodbyes. At that point, we also picked up Jenna, David’s younger sister. She had been in Guatemala for the past two weeks, serving at an orphanage, and is ending her time here with us in Costa Rica for a few days before heading back to Washington. We are glad to have her with us, and we all enjoyed a relaxing day hanging around QERC today. :)

New Adventures

Sarah: I don’t have a ton of time to write but I thought I’d give a quick update anyway. I finished up my time working in the city for LASP this semester a couple weeks ago, and said goodbye to my Nicaraguan host family. I was actually sad to say goodbye and give them my house keys, even though I only stayed with them two nights a week. They were a good family, and I hope to be able to visit them when I am in the city in the future. I will continue my work for LASP next semester, but will have a different set up – I will be able to do the same work, but from QERC, so I won’t have to be in the city each week. Instead, I’ll spend about a day at the office every couple weeks or so, just to touch base. As much as I enjoyed being in the city, we’ll be busy enough with our own semester program at QERC, and I’ll be glad to be able to do the work for LASP from home.

Last week our friends Cassie and Matthew arrived in Costa Rica. We worked with them as Naturalists at Mission Springs Outdoor Education when we lived in California a couple years ago, and they are good friends of ours. The first couple days with them were a whirlwind of traveling and birding. They took a night flight here, and as soon as they got in early in the morning we headed up to La Selva Biological Research Station. Matthew is extremely into birding, much like David, so the two of them have been birding every chance they get. Cassie is like me – she enjoys the birds (especially the colorful tropical ones we have here), but isn’t into keeping bird lists and trying to find every possible species for every area we visit in the country (which is what our husbands do). Besides the birds at La Selva, the highlights for me were the poison dart frogs – both the blue-jeans frog and the black and green frog – and…a kinkajou! We were on a night hike and heard some rustling in the trees, and were able to locate it climbing up high. It looks a bit like an oversized squirrel that looks a bit like a cat.

After La Selva we headed over to Arenal Volcano. We first spent a bit of time in the hot springs, and then saw a great show put on by the volcano as it spit a lot of volcanic rocks out at night, looking like bright red lava flowing down the sides. After some more birding the next morning, we headed back through San Jose for some grocery shopping, and then on to QERC. One incredible thing I need to point out is that by the time we got to QERC, so only a couple days into Cassie and Matthew’s trip, David had already seen 20 new birds. This in itself is pretty exciting (more so for the birders who read this blog), since David had been to both La Selva and Arenal on numerous occasions. However, even more impressive is that by the time we reached QERC, Matthew had totaled about 130 new species! It just goes to show what can happen when two dedicated birders get together…

Our time at QERC has been both relaxing and productive. We’ve spent about 3 total days here so far and hiked on a number of trails. We’ve also seen some good looks at the quetzal, collected plants in the forest for the native demonstration at QERC, planted those plants, played games, visiting the local bakery, and of course more birding. We are now getting ready for the final leg of our trip. We will drive all the way south to a small town, stay overnight, and then the next morning get up and hike 12 ½ miles through Corcovado National Park, down on the Osa Peninsula. We’ll stay at a ranger’s station a couple nights, and then hike all the way back out a couple days later. It’s the most adventurous thing David and I have done since being in Costa Rica, and we’re pretty excited about it. Because Matthew is such a birder, and both Matthew and Cassie are extreme nature lovers and hikers, we are excited to experience this sort of adventure with the two of them.

Thanksgiving trip

Sarah: Lots of time has passed since we last posted an entry! Which means, we’ve been busy and have a lot to share. :) As you know, we need to leave the country every 3 months to renew our visas. Our time was coming to an end in November, and as we were planning our trip out of the country, our boss in Oklahoma decided it would be worthwhile to fly us up to Southern Nazarene University to do some promotion and planning for the upcoming semester. The way it worked out, we were able to spend about a week at SNU and then drive up to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with my family!

Our time at SNU was both busy and rewarding. David spoke in a number of classes, promoting QERC and the upcoming semester program, and we met with professors often to help plan what the semester is going to look like. We are thrilled with the way it’s coming together, and though we have a lot of work to do in preparation during the next month and a half, we are excited to have more activity out here at QERC.

This particular trip to SNU was also filled with lots of fun hang-out times, as we got to see 9 of our former 13 students who were with us last year at QERC for the semester program. Since we consider them to be good friends of ours, it was really fun to spend time with them – whether it was breakfast for those that were willing to get up early, random games in the biology department with those who showed up with cards, dinners and coffee together, and more games.

We started heading north a couple days before Thanksgiving, and were blessed to have a friend let us borrow his car to make the drive. We spent one night with some friends of ours, Rachel and BJ Keeter. Rachel was a student with us in the LASP program, and we really enjoy hanging out with her and her husband.

On our way up to Iowa, passed through Kansas City and picked up my sister Emily and a special guy she brought home with her, Greg. It was great to have the 3-hour car ride with just the two of them before meeting up with the rest of the family.

On the morning of Thanksgiving, we got together with some really good friends of ours, Theresa and Jefferson Silva dos Santos. Theresa was my college roommate and is still one of my very best friends, and she and her husband live in Des Moines. It’s always great to see them, and I love knowing that anytime we see my family, we get to spend time with Theresa and Jefferson as well!

Thanksgiving with my family was a real treat. We weren’t planning on being back in the states until next summer, and we weren’t planning on being with my family at all over the holidays. It was so neat and special that we were all there together to celebrate Thanksgiving, and even to be there to help “Christmasize” the house. I love traditions, so it was great to be there for my family’s traditions over this holiday – with lots of laughter, late nights watching “The Office”, a Thanksgiving dinner with some of my extended family, lots of jello salads, the hustle and bustle of buying and wrapping Christmas gifts, and decorating the tree. We all enjoyed getting to know Greg over the course of a few days as well! As an added bonus, we experienced some REALLY cold weather, complete with a decent snowfall! It’s been quite some time since we’ve been in snow, so it was fun to be exposed to a mini-winter.

On our way back to Oklahoma, we passed through Kansas City again. This time, we had found out that one of David’s best friends and college roommates, Chad Frosland, was in town. He was a runner for an ABC cameraman for the Kansas – Missouri football game, and stayed around long enough on Sunday to have lunch with us. We were thrilled that it worked out to catch up with him as well!

We are now back in Costa Rica, and are excited to see that the rainy season is coming to an end and summer is right around the corner. And for some exciting news, my younger sister Rachel’s volleyball team made it to the national tournament!! Though they lost in the quarterfinals, they had an incredible volleyball season and made it to the Top 8 for only the second time in the school’s history. And for some even more exciting news…my sister Emily is engaged!! Greg took the opportunity over Thanksgiving to ask my dad for permission to marry her, and proposed this week. We are excited for the two of them, and are thankful we had the opportunity to get to know Greg a little bit before the wedding!

The little things in life

David: Sometimes getting the little things done in life brings a great feeling of acomplishment, like cleaning and organizing your desk or getting all the bills paid. You know, the fun things. Around QERC this is definitely true for us because little projects take even longer, and this is not soley due to the fact that I seem to find pleasure in starting many projects and drawing them out as long as possible. Our projects seem to take longer because if we need a certain size screw it might be two weeks before we get to the hardware store and then finding what you need in San Jose isn't as easy as just going to the Home Depot. On top of all this, and I say this with endearment, things just take longer in Latin America and Costa Rica is no exception. If someone tells you they will have something completed for you next week there is a good chance it won't get done for three. That's just the way things are. Anyway, I say all this to tell that you that we are excited about this new "welcome area" we have created on the front of the building. You can see in the picture that we have an information board and some beautiful and welcoming signs. The big empty spot to the right of the information board is where a really nice and big trail map will someday go. The idea is that when guests arrive or random people are coming by to check QERC out they will be drawn to this and can go look at the information board to see what student group or researcher is at QERC and what are they working on. We also will have information about the interactive educational experiences that guests and tourists can explore like our native plant demonstration and natural history musuem. And then, hopefully, a nice trail map can better encourage the adventurous to get out there onto the trails and really see the beauty of the cloud forest. So, although it is a small accomplishment, we are excited about getting this up, finally.

And, you may notice that our information board currently says, "Bienvenidos Union de Ornitologos." This past weekend we welcomed the Costa Rica Union of Ornithology to QERC. It is an exciting relationship for us. They are currently planning a bird identification and natural history course for the youth of our region. We will host the course in January. We'll report more on that when it comes around. In honor of the Ornithology Union here is a picture of a Yellowish Flycatcher. Sometimes bird names are a lot simpler than you would think.