Hey folks! As the title may suggest, I am in fact in Costa Rica. At La Selva research station, to be exact. I was planning on posting a few pictures from the last few days, however I seem to have left the jump drive with the photos in my room, and seeing as it's about a 5 minute walk from the dorm to the computer room and it's currently pouring (they don't call it a rainforest for nothing!) I decided to wait and just post when I get back.
In the meantime, I'll just list a few of the crazy cool things I've seen and done:
1) Went to the beach and waded in the Pacific
2) Spent a few nights at Palo Verde research station in the dry forest
3) Showered with a tree frog
4) Watched the sun go down over the wetlands where a bunch of different bird species were hanging out, then went on a night hike through the dry forest
5) Saw howler monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys (both with babies!), a scarlet macaw, crocodiles galore, iguanas, coatis, agoutis, poisonous snakes, glowing scorpions, all sorts of birds (including white ibis, rosy spoonbill and a toucan, amongst MANY others), poison dart frogs, leaf-cutter ants, a peccary, and probably a million other animals that I'm forgetting
6) hiked at the base of an active volcano (although it was too foggy to actually see anything)
7) Rode a horse to the edge of the rainforest then went ziplining through the canopy a few hundred feet up, which was AMAZING (who knew I could do that with my fear of falling?? Be proud!), then afterwards spent a few hours at the hot springs
8) Hiked through the rainforest with a guide who could point out a bunch of the thousands of plant species here
9) Stood and watched a sloth hanging in a tree
10) Went to the pineapple plantation where they produce all the organic pineapples for Dole, Whole Foods and President's Choice
We've done a ton more amazingly cool stuff, but that's just a basic outline of my journey thus far. Tonight we're going out to catch bats and insects, tomorrow we're going to visit a banana plantation, and other than that I'm not entirely sure what's coming up. But it's bound to be great!
Check out our trip blog to see what we're doing: www.nicholas.duke.edu/costarica
I haven't posted yet, but I think a few of my photos are up and I'll hopefully be posting within the next couple of days. Stay tuned!
1 comment:
Sounds like you are having a blast! I'm very jealous. And there's nothing like zip-lining to challenge a fear of falling (which I have recently revised to be a fear of lack of control but that's another story).
Quick tip for you... it's actually spelled "hola" :P
Post a Comment