La Selva

We left Cabo Blanco early Saturday morning and took a ferry from the Nicoya peninsula to the main part of Costa Rica. Then we headed down the coast to muck around in the mangroves for a few hours before finishing the journey to San Jose. I was glad to get a night off in San Jose- it's been a crazy few weeks of projects, lectures, traveling, getting to know the group, writing up papers, creating presentations etc. It seems like there's always something else due or another talk to attend. So, a night in San Jose when we weren't traveling as a pack of 21 people was very much welcomed. We picked up a few things at the supermarket, checked email, ate some good food and got some sleep. We won't be back in San Jose until the end of the course in mid-March.

Sunday morning, after a quick trip to the department store to get a new watch (David- the one you gave me died, twice! First, it blanked out and reset itself several times, then it got water inside it while I was snorkeling!), we headed over the mountains to La Selva. La Selva is the most well-known biological station in Costa Rica and one of the most studied tropical forests in the world. There are 60-100 people here at any one time, so we don't have the run of the place like at Palo Verde or Cabo Blanco. The dining hall is much like a school dining hall- I have to give them my number and they serve me enormous portions of rice, beans and the entree of the day. The only people that can stay at La Selva are researchers, but tourists come through on daily tours.

We've had a day of orientation walks with our resource people (Lucinda McDade, Buck Sanford and Orlando, the La Selva botanist). I saw an eyelash pit viper (bright yellow in color, small, but deadly) and poison dart frogs, and started to learn my plant families (again....). I have some more pictures and stories to post, so stay tuned....