I survived our first midterm! yay. and I wrote my paper, and I did the stats homework.... but i forgot to do my spanish, oh well, 3 out of 4 isn't bad. After my midterm I took a very nice hike through the cloud forest and rediscovered how off kilter my sense of direction is. It turns out that it is possible to hike over the continental divide without even knowing it, woops. I did have a fairly obvious clue to my misdirection when the weather changed from dappled sun (the pacific) to pouring rain (cuz thats what it does on the Atlantic side). I eventually did manage to meander my way back to a recognizable trail and then slide my way back down to the station. On my way down I was accosted by a flock of butterflies. There is a species of butterflies that roost in groups during the day down here. The ruckus I created while tromping down the mountain woke up about 20 of these flying terrors and sent them flapping straight into my face. Almost immediatly, we both realized our mistakes and headed in our separate directions. Shortly there after I came across a large gathering of army ants but after my butterfly encounter I figured it was best to leave all 6 legged critters alone. Also, from recently acquired experiance, I now know how much ant bites/stings hurt. Acacia Ants (Pseudomyrmex spinicola to be exact) are not toys! Amusingly, for that project we did with the ants and acacias, we managed to pick the most aggresive ant species and harass them at their most aggressive time. woops, again.
On an entirely random note, I have finally found a Costa Rican food (actually we aren't even sure this is a Costa Rican food) that I will not eat. Today for lunch we had a "banana bean wrap". ummmm, yeah. beans wrapped in mashed sweet plaintains topped with cheese. It was a unique meal that I hope never to have to experiance again. On the plus side, we got mango juice at breakfast and at dinner today, and mango juice is pretty much the best thing ever (it's up there on my list with sleep, salamanders, and chocolate). Actually, I think the possibility of mango juice is really the only thing that forces me to get out of bed for a 7 am breakfast..... mmmmmmmmm.... mango juice.....
Coffee is good too, we drink a lot of it here. I will be returning home an even bigger caffeine addict then when I left. It turns out that coffee (with milk and sugar) makes an excellent growth medium for tropical fungi. I forgot a mug on my desk for a week or so and the results were a little frightening. I won't be doing that again. On that very disgusting note I am going to bed (where hopefully there will be no scorpiones, or stinging wasps, or crunchy beetles).
Monday, March 12, 2007
Friday, March 9, 2007
more from Monteverde
I have now been in Monteverde for almost two weeks. Everyone is thoroughly busy right now as we have our fist midterm this tomorrow. In celebration of this quickly approaching torture I am procrastinating by watching a film of fighting beetles set to very up-beat music.
The last week has contained many exciting events. Last Saturday we did the tourist thing and went to the ziplines. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable and un-educational morning flying over the forest canopy. After the zipline adventure I finally got the milkshake I had been dreaming of. One flavor tried, 20 more to go!
The week days are filled with class, lots and lots of class. Most days have biology related lectures from 8 until 3 and Spanish class from 3:30-5:30. I am starting to feel that studying and classes are getting in the way of my learning (and by learning I mean tromping around in the cloud forest whenever I feel like it). My Spanish vocabulary is expanding. I now know such useful words as querida (mistress), mapache (raccoon), and aguas muertas (neap tide).
Some days we get a break from the usual lecture format. Yesterday’s exercise in biology could best be described as “High Speed Field Biology: Survivor Style”. At 8 am we were divided into groups of 5 and presented with our research question. All field data was collected by noon. After lunch the data was analyzed, background research was conducted, and a 15 minute powerpoint was constructed. A mere 11 hours after learning of our research topic we presented our results (statistics, discussion, relevant articles… the whole shebang) to the whole class. My group analyzed the nest distribution in a species of high altitude neo-tropical bees. It turns out that Crawfordapis luctuosa (aka big friendly bees that didn’t sting us even though we hovered over their nests for 2+ hours) display a clumped nest distribution. Yay.
Today’s lecture started off with a two hour hike through the cloud forest, over the continental divide, to the lecture hall. I really think all classes should start like that. We hiked up the Pacific side and then slid down the much wetter Atlantic side of the mountain. While mud-skiing down the Atlantic side I managed a thoroughly graceful, and apparently very noisy, swan dive into the mud. While untangling myself from a guilty tree root I was told to shut up so as to not disturb the hummingbird nest someone had just discovered. It was incredible; a hummingbird had built a nest right along the trail and stuffed inside were two almost full grown chicks. That might have been the best thing I saw this week (there were also about 20 Quetzals on a different hike, but I think the hummingbirds were cuter). Anyways, at the end of our hike we popped out of the forest at an insect museum (random, I know). The rest of the day was spent learning insect orders, how to tell a true shrunken head from a knock off, and the difference between a butterfly and everything else in the order Lepidoptera. The grand finale of the day was definitely when the owner of the insect museum (a former opera singer) performed the Costa Rican national anthem on his organ followed by the US anthem on the accordion.
I guess there is only so much procrastinating one can do at any one time, so I am now going to think about studying.
The last week has contained many exciting events. Last Saturday we did the tourist thing and went to the ziplines. We spent a thoroughly enjoyable and un-educational morning flying over the forest canopy. After the zipline adventure I finally got the milkshake I had been dreaming of. One flavor tried, 20 more to go!
The week days are filled with class, lots and lots of class. Most days have biology related lectures from 8 until 3 and Spanish class from 3:30-5:30. I am starting to feel that studying and classes are getting in the way of my learning (and by learning I mean tromping around in the cloud forest whenever I feel like it). My Spanish vocabulary is expanding. I now know such useful words as querida (mistress), mapache (raccoon), and aguas muertas (neap tide).
Some days we get a break from the usual lecture format. Yesterday’s exercise in biology could best be described as “High Speed Field Biology: Survivor Style”. At 8 am we were divided into groups of 5 and presented with our research question. All field data was collected by noon. After lunch the data was analyzed, background research was conducted, and a 15 minute powerpoint was constructed. A mere 11 hours after learning of our research topic we presented our results (statistics, discussion, relevant articles… the whole shebang) to the whole class. My group analyzed the nest distribution in a species of high altitude neo-tropical bees. It turns out that Crawfordapis luctuosa (aka big friendly bees that didn’t sting us even though we hovered over their nests for 2+ hours) display a clumped nest distribution. Yay.
Today’s lecture started off with a two hour hike through the cloud forest, over the continental divide, to the lecture hall. I really think all classes should start like that. We hiked up the Pacific side and then slid down the much wetter Atlantic side of the mountain. While mud-skiing down the Atlantic side I managed a thoroughly graceful, and apparently very noisy, swan dive into the mud. While untangling myself from a guilty tree root I was told to shut up so as to not disturb the hummingbird nest someone had just discovered. It was incredible; a hummingbird had built a nest right along the trail and stuffed inside were two almost full grown chicks. That might have been the best thing I saw this week (there were also about 20 Quetzals on a different hike, but I think the hummingbirds were cuter). Anyways, at the end of our hike we popped out of the forest at an insect museum (random, I know). The rest of the day was spent learning insect orders, how to tell a true shrunken head from a knock off, and the difference between a butterfly and everything else in the order Lepidoptera. The grand finale of the day was definitely when the owner of the insect museum (a former opera singer) performed the Costa Rican national anthem on his organ followed by the US anthem on the accordion.
I guess there is only so much procrastinating one can do at any one time, so I am now going to think about studying.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Monteverde!
We have now been in Monteverde for almost a week, and as the weekend approaches I finally find myself with a bit of free time. Unfortunately I used those three minutes of free time trying to find my socks, so now I am just eating into my sleeping time. It’s ok though, because sleep deprivation makes everything suddenly hilarious. Like sloths, talk about funny…. Actually, what was really funny today was Spanish class. I am in a class with three other people and we spent most of our time just practicing conversational Spanish. Somehow in today’s two hour class I ended up having to explain reproduction in kangaroos and the 1918 Influenza… in Spanish. It was amusing, probably more so for everyone other then me. (El conguro tiene una bolsa, y en la bolsa hay un bebe……etc)
Classes have been really intense for the last few days. I need a weekend just to catch up on all the studying and assignments we have. Of course I also have lots of important plans for this weekend like going to the zipline, buying at least one milkshake (a monteverde diet staple), sitting under a quetzal roost until one of those damn birds flies by, finding some frogs in the woods, and other stuff.
There are plenty of adventures to be had at the station we are staying at. Like last night, I was quietly studying and minding my own business when a very large moth barged into the room and proceeded to make a ruckus. So, of course I did the most logical thing and grabbed a butterfly net. For the next several minutes the moth and I went in circles as I slipped and slid across the hardwood floors in my socks. The flying distraction was eventually caught and released outside so that studying could once again occur.
We have now been in Monteverde for almost a week, and as the weekend approaches I finally find myself with a bit of free time. Unfortunately I used those three minutes of free time trying to find my socks, so now I am just eating into my sleeping time. It’s ok though, because sleep deprivation makes everything suddenly hilarious. Like sloths, talk about funny…. Actually, what was really funny today was Spanish class. I am in a class with three other people and we spent most of our time just practicing conversational Spanish. Somehow in today’s two hour class I ended up having to explain reproduction in kangaroos and the 1918 Influenza… in Spanish. It was amusing, probably more so for everyone other then me. (El conguro tiene una bolsa, y en la bolsa hay un bebe……etc)
Classes have been really intense for the last few days. I need a weekend just to catch up on all the studying and assignments we have. Of course I also have lots of important plans for this weekend like going to the zipline, buying at least one milkshake (a monteverde diet staple), sitting under a quetzal roost until one of those damn birds flies by, finding some frogs in the woods, and other stuff.
There are plenty of adventures to be had at the station we are staying at. Like last night, I was quietly studying and minding my own business when a very large moth barged into the room and proceeded to make a ruckus. So, of course I did the most logical thing and grabbed a butterfly net. For the next several minutes the moth and I went in circles as I slipped and slid across the hardwood floors in my socks. The flying distraction was eventually caught and released outside so that studying could once again occur.
some pictures
hanging out in the cloud forest
heading to Corcavado
playing with toads
it takes forever to load pictures, so I might attempt to put more up later but I am now on a mission to buy a milkshake (the monteverde quakers have a cheese factory with the best milkshakes in the world, or so I have been told).
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Palo Verde
First, a few random thoughts about my attempts at blogging:
1. I can't spell (grammer is also a little sketchy). I am fully aware of this, and will probably continue to ignore such basic literary conventions for an indeterminate length of time.
2. I have been in Monteverde for two days now, but I am a wee bit behind in typing up the stuff I wrote out during our field trip. So, Monteverde is awesome and I am sure I will blather on about it in the near future.
OK, time to talk about Carara, ECMar, and Palo Verde! (also time for me to lay off the coffee... twitch twitch giggle giggle)
In Carara we spent the day hiking about and learning the names and natural histories of endemic plant species that I will never in my life see again. When we stopped for lunch we were accosted by a pack of hungry Ctenosaurs (2 foot long igauna things) that apparently are fond of pizza.
We then headed towards the Guanacaste region, stopping to gawk at some absolutly enormous crocodiles (20 feet long, I swear!) We spent the night at ECMar (estacion de ciencias marinas) and did a little bird watching and some mangrove swamp tromping. We also sat on a slightly gross beach (public trash cans have not made it to rural Costa Rica) and watched a glorious sunset. Of course, there was also a bit of learning to be done: some 20 new species and a lecture on plant identification.
As the week progressed we moved from the excessivly damp heat of Corcavado to the instant dessication brand of heat offered in Palo Verde. Palo Verde is in the much drier northern area of Costa Rica. In the wet season it is a giant mosquito breeding swamp. In the dry season (what we are in now) it becomes a haven for about a zillion different birds. I think I might actually be starting to enjoy birdwatching. I think it was the brilliant epiphany someone shared with me: "birds are really just like screwed up, feathery mutant lizards". Really, that makes ducks sooooo much more exciting.
In Palo Verde I also spent some quality time with Ant Acacias (and their nasty stinging ants). We were split into groups to do a day long field project and my group was investigating the correlation between Acacia thorn size and the number/development stage of the ants inside. Perhaps this requires a little bit of explanation: Acacias are shrubby trees that have a symbiotic relationship with ants. The tree gives the ants food and housing and the ants terrorize anything that is within biting/stinging distance. The results of our project showed that bigger thorns housed more ants and ant bites hurt like hell (nasty nasty little buggers).
Hmmm, what else? Someone found a scorpion in their bed on the first night, that was exciting. We mist netted for bats. One of the bats died (not from my group!) and the guys pocketed it in hopes of playing a really evil practical joke on someone. Unfortunatly, egg-fryingly hot weather does really bad things to dead mammals and the bat carcass did not last long enough to make its way into anyone's mosquito netting. Disappointing, but there was a great prank pulled off envolving a very large cane toad and a professor's tent, so all is not lost.
Our adventure continued to Liberia. We stayed in Liberia for two days, but each day took a trip to reserves nearby. Santa Rosa: trees, monkeys, monkeys in trees, monkeys in trees hunting down a squirrel and then eating it in a rather disturbing manner. We happened to be in Liberia at the same time the town was having a giant party in celebration of its existance. Pretty much drinking in the streets and sketchy carnival rides and a bull ring that might have collapsed at any moment. I walked back with two of my classmates and somehow managed to get lost. We got a cab and discovered 30 seconds later that we had been about 2 blocks ( and 1500 colones, less then 3 dollars) from the hotel.
The next day we visited Rincon de la Vieja (a very nifty park) and only had to learn one new species (it was a day off). We hiked to an awesome waterfall/swimming spot, watched a group of spider monkeys chase off a group of white faced capuchin monkeys, saw a 2 m long Tiger rat snake (I think thats the name, I am too lazy to go check though), and pretty much had an awesome day.
Sometime after all this excitment we made it to Monteverde, but those stories will have to wait because my caffeine buzz is starting to wear off and I still have to memorize about 100 species' information before I go to sleep (which reminds me, I want to breifly groan about my lack of sleep... why must breakfast be at 7am, with class at 8am.... EVERY DAY!? like today: 7am breaky, 8am-3pm species reports while hiking straight up a mountain, 30 min walk to spanish class, 3:30 -5:30 spanish class, 6 pm dinner, 7pm epiphyte lecture, 8pm until I pass out from exhaustion = study time. And it all starts again tomorrow. I am loving every minute of it, but at the same time, this is actually more exhausting then school at Berkeley.
1. I can't spell (grammer is also a little sketchy). I am fully aware of this, and will probably continue to ignore such basic literary conventions for an indeterminate length of time.
2. I have been in Monteverde for two days now, but I am a wee bit behind in typing up the stuff I wrote out during our field trip. So, Monteverde is awesome and I am sure I will blather on about it in the near future.
OK, time to talk about Carara, ECMar, and Palo Verde! (also time for me to lay off the coffee... twitch twitch giggle giggle)
In Carara we spent the day hiking about and learning the names and natural histories of endemic plant species that I will never in my life see again. When we stopped for lunch we were accosted by a pack of hungry Ctenosaurs (2 foot long igauna things) that apparently are fond of pizza.
We then headed towards the Guanacaste region, stopping to gawk at some absolutly enormous crocodiles (20 feet long, I swear!) We spent the night at ECMar (estacion de ciencias marinas) and did a little bird watching and some mangrove swamp tromping. We also sat on a slightly gross beach (public trash cans have not made it to rural Costa Rica) and watched a glorious sunset. Of course, there was also a bit of learning to be done: some 20 new species and a lecture on plant identification.
As the week progressed we moved from the excessivly damp heat of Corcavado to the instant dessication brand of heat offered in Palo Verde. Palo Verde is in the much drier northern area of Costa Rica. In the wet season it is a giant mosquito breeding swamp. In the dry season (what we are in now) it becomes a haven for about a zillion different birds. I think I might actually be starting to enjoy birdwatching. I think it was the brilliant epiphany someone shared with me: "birds are really just like screwed up, feathery mutant lizards". Really, that makes ducks sooooo much more exciting.
In Palo Verde I also spent some quality time with Ant Acacias (and their nasty stinging ants). We were split into groups to do a day long field project and my group was investigating the correlation between Acacia thorn size and the number/development stage of the ants inside. Perhaps this requires a little bit of explanation: Acacias are shrubby trees that have a symbiotic relationship with ants. The tree gives the ants food and housing and the ants terrorize anything that is within biting/stinging distance. The results of our project showed that bigger thorns housed more ants and ant bites hurt like hell (nasty nasty little buggers).
Hmmm, what else? Someone found a scorpion in their bed on the first night, that was exciting. We mist netted for bats. One of the bats died (not from my group!) and the guys pocketed it in hopes of playing a really evil practical joke on someone. Unfortunatly, egg-fryingly hot weather does really bad things to dead mammals and the bat carcass did not last long enough to make its way into anyone's mosquito netting. Disappointing, but there was a great prank pulled off envolving a very large cane toad and a professor's tent, so all is not lost.
Our adventure continued to Liberia. We stayed in Liberia for two days, but each day took a trip to reserves nearby. Santa Rosa: trees, monkeys, monkeys in trees, monkeys in trees hunting down a squirrel and then eating it in a rather disturbing manner. We happened to be in Liberia at the same time the town was having a giant party in celebration of its existance. Pretty much drinking in the streets and sketchy carnival rides and a bull ring that might have collapsed at any moment. I walked back with two of my classmates and somehow managed to get lost. We got a cab and discovered 30 seconds later that we had been about 2 blocks ( and 1500 colones, less then 3 dollars) from the hotel.
The next day we visited Rincon de la Vieja (a very nifty park) and only had to learn one new species (it was a day off). We hiked to an awesome waterfall/swimming spot, watched a group of spider monkeys chase off a group of white faced capuchin monkeys, saw a 2 m long Tiger rat snake (I think thats the name, I am too lazy to go check though), and pretty much had an awesome day.
Sometime after all this excitment we made it to Monteverde, but those stories will have to wait because my caffeine buzz is starting to wear off and I still have to memorize about 100 species' information before I go to sleep (which reminds me, I want to breifly groan about my lack of sleep... why must breakfast be at 7am, with class at 8am.... EVERY DAY!? like today: 7am breaky, 8am-3pm species reports while hiking straight up a mountain, 30 min walk to spanish class, 3:30 -5:30 spanish class, 6 pm dinner, 7pm epiphyte lecture, 8pm until I pass out from exhaustion = study time. And it all starts again tomorrow. I am loving every minute of it, but at the same time, this is actually more exhausting then school at Berkeley.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Corcavado
Two weeks ago we left behind the internet access and air conditioning of San Jose and went careening down the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The city was rapidly replaced by leafy walls of green as our quasi-suicidal bus driver (this is actually a compliment, because all the other drivers down here are completly suicidal) deftly manuveered the vehicle down the tangle of asphalt known as the Pan-American Highway. In Sierpe we learned about mangroves, bug bites, and certain group members' inability to tolerate boats. The next day, armed with our newly acquired knowledge of who was most likely to puke over the side of the boat, we set off for the San Pedrillo station in Corcavado National Park.
Pretty much AMAZING, yep, that sums it up. We camped for 5 days along the beach and I discoverd how silly I was to have brought a winter sleeping bag... it hasn't left my backpack. There was much learning to be done, despite our classroom's existance as a tropical paradise. It turns out that this program will be a lot of work, probably a good thing, I guess.... An adequate course description might be "Knowing everything about everything". I predict some serious study time in my near future. I admit, I should have studied in Corcavado, but each night seemed better spent tromping through the rain forest harassing poisonous snakes and poking rare frogs... four nights in a row and I still haven't seen a Fer de Lance in the wild, so disappointing... but the spider monkeys, gladiator frog, tamandua, crocodile, Turnip tailed gecko, howler monkeys, rocket frogs,.......etc.... all might make it worthwhile.
Our days, and often nights, were filled to the brim with things like island biodiversity lectures, organized lizard chasing, species reports, and sunscreen application. So much to do and see, soooo little will power to sit down and put it to paper.
To sum up for the time being, the other folks in the program seem to possess an adequate amount of nerdy biologist-ness to make for a very entertaining and cohesive group. The profesors and TA s are awesome. I have decided that I am rather fond of rice and beans (also beans and rice, and beans mixed with rice, and rice mixed with beans....really the options are endless). Our first field trip continues to Carara National Park and perhaps some time in the not too distant future I might be convinced to write again (stranger things have been known to happen).
Pretty much AMAZING, yep, that sums it up. We camped for 5 days along the beach and I discoverd how silly I was to have brought a winter sleeping bag... it hasn't left my backpack. There was much learning to be done, despite our classroom's existance as a tropical paradise. It turns out that this program will be a lot of work, probably a good thing, I guess.... An adequate course description might be "Knowing everything about everything". I predict some serious study time in my near future. I admit, I should have studied in Corcavado, but each night seemed better spent tromping through the rain forest harassing poisonous snakes and poking rare frogs... four nights in a row and I still haven't seen a Fer de Lance in the wild, so disappointing... but the spider monkeys, gladiator frog, tamandua, crocodile, Turnip tailed gecko, howler monkeys, rocket frogs,.......etc.... all might make it worthwhile.
Our days, and often nights, were filled to the brim with things like island biodiversity lectures, organized lizard chasing, species reports, and sunscreen application. So much to do and see, soooo little will power to sit down and put it to paper.
To sum up for the time being, the other folks in the program seem to possess an adequate amount of nerdy biologist-ness to make for a very entertaining and cohesive group. The profesors and TA s are awesome. I have decided that I am rather fond of rice and beans (also beans and rice, and beans mixed with rice, and rice mixed with beans....really the options are endless). Our first field trip continues to Carara National Park and perhaps some time in the not too distant future I might be convinced to write again (stranger things have been known to happen).
Friday, February 9, 2007
Made it to Costa Rica
I have arrived in Costa Rica! Our first day was quite an adventure. I have been in the country less then 24 hours and already I have had an orientation lecture, toured a history museum, visited a center for producing snake antivenom, and survived being dropped off at El Mercado Central with the assignment of buying an assigned fruit and learning its natural history and cultural importance.... in spanish.
The best part of the day... a toss up between learning how to make chile relleno from a shoe sales person (my fruit was a chile, and we were loking for rubber boots)and watching incredibly poisonous snakes be milked for there venom (yep, thats a Fer-de-lance!)
Right, so there are about 6 people who really want to use the internet and are hovering behind me.... so, now might be an excellent time to relinquish the ethernet cord. alas.
The best part of the day... a toss up between learning how to make chile relleno from a shoe sales person (my fruit was a chile, and we were loking for rubber boots)and watching incredibly poisonous snakes be milked for there venom (yep, thats a Fer-de-lance!)
Right, so there are about 6 people who really want to use the internet and are hovering behind me.... so, now might be an excellent time to relinquish the ethernet cord. alas.
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