Costa Rica Day 5

Another hard day in the field worked on transects all day. The jungle drew first blood today, got stabbed by one of the many thorned vines. Its crazy there are thorns and spikes on everything here. It was all good though got a lot of work done. I noticed that the fire ants were everywhere today. The weather was a little bit cooler today, its starting to rain a little right now as I write this. I really like being here with other natives, you can really get into some deep interesting conversations. Its fascinating to hear their stories and points of view on things.

Costa Rica Day 10

Presentation Day!!!!!!!!!
We went first for presentations and crushed it. My partner and I make a really good team. I feel like we did a solid job. Everyone's presentations were cool. After that it was a chill day went for a hike with Blanca to the watchtower stood in the rain at the top and watched them monsoon clouds roll in. Hiked back to bunk house cleaned my boots ate dinner and listened to rain pound the roof from the safety of the bunk house.

Costa Rica day 9

Woke up to the birds chattering. Such a surreal feeling knowing my time here in Costa Rica is winding down. My goal of the day is to try something new. Other then that finished up my project, now its chill time. Looking forward to going on the night hike this evening. The weather is often on cloudy making the weather a little bit cooler. All in all pretty good day so far. So we went on night hike didn't see too much but it was still a lot of fun, trudging through the jungle in the middle of the night. Got a couple cool pics though.

Costa Rica Day 8

Data Analysis! All day, Finally got to see what our cameras picked up. We got some interesting footage and proof of local fauna use of the invasive plant. The food was wicked good today, ribs for lunch, and steak for dinner. Mostly computer work, so fairly uneventful.

Costa Rica Day 4

To day was exhausting hiked all over the forest installing our trail cameras. It was worth it though, I seen frogs everywhere. Almost every step we took frogs would be hopping out of the way. The same with the little grey hopping lizards. We also seen two big yellow spotted lizards. The best part though was seeing a big black shiny snake eating a frog, it was cool as hell. There were also these giant black and blue butterflies, and black and purple ones with big eye spots on the back of their wings. The weirdest thing I saw was this red butterfly/damsel fly looking insect with clear wings it was a trip.

During the evening we went to a culture exchange with the Ngabe people. They showed us a couple of their traditional dances we all got to join in on one of them. It was a lot of fun. They then told us about some of their cultural beliefs. For example their patterns on their clothing. Also their beliefs on thunder storms, and how they clear their houses of negative spirits. At the end of the day when we was back at our bunk house I showed some the CRIRE participants how to play hand game. Ended up losing my Colonies.

Costa Rica Day 7

Finally got a day off, it was much needed. I even slept in until 8. When I got up I started worked on our poster. After lunch every one went into town. I waited because they said there would be two pick up times. So me and Blanca went for a hike down to the waterfall.

Found the biggest spider of the trip yet.

When we got back we went to wait for the taxi but it never came. We ended up having to call our own taxi because they forgot about us. when we got to town, we were dropped off at the pizzeria. It was chaos because everyone was changing their plans, took for-ever for us to get our drinks, and we didn't get enough pizza. After we came back we just did our own thing. Saw another spider that night.

Costa Rica Day 6

Long day in the jungle. We Finished up our transects today. Including primary forest, water trail, burnt area of forest. Seen another black silk snake, it went under the water to hide from us. Also seen a toucan, red parrot, big spider exo-skeleton. Had another culture night, where we round danced and told traditional stories. Had a lot of fun.