Its hard to believe that this semester is coming to an end! We are now in San Jose after our closing activity at Rincon de la Vieja. All the work went well in La Selva, we all survived! At Rincon we climbed the volcano (almost got blown by wind off at the top), saw bioling mud pots, and swam in a beautiful swimming hole. It was a beautiful and relaxing time but I'm so tired! (16 km of hiking!) Now we are in San Jose and I'm getting that feeling I get right before I go through a big lifestyle change (ie to and from school). Its just you get so close to people over three months and to know that I have no garuntees of seeing anyone is just a little scary for me. Its ... read more

Phew its hot here! We have been working really hard for the past two days on Faculty Led Projects. For the first we spent 7:30-noon collecting catepillars and the afternoon looking for army ants. In the other we ran around in the morning cutting branches off of canopy trees (reeeeally long poles with scissors) and all afternoon inhaling acetone fumes (which made the lab experience rather interesting...let's just say there was a lot of singing going on). I think I found a group with a really cool IP idea involving bat distributed seeds. I really would prefer to work with fish but unfortunately the whole project depends on the weather and I would also have to hike 10 km to get to my site, cutting down on data collection time. Unfortunately most of my time now ... read more

So I've decided to blog more frequently since I can't seem to remember all the details of the crazy stuff we do here! This morning we went on our orientation tour of La Selva National Park. Our guide Eddie was pretty chill, we walked around from 7:30-11am just taking in the sights and sounds of the forest. Mostly right now I'm trying to think of an idea for the independent project (we have a week or so to come up with one). I think I might do something with the machacas, a pirannha-related fish around here. Maybe that way I will get lucky enough to see a river otter or some caimans too :) Anyways this morning we saw a lot of birds including tucans, parrots, orapendulas, woodpeckers, motmots, and mannequins. We also saw some blue ... read more

So I have now returned to San Jose after 9 days in Paradise! I don't think I have seen anywhere as beautiful as Punta Uva in my life! So I did go surfing and it felt so good! Gabe and Ben came along, reminded me a little of my first lesson! The waves were a little small but I managed to ride a few! We also took a day trip to Cahuita to snorkel in the National Park there and then walk back through the forest. I really like that little town, its a little touristy but really its just two main streets. I also went Scuba diving this week which was AMAZING! I had to take a refresher course because I hadn't gone diving since 2006 but that only took 15 minutes in the water. ... read more

San Jose has really been quite amazing! I can't believe we only have 5 days left! Yesterday we went to a 5 star resort with hot springs (absolutely free...amazing). It was so lovely and relaxing! Its unfortunate that it was so cloudy though because we couldn't see the volcano. The nice thing about the rain was that it made the hot hot hot water tolerable! It was really amazing and very romantic (too bad I didn't have anyone there)! Now I am working on my final composition and presentation for spanish as well as on my independent research proposal (ready for it to be done!) I am also working out courses for next semester. Busy busy busy!... read more