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Poco Sol to La Selva (3/25)
I woke up early this morning to go birding cause I wanted to see an umbrella bird.Of course when you want to see something, you don't, but it was nice anyway.Instead, I had a monkey throwing fruit at me.Not scary at all…
After breakfast we all loaded into the back of trucks to go to La Selva Biological Station.The trucks would meet our bus, which we would take the rest of the way.The whole ride we were nestled between hills, passing lots of agriculture land.My group was fun, we talked about great things (aka ridiculous things) and played guitar.I could soon tell we were on the Atlantic side because there was a lot more African American influence.A lot of the farms were extremely colorful and looked like they were growing ornamentals.
We finally got to the bus, which was across from a convenient store.I naturally went in and got a mora ice cream.Yum, yum.
La Selva Biological Station is a lot different from anywhere else we have been. It is huge and very built up along a small patch of forest.There was electricity, warm showers, fans, pillows, and towels.Wow.In the cafeteria there are trays where we used lunch cards to get our food.There was also a gift shop, we had to sign forms to go into the forest, and there were tourists everywhere.There is a lot of tropical research done here.
After settling in we got into groups to go on hikes with guides.It was incredible because we saw so much in just the first 5 minutes.We saw where a sloth lived, slated trogons, bright green honeycreepers, huge iguanas in the tree, toucans galore, crazy oropendulas and nests, blue-jean poison dart frogs and beautiful trees.At the beginning one goes over a swaying bridge and walks through research buildings, then it breaks off into trails.After returning I went out exploring on my own.I got caught up on leaf cutter ant swarms and crazy behaviors of the oropendulas.I also found a parrot nest!The parent practically attacked me.
After dinner we had a herp diversity lecture.Richards monotonous voice put me asleep just in time for night hikes to look for amphibians.We saw a sheep frog with a speckled belly, a crazy caterpillar, katydids, blue-jean frogs (even though diurnal), huge horned frog, and some awesome spiders and beetles.
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