Las Cruces 1

Las Cruces Biological Station & Wilson Botanical Garden is a research station 300km SE of San Jose in the Fila Cruces mountain range.  The area is 1200m above sea level, gets about 4000mm rain/year and is a Tropical Premontane Wet Forest.  Las Cruces is a small forest fragment but has a huge diversity of plants (including the second largest collection of palms in the world), birds, bats, and mammals (White-headed Capuchin are definitely present, and Squirrel Monkeys' range supposedly includes this area, but they have not been seen recently).

It took a 6 hour bus ride from San Jose to Las Cruces.  I had a delicious lunch of arroz con pollo and platanos maduros:

Everything I saw during our stops was beautiful and really different from the types of plants I'm used to seeing:

When we got to Las Cruces, we moved into the Wilson House, which is located right in the middle of the garden:

I'm in a room with 3 other guys.  I'm on top bunk:

There are so many beautiful plants just in the garden around the house (This one is a bromeliad):

Since we got here, we've been busy non-stop.  A typical day so far:
6:29 wake up.
6:30 walk to breakfast.
8:00-12:00 class time spent either in the classroom, in the garden, or heading towards the forest (generally with two half hour breaks)
12:00 lunch
2:00-4:00/4:30 class time
4:30-6:00 free time (usually spent playing soccer or running with everyone)
6:00 dinner
7:00 class time
11:00 bedtime

We don't have specific classes at specific times and all of the professors help teach every class so there is always something different happening.  I spend most of classtime furiously taking notes because lectures all move extremely quickly, so any free time between classes goes by way too fast.  We haven't had too much homework other that reading so far, but there is so little time to get it done.  We were also just given a taxonomy assignment, involving finding, catching, and identifying insects to the level of order and family on our own.  I don't know how I will find enough time to do all of it.

The food here is pretty good.  Almost every meal has some sort of rice dish and many meals have beans.  For breakfast there is also some type of bread or biscuit, fruit, eggs, and orange juice.  For lunch, there is salad (very thinly sliced cabbage with tomatoes and cucumbers), rice, a vegetable, and a meat dish.  For dinner, there is again salad, a meat dish, a vegetable, and a small desert.  For example, we had salad, lasagna, cauliflower, bread and ice cream for dinner tonight.  The meals are spaced out and there aren't any opportunities to snack between meals, so I have to force myself to eat more food at each meal so I don't get hungry.

The weather in Costa Rica is amazing.  It doesn't feel too hot or humid when just walking around, but it gets bad when hiking, even in the shade of the forest.  It is always light out by breakfast time and the sun always sets right around dinner time, so flashlights or headlamps are completely necessary to get from one place to another after around 5:45PM.  We generally all hang out in the giant common room after dark, trying to read, socialize, or get on the Internet.  Las Cruces only has a certain amount of bandwith shared among everyone who works or lives here, so we can't look at large pictures online or use video Skype during the day.

So far I am loving Costa Rica!  My goal is to start taking even more pictures (even though I probably won't be able to upload all of them).  Hopefully I will be able to take full advantage of everything Las Cruces has to offer before we leave in a few weeks.

Arriving in San Jose

I made it to Costa Rica!  The past few days have been so crazy that I haven't really had any time at all to post anything.  I was in San Jose briefly before heading to Las Cruces Biological Station.  A lot has happened, so here's a brief recap of my first day:
I flew from Miami to Chicago at 8:00 on Monday, had a three hour layover in Miami, and then flew to San Jose.  Thankfully neither of the flights was super long (and in fact the flight to Miami was slightly longer than the flight to San Jose).  I didn't sleep well the night before because I was so anxious, so I was hoping to sleep one the plane.  However, I only slept for about 20 minutes on the flight to Miami, which is surprising because I am really good at sleeping anywhere.  When I got to Miami, I walked up and down the terminal countless times because I was bored and didn't want to spend even more time sitting down.  I sincerely hope that I never have to spend too much time listening to the horrible muzak they play nonstop.  On the flight to San Jose there was an annoying little boy sitting next to me who kicked me a couple times but thankfully he fell asleep eventually. 
When I arrived in the airport at San Jose, I went through customs, picked up my bags, and set off into Costa Rica.  My first real experience in the country was being mobbed my taxi drivers trying to get me to go with them.  The next thing I noticed was how warm and humid it was! I was still wearing my sweatshirt from the airplane and I was really uncomfortable.  Nonetheless  being in San Jose was so surreal!  I still can't believe that I am actually here in Costa Rica.  It's mind-boggling!
I met 2 other guys doing the program and a TA outside the airport so we could all head to the hotel together.  Our hotel was not far away, but it took almost 2 hours to get there by van because of minor, one block long construction happening on a main street. A general impression that I get is that there are not a ton of main roads/highways in the city.  Thankfully we eventually arrived and I could finally stretch my legs after sitting in cramped seats all day long.  Most people had gotten to the hotel z lot earlier and were all out exploring.  I went with the 2 guys who took the van with me in search of food because I hadn't eaten since lunch.  It was after 8:00 and we didn't really have an idea of where we were going.  We walked around for a bit, but the only place we found was a little snack shop attached to a small indoor soccer field.  We all ordered fries to go, which came with mayo and ketchup on them.  Although I don't like mayo, I was so hungry that it tasted delicious anyway.  I went to bed soon after eating because we had to go to the OTS office the next morning.

We had a orientation inside the beautiful OTS building in the morning and got to know each other.  We ate lunch outside and I managed to get burned on my first full day there after about 20 minutes.  In the afternoon, a couple of us walked down Paseo Colon, which is a pedestrian area with tons of little stores.  We went out to a restaurant for dinner and I had some delicious sea bass.  As much fun as San Jose was, I didn't get a chance to explore much because I was only there for one day.

The next morning, we left at 8:00 for a six hour bus ride heading south through the mountains to Las Cruces, where the adventures really began...

Weather forecast for tomorrow

Chicago: High of 32, snow showers

San Jose: High of 80, partly cloudy

Enough said.

Countdown

I can't believe that I leave on Monday!  The fact that I am actually about to go Costa Rica is finally becoming very, very real.  I've been thinking about doing the Tropical Biology program through the Organization for Tropical Studies for quite some time and spent most of last semester applying and sorting out paperwork through both Georgetown and Duke.  Nonetheless, the program was entirely an abstract idea to me throughout the whole process.  I now suddenly find myself with a suitcase packed and a quickly dwindling countdown to my departure.  It's really scary and really exciting at the same time.  I don't know how to describe it.

I find that my biggest problem whenever I travel is overpacking.  Obviously it would be bad to not have something I need, but I'm anxious that I am bringing a bunch of unnecessary stuff that I need to haul into the rain forest.  Over the past month my parents have helped me acquire the truly random hodgepodge of items that I'm bringing.  Among the highlights: headlamp, mosquito netting, "jungle" hat, snake boots (see previous post), and enough sunscreen and anti-itch cream to bathe in for the next three months.  I'm hoping that everything comes in handy (although I would really prefer not to have any snakes try to bite my feet!).

When I arrive, I'll spend a day in San Jose, the capital city, before heading to Las Cruces Biological Station, located in the south of the country near Panama.

Costa Rica, here I come!

Snake boots

Snake boots: exactly as cool as they sound.

Currently protecting my feet from the well-known vicious suburban snakes.

El Mono Titi

I have been fascinated by monkeys and apes ever since I was a little kid.  I loved going to Brookfield Zoo to watch the Golden Lion Tamarins in Tropic World.  I amassed a collection of books on monkeys and apes that I still have.  An entire shelf in my room is dedicated to my monkey and ape stuffed animal collection.  Jane Goodall, the famous primatologist whose work studying chimpanzees was groundbreaking and revolutionary, was my childhood idol.  I was overcome with joy when I had the opportunity to hear her speak at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.  However, I remember being absolutely crestfallen when I met her during the book singing afterwards and she was completely uninterested in talking to me.  Although my passion for monkeys and apes has been surpassed by my interest in other animals (mainly dogs), I am still filled with wonder whenever I have the opportunity to watch primates feed, socialize, or sleep in a zoo.  Nonetheless, I have never had the opportunity to see monkeys in the wild. 

Until now!  I am leaving in a week to spend the next three months studying abroad in Costa Rica.  I will be living in field stations, experiencing different ecosystems in different parts of the country (more on my program later).  I cannot wait to go.  There are four different monkey species native to Costa Rica: Geoffroy's Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi), the Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata), the White-headed Capuchin (Cebus capucinus), and the Central American Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri oerstedii).  All four species are remarkable and worthy of in depth study.  However, I am especially interested in the Central American Squirrel Monkey, known as el mono titi (o el mono ardilla) in Spanish.  This particular species of squirrel monkey has a limited distribution and is only found in Costa Rica and a small part of Panama.  There are fewer than 2,000 individuals left in the wild, even though the species is not considered endangered.  I did a research paper on the Central American Squirrel Monkey and its conservation status for my Environmental Science class last spring based on my interest in them.  Although I am not sure that the sites I will visit match up with the sites where Saimiri oerstedii is found, my goal is to see el mono titi.  That's what this blog and this upcoming semester are all about.  I am in search of el mono titi.

The Goal



Image Source: http://chanatrek.com/osa-peninsula-costa-rica-getting-there-really-is-half-the-fun/