Fin

The end of a great weekend had to come at some point. At least we got to take it easy this morning. Rose around 8:00am and went to breakfast then packed up, paid the bill (about $40 for both nights for me), and went down to the Musmanni (Tico Dunkin) for a cup of coffee (a $0.75 cup of coffee).

After that grabbed a taxi to the center of town. Went to some junk stores and Amanda found some useful items for her project. This one store also had breathable, one size fits all du-rags for $1.50, what a deal, no? Dropped into the Correo Central to mail a few postcards. Took a little stroll down Avenida 2 before hailing a taxi for the bus terminal. Got bus tickets, Fanta, plantain chips and drove away to Puerto Viejo.

About a 2 hour trip back, went by pretty quick. Took the bus into town since we realized forgetting to put in for field dinners. Went to the Super Sarapiqui, a.k.a. “mercado chino” for some foodstuffs. Grabbed tortillas, ham, cheese and some Tabasco. One more taxi ride back to La Selva and our journey had ended.

We decided that on Sundays we should go into town in watch the kids’ soccer games and drink Eskimo Churchills to stay in touch with the Tico culture. Solid plan. Back at the station, cooled off for a little and did a little computer for a while. Followed that with some porch, started on that Newsweek.

Got my stuff ready for the field and took an iced coffee break. Got in the silver bullet (our project’s Suzuki Samurai from like the late 80’s). A twenty minute drive over to Finca el Bejuco where we have two secondary forest plots set up relatively close to the road. That meant a short trek in, very suited for the end of a fun weekend.

Once the nets were set up, we enjoyed our unconventional field dinners and waited for some bats. Got one early on and processed him through. Waited another hour and caught two big bats, one which got away before we could measure it. Biters, they were.

Drove on back to the station around 9:00pm and indulged in some La Selva pizza, which we had put aside for us. Had my pizza with some iced coffee and went back to the lab for some internet and blogging. Caught A-Rod’s game winner on ESPN Gamecast, pretty sweet picking up a game in the East.

I’m gonna call it a night here pretty soon. The Wellesley assistants arrive tomorrow morning and I have some data things I put off until this week. Good slow day to get back into the groove. Going to the field tonight was a great way to jump right back in. Picture today is from my initial excitement of seeing a Quiznasty in Costa Rica. Talk to y’all tomorrow.

BP