Our last night in Costa Rica. It's been more than fun. Words can't even describe what the past few weeks have been like for me. Enlightening, adventurous, informative, scary, uncomfortable, the list could go on. I just want to take a second to thank everyone who gave me the opportunity to come down here. First, my wife and kids, for letting me leave them for a month so I can come down here. I love you and I miss you and I'll see you soon. To the directors at the OIEC and ICLC, you have a great program. Thank you for letting me and my companions experience Costa Rica. To my host mom, thank you. You were like a second mother to me. To Ron and Laurie, who somehow managed to put up with 14 college students for a month. It's been a real treat to know you.
On to the pictures and stories. You can find all the pictures here. There was so much to see and do here, it's hard to pick out any one story. La Selva is a real research station. You can feel it in the air. Our guide told us that La Selva produces 2 scholarly journal articles a day. That's amazing. The campus is beautiful. They have a computer lab, a small little library, washing machines that we can use ourselves (YES!), and lots of housing for residents and scientists. The dorms are nice and clean, and they even have somewhat hot water!
The trails here are all very well maintained concrete paths. There's a massive canopy bridge that separates the two sides of the campus, and I've seen more biodiversity on that bridge than I could describe. A two-toed sloth, fish that are related to piranha, countless birds like toucans and parrots, and a troop of howler monkeys, complete with baby. In the rainforest, we've seen a bunch more birds, white-faced capuchins like in Cabo Blanco, an eyelash pit viper, big spiders, millipedes, peccaries, armadillos, frogs, and I don't even know how many different kinds of trees. It's really beautiful.
Tomorrow is our trip back home, so this is probably the last big post I'll make here, unless I get links from some of the other students to post. I hope you all had fun following along on my adventure.
Pura Vida!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Cabo Blanco
The time at Cabo Blanco seemed to go by so fast, and the events there feel so merged together, that I'm going to just make one big photo set and tell some stories in this post. Here are the pictures.
Our first night in Cabo Blanco was hard. The conditions were much more primitive than UGA, and I don't think anyone was quite prepared for that. Then there was the spider. A big huge spider was perched on the ceiling right above Courtney's bed. Needless to say she never, EVER, slept in that bed. I found two more spiders that night, but didn't say anything to anyone (good idea, T-Fast).
Cabo Blanco is an absolute preserve, which means no tourist will ever visit it. Only students, and only a handful of students at that, ever see the inside of the park. Something like only 12 or 13 groups get in every year, so we were all very honored to be allowed in. The preserve is beautiful. The coast is rocky and has a huge tidal flat that is completely submerged in high tide. The tide pools that appear when the tide is out are filled with creatures unlike what you'd expect. When one thinks tropical anything, they think bright colors. The species living among the rocks in the tide pools here all were very well camouflaged, and very well hidden. Except for the puffer fish. Bright blues and yellows. We got to see one all puffed up. They were fascinating to watch.
The geology is very interesting as well. Lots of volcanic evidence along with some obvious sea floor sediments that have been uplifted to all sorts of crazy angles. I even saw some cross bedded sandstone layers, evidence of the beach that must have been here millions of years ago.
And the hermit crabs! Holy cow, you could sit on the beach and watch them crawl over the sand like a little crab wave. There were big ones and small ones, some with colorful shells and some with boring ones. The funnest thing to do was to let them all get moving, especially crawling up a log or something, and then wave your hand. They'd all stop dead in their tracks, even if it meant falling off the log or down an cliff they spent the last 10 minutes climbing. Mean, I know. We also had a hermit crab Olympics. There was a marathon, and sprint, balance beam, tight rope, and a tractor pull. Our crab won (good find Kat!). We named him El Gringo Furioso.
We saw lots of wildlife. A large troop of white-faced capuchins were common on almost every hike we took. A few howler monkeys and ant eaters dropped by during breakfast. There's even a red crested guan that was domesticated before it was brought to the preserve that hangs around camp. The people there named him Kevin.
On our last full day there we hiked up a stream (literally up a stream, like walking in the stream) to a little waterfall. I didn't get pictures because I didn't want to ruin my camera, which I would have. The only cameras that were of any use were the waterproof ones a few of us had. It was awesome. You could sit in the plunge pool and lean back against the water and it would hold you on your feet. It was just what the group needed after a very long few days of roughing it in the jungle. If I manage to get a hold of some pictures I'll add them to the post.
Here's a really neat shot of the beach I took.
Our first night in Cabo Blanco was hard. The conditions were much more primitive than UGA, and I don't think anyone was quite prepared for that. Then there was the spider. A big huge spider was perched on the ceiling right above Courtney's bed. Needless to say she never, EVER, slept in that bed. I found two more spiders that night, but didn't say anything to anyone (good idea, T-Fast).
Cabo Blanco is an absolute preserve, which means no tourist will ever visit it. Only students, and only a handful of students at that, ever see the inside of the park. Something like only 12 or 13 groups get in every year, so we were all very honored to be allowed in. The preserve is beautiful. The coast is rocky and has a huge tidal flat that is completely submerged in high tide. The tide pools that appear when the tide is out are filled with creatures unlike what you'd expect. When one thinks tropical anything, they think bright colors. The species living among the rocks in the tide pools here all were very well camouflaged, and very well hidden. Except for the puffer fish. Bright blues and yellows. We got to see one all puffed up. They were fascinating to watch.
The geology is very interesting as well. Lots of volcanic evidence along with some obvious sea floor sediments that have been uplifted to all sorts of crazy angles. I even saw some cross bedded sandstone layers, evidence of the beach that must have been here millions of years ago.
And the hermit crabs! Holy cow, you could sit on the beach and watch them crawl over the sand like a little crab wave. There were big ones and small ones, some with colorful shells and some with boring ones. The funnest thing to do was to let them all get moving, especially crawling up a log or something, and then wave your hand. They'd all stop dead in their tracks, even if it meant falling off the log or down an cliff they spent the last 10 minutes climbing. Mean, I know. We also had a hermit crab Olympics. There was a marathon, and sprint, balance beam, tight rope, and a tractor pull. Our crab won (good find Kat!). We named him El Gringo Furioso.
We saw lots of wildlife. A large troop of white-faced capuchins were common on almost every hike we took. A few howler monkeys and ant eaters dropped by during breakfast. There's even a red crested guan that was domesticated before it was brought to the preserve that hangs around camp. The people there named him Kevin.
On our last full day there we hiked up a stream (literally up a stream, like walking in the stream) to a little waterfall. I didn't get pictures because I didn't want to ruin my camera, which I would have. The only cameras that were of any use were the waterproof ones a few of us had. It was awesome. You could sit in the plunge pool and lean back against the water and it would hold you on your feet. It was just what the group needed after a very long few days of roughing it in the jungle. If I manage to get a hold of some pictures I'll add them to the post.
Here's a really neat shot of the beach I took.
The Ferry
I took a lot of photos while on the ferry, and a lot are duplicates, but I'm too tired to weed through them. I'm just going to dump them for your enjoyment. I will say that the ferry ride across the bay to Cabo Blanco was unlike the ride across Puget Sound. Much less orderly and organized like we're used to in the states, but miracles of miracles, it all got done and everyone was safe. I'm really beginning to realize how risk adverse we are in America, and unfortunately it has little to do with risk of injury but risk of losing money because of injury.
I'll step off my soap box now. Enjoy some pretty pictures.
I'll step off my soap box now. Enjoy some pretty pictures.
Best. Bus. Ride. Ever
So the bus ride from Monte Verde to Cabo Blanco was...interesting. We loaded all our bags on the roof, piled in the bus, and our driver starts tearing down the roads of Monte Verde. I don't think I've mentioned the road conditions or the taxi drivers here yet, so I'll take a quick bunny trail. (inside joke)
The roads around Monte Verde are odd. In Santa Elaina, they are mostly paved, and in about as good a condition as Alajuela. Just outside the city, however, they are all dirt. Even up to many of the tourist hot spots, they're all dirt. And rough. Think about what happens when you have all that water coming down onto dirt roads, collecting into potholes that never get filled. Very primitive. So the taxis all have to be 4 wheel drive. And diesel, because there's no gas station in Santa Elaina, which is on top of a mountain. The nearest gas station is at the bottom of the mountain. And yes, there's taxi service in the mountians, mostly to service the tourists. Anyway, they drive about as crazy as the one's in town, but they're in 4x4 mode so they can take these massive potholes at whatever speed they dang well please.
Apparently our bus driver must have been a former cab driver, because he literally raced down the mountain, flinging us all over the back seat. But he was really cool. He stopped and let us get out and take pictures of a troop of howler monkeys that were hanging out above the road. But the best part was his iPod. There is this song that somehow before the bus ride became our group's song. Well, it just happened to be the first song on our cool bus drivers iPod. We rocked all the way down the mountain, to the ferry, and then from the ferry to Cabo Blanco. At one point, he was letting Alex play other people's iPods on his stereo. Here's some photos of our dance party in the back of the bus.
The roads around Monte Verde are odd. In Santa Elaina, they are mostly paved, and in about as good a condition as Alajuela. Just outside the city, however, they are all dirt. Even up to many of the tourist hot spots, they're all dirt. And rough. Think about what happens when you have all that water coming down onto dirt roads, collecting into potholes that never get filled. Very primitive. So the taxis all have to be 4 wheel drive. And diesel, because there's no gas station in Santa Elaina, which is on top of a mountain. The nearest gas station is at the bottom of the mountain. And yes, there's taxi service in the mountians, mostly to service the tourists. Anyway, they drive about as crazy as the one's in town, but they're in 4x4 mode so they can take these massive potholes at whatever speed they dang well please.
Apparently our bus driver must have been a former cab driver, because he literally raced down the mountain, flinging us all over the back seat. But he was really cool. He stopped and let us get out and take pictures of a troop of howler monkeys that were hanging out above the road. But the best part was his iPod. There is this song that somehow before the bus ride became our group's song. Well, it just happened to be the first song on our cool bus drivers iPod. We rocked all the way down the mountain, to the ferry, and then from the ferry to Cabo Blanco. At one point, he was letting Alex play other people's iPods on his stereo. Here's some photos of our dance party in the back of the bus.
Monte Verde! Updated!
I'm going to make the research stations one post with lots of links to galleries and maybe a few great pictures thrown in to save myself some time. First up is the University of Georgia's campus in Monte Verde. I have some pictures of it here. As you'll be able to see in the pictures, it's like a resort. A beautiful hardwood deck, waiters that dish your plates for dinner, lots of great food, a small little library, a computer lab with WiFi, a lab, a herbarium, and lots of trails. It's really more of a tourist resort than a research station, much different than La Selva, now that I'm here and I can compare the two.
Almost as soon as we got there, Julie, Courtney, Rebecca and I took off on one of the many trails here. We took some great photos, which you can see here. We were so excited to be hiking after two weeks of being stuck in the city. At one point we got really lost and ended up in some farm with some locals looking at us like we were, well, dumb lost American tourists, which was kinda what we were. The best part was when it started to rain. We were under the dense canopy, so no water hit us, but it was shaking flowers loose from the trees. It was literally raining flowers! Some got in Courtney's hair, and I think she decided where she's going to be getting married pretty much on the spot.
The next morning Rebecca and I hiked another trail on our own, which was really beautiful. What was funny was later that morning a resident naturalist took us on the same hike, only backwards. We saw lots of really neat trees and flowers, and a awesome view of a river that I can't remember the name of. At one point, one of the naturalists stomped on a leafcutter ant hill and we watched a bunch of soldiers swarm out looking for a fight. We promptly left. Check out the pictures here.
We did a night hike later that day, which turned out to be a real treat. We saw a cockroach that had to be 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. All the girls screamed like, well, girls. It was pretty funny. We also got to see an opossum. Looking for animals is tricky - you basically shine your flashlight up into the canopy, under leaves, and along the ground looking for a reflection of the light in their beady, malevolent eyes. You can even see a gleam in spider's eyes, provided the spider is big enough (eek!). No pictures, sadly, but a good time nonetheless.
The next day we went to the 'real' Monte Verde preserve, a cloud forest. UGA is sort of a separate preserve that backs up to the national park. We had a local guide who had been working in the park for 16 years! Best. Job. Ever. I took lots of great pictures. The guide was able to make bird calls so well that I had to look at him every time I heard a bird call to see if he was making the noise. We didn't see a lot of wildlife except for insects, which our guide could spot almost casually as he walked along the trail. Then he would set up his $2,000 scope and let us see what he saw. At the end of the trip, I noticed that a bird had pooped on my shoulder, it was so recent a loose feather was still on my shirt. To top it all off, I had a hummingbird land on my finger. There was a little hummingbird garden with planters set out so you could watch them feed, and they would land on you if you put your finger up to the feeder (which you weren't actually supposed to do. Oops).
This is just for my Sweetie. A women's co-op, where they hand make goods for sale as supplemental income. They have a sewing room. Check out the pics here.
Up next was the birding trip. We hiked first in the morning, and then again between breakfast and lunch. We were split into 3 groups, and my group alone spotted over 40 different species of birds in about 5 hours. Poor Julie got eaten alive by the flies, but it was really cool. We watched a little bird beat the life out of a frog by grabbing it by the leg and smashing it on a rock in the road. We also watched a big raptor carry around a vine snake from perch to perch, finding a good place to have lunch. Oh, and we saw some dead things! Check out the pictures here.
Our last day at UGA was busy. We first toured some local farms that grew coffee and other crops. I got to work a real sugar cane press, where you could drink the sugary water freshly squeezed, like orange juice. The coolest part for me, though, was one of the farmer's little girls. She went around picking flowers, then, when she had a handful, presented them to our guide from UGA. It was so sweet I teared up a bit, suddenly really missing my two little girls. It was beyond adorable. Some watery-eyed photos here.
We ended our trip with a zip line canopy tour. Yep, I went zip lining. Oh. My. Heck. What a rush. It's totally safe, and the views are fantastic. Your first few runs are just under the canopy to get you used to riding and breaking. Then they drop you out of the canopy and over a valley for something like 1000 meters, or for you Americans over 3000 feet. And that was the short one. You're easily 100 feet above the canopy, which is in turn about 150 feet off the ground. You can see hills in the distance, foot bridges for the other canopy walks, all shrouded in mists. It was raining pretty good that day, and the water made the pulley wheel spit mud and oil all over our faces and clothes each run. I stained my good backpacking pants, and we all looked like coal miners at the end of the trip, but it was so worth it. The last run must have been about 2000 meters, or over 6,000 feet long. They pair you up because you need lots of weight to make it all the way across. I rode with this girl, a total stranger, and it was so long we ran out of things to scream. We were above a bird soaring over the canopy looking for food.
Sadly, I didn't dare take out my camera on this trip. I was afraid of dropping it. Some other people did, however, so if I get their photos I'll share them. I did buy one photo that the tour company takes of you, just like at Splash Mountain at Disneyland. But of course I forgot it in my room, which is a 15 minute hike from here, so I'll post it later.
Edit: Here's me zip lining. Oh yeah, I'm too sexy for my zip line.
Almost as soon as we got there, Julie, Courtney, Rebecca and I took off on one of the many trails here. We took some great photos, which you can see here. We were so excited to be hiking after two weeks of being stuck in the city. At one point we got really lost and ended up in some farm with some locals looking at us like we were, well, dumb lost American tourists, which was kinda what we were. The best part was when it started to rain. We were under the dense canopy, so no water hit us, but it was shaking flowers loose from the trees. It was literally raining flowers! Some got in Courtney's hair, and I think she decided where she's going to be getting married pretty much on the spot.
The next morning Rebecca and I hiked another trail on our own, which was really beautiful. What was funny was later that morning a resident naturalist took us on the same hike, only backwards. We saw lots of really neat trees and flowers, and a awesome view of a river that I can't remember the name of. At one point, one of the naturalists stomped on a leafcutter ant hill and we watched a bunch of soldiers swarm out looking for a fight. We promptly left. Check out the pictures here.
We did a night hike later that day, which turned out to be a real treat. We saw a cockroach that had to be 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. All the girls screamed like, well, girls. It was pretty funny. We also got to see an opossum. Looking for animals is tricky - you basically shine your flashlight up into the canopy, under leaves, and along the ground looking for a reflection of the light in their beady, malevolent eyes. You can even see a gleam in spider's eyes, provided the spider is big enough (eek!). No pictures, sadly, but a good time nonetheless.
The next day we went to the 'real' Monte Verde preserve, a cloud forest. UGA is sort of a separate preserve that backs up to the national park. We had a local guide who had been working in the park for 16 years! Best. Job. Ever. I took lots of great pictures. The guide was able to make bird calls so well that I had to look at him every time I heard a bird call to see if he was making the noise. We didn't see a lot of wildlife except for insects, which our guide could spot almost casually as he walked along the trail. Then he would set up his $2,000 scope and let us see what he saw. At the end of the trip, I noticed that a bird had pooped on my shoulder, it was so recent a loose feather was still on my shirt. To top it all off, I had a hummingbird land on my finger. There was a little hummingbird garden with planters set out so you could watch them feed, and they would land on you if you put your finger up to the feeder (which you weren't actually supposed to do. Oops).
This is just for my Sweetie. A women's co-op, where they hand make goods for sale as supplemental income. They have a sewing room. Check out the pics here.
Up next was the birding trip. We hiked first in the morning, and then again between breakfast and lunch. We were split into 3 groups, and my group alone spotted over 40 different species of birds in about 5 hours. Poor Julie got eaten alive by the flies, but it was really cool. We watched a little bird beat the life out of a frog by grabbing it by the leg and smashing it on a rock in the road. We also watched a big raptor carry around a vine snake from perch to perch, finding a good place to have lunch. Oh, and we saw some dead things! Check out the pictures here.
Our last day at UGA was busy. We first toured some local farms that grew coffee and other crops. I got to work a real sugar cane press, where you could drink the sugary water freshly squeezed, like orange juice. The coolest part for me, though, was one of the farmer's little girls. She went around picking flowers, then, when she had a handful, presented them to our guide from UGA. It was so sweet I teared up a bit, suddenly really missing my two little girls. It was beyond adorable. Some watery-eyed photos here.
We ended our trip with a zip line canopy tour. Yep, I went zip lining. Oh. My. Heck. What a rush. It's totally safe, and the views are fantastic. Your first few runs are just under the canopy to get you used to riding and breaking. Then they drop you out of the canopy and over a valley for something like 1000 meters, or for you Americans over 3000 feet. And that was the short one. You're easily 100 feet above the canopy, which is in turn about 150 feet off the ground. You can see hills in the distance, foot bridges for the other canopy walks, all shrouded in mists. It was raining pretty good that day, and the water made the pulley wheel spit mud and oil all over our faces and clothes each run. I stained my good backpacking pants, and we all looked like coal miners at the end of the trip, but it was so worth it. The last run must have been about 2000 meters, or over 6,000 feet long. They pair you up because you need lots of weight to make it all the way across. I rode with this girl, a total stranger, and it was so long we ran out of things to scream. We were above a bird soaring over the canopy looking for food.
Sadly, I didn't dare take out my camera on this trip. I was afraid of dropping it. Some other people did, however, so if I get their photos I'll share them. I did buy one photo that the tour company takes of you, just like at Splash Mountain at Disneyland. But of course I forgot it in my room, which is a 15 minute hike from here, so I'll post it later.
Edit: Here's me zip lining. Oh yeah, I'm too sexy for my zip line.
Monday, July 18, 2011
A Word to Prospective Students of Study Abroad Immersion Programs
I might not be very popular with the OIEC staff after this post, but I think it needs to be said for the benefit of the program as a whole.
When I signed up for this program, the last Spanish class I had was as a sophomore in high school, 1992. Yeah, I'm that old. At any rate, I hadn't used my Spanish extensively at all since then. It was somewhere in the back of my head, but I was nowhere near able to carry a conversation. Knowing this, I got a hold of some Spanish audiobooks and brushed up on my skills. It helped a little bit, but it still wasn't a lot.
Here's the point. The program says that you don't need any Spanish to sign up for the immersion program. And that's correct, you don't- if you're okay with making your host family and the instructors at the ICLC very uncomfortable and difficult to do their role\job. This was what happened to me. My poor host mother, I love her to death, had to speak quite a bit of English to me just so we could communicate about meals, what time I needed to be somewhere or come home, and all of the other things that normally come very naturally in your own tongue. At school, I would sit and listen to my instructor speak, and would maybe get a few words that I understood, and really just look around to see what the other students were doing. Some instructors would actually speak some English to me because, if they didn't, there's no way I would have gotten anything out of the lessons.
And that's all my fault. I'm not blaming anyone for the difficulties I've had. It's been a wonderful program and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I just wish I had prepared myself better for the trip so I wouldn't have put my host mother and the instructors at the ICLC in the uncomfortable position of teaching someone well below the level of Spanish they are probably more used to seeing.
Why bring this up now, when I only have 3 days left? I hope that this blog is used by the OIEC staff to show a first hand account of what the immersion program and field biology program is like. I think it would be a wonderful resource for incoming students to prepare themselves for what will easily be a trip of a lifetime. With that in mind, if I could make two recommendations, one to the incoming students, and one to the staff.
To the students, I would suggest that you take even a conversational Spanish course before coming down. You register for this trip usually in mid winter term, so plan to take a Spanish class in Spring term before the trip. It will make your life, and your host, and the instructor's, so much better.
To the OIEC staff, I would suggest making sure that incoming students are prepared for what total immersion will be like, and that they plan to have some formal Spanish education before the trip. I know that you have to get students enrolled to fill the quota so the trip can even go, but I don't think emphasizing the importance of Spanish language training before the trip would have turned off anyone in my group. We would have made the necessary course changes to be prepared to have a great time here.
When I signed up for this program, the last Spanish class I had was as a sophomore in high school, 1992. Yeah, I'm that old. At any rate, I hadn't used my Spanish extensively at all since then. It was somewhere in the back of my head, but I was nowhere near able to carry a conversation. Knowing this, I got a hold of some Spanish audiobooks and brushed up on my skills. It helped a little bit, but it still wasn't a lot.
Here's the point. The program says that you don't need any Spanish to sign up for the immersion program. And that's correct, you don't- if you're okay with making your host family and the instructors at the ICLC very uncomfortable and difficult to do their role\job. This was what happened to me. My poor host mother, I love her to death, had to speak quite a bit of English to me just so we could communicate about meals, what time I needed to be somewhere or come home, and all of the other things that normally come very naturally in your own tongue. At school, I would sit and listen to my instructor speak, and would maybe get a few words that I understood, and really just look around to see what the other students were doing. Some instructors would actually speak some English to me because, if they didn't, there's no way I would have gotten anything out of the lessons.
And that's all my fault. I'm not blaming anyone for the difficulties I've had. It's been a wonderful program and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I just wish I had prepared myself better for the trip so I wouldn't have put my host mother and the instructors at the ICLC in the uncomfortable position of teaching someone well below the level of Spanish they are probably more used to seeing.
Why bring this up now, when I only have 3 days left? I hope that this blog is used by the OIEC staff to show a first hand account of what the immersion program and field biology program is like. I think it would be a wonderful resource for incoming students to prepare themselves for what will easily be a trip of a lifetime. With that in mind, if I could make two recommendations, one to the incoming students, and one to the staff.
To the students, I would suggest that you take even a conversational Spanish course before coming down. You register for this trip usually in mid winter term, so plan to take a Spanish class in Spring term before the trip. It will make your life, and your host, and the instructor's, so much better.
To the OIEC staff, I would suggest making sure that incoming students are prepared for what total immersion will be like, and that they plan to have some formal Spanish education before the trip. I know that you have to get students enrolled to fill the quota so the trip can even go, but I don't think emphasizing the importance of Spanish language training before the trip would have turned off anyone in my group. We would have made the necessary course changes to be prepared to have a great time here.
Update From La Selva Research Station!
Just a quick note that I've finally made it to the last stop on this crazy, wonderful trip, La Selva Research Station. But Clint! you ask, you haven't uploaded any pictures or told us any fanciful tales from Monte Verde or Cabo Blanco! Fear not fellow vicarious travelers, I will be doing some updating in the next day or two with all the events and sights from the first two stops on our tour. Updating this blog and uploading photos has cost me more money than I've spent on food this entire trip, so I hope everyone out there is thoroughly enjoying these updates.
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
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