Hey Everyone! I just got back from my mid-semester break. It was fabulous. First, we went over to Tortuguero (on the northern Caribbean) for two days, and then we went down to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, for three. And now, for more detail:

This trip was organized by the USAC program, so I just had to sit back and relax while the directors worried about everything. We (11 of us from San Ramon) traveled with the Heredia program, so there were about 45 of us. Occasionally it was a hassle to travel with so many people, but it was fun to get to know the kids from Heredia. We all fit in a tour bus, so that made it easier.

We left at 5 am Monday morning, which was rough, but we had to get an early start. Tortuguero is only accessible by boat or plane, so after we drove over to the coast (about 5 hours) we had an hour boat ride. After some engine trouble we arrived at our hotel, the Pachira Lodge, at about 1:30. That afternoon we wandered around the town of Tortuguero, which is a colorful little town with a relaxed feel. We hung out by the pool after dinner.





The next day started with a stroll through the selva (or jungle). We saw some tropical birds, including a Toucan, and plenty of monkeys. After lunch we had some free time to swim or kayak, and then we had a boat tour on the river. We saw a lot of birds that time, including three Great Green Macaws, which are very endangered and really rare. That was exciting.

Now, since I was in Tortuguero, you are probably wondering if I happened to see any turtles. Because of the conservation program, turtle viewing at night is very controlled. You have to go with a guide, there are a lot of rules, and it costs $25 per person (our tour didn't cover that). Not everyone in our group wanted to pay the extra money (especially since turtle sightings weren't guaranteed), but I decided that this would probably be my only chance to see turtles in Costa Rica. It was absolutely worth it and I am so glad I did it. My friends Morgan and Kelsey did it with me too. We left our hotel at 7:45 pm to go over to the beach. We were split into groups of about 8, and then had to wait until our guide got a signal that a turtle had been sighted (obviously they didn't want a lot of people wandering around on the beach). Fortunately we didn't have to wait very long. At this point we weren't allowed to have cameras or lights of any kind so as not to disturb the turtles. The guides (mine was named Dennis) had the only lights, and they were red. Our first turtle had finished laying eggs and was covering up her nest. She was huge! Several hundred pounds. These were Green Turtles, which aren't even the biggest (Leatherbacks are). While we were watching her, someone noticed two babies that had hatched from another nest and were scrambling over the sand down to the water. That was really exciting, and we walked with them to see them swim away. Next, we got a report of a mother turtle that was heading back to the water after finishing her nest. She didn't have far to go, but it took her a while because she was tired after her hard work. At this point I was very satisfied with my turtle experience and would have been happy to head back to the boat. However, our guide gathered us and informed us (he spoke completely in Spanish and I was able to understand everything, which was exciting) that they had another turtle farther up the beach that was in the process of laying eggs and if we hurried we might get there in time to see it. So we started walking at a brisk pace, and after about 15 minutes we arrived. We got there just in time! It was so cool to see the mother laying the eggs. They seemed so fragile, and were about the size of golf balls. In about 70 days they will hatch. At this point it was nearly 10, so we went back to the boat. We had been out there for about two hours, and they had gone by really fast. It was a great experience.

The next morning (Wednesday), we left Tortuguero to make our journey down to Panama. It took most of the day. We crossed the border at 5, and then had an hour bus ride, followed by a 30 minute boat ride. Bocas Del Toro is located in a group of islands, so boats are the main form of transportation. I loved it. That evening we relaxed at our hotel. (below is me crossing the border)

Thursday and Friday we spent at various beaches on the islands. They were all beautiful. The sand was soft and white and the waters were warm and clear and lovely shades of blue. We also did some snorkeling, and ate a lot of delicious food (mostly fish). It was paradise. Thursday we went to Cayo Coral, Playa Estrella (star beach; I loved this beach because of the numerous star fish in the water), and Red Frog beach. That night we hung around town. Bocas Del Toro is a quaint little town. Pretty touristy, but we had a lot of fun. The next day we went to Bahia Delfines (Dolphin Bay). Yes, we saw dolphins on our way there. We had two boats, so one boat drove around in circles while the dolphins played in the wake by swimming and leaping out of the water. We also went to Zapatilla Cay. It's a little island, and it would be hard to find a more perfect beach. It also had great snorkeling. It was probably my favorite. Well, all of it was my favorite, but if I had to pick one it would be Zapatilla.

The next morning was Saturday, and alas, we had to head home. It was a long day of traveling, but the trip was amazing. If anyone is interested, I highly recommend Bocas Del Toro. I hope I get the chance to go back. Now I have to get back into school mode, but this week was definitely a nice break.

It was really cold this weekend.....

Hello all! I had yet another fieldtrip this past weekend. This one was radically different from past weekends, however. We traveled to Cerro de la Muerte, which is a mountain in the center of the country, about two hours south of San Jose. We stayed at a biological field station for one night, and it was freezing! It felt strange to be bundled up in so many layers. The elevation of the mountain is above 9,000 feet, so the temperature drops dramatically at night. As you can imagine, the vegetation is also very different from the rest of the country. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Washington. For our project (since technically this is a class and I have to do some sort of school work), we did a survey of the vegetation at three different altitudes, which was really interesting. From the top of the mountain it is also possible to see both oceans. Unfortunately the Caribbean side was clouded over, so we couldn't see it, but we had some beautiful views of the Pacific. It was quite an experience.
(pictures from the top: the view of the pacific; the view south; part of the trail we hiked; the cabin at the field station; the group of us)

I can't believe that I'm getting college credit for some of the things I've been doing here. This past weekend I had a field trip for my conservation biology class. It was great. We started the weekend on Friday, and stopped first at Braulio Carillo National Park. It is one of the biggest national parks in Costa Rica, and it is to the east of San Jose. We did a short two-hour hike through the forest, and saw some enormous spiders.

We then continued our trip to Cahuita, which is a small town on the Caribbean, with Cahuita National Park right next to it. It had a very relaxed feel to it, and it was quite a bit different from the Pacific side due to the Jamaican influence. The next morning (Saturday), we took a walk through the park and saw two kinds of monkeys (howlers and white faced), and several sloths. We followed the walk with a snorkeling trip. The coral on the Caribbean side is more diverse, with many more kinds of fish. I got to see a lion fish, which was cool, and I was extremely lucky to see a nurse shark! It was beautiful, about five feet long, very graceful, and calm. It had been resting on the bottom, and after I had watched it for a minute, it slowly glided away. I was very excited.
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That afternoon we traveled to Gandoca, which is about an hour further south on the coast. It has a turtle nesting beach (for leatherback turtles), and there is a community-run conservation program for the turtles. It consists of locas families volunteering their time to protect the turtles. Although we didn't see any turtles, it was very interesting to learn about their efforts, especially when I will be traveling to Tortuguero in two weeks to see the big, government-run turtle conservation program. The next morning we did an early boat tour of the mangroves near Gandoca. We got to see some cool birds and more sloths. After breakfast we had a seven hour trip ahead of us to get back to San Ramon, but it was a great weekend!