Word of the week: property/estate -- la finca
Percent complete: 79%
We had our third and fourth field trips over the last weekend for my Natural History of Costa Rica class, which will be the last ones for the semester. It's weird to think that I'm doing the last of anything for the semester... time just keeps flying the closer I am to July 15.
A couple things before I get to those. I updated the species list from last week, so make sure to check out that post if you didn't see it, complete with Google image links. Find it at the bottom of the post HERE.
Also, my English continues to amuse me with things I'm making up. I have completely given up on adjectives, so if you talk to me sometime soon after my return, expect the conversation to be something like one you have with a 3rd grader. My mom actually told me last weekend that it's frustrating to talk to me because my English is so one dimensional now. Again, the adjectives. I can't describe anything without having to pause a bit to think of a word. My Spanglish, however, is prime. Language mix-ups happen regularly and without even thinking twice about what I'm saying. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with Duncan about something, and told him, "It's what Josh me dijo." Not "It's what Josh told me," or even "Es lo que Josh me dijo", but my mind just automatically mixed the two. A couple of other recent mix ups (I keep track):
"You need to have patience for longer."
"round-way ticket"
"It feels me less disconnected" (especially funny for me, because this is a direct reflection of reflexive verb format in Spanish... Should be "It makes me feel less disconnected")
Along with just forgetting translations from Spanish to English. Students will ask me what something is in English, and although I understand it perfectly in Spanish, I cannot come up with the English word. Makes me feel dumb...
On to the field trips. The third trip we took was to a place called Finca El Progreso, which is a family owned farm practicing agroforestry. I had never heard that term before, but apparently agroforest farms are pretty popular in Central and South America. Basically it is a balance between using the land for farming while also preserving the biodiversity in the area. The finca was really cool because there would be a small field where they were growing rice or rows of banana trees or yucca plants right next to a pasture with their cows, which would be right next to forest with both spider and howler monkeys. It was a very diverse place and a fun weekend trip. It was also in Limón, on the Caribbean side, so there was a lot of rain and everything was very green.
Finca El Progreso. They had a few extra rooms because I think it is a popular place for biologists and people doing research to stay. The food was also incredible. Pretty much everything we had was raised or grown in the farm itself, as they don't get much from outside sources which is also cool.
Making their own, very popular queso palmito for the farmer's market the next day. The stuff was delicious.
The class planting rice. They had rows of banana and plantain trees nearby, as well as yucca. Along with that, they raise cattle and chickens (of which we ate).
Not to mention lots of fruit. Eating star fruit fresh off of the tree.
They milk their cows each morning as well, mostly for their cheese production. This made me feel like I was at home... I have milked cows before, but all the Tico students were insistant that I try and were surprised when I knew how. Which brings up an interesting point: most of the people here think of NYC or LA as "America", and are surprised when I tell people I've never been to the Northeast before because 1) they aren't used to having a huge country to live in (Costa Rica is smaller than West Virginia), and 2) they don't think of a place like Kansas when thinking of America. They were also surprised when I told them that over 1 million head of cattle are within a 60 mile radius of Garden City.
Now for a few pictures of the forest on the property. Here is a fallen tree that made a natural bridge over a small stream.
Some bats sleeping underneath a palm frond.
The small, but powerful, Bullet ant. I kind of wanted to get bitten by it just to see how bad it really hurts, but then logic kicked in.
More Howler monkeys! Got a much better picture of one this time. They were much closer and much louder, too.
The yellow-throated Tiger heron. Kind of a strange bird when you see it's full body... this is a tough angle to tell.
I forget what type of tree frog this is...
More of my favorite Blue-jeans poison dart frogs.
This is the Violaceous Trogon, a cousin of the Resplendent Quetzal, of which I am hoping to see in a couple of weeks when Duncan and I go fishing.
One other new species that I saw was the Emerald basilisk, but didn't get a picture of it... it looks like it is straight from Jurassic Park, though.
Finally, they wouldn't be considered Costa Rican roads if they didn't cause a few flat tires.
Before I go on to the next field trip, a short "wow" moment on the trip back from Finca El Progreso. Being on the Caribbean side, which gets more rain, everything there and on the trip there was extremely green--think of the most vibrant green possible, and then multiply it by 2. To get there (and to return to San José), we had to drive through some mountain passes. Also, one the way back it was raining a fair amount, so clouds were hanging all around the canopy of the trees for a cool effect. They built the highways by carving them into the side of the mountain, exposing lots of rock underneath. For some stretches, there would be a rock wall covered in vibrant green plants that was 200 or 300 feet tall. On the other side would be rainforest right next to the highway, dense enough that all you could see was green, essentially creating another green wall that was 100 feet tall as well. So that's the picture... the most vibrant green walls of vegetation you've ever seen, on both sides, each over 100 feet tall. The coolest part, though, was that on the rock walls, there would be occasional waterfalls. Some were small, but others were massive--both in amount of water and height... I would bet some were over 200 feet tall. These waterfalls would be 15 feet from the highway falling into very deep drainage systems on each side of the road. The total effect, with the vibrant vegetation with hanging clouds in the canopies, being enclosed by green walls, and driving right past waterfalls, was truly incredible. Unfortunately, since it was raining and the fact that we were moving fast, I wasn't able to get any pictures of it, but it may have been the most surreal thing I have experienced yet. Truly incredible.
Our last field trip was to Carara National Park, on the Pacific side. Unfortunately we did not have time to do the trails as we were only there for one day, so I don't have as many pictures of the area. We spent the day collecting samples of insects in the river that runs through the park to do a report on diversity. Still a very cool day.
Right before we left from the biology building at UCR, we found a sloth hanging around campus. There are a few that live on the property, but this is the first time I have seen one there. He was just a little guy, but always smiling of course!
The river from which we got our collection.
There was one guy who came with us who is not in the class, but he was doing a study with fish.
There were some rapids that I wanted to get a picture of (located towards the "back" of this picture), but it started raining so I wasn't able too. Very impressive elevation changes on either side of the river, though.
Some clouds covering mountain tops, from the drive back.
A view of the Pacific, also from the drive back.
That is about it for now. The Grupo is taking a small trip next Sunday, and Duncan and I are going to try to go fishing the weekend after that, so I will get another post up as soon as I can. It's unbelievable that I only have 41 days left, but I'm going to try to make the most of them.
Miss you all and can't wait to get back. Until next time,
¡Pura vida!
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