This is a Jungle

Today was "Insect Diversity Day". Woke up at 7am after pressing snooze for a half hour. Another late night and early morning combination that is cured only with a big cup of coffee. It was a beautiful cloudy and misty day. Packed up my daypack filled with water, rite n the rain notebook, camera (ziplock bagged), journal, and raingear. Strapped on my boots and headed for the forest with the rest of the group.

The plan was to hike through the forest, over the continental divide, to an insect museum on the other side. Although this was a hike through a dripping wet cloud forest on a rainy day without the prospects of a beach on the other side, this hike turned out to be the best yet. It was muddy and slippery. It was uphill and down, through a trail that hasn't been walked on in at least a few weeks: overgrown, crowded. Seemed like the forest was trying to reclaim the trail as we walked through it. Ducking under trees and jumping over branches. Pushing leaves bigger than my body to the side and diving away from thorns that could easily make you bleed. All while the sound of your boots squished and stuck in the muddy floor below and the sounds of birds and rain echoed between the shiny green leaves in front of you.

Beautiful.












Walked across a few bridges that looked like they were straight out of Jurassic Park.





Then we got to the museum. It was weird. Again, man caging animals. Sure, it is for education and likely conservation. But it is still not as cool as seeing these creatures free. Nonetheless, got some good photos in the butterfly garden.





All in all, it was a super fun day. Been in Costa Rica for just over a month. Went by real fast. In a week and 2 days, I leave Monteverde once again for two and a half weeks to go to the Caribbean coast and Panama.

These next few months are going to fly by...

Costa Rica: 2/22 - Present (Monteverde)

Monteverde is beautiful. We are 1,000m above sea level so it is much cooler than everywhere else we have been and it is a "cloud" forest so it seems to be continually misting and rains frequently. Monteverde is a pretty small town. It has a business district and some residential areas. It is super hilly and most roads aren't really finished. Monteverde is most known for its tourism and "cloud forest reserve". The biological station I am staying at also has access to a private forest that other tourists can't enter seperate from the cloud forest. Its amazing.

Myself and about nine other guys have a little cabin 20m away from the main station. See below.


The station is really cool. Wood floors. Internet. Good food. Etc. I will do a post about that later to show you this place a bit more.

View from the station balcony:



What I go to sleep to:


The view from the station entrance (bamboo and moon):


Its truly amazing. We did a hike around the forest to the highest point in Monteverde (1800m). That was a rough hike. 30min up a road that had to have been at a 30 degree angle. It was really tiring. Again, the view was so worth it though.


Saw some cool stuff. Like a Volcano and some insects.



The mountain had a radio station at the top. So we had a nice rusty chair to lay on and a big satelight dish to rest under.



On the 25th, for our "Humans in the tropics day", we checked out a family coffee farm. This was so awesome. To learn about sustainable, fair trade, coffee farming from the SOURCE. We also made sugar cane juice.







We also went to an orchid garden, on Orchid Diversity Day.


I learn with a bunch of hippie biological nerds. Here's one of them:



I have three hours, three times a week. Its intense. Here's where we study:


And here's a view over Monteverde:


It's "Insect Diversity Day", tomorrow. Hiking over the continental divide. It is going to be another beautiful adventure.

Costa Rica: 2/19 - 2/20 (Santa Rosa)

After our 26k hike, we hung around Santa Rosa for a few more days. Saw a lot more monkeys.


And an ant eater; that was pretty awesome.


Then we got to check out a bat cave. We walked around on a floor caked with bat feces, in a small, smelly cave that quickly became claustrophobic. It was a little frightening at first, bats flying all around you, darkness. But then I realized I was standing in a bat cave. A BAT CAVE. It was sweet.



Richard was our professor for that day. A nice man with a grey beard and a love for bats, snakes, and everything else that is creepy and crawly. Here he is:


On the 20th, to end our three week field trip/adventure, our professors treated us to an all day hike up a volcano, Rincon de la Vieja, and an evening to watch the sunset on another beautiful beach.


At the end of this 5.5k hike (11k both ways), another freshwater waterfall awaited our arrival. This time it was about 80ft tall and you could climb behind it and jump through the cascading stream. Stereotypical paradise. Something out of the movies. I have never experience anything else like it.



On the way back to the bus, after the waterfall, we decided to take a quick dip at the end of the river. A beautiful little swimming hole that was about 12ft deep in the middle. Nothing like doing a cannonball off of a rock into a freshwater swimming hole on the side of a volcano.


Before the sunset, our professors treated us all to some iced cold cervezas and an afternoon to ourselves. We were pretty excited.



It was then, once again, time to leave and finally move on to our home-base in Monteverde. After three weeks of camping and traveling around the west coast of Coasta Rica, the prospects of a pillow, a hot shower, and a roof over my head was very appealing.

The 21st was a travel day. We stopped at a small zoo and rescue center, Las Pumas, that focused on big cats. Although it was awesome to see these beautiful creatures, after spending three weeks in the middle of a jungle with wildlife all around, seeing a big cat behind a cage and a bird that can't fly is just depressing.

Here, a caged jaguar:


At 4pm on the 21st, we finally arrived in Monteverde, the place I am currently residing...