Costa Rican ramblings...

It's been a while since I updated this, but I've been fairly busy lately...I took an unexpected trip down to Dominical with the QERC students, led by Dr. Cossel. We spent two days looking for all the herps we could find, and ended up seeing 18 species! It was fairly dry where we were hiking, but we still saw a decent amount. The highlight for me was catching a baby caiman, which got its tiny jaws around my thumb while I was handing it off to one of the students. I only got a few scrapes, but I was impressed by how strong his jaws were!

I have been hard at work on my project since we got back. I am now up to eight lizards, and am on a good pace. We should at least be able to reach our goal of 12. Dr. Cossel left yesterday, and Dr. Mooring arrived the night before that. It was really fun getting to hang out with Dr. Cossel, who has far more experience in tropical herpetology than me. He has been invaluable to the formulation and execution of the project, and I owe him a lot. Dr. Mooring is teaching a mammal unit this week, and he has also been helping with the project. I am glad all three of my Honors Committee members will be able to participate in the project.

I can't believe I have already been here for over a week! In just 4.5 days, Genieva arrives, which I am really excited for! It will be great to be able to show her this place I have spent so much time in and have grown to love. Let's just hope she can handle the night hikes ;)

The project begins!

I made it to QERC this afternoon after a bus ride up the mountain and hitch hiking a ride down into the valley with four old Canadian women :) One of them lives in Costa Rica half the year and owns a sustainable farm (www.orcharddelsol.com). I was so thankful that I didn't have to hike down!

When I got to QERC, I got settled in, then Dr. Cossel and I began setting up the testing arena for our experiments (pictures to come...). As we were setting up, two of the students brought in a lizard they caught, which happened to be one of the species I am studying! What luck :) We tested out the setup with an Emerald Swift (Sceloporus malachiticus), and all seems to be functioning properly. We'll begin our first tests tomorrow on "Rufus" (named by Genieva). Now all we need to do is find more lizards!

Tomorrow I'm helping with some of the student activities, then I'll be finding lizards and testing them. I'm excited to begin this project and get back into the forest!

Rufus, our first lizard (Norops pachypus)

I'm back!

After a 9 month intermission, I'm back in Costa Rica, so I'm back to the blog! This adventure will be a little shorter, but I hope it will bring many memorable moments :) I will be here for three weeks studying a small species of montane lizard, Norops pachypus, which lives near the QERC field station. This is all a part of my senior honors project, and we hope to understand the thermal tolerances of this lizard, and how that relates to potential effects of climate change. More information to come...

Today I got into San Jose around 11:45, took the bus into the city, then took a taxi to my hostel, Pension de la Cuesta. I got some lunch, bought groceries for the trip, and have been reading/napping in my room for a while. I head up to QERC in the morning, and I can't wait to be back in the forest! I am really looking forward to the next few weeks :) I'll update more from QERC...

 My hostel

 Cool statue in a nearby park

The Costa Rican flag :)

PS-I got a DSLR camera recently, so the quality of the pictures should be better (I hope!)