Barbacoa

Now we have some pictures! There should be many many more to come. So my room has reached the peak of untidiness and it should probably get taken care of before I get a roommate. Sat around for a while pondering how I was going to fall asleep with no AC and no Sportscenter in 99.99999% humidity. But the fan saved me and it worked out just fine

Pulled a classic; slept through breakfast. Dr. Chazdon is here for a workshop entitled “Transitions in Tropical Forests” and I was invited to sit in on the talks and discussions. Saw two parrots fly over the path on my way up to the Academic Center.

It kicked off at 8am (10am East Coast) in a super air-conditioned room. Clever me sat right below the vent and wanted a sweatshirt for the first couple of hours. All the talks proved to be a really cool introduction to all the fields of research going on here. I got to meet and hear talks from researchers whose papers I’ve been reading for the last 16 months.

About two hours in we took a coffee & scone break and got to warm up outside. The first few talks were about trees, then some reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. We broke again for lunch.

I was right on with my expectation of eating rice & beans all summer. Plus, we had platanos (high potassium), a personal fave. We sat with a bunch of tree researchers and realized I need to perfect a 10 second summary of my project as opposed to telling everyone back home, “measuring trees.” Afternoon talks dealt with stream chemistry, cichlid fish, and database management. Another coffee break, then a general discussion about what to do with all the data and projects.

That all ended up around 5:30 with a reception with coolers full of beer and soda (keeping hydrated is key). They also had incredible amounts of guacamole ☺ and a selection of wines, classy. Dinner was a barbecue, which I’m informed I was lucky to be there for. Sat at a Spanish-speaking table with some Costa Ricans to get used to hearing and using the language.

Learned a lot more about the station and some of the logistics of my project. The two sites I’ll be working on are 30 and 60 minutes away by a combination of biking and hiking. There are shrimp over a foot wide in the river, still awaiting personal observation. I might get to upgrade my housing to a cabina (cabin) by the end of the summer, since I’ll be here for so long. I need to take many more pictures of all the wildlife, and supposedly there’s crocs in the river, not the shoes either.

The pictures are pretty self-explanatory; shots of the room, a red tree frog I spotted, view from the room of the river, the river. Pretty boring…I know. They should get better once I go out into the field Monday.

Just found out that I can’t watch Lost or Survivor: Fiji online since I’m not in the states, major bummer. It’s actually a lot like Lost on the station (Collared Pecarries everywhere, sort of like mini-boars/pigs, don’t worry I’ll snap a pic); I just hope I’m not on an electromagnetic anomaly. Ah ha! Allsp.com works; time to watch Rainforest Schmainforest.

That’s all for now, probably another day of workshop tomorrow and LOTS of sleep tonight.

BP