We arrived in San Jose on the 22nd at 530 in the morning and shuttled to the hotel where we got breakfast and waited for our rooms. Basically we sat out by the pool and read while waiting for the other people to come. The next day we woke up and traveled to the University of Peace at Monteverde where we drove up some sketch mountain roads while our bus driver fought to get our bus up the mountain. Once we pulled into the campus we unloaded our stuff into bungalows and went on a hike throughout the surrounding nature. There were so many frogs hanging out and hopping around our campus it was awesome!! After hanging out there for a night and doing some lecture we traveled to the private reserve of Monteverde for a guided tour. Our guide was so cool he could do so many bird calls that I didn’t even know existed. Howler monkeys began ‘howling’ throughout our hike and responding to our guide so much we wondered if the guides were just calling to each other. It was too hot for the forest to be covered in clouds but it was still definitely cool to see the upper clouds moving incredibly fast and all the animals. After our hike we ate lunch and headed over to our station and Parque Nacional Carara. Our facility was definitely different compared to the comfortable bungalows at University of Georgia. Taking out our mattresses and beating them to get some of the dust and stuff I don’t even really want to know what it is off of them we put our mosquito nets up (Leah and I basically are experts now, just saying..) and cleaned up the facility that hadn’t been used in a year. The bugs and creatures that have been found since arriving here has definitely created for an eventful stay. Cockroaches, tarantulas, mosquitos and termites are some visitors that have been less welcome; however we have had encounters with many frogs, iguanas, leaf cutter ants and awesome birds too!
Here we began to understand our research equipment for recording the morning songs of the birds and got to play Frisbee in the middle of a downpour in the rainforest, where we lost it in the jungle and had to retrieve it (using rubber boots of course) Today we went on a ‘tranopy’ and ziplined through the middle of the forest! An ok way to spend an afternoon. Starting research soon. Miss ya fam and Michael!
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