¡Buenas tardes! It has been a while since I last posted, due to constantly being on the go and having limited internet connection, so I am going to recap week 3 and 4 during this blog and post my past midterm week next weekend! I definitely feel very settled in and I am so lucky that I see my little bungalow as home now!
Since I last posted about my first two weeks of being in Monteverde, my third week of the semester consisted of my regular class schedule. My group in Tropical Community Ecology went to dig up our cups to see what microorganisms were growing over the weekend, but unfortunately, coatis managed to dig up all of them! Coatis are of the raccoon family and will sniff out any food that is in their path, so it was not surprising. Luckily, other groups shared their moldy rice with us, and we got to see the Beauveria bassiana fungus, Bacillus bacteria, and Fusarium fungi! Each of them came in cool colors such as purple, blue, green, and red. We also learned about trophic levels and how to build food webs in Tropical Community Ecology as well. In Tropical Diversity, we learned about different modes of speciation and completed a problem set about the statistical analysis of species abundance and richness. I will say that classes are pretty long, especially compared to Whitman, and take up most of my day, but there is a lot less work outside of class, besides the usual studying!
On Friday, we had our first Humans in the Tropics class, which is the class I’m taking for the social science component of the Environmental Studies part of my major. We first had a lecture about food production and how big of an effect industrial agriculture has on fueling climate change and hurting neighboring ecosystems. We visited a women-owned regenerative dairy farm! Sarah, who manages the entire farm, gave us a tour of how the farm is run and her efforts to become even more sustainable and eventually carbon-neutral. Instead of using chemical fertilizer on her pastures, which causes soil runoff and leaching, she uses mountain microorganisms (MM) which help reintroduce nutrients back into the soil from cattle manure and compost. She also uses a garlic salt solution to bathe her cattle and clean the barn to prevent harmful pathogens from growing, instead of chemical cleaner. It was really interesting to hear her perspective as a blue-collared woman-of-color, trying to run a sustainable farm in an industry where her efforts are looked down upon. She really has to push for her desired methods and has done years of research about nutrient cycling and polycultures (planting a diversity of crops instead of a pasture of one crop) to create what her farm is today. We then visited a coffee farm, where we had delicious lunch alongside some coffee. It was so rich and delicious that I drank it black! Our tour guide was named Gilbert, and he is the sole person that harvests the crops here besides the occasional help from his daughter. The land here was donated to many families of the Monteverde community by the government to be used as a community farm, but the only condition was that they could not sell their crops to other outside of the community. Because of this, many families backed out of the deal, as they had to make an income, and only 6 small families remain living on this land. The entire farm is a polyculture, meaning that each coffee plant was surrounded by other species as well, including banana and sugarcane. We got to try some coffee beans straight off the tree and sugar cane straight out of the ground, and both were so sweet! After the tour, Gilbert showed his living room which had walls covered in medals and trophies from marathon and cross-country running competitions around the world! It was the coolest thing to see! This field trip was so fun and I am really looking forward to this class for the rest of the semester.
The next week, we embarked on our week-long trip to La Selva, a Biological Research Station just south of Puerto Viejo. Once we moved our bags into our dorms, we went on a Biodiversity Hike with Kenneth and Genesis, two biologists that live and do research at the reserve! During this hike, I checked off absolutely everything of my mental list of creatures I wanted to see. We saw Mantled Howler Monkeys, Toucans, Sloths, Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs, and so much more! The next day, we had a guest speaker named Mike talk about his Masters Research about white bats and the leaf tents that they live in! He was curious about seed dispersal in successional areas of the forest, meaning that there was some disturbance and now regrowth to the area. We went on a hike and saw a variety of tents as well as some white bats all snuggled up underneath a leaf, they were so cool! On Wednesday, we had a day full of completing a research assignment for the day. I was in Miguel’s group, my professor for Tropical Diversity, and we were curious about herbivorous beetles abundance and how developing rolled leaves size affect their numbers. Rolled leaves occur in plants such as heliconias and bananas, where their leaves first develop as long rolls before unfurling to their adult shape, and small beetles feed and live within their rolled life stage. We viewed 25 rolled leaves during the day, measured the length and width of each leaf, and recorded the species of beetles that we found! Other groups viewed bromeliad size effect on macroinvertebrates and bat tent presence in successional plots. Later that day, each group presented their findings, but with the limited amount of sampling each group did, there were not many significant conclusions. However, it was a great learning experience and I really reflected on how much I enjoy doing research in the field! On Thursday, our professors surprised us with a rafting trip in the morning because of all of our hard work at the station! I chose to go on the paddle board with one half of the group, and the others did two-person kayaking! We had lots of fun swimming, splash fighting, and cliff-jumping! During a break, the raft guides created a table with their paddle boards and cut up some delicious pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe for us to eat! It was so fresh and yummy! We had to head back to the station for lunch and a shower, and then we went to a chocolate farm to learn about chocolate production! There, we saw a Scarlet Macaw, one of the animals that I have been looking forward to see! It was just so beautiful, and their colors are much more vibrant that you realize! We learned how indigenous peoples made chocolate from the cacao bean and ate some pure cacao! We ate chocolate with different ratios of sugar and milk, and they all tasted so good! My favorite was the 75% dark chocolate syrup…it was so heavenly. My stomach was so full of chocolate by the end of the day. On Friday, we left La Selva at 8am for our bus ride to La Fortuna for our weekend trip!
White bats in a leaf tent in La Selva Biological Station.
In La Fortuna, our professors surprised us AGAIN with a visit to beautiful hot springs in the morning. We drank piña coladas under the sun, it was amazing! They even treated us to a nice lunch at the hot spring’s hotel buffet! We were so spoiled! After lunch, our professors dropped us off in the city and wished us a wonderful weekend trip! A large group of us ordered an airbnb and got settled in. A few of us went swimming at the pool, and because we had such a busy week, I ended up taking a nap until dinnertime. In the evening, we boiled a huge pot of pasta and made homemade alfredo sauce for all of us! The next morning, we headed to a spot where there was free access to the river, with a rope swing! I was a little bit nervous, but eventually gained the courage to swing once! We also did some more cliff jumping and swimming! Afterwards, we checked out the city, and it was definitely advertising to a specific group of people. Honestly, La Fortuna is a place that caters to people that strictly want to zipline, hike the volcano, and do recreational activity. There seemed to be a lack of environmental consciousness and an appreciation to the biodiversity around the city. We still had a fun time, regardless, and ate pizza at the airbnb during our last night! On Sunday morning, we caught the van back to Monteverde. At one of our stops along the way, two little girls asked if we wanted to see the butterfly garden and we agreed! They took us to an enclosed area filled with so many cool! It was beautiful! Although we could only stay there for 10 minutes, I was really appreciative of that beautiful little moment.
I really had the best time during these two weeks and I feel so much more bonded to the other students apart of this program than ever before! As this program progresses, I am realizing more and more that this is the perfect program for me. While we work hard through academic and field work, we also have the opportunity to explore the many places that Costa Rica has to offer! These two weeks made me really grateful. After our week in La Selva and La Fortuna, we had our first midterm week, which I will reflect on more in-depth in the next blog along with our second upcoming field trip in San Gerardo! San Gerardo is a biological field station of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, the largest natural reserve in Costa Rica. I am super excited about what this next location has to offer! Stay tuned to hear all about it next weekend…signing off!
The girls in La Fortuna!
