Adventuras!

Hydroelectric dam

Quite a bit has happened since my last blog entry. It’s been a little over a week since I last updated. Monday, our first full field trip day, was fairly boring. We visited a dam and listened to people talk about hydroelectric power for most of the day. The night was fun, though, because a bunch of people gathered in my room and we watched friends!

Natural geothermal vents (bubbling mud)

Tuesday, however, was one of the best days I’ve had in Costa Rica so far! After breakfast, we went to Rincón de la Vieja National Park, where we hiked through the rainforest and visited natural geothermal vents, which were holes filled with bubbling mud. Karen actually took some of the mud for later use for facials J

me in front of the waterfall!

Then we had a quick lunch at the National Park and walked “at a clip,” as Karen put it (which is to say we booked it) to a beautiful waterfall! We spent an hour or so swimming in the pool under the waterfall. It was absolutely incredible—one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to! There was also a small trickle of warm water that was caused by the geothermal activity under the earth.

The gang hanging out by the water fall

some sort of racoon-like Costa Rican mammal

A cool tree at Rincón de la Vieja

After breakfast the next day, we went to a rice paddy to learn about the difference between organic and conventional rice production and about the water footprint of rice. After sweating in the rice field for a while, we were rewarded with a short mid-morning trip to a hotel where we got to swim in their pool! There was a sweet water slide that led into the pool, and I spent the entire time playing on it. We also used the mud that Karen had gathered from the natural geothermal vents to do facials. It was funny to all be hanging out with mud masks (including Matt, John, and Rolo). After swimming, we got a tour of a geothermal energy facility.

The water slide!                                                          Carrie, Julia, Libba, and John getting their facials on

the Independence Day parade in Cañas

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the center of Cañas, the town we were staying at, to see a parade because the next day was Independence Day. They bought us a few luminares (or lanterns) so we could join the parade. The luminares represented the passing of the message that the country was free.  I asked for a Whinnie the Pooh lantern! Later that night, as Matt was lecturing about birds, the Whinnie the Pooh lantern caught on fire, and we had to pour our beers on it to keep it from burning down the hotel. Okay I’m exaggerating, it was just a small fire, but it was quite an exciting distraction.

A pair of macaws (probably husband and wife since macaws are monogamous

The next morning we loaded into the van and headed to Isla Chira, an island in the Gulfo de Nicoyo on the Pacific Coast. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a place where they breed Macaws, and we saw several of the beautifully colored birds in the trees above us.

When we got to the coast, we boarded a boat that took us to Isla Chira. Once on shore, we loaded into a covered truck that was lined with two rows of beches. On the way to our cabins, the truck got a flat tire, so we all got out and watched as the men replaced the tire. Once we arrived, we set up our mosquito nets and went to dinner, which was followed by a lecture on overexploitation. 

flat tire...whoops!

a bunch of cows running down the road on our way to our cabins

the girl's cabin on Isla de Chira

After breakfast the next morning, we went to visit the Isla Chira Fishing Association, where we learned about responsible fishing practices. The Fishing Association has delineated boundaries for a protected area where fishing can only be done with a hook and line (rather than with nets or with several hooks) and fish caught must be larger than a certain minimum size. These regulations allow fish to grow to a reproductive age and facilitate the reestablishment of populations that had been in decline. This benefits the entire community because it replenishes fish stocks for everyone. After visiting with the Fishing Association, we went back to the cabins and a few of us went to the beach, which was covered in beautiful shells. I collected a few for good looks and for making necklaces later!

After breakfast on Saturday, we walked around and learned about the territoriality and mobbing behavior of birds. Matt had speakers through which he played a variety of bird sounds, which attracted local birds and elicited a territorial response from several. After our birding lesson, we went to the Women’s Association of Clammers and learned about their attempts to harvest clams by planting them in the ground and allowing them to reproduce for future harvesting. Unfortunately they have been unsuccessful in their mission due to a lack of institutional support, lack of law enforcement, and overharvesting. However, the Association has turned to tourism for much of their livelihood, and we had the opportunity to get down and dirty in the muddy mangroves to search for clams. Though it was super fun squishing around in the deep mud, it was backbreaking work, which gave me a deeper appreciation for the women who do this work on a daily basis.

look! We were in Las Vegas!

After enjoying a lunch of, what else, clams, we went back to the cabins and everyone spent the afternoon hanging out and catching up on reading. That night we had a lecture on mangroves. The next morning after breakfast we set off to go birding by the mangroves. We split into three teams and had a scavenger hunt to look for different animals. The team that spotted something on the list (a bird, mammal, or type of plant) first and was able to identify it got the point. After a day on the boat, we went back to the cabins and hung out and read until dinner. That night we discussed the pollution problem in the Gulfo de Nicoyo and learned about owls. After our owl talk, we went searching for owls, and found a pair of owls right by our cabins.

This morning we woke up, packed up all our stuff, ate breakfast, and left Isla Chira for Punta Morales, which is right on the Carribean coast near Isla Chira. It was just a short boat ride to get from the island to the coast. Once we arrived at Punta Morales, we learned a little about the inner workings of a women’s association that harvests oysters. Then we unpacked our stuff in our bunk room at a biological center, where we will be staying for the next two nights. We are about to head to lunch. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for us for the rest of the trip!