I love my camera!

I got a Canon DSLR over winter break, and this is the first time I have really gotten to use it...I am also trying out a little photo editing, so here is my first crack at it. Nothing phenomonal, but compared to my old point and shoot, this is amazing! More to come :)

One of my little study lizards...quite photogenic!

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!)

Heading Home...

Well, this will be my last post from this amazing experience in Costa Rica. While I am overwhelmingly excited to return home, the realization that I am now leaving this place, this program and these people is hitting me. The program officially ended last night and people started heading home this morning. It was really hard saying goodbye to these people I have spent nearly every moment with for the past 14.5 weeks! It has been a very emotionally draining day.

After leaving Monteverde, we hiked to the Arenal Volcano. I saw herp #100 of the trip! It was a coral snake mimic (possibly Erythrolampus mimus). The hike was beautiful, and it was a nice way to spend our last days together. We stayed at a nice hotel near Arenal and had stunning views of the volcano. Dan, Gracy and I went out for one final night hike to a nearby lake. We heard thousands of frogs and saw about 4 species. One was new and had two black spines on each hand (yet to be identified). Gracy also spotted a coral snake, which was a different species than the one we saw in La Selva! That brought the total for the trip up to 102 :) We returned to San Jose yesterday and had one final dinner together. I stay one more night and come home tomorrow afternoon.

Everything about this experience has exceeded my expectations...From learning about ecology to finding frogs at night to growing to love orchids, it has all been spectacular :) There is no description I can give to fully explain what I have experienced over the last 16 weeks, but it has certainly been life changing! I can't wait to return here someday (SOON!) and continue this experience where it is leaving off. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity.

Hasta luego Monteverde!

Well, today is our last day at the station...After four months in Costa Rica, my time here is almost at an end. I have loved every minute in this beautiful country, but Monteverde has been something even more special and unique. The pace of life here, and the way people live is so wonderful. I will deeply miss the 45 minute walks to get to the nearest coffee shop or restaurant because they provided so much time to talk with friends and enjoy each others' company, not to mention appreciate the stunning views all around us. There is something so indescribably infectious about this place, and the only way to understand it is to come here...I wish everyone could get the opportunity to experience Monteverde as I have, and I will forever be grateful for the time I have spent here. I don't know when, but I know that I'll be back...

25%

As of right now, including my trip to Costa Rica last summer, I have seen 25% of Costa Rica's herps; 107 out of 431! That was my goal before this trip started, and I'm amazed I actually reached it :) I have also seen at least one species of every Order; frogs and toads, caecilians, salamanders, crocodiles, lizards and snakes, and turtles. I have to say that this trip has far exceeded my expectations, and I can't wait to come back and find more in the future!

Catching Up

I have to apologize for the lack of updates recently, but the combination of massive amounts of work and no new adventures has made life fairly uninteresting lately...Here's a recap of the last couple of weeks.

We left homestays last Sunday and had our Tropical Diversity final the following day. Our first drafts of our project reports were due on Thursday, and we gave our presentations on Saturday. Most of last week consisted of statistical analysis, interpreting results, and writing. Presenting the results was fun, and I really enjoyed hearing about other students' projects.

As far as my project went, here is a short synopsis of the results:

It is well documented that Norops  lizards perch at different heights during the day depending on their sex and species. According to my results, this stratification is maintained at night, since species and sexes showed significantly different average sleeping site heights. Also, they showed a preference for protected sites, which is different than common observations (which is what made me want to study this in the first place!). The results were very interesting, and if you would like to read about it in more detail, just post a comment with your email and I'll send you the paper :)

We have very little left in terms of school work...A final for our Humans in the Tropics class tomorrow, and a final draft of our paper due on Thursday. We hike to Arenal Volcano on Friday, then head back to San Jose. I'll be back in the States on week from tonight! I'll miss Costa Rica, but I can't wait to be home. Hopefully I'll have a couple more adventures before we leave :)

Lluvia (Rain)

Let the wet season begin! As I am writing this I can barely even hear the music in m headphones over the pounding of rain on the metal roof of my house. Tropical rain is pretty intense! It has rained quite a bit lately, and at least once a day for the past 4 days. Today, while I was out searching for lizards, the ominous gray clouds above me must have decided that I was dehydrated, so they shared some of their water with me. I came home quite drenched, but I managed to find one lizard before the downpour began :) My new method of applying the powder I use to track the lizards at night has proven very successful, and I have found all seven lizards I have used it on so far. Even with all the rain, the powder works great!

I am hoping to find more amphibians now that it is getting wetter. I hear more frogs every night and I saw a salamander (Bolitoglossa robusta) D.O.R. yesterday, which means they're becoming active again. I don't even know what I can find around here, but there has to be something!

Only four days of data collection left and I am at 38 lizards. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough for me to reach my goal of 50, but I am happy with the amount I have been able to find so far. Last day of lecture and Spanish is Friday, then we are back to the station and have to do a lot of work writing up our projects. Three weeks left, but they are going to fly by! But I'm soaking up as much Pura Vida as I can until then :)

Mi familia tica (My Costa Rican family)

I'm sure many of you have heard the phrase “Mi casa es su casa,” which means “My house is your house.” Well, this homestay experience has taught me a lot about what that phrase really means. It has been amazing to see how welcoming my homestay family has been, even to a strange looking gringo with a goofy beard :) I guess they have seen it all, since they have been housing students for 15 years, but their hospitality has meant a lot to me.

I have been here for three weeks now (which has gone by incredibly fast!), and I have loved every day of it. My family lives on a small dairy farm in the San Luis Valley, which is at a low elevation in the Monteverde region.

My tica mom, Xinia, has lived in this region her whole life. She works a few days a week up in Monteverde, and she cooks all the time when she is home. She told me that her dream is to open a “panaderia” (bakery) here at the house. They have been saving up money and are going to get a loan soon to build a little building next to the house where she can bake all the bread and other food. I am sure that the bakery will have great success, because she makes some of the best bread I have ever eaten in my whole life! My favorite are her banana bread cupcakes with chocolate frosting :) She also makes all kinds of sweet breads and other assorted loaves...We always have fresh bread :) She even sells bread to the local supermarket. I have enjoyed talking to her and getting to know her. My tico dad's name is Jose, and he works on the farm all day. He doesn't talk a whole lot, but he is a really nice guy.

My tico siblings are Cindy (21...3 days older than me) and Eduardo (14). Cindy is married and has a daughter named Tatiana who is 1 year 9 months (and incredibly cute!). Cindy and her husband live in a little house behind ours, but they are over here basically all day. Eduardo goes to school at the Cloud Forest School in Monteverde, and speaks very good English. In fact, he doesn't even speak Spanish with me :) He has helped me a lot with my project as he has grown up catching these “gallegos.”

Most night we watch TV while we eat dinner. My favorite show is “Caso Cerrado” (Case Closed), which is basically the Spanish version of Jugde Judy :) They have the most outrageous cases on there, but it is a good way to learn Spanish. My family also loves “telenovelas,” which are the standard TV shows here. They are practically the same quality as daytime soap operas in the States, with ridiculous plots, excessively loud theme music, and tons of drama. My family's favorite is “En Nombre del Amor” (In the Name of Love), and we watch it every night at dinner :)

Because of my project, I usually am out until about 8:30 or later, and my family is in bed by 8 every night. Once I had to stay up until about 11 doing some homework and the next morning my mom said I was crazy for staying up so late...I tried to explain to her that if I was back home that would be early for me, but I think she just thought I was more crazy :)

One week left, then we head back to the station, but I will never forget this month on the farm and my newly adopted tico family!