Last week we went to the World of Snakes park. I was honestly underwhelmed, mostly because I'm not that into snakes. There were some cool exhibits, I got some decent pictures and some really interesting information, but by far the best part was the bird.
During the first week of classes at the ICLC, one of my instructors said my name really funny. My name here is pronounced Cleeton, basically, and the way she said it this one morning made her sound like a grumpy old teacher catching a student with gum in his mouth. It became a running joke in our group, among the teachers, even my host mom, to belt out CLEEE-TON, every time they saw me.
So we're getting ready to leave the World of Snakes when all of a sudden a parrot from somewhere, and I don't know if this was just cosmic luck or if he heard one of us say it, starts calling out, "CLEEE-TON". It was so funny, everyone was laughing. And he would not stop. CLEE-TON!!! CLEE-TON!!!! CLEEET! I was laughing so hard I was crying, couldn't breath, and had to be helped down the path from the entrance. You could still hear him down the road.
CLEE-TON!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
INBio Park
INBio park is part zoo, part research station. It's a very nice park, with some exhibits, but very few cages. Many of the animals roam the park freely, such as iguanas and birds. They have several stations where you can see snakes, insects, and fish. I got some really great photos of some of the animals here.
I may have to turn in my man card by saying this, but my favorite place here was the butterfly garden. It was this big garden enclosed with a net, and hundreds of butterflies were landing on the flowers and the people. It was really neat to watch.
The park does collections of species of insects, fungi and plants or amphibians (I can't remember which) found throughout Costa Rica. They catalog them and make display cases for various organizations and even have an on-line database that I linked in an earlier post. They do some amazing work. They have a three fold mission: education of the Costa Rican public, research of Costa Rican species, and preservation of natural habitat.
Probably the funniest moment in the entire trip was the turtle shells. Pam, Breana, Trevor and I found these fake turtle shells on the ground, basically props that kids can put on and look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I only have a few pictures, but it will get the picture across as to how absolutely ridiculous it looked. Hopefully I'll get some more from the other three.
I may have to turn in my man card by saying this, but my favorite place here was the butterfly garden. It was this big garden enclosed with a net, and hundreds of butterflies were landing on the flowers and the people. It was really neat to watch.
The park does collections of species of insects, fungi and plants or amphibians (I can't remember which) found throughout Costa Rica. They catalog them and make display cases for various organizations and even have an on-line database that I linked in an earlier post. They do some amazing work. They have a three fold mission: education of the Costa Rican public, research of Costa Rican species, and preservation of natural habitat.
Probably the funniest moment in the entire trip was the turtle shells. Pam, Breana, Trevor and I found these fake turtle shells on the ground, basically props that kids can put on and look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I only have a few pictures, but it will get the picture across as to how absolutely ridiculous it looked. Hopefully I'll get some more from the other three.
Zoo Ave
No, that's not Zoo Avenue. That's Zoo Ave, Costa Rican slang for an aviary, though it has more than just birds. There were a ton of birds, some freaky spiders (not part of the exhibits), a crocodile that could eat my whole family whole and have room for dessert, monkeys, cougars, and two tortoise "being intimate". No, I didn't get any pictures of the deed, I left that to those with video mode on their cameras. Ew. I plan on having links to other people's photos at some point, so you know, if you're into that sort of thing, just be patient. In the meantime, enjoy these G rated pictures.
I'm not really a big fan of Zoos. The animals are usually lethargic and hard to see. This zoo was a bit different. The animals seemed to be more active, probably because even though they were in a zoo, they were in their natural climate.
I'm not really a big fan of Zoos. The animals are usually lethargic and hard to see. This zoo was a bit different. The animals seemed to be more active, probably because even though they were in a zoo, they were in their natural climate.
Sr Y Sra Ese Factory
You read that as Senor and Senora Ese Factory, where they make fine wood products by hand. They make some truly amazing stuff here, and it's all handcrafted, as you can see by the pictures here. They place the beads they use for jewelry in tumblers like you would use for polishing rocks, and they come out looking awesome.
While I was impressed by the workmanship of the pieces, what I was more interested in was documenting the working conditions. They are, compared to the rest of Costa Rica and the world at large, very good. They may not meet OSHA standards (most of Costa Rica's building standards would make U.S. contractors weep), but the workers here are definitely well treated and probably better paid than just about any other factory position in the country. They also spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and money making sure that the wood they use for their goods is from certified sustainable forests.
While I was impressed by the workmanship of the pieces, what I was more interested in was documenting the working conditions. They are, compared to the rest of Costa Rica and the world at large, very good. They may not meet OSHA standards (most of Costa Rica's building standards would make U.S. contractors weep), but the workers here are definitely well treated and probably better paid than just about any other factory position in the country. They also spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and money making sure that the wood they use for their goods is from certified sustainable forests.
Mega Update
Okay, so I have another day here in Monte Verde, and then we're off to Cabo Blanco, where I'll have no Internet or phone service for several days (gasp! ack!). So this is the last all you cool people will hear from me for a while. With that, I'm going to give you a mega update. I'll be posting several new posts with links to photo sets from the past several weeks, as well as updating some older sets with new photos. Enjoy! And I'll talk to you again in a few days!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Some Neat Links
I appear to be having some issues with my Flickr account feeding to my blog, so I'm going to post a link to all my galleries here so you have a place you can bookmark if you haven't already.
We also visited a place called INBioparque, where they document new species found in Costa Rica. Here's a link to their databases.
Also, check out this link to the University of Georgia's campus here at Monteverde. It has a species list of all the flora and fauna they've documented. I've already seen some of these species, but I'll blog more about that later.
We also visited a place called INBioparque, where they document new species found in Costa Rica. Here's a link to their databases.
Also, check out this link to the University of Georgia's campus here at Monteverde. It has a species list of all the flora and fauna they've documented. I've already seen some of these species, but I'll blog more about that later.
Updated! Culture Museum and the Streets of Alajuela
Even though I'm now in Monteverde, I still have tons of stuff to write about from the first two weeks of our trip. Now that I have decent Internet access and a good computer to work with, I'm going to play a little catch-up. First up is the culture museum in downtown Alajuela.
Costa Rica's George Washington is a guy named Juan Santamaria. You can read a bunch about him here, but suffice it to say that he fought against some Imperialist American trying to conquer all of Latin America. The museum has all sorts of artifacts from the war, but what was really cool was what you could see from the roof. There was an elevator that took us up there, and from there I got some really good shots of the streets of Alajuela. Take a look here and take notice of how different things are from the streets you drove down today. Typically, there are 10 times more cars and 100 times more people, but it still gets the point across.
Edit: Must.....sleep....will post.....pictures.....latezzzzzZZZZzzzzz.....
Double Edit: Finally got some pictures up for this post. Follow the link above.
Costa Rica's George Washington is a guy named Juan Santamaria. You can read a bunch about him here, but suffice it to say that he fought against some Imperialist American trying to conquer all of Latin America. The museum has all sorts of artifacts from the war, but what was really cool was what you could see from the roof. There was an elevator that took us up there, and from there I got some really good shots of the streets of Alajuela. Take a look here and take notice of how different things are from the streets you drove down today. Typically, there are 10 times more cars and 100 times more people, but it still gets the point across.
Edit: Must.....sleep....will post.....pictures.....latezzzzzZZZZzzzzz.....
Double Edit: Finally got some pictures up for this post. Follow the link above.
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