Doble

Late, ay. Very productive, eventful, coffee-charged day today. At this point I’ve had 10 glasses of iced coffee since breakfast which probably amounts to 5 or 6 cups of straight coffee. It sure has kept me going through the 15km of biking and 7 hours of fieldwork. Okay…

Very wet, tired, and dirty right now so I’ll attempt to be succinct. The day began with about a million things to do, including posting yesterday’s post to the blog. Had to rent a bike from reception since the crappy project bikes are being “fixed” by the shop today. Had to pay my bill and bite the 2% fee, I know I already wrote this.

Got up later than I had hoped so things got very rushed. Gathered all the tree-measuring paraphernalia together and biked away. Had to measure about 25 trees today to complete my goal of doing 150 by Sunday. Of course, got that accomplished and all of a sudden the wind kicked up and the sky went dark. Thunderstorm!

Had a fun, boots-filled-with-water bike ride back to the station. Dried up and went to lunch. Having that couch in my room is so choice for reading a guidebook and drying off. Lunch was really good today; first time I’ve gotten seconds in three weeks. Good old spaghetti and meat sauce with these crispy rolls that had a baked-in butter/veggie combo.

Maxed out on carbohydrates, went to go do a brief amount of work followed by porch time. Got out to the porch around 2:00pm and got to reading. Since I finished Walk in the Woods I’ve picked up End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. The book gives a great introduction to economics and world history from an economist’s point of view. Quite enlightening.

After a short while of reading, a group of undergrads from Occidental (what a weird name for a school) decided to use the porch for a group discussion. Time to post a sign dictating “For Lazy/Tired Researchers Only.” It wasn’t that bad, plus the rockers are really comfy, so I wasn’t going anywhere.

Changed into field clothes, biked away to LEP for batting. Pretty standard batting night, caught three bats, identified 3 species (=highest biodiversity index). Also caught the biggest bat yet, almost 48 grams (2 ounces). I have a sweet picture of its grillz, but no camera cord. Got lucky holding off the rain.

After returning to the lab, we got iced coffee and put in requests for field lunches. Tomorrow, it’s off to the capital! Have a pretty fun vacation planned just before our assistants arrive and the work escalates. Tomorrow we’ll (Amanda, Danielle, & I) will catch an early bus to San Jose and grab our hotel room, get some errands run. Going to the Correo Central tomorrow hopefully; if you’re feeling a postcard drop your address in comments or shoot me an email.

Also on the to-do’s is a bookstore and a churro stand, plus Tico nightlife. Saturday night is futbol, tickets and transportation TBD (soccer stadium riot also TBD). Be back on station Sunday mid-morning, blogging will persist though, no worries. This will be a very well-photographed trip and I should have enough picture ammunition (probably the wrong word, but you do “shoot” them) for a solid week of blog entries, plus, we all get to meet our assistants on Monday.

Enough of that chatter, I’m beat. Need a shower and to set and alarm for the first night so far. And remember, I supply daily, moderately-entertaining blog posts everyday for three weeks, y’all pay back with an address for postcards. ¡Hasta la ciudad!

BP