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Hola from Costa Rica, So its been over a week and a half and so much has gone on. First of all i learned a valuble lesson that all should heed when coming to Costa Rica. When you buy a new shirt always shake it out before you try it on. I learned this lesson the hard way when i bought a shirt and got stung by a scorpion that was living inside. Real painful sting that made me feel pretty brut but all and all I was ok and was able to do the zipline with the whole class (which was awesome). So yesterday we had a soccer game between Troys team the advacados and Adríans(park ranger) team the Macaws. It was an intense battle which went down to the wire. Skyler scored an early goal for the advacados which was answered by a goal by the Macaws. Sarah from the advacados hit one just by the diving goalkeeper josh. Then i scored one sliding the ball off the fingertips of Troy. Time was running short when baby sarah of the macaws hit one in from midfield which ended the match 3-2. The night ended with a great dinner of vegetarian lasanga made by the famous wilma of carrara national park.
The following day we went to the mangrove forest and saw some wild crocidiles in there natural habitat. Our time at Carrara is running short but it is for sure a time to remember.
Pura vida,
Jason

Sun, crocs, and rain...a typical day in Costa Rica

Hey everyone, Sarah Degenhart (from the bird team) here!  The ´09 rica team had an excellent day today.  The bird team and a visitor from the Ed team, Katie, went out in the field at 5:30 am.  We hiked along the Quebrata Bonita trail to our medium density canopy plot to record the birds we heard.  The team completed 4, very difficult, point counts somewhat successfully while Katie got the headphones to hear what was being recorded.  The recording worked great so we decided to take the long way home to try to see some creatures.  Walking through the rainforest when the sun is rising is an amazing thing.  ¡Que bonita!  We tried to find some snakes but no luck, sorry Em!  I will get some pictures for you soon.  The hike back was great, no new sightings but still worth it. 

 

After a much needed breakfast and coffee break, some of us headed to the Tarcoles River for the first crocodile tour.  The drive was long, bumpy, and most people slept but once we got out we were fine.  The eight of us put our life-vests on and piled into the small tour boat with our two guides.  At first the ride was fun, no crocs or anything, just a nice ride on the brown, murky river.  We finally got to a bend in the river where you could see the ocean and crocodiles!  There were at least five of them sunning themselves on the beach directly in front of us.  It was so cool!  But dont worry, these werent "killer crocs" or anything.  We sat there for a while, watching them enter the water and slowly swim away.  On our way to the dock Erica spotted a huge one across the way so our guide drove us right up to it.  This guy was pretty massive!  After sitting there for a minute the guide started splashing the water and hitting the boat to get the crocs attention.  It walked itself right into the water and disappeared!  It freaked out a few of the people so we drove back to the dock.  They were so cool to see up close.  Amazing. 

 

When we got back to the station, Handy-Boy Troy showed us the sloth in our front yard.  He had the scope set up so we could see the sloths little face and everything.  Super cute.  A little after lunch, Troy spotted another animal in the tree next to the sloth.  An anteater decided to drop in to visit.  One of the park rangers said this is a rare sighting and he believes this species will be extinct within the next ten years.  Yea, we have crazy jungle animals hang out in our front yard all the time.  (Buggy you would have loved it!  I have pictures to show you when I get home)  The sun was out and a few of us decided to try and get a tan.  After sitting in a boat for an hour and then falling asleep in a chair in the sun my arm got pretty burnt.  Sorry Mom and Dad!  I wont forget sunscreen the rest of the time I am here.    

 

Well thats all the time I have now.  Hopefully I will get to write again soon.  Hello to everyone back home! Love you and miss you all, wish you were here!

hi friends! a note from sarah catudio

The education team got to visit and teach a lesson at Escuela Capulin, a small elementary school in Costa Rica on Monday. There was one teacher for 20 students in grades K-6. After spending the morning at the school we went with the students and Adrian, a park ranger from Carara, to plant trees near the community water source to help filter sediment and remove unwanted nutrients from the ground water. I teach at an elementary school in Bellingham and am very excited to hopefully set up some global connections between the students at Escuela Capulin and Wade King Elementary in the fall.

Coming from a non-environmental studies/sciences background I´ve been very interested in both the novel coursework as well as the fieldwork that other teams are completing. I took a tour of the botony plot yesterday and was very impressed with how well Khai, Megan, Sara and Masa were able to explain thier research and answer all of my questions.

Hola from Costa Rica!

Carara has been a wonderful, if not sometimes challenging experience so far.  We have seen so many different animals in their natural environments. We get to fall asleep, and wake up, to the screams of Howler monkeys.  I am getting used to ice cold showers, an endless supply of beans and rice, and having at least 5 swollen, itchy bug bites at any given point.  It is very humid here, but it is really nice when it rains. And boy, does it rain. We went on a Crocodile River Tour today, and got to see them pretty up close. They are pretty lazy and just lay there with their mouths open. I wanted to see one eat a bird or something, just to see them move fast, but no luck.

As a member of the Policy team, I have been able to go into town and see some of the local culture. Most people are very friendly, and it is a unique experience to be able to see people living in little villages and fishing towns.  All of the park rangers in Carara are friendly, and it has made me not as intimidated to try speaking Spanish.  I enjoy trying to read all of the signs, and understand what is going on.

Yesterday morning, a group of us went to a lookout to count Macaws as they flew off to their daily routines. These counts are part of the Macaw Conservation efforts, and it was awesome to be part of it.  Macaws always fly in pairs, and occasionally in families. Some of them flew right over us, and others were really far away. Their bright red stood out against the green of the trees though, and it was beautiful to watch even from a distance.

We only have two more nights in Carara, and then we get a little break from our rainforest living. I think everyone is looking forward to getting laundry done. It is hard to keep things smelling even half-way decent when it takes a couple days for them to dry. I am looking forward to our big hike into Corcavado National Park.  It is supposed to be similiar to the lagoon hike we did last week- calf deep muddy puddles.  During that hike, i tried pretty hard at first not to get super muddy, and my shoes held up very well. Once i looked ahead on the trail to see solid puddles, however, i knew it would just be easier to give in and embrace it.  

Hello to all my family and friends, I miss you lots, and hope you are all having wonderful summers!

Pura vida!

-Mallory 

Living la Pura Vida!

by Skylar Hinkley (Policy Team)

Life in the rainforest is never dull. Yesterday I woke up at 4:30am to sounds of howler monkeys, birds chirping and insects buzzing (the rainforest never sleeps). We had to be up before 5 to go monitor scarlet macaws at a nearby lookout. Everyday they fly from their homes in mangrove forests across the Tarcoles River to a feeding area to feast on fruits. We counted 147 of these beautiful birds fly by us and overhead. It is truly an amazing sight to see. I never thought I could smile so much, so early in the morning. Then the rest of the day consisted of the usual rainforest treks with all sorts of creatures crawling, and flying around. Although I have grown accustomed to it over the past week, waking up to the rainforest right at our porch never gets old.

Today there was an ant-eater in a tree right over our station (a rare sight)...so I snapped a quick pic:

Not only is the rainforest exciting and beautiful, but so are the local towns. The policy team gets to interact with the community through interviews. The other day we went to a nearby school and interviewed the principle about environmental education programs with Carara Park. The students were excited to see us and have there pictures taken…to say the least.

Over the weekend we had a little play time to relax from our week of field work. We went to a popular ecotourism attraction in Costa Rica where you get to zip line over the canopy of the rainforest. It was as cool as it sounds. It was another hot day in paradise, so John decided to wear his usual short-shorts uniform (crocs and all), even on the zip line. The employees got a good laugh out of his unique gringo style. It's so hot though that it is hard to blame him.

Today we got to go on a boat ride through the mangrove forest on the Tarcoles River. We got to see crocodiles bathing in the sun. They looked more lazy than vicious.




Just another day in Costa Rica.

erica´s blog

Hola from the jungle!

I have had some amazing experiences here so far.

One of my favorites is when my group (the environmental education group) got to visit an elementary school here. It was a little tricky communicating with the children because of the language barrier, but we managed pretty well. It was also interesting to see how the schools here differ from ours in the U.S., they only have one class for all the grades and the ages in the class range from 6-14 or so. We got to do a presentation and science experiement about tree planting. Afterwards we got to then plant trees with the children, since their school in loctaed in a flood basin. The trees will help slow floods, and the roots will help clean their drinking water since they get it from the groundwater. It was such a great experience!  When it was time for us to leave the school, a little girl ran up to me and gave me her bracelett to remember her by and it made my day! I can´t wait to further my environmental education experiences.

Another great time I had was the macaw monitoring. Although we had to wake up at 4:30 am, it was definitely worth it! We counted around 147 individual macaws. The sunrise was gorgeous as well. It was awesome to see so many macaws fly overhead!

Today we got to go on a boat through the mangroves and the first thing we saw was three white-faced monkeys which are my favorite! We also saw a few crocodiles!

I am really excited for the "Carara Olympics" tomorrow that Sarah D., Bonnie, Mitch and I have been planning. Go Environmental Ed. Team!
- Erica Roeglin

Tengo un excellente tiempo

Tengo un excellente tiempo!

Today I woke up about 5am and prepared for field work. I am on the team studying birds in Carara National Park and we will continue our work at Parque Nacional de Corcovado (Corcovado National Park). For breakfast I had something that resembled Cocoa Pebbles as well as some coffee.

For field work we had a site selected about 20 minutes from our biological station about 10 meters off of the trail. We have to where our rubber boots for protection since we are off the trail so as not to be bitten by the Fer De Lance which is a poisonous snake. Our site was selected because we wanted to monitor birds in a canopy layer with medium density. We had already done a low density and will do a high density tomorrow. The team monitors number of individual birds as well as number of different species. To do this we use a microphone that rests on a tripod, a recorder, headphones, a densiometer to measure canopy density, and our notebook to do a point count of the number of birds we here for a 10 minute period. In the evening we have students in other study groups listen to our recording and have them note how many birds and how many species they can hear. Half the students will listen at Carara and the other half will listen at Corcovado.

In other news, we went on a boat tour in the morning and observed some crocodiles as well as some fascinating birds. Upon returning to the station we saw a sloth right by our biological station and soon after we saw an anteater! He was pretty awesome. I also spent some time reading Trouble in Paradise about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. For lunch I had a ham and cheese sandwich with some chips and salsa.

Nothing but good times here in Costa Rica. Right now we are at an Internet café in the town of Quebrada Genado. I will blog later. Pura Vida!

Mitch Olson