Palo Verde National Reserve

After a day of traveling we arrived in the north in what looks like the savaanah...big difference from the towering vines and giant rooted trees with passion flowers. Instead its dry forest which means grasses and trees without leaves, some with flowers tho (helps make them visible without leaves in the dry season....smart huh?) Been journaling like crazy and i love it! This place is full of birds and marshes as well so we bird watched for the morning, a few tourists from around the world come here frequently just for the birds. Hiked a massive hill that looked out over palo verde and later found out we were going to a swimming hole!!!!! very chilly water and guess how we got there.....um a cattle truck!! guess what the reaction was when we found out......cheers of JOY!!!!! (seriously, we were so excited) so we stood for an hour in the back of the truck and all couldnt be happier). Alan, our director with the hair down to the middle of his back, a odd quirky sense of humor, and an overall hippy, chose me to be in a group to study Jacana birds for our next experiment (all of which we are now writing up formally as opposed to poster board presentations like we've been doing). We measured their behavior related to gender and whether or not they were juveniles or not (they live in troops with one alpha female, a bunch of males who take care of the young.....sweet deal for her!) At night, more guitar, rocking in the breeze in rocking chairs on the porch outside the cabin. Left and headed out to do more traveling.

Santa Rosa

Another dry forest area but different, more trees and less cattle areas, theyre trying to regrow the forest currently and have been for a while....very dry here, camping again in tents...this time boy scout style.....WOOO!! climbed trees bigger than houses, hiked more, did tremendous amounts of species reports , constantly learning new things trust me.....it is hard work, it's just beautiful too. Got to see more bats (some at corcovado) i got to hold one for a while and then release it....so cool, also held a tree snake (small but long) and a boa constrictor, the smaller caught within the vicinity of our campsite......no bites, just fun times! also at night got to let a tarantula climb all over me, very fun, learned how to pick it up and everything. More guitar sessions, beach that was freezing (like new england freezing) Dinner was a whole fish...mmmmmm. Stargazed and for the first time in my life i saw the arm of the milky way.....it was magical, and there were quite a few people just as giddy as me to see it. Hiked a hill by myself and watched the remnants of a sunrise on top of a monument looking out over the volcanoes in the distance…..beautiful.Packed up and more traveling.

Monteverde

Left Sta. Rosa and headed to "Rincon de la Vieja" a volcanoe park. Hiked an hour or so to a HUGE tall waterfall where guess what we did…..yup, swam in the pool below it, incredible. Traveled up the mountainside into the rolling villages and countryside high up into monteverde.The biological station is beautiful at the top of a hill. The mountains look out over the Nicoya Peninsula and Nicoya Bay. Our backyard is the rainforest and the trails that traverse it. Today is the second day and we are writing a paper feverishly for Monday on our ecological footprint, a scientific paper due Wednesday, and on Saturday we have a lab practical covering at least, and I mean at least, 60 species that we've covered in the past two weeks knowing their latin names and biology…..thank god its bio because I love it. In the mean time we've still found time to walk down into the town of monteverde and find an internet café, go see some live music, and build up our calf muscles yet again with all the walking (yes, even more than 4th floor campion freshman year or dolan last semester).

All and all I absolutely love it here, the people both ticos and students are incredible, our TA's are hilarious and informative, the things we are studying are so diverse, (tod ive seen so many epiphytes its ridiculous….and michelle, yes some bromeliads too).I miss you all and will continue to keep posted as we hike more and continue to study our brains out.(oh yah, apparently there's a tradition of challenging one person every nite to eat the dessert of the night in one bite, guess who got two scoops of locally made freezing cold ice cream the first night…….me!!!! everyone loved it, and I have to admit so did I)Adventures to continue…..across the universe. Love you all!