Hello to all who will read this and hopefully find it as utterly fascinating as I do. A conceited note, on the small chance if anyone asks what i'm up to and i have forgotten to give this blog to them...please be a friend and send them here...muchas gracias. Considering i've been abroad for the past 3 weeks with little contact and no pics the following will be a summary of the kick ass things i've been up to. Basically the program is absolutely fantastic, I'm surrounded by enviro people obsessed with bio (and yes steve we make bio jokes), and constantly seeing the beauty of the natural wonders of this country.....so enjoy!!!

ps. you dont have to read it all, not obligated, might miss a story though about waterfalls or tarantulas or something....but at least it's all here for the most part, if you have ?'s let me know....monteverde for 3 weeks so again.....enjoy!

San Jose-

First it was a few days of city life in the capital with everyone getting to know the 31 other people from across the country. We wandered the local streets and saw some pretty cool sights. One of the first days they gave us the name of a species of fruit or spice, about 4000 colones (8 bucks) and said go to the market, buy it, learn about it from the people there, and come back and present on it!!! what homework...similar assignment later with surveys of people we had to interview right of the street to do their ecological footprints. Oh ya, the fruit project was followed by a feast, and i mean feast, of local native fruits so as to learn the different structures of fruits and their seeds.......trust me we do do a lot of work....I'm learning very quickly what work hard play hard really means. Last thing was a trip to a snake farm to learn some safety issues (no snakes tho....yet).

Sierpe:

Traveled up into the mountains and did what are called species reports...summaries of hands on local species when we visit different environments or ecosystems. Had lunch in the mountains after a hike, visited a pineapple plantation. Valentine's day was spent in the town of Sierpe in the south on a river where we learned about mangroves and salty river habitats and how plants deal with harsh conditions. saw some bats. took a break climbing on the massive roots of the mangrove trees (like giant spider legs sticking out of the mud). got back in our motorboat and did more species reports (SR).

Corcovado National Park:

Spent almost two weeks in this beautiful heaven. Tented (not real roughing it camping Ken sorry) outside of the park (had to get there by boat for 1.5 hrs on the pacific). Im learning a lot about the local birds and animals (new to me) and of course loving the plants and trees which are gigantic and are like the cathedrals of the forest. It's humid and hot but we have the beach and a sea wind to keep us cool. got to swim in a tiny waterfall between classes. We did poster presentations on plant families (guess which i got....the orchids baby!!!!) Did a night hike with Mark (a biological illustrator aunty nancy how about that!) and waded through the mud saw a crysalis that literally shined like the most expensive silver you;ve ever seen...incredible. also, ive learned how to catch lizard and how to hold butterflies without hurting them =-D

Did experiments in groups....ours was on tidepools near the beach which meant counting different species in about 20 tidepools and seeing if there was a pattern in those found together or not....interesting results. Got to hang out with mark....very cool guy (this one's for mike....kinda like a fr. bowler admiration....lol). Did bird watching with him and a few other students at 6am. later in the day a 8km hike both ways (took us 4.5hrs the first time what with stopping and biologizing/being geeks and taking pics of cool plants and animals) which ended in the most pristine beach you have ever seen in your life. must have been at least a mile long, baby soft sand, rolling waves, and a flat, very flat shore with cool rock formations to climb on (pics to come). only thing was covered in ticks.....not fun but you get over it pretty fast after it happens a few times (ick kristen i know). it rains at night but its beautiful, we do laundry in a sink, we all smell, and we love it and laugh constantly.

Headed to a nearby island visible from the shore, Isla de Cano, had class on the beach and learned about island biogeography. Got to snorkel and hike, incredible. You might think we do a lot of play but trust me, learning is self sustainable, we look up every new species of bird, flower, fish, etc. that we see on our daily activities (no prompting swear....just abunch of bio geeks really excited to be here). PResented my assigned species....a huge tree with milky sap and the howler monkey....made a goof of myself and have settled into the role of pensive, humorous, kind image you all know so well (dayna arent you proud...no shyness!!!).

This one;s for ken, the night before the eclipse (which we couldnt see behind clouds) we saw a phenomenon with this giant ice crystal ring around the moon, like it literally covered half the sky something about the moonlight shining at 20 degrees, ive never seen anything like it my entire life. Nights are spent either studying or listening to one of the guys play guitar as the wind blows and the waves crash a few feet from our tents. Corcovado ended with Nana's passing, I do miss her, I've realized that she was really more of a friend to me, God bless her heart.

Travel and thank you cards to the cooks in Corcovado (yes we dont make our own food, they constantly feed us though and constantly make us hike...and all but one of the 31 absolutely loves it!!!!) We are all filthy and drive until we get to a hotel with a beach and hot showers....amazing sunset and swimming in huge waves. The town is Playa Dominical. This one's for the family....me and this girl put into practice some rescue response when two tourists were caught in the undertow of the waves and carried out. someone heard them screaming and everyone was standing there doing nothing. The girl (Laura) went to tell some nearby people at a cafe who got surfers out to them while i ran to the front desk for them to call an ambulance, both of us speak spanish well so we directed the local surfers to where they were and kept everyone calm (and from actually wanting to swim out to them!) in the end all was good, safe and sound. dinner at a restaurant....native food is the best!!!! so many differnent things, this time local seafood, mussels, shrimp, crab, mmmmmmm. Mark left us and we picked up a 70 yr old bat expert named richard, he;s so funny and very knowledgeable (oh ya we ride in a huge tourist bus, you cant miss us in case you were wondering). Stopped at Carara National Park, hiked, fed iguanas, left. Talked to mom, nana, papa, missed the poop head.... =-(