Gallegos

I have had a lot of requests to update my blog lately, so here is a quick recap of the past 3 weeks or so...

I started a homestay the week we got back to Monteverde and have been working on my independent research project. I am staying on a farm in the San Luis Valley, which is a little lower in elevation than the rest of Monteverde. It is about a 1.5 hour walk to the Biological Station, but I only have class once or twice a week. My family is very nice and I am loving Costa Rican food :) We watch a lot of TV, so I am learning a lot of Spanish comprehension! I will be here for another week and a half, until we return to the Station on 5/2.

My project is studying the sleeping site selection of Norops lizards ("gallegos" in Spanish) around the farm and surrounding areas. So far I have caught 31 lizards, and my homestay brother, Eduardo (13), has helped me a lot. I use fluorescent powder to track the lizards using UV light at night. My success rate at tracking them has not been phenomenal, but I am getting better. I have also developed some new strategies that seem to help make the process easier. My goal is 50 lizards, so we'll see if I can get that many by next Sunday.

There were fiestas in Monteverde over the past weekend, with food, carnival rides, and bull riding. I learned that here in Costa Rica, bull riding is not a spectator sport...In fact, after the rider is launched from the bull, it is customary for the spectators to run around inside the ring, taunting the bull, somewhat like a tame version of the "Running of the Bulls" in Spain. In an effort to fully immerse myself in the culture, I couldn't not participate! Although as some of the bulls were over 1600 pounds, I decided that my position by the wall was the best place to be :) It was quite an experience!

That's about all that has been going on for the last 3 weeks. It is crazy to think that I will be home in 25 days! The time is going to fly by...