Lluvia

Rainy day in the rain forest, big surprise. Spent some time last night getting the laser rangefinder ready and reading the manual. Saw an iguana after breakfast, had camera issues, so no pictures today. Got up this morning and started practicing on the trees around the lab, and myself (1.92m). It was really sunny out and it started raining about 10am, didn’t really quit until 2-3pm, limited my practice time on measuring heights.

Grad student from our lab, Amanda, showed up today. Went out with her, Dr. Chazdon, grad student Andrea from KU, and Dr. Losos to the closest of the secondary forest plots, which took about 20 minutes to get there, another 10 to find it. Before that did some work with the data and deciphering due to the lack of meta data (an epidemic around here). Meta data, is essentially data about data and is quite crucial when using 9-10 year old data.

Spent the two hours between the start of the rain and lunch working with the coordinate data for the plots. It’s has given me a new bunch work for tonight in the lab correcting some of the numbers. At least the lab is air-conditioned and wireless.

Had lunch with a couple journalists from the Christian Science Monitor, who’ve been poking around the last few days. It’s amazing how many journalists are here to check out and interview all the scientists. Dr. Chazdon got interviewed for Channel 7 television here in Costa Rica on Sunday.

Took off for the Lindero Peje plot this afternoon about one on a bike made for someone about 5’ 8”, oh well. Apparently there’s a bigger bike I can use for the rest of the summer. Biked through mostly second growth forest, the kind I’ll be doing research in. Much of the trail (paved) was along the Rio Sarapiquí, which is used for whitewater rafting and joins with the Rio Puerto Viejo (which runs right by my room) close to the station.

Saw a few interesting birds on the way out. Everybody with me knows all the birds just by hearing them, I’ll need to get much better at my naturalist skills this summer. After about a 3.5 km bike ride we parked and hiked in 550m to the plot. Got a brief secondary forest lesson from Dr. Chazdon. Discussed the projects this summer, looked at cool trees/plants, lots of fun stuff. Left around 3:30 as the rain was stopping.

Covered in mud, sweat and rain, parked the bike and came back here to River Station for a shower and siesta. Got in touch with some pop music and that’s about all. Dinner soon, work in the lab later. Work mixed with a ton of email, ESPN, and AIM. Pictures tomorrow.

BP