Monteverde = AMAZING!!

Hiding behind a huge leaf in Monteverde :)

These past few days have been amazing, probably one of the best field trips we have had so far. We had to be up by 4:30 am because of the long drive to Monteverde, but that wasn’t too bad. I was able to sleep a bit in the bus. Once we got to the Reserve, we went on orientation hikes with the professors. The forest is soo cool there, pretty much every tree has many other plants growing on it, so much that on most trees you can hardly see any of the bark. We found so many amazing plants. It reminded me of the rain forests in Ecuador. Its because of the high percentage of cloud cover and humidity because of the altitude. We definitely got to experience the cloud forest aspect of Monteverde while we were there, the clouds were rolling through and it rained pretty hard for a bit.

Top: a strangler fig around a host tree with lots of other plants as well

Bottom: branches covered in a fur of ferns, moss, etc. Fuzzy tree to the max!!

Later in the day we had class and then moved into our accommodations at the Monteverde Biological Reserve. There was hot water!! It was very exciting. The food was also very excellent, there was a bit more diversity than just rice and beans. That night we were able to explore the town a bit. We found a place to salsa dance, it was very fun to be able to use the skills we have been learning at dance classes. However, looking at the Ticos dance, we have a lot still to learn!

The next day we had an assignment to go out in pairs and find a hypothesis about something and test it. Me and my partner Jackie tested if a certain plant has more of its young leaves or old leaves eaten. The data collection part was pretty tedious, but it was fun having the freedom to wander around the trails and just keep our eyes open and make observations about what was around us. It made us look at the forest differently, to notice the little things more.

After this, we visited a wind farm in the higher altitude. It was so much fun to see, it reminded me of SE MN with all the wind turbines. These ones were smaller though because they cannot feasibly get the bigger ones to the location on the roads that they have (the roads near Monteverde are pretty bad, mostly gravel) However, the thing is that that location in Costa Rica is one of the windiest year round in the world, so it has the potential for so much more. I hope that they can continue development. We got to go inside the base of a wind turbine! It was very exciting J We saw the main computer of the turbine.

Inside the wind turbine!!

That night there was a HUGE thunderstorm, and the area was basically flooding. There was a massive amount of water on the roads, almost like mini rivers. We stayed at a pretty nice motel and I went out with a friend to get pizza at a nearby restaurant. I had been craving it like crazy the week before, so it was good to finally get a good mushroom pizza J

Volcan Arenal: This was the most we saw of it because of the clouds, but still pretty impressive

The next day we had planned on going to a waterfall where we would be able to swim, but because of the huge storm the water levels were high and it was no longer safe to go to the waterfall. So, instead we went to a resort that had hot springs. It was my first time seeing the resort version of tourism in Costa Rica, it was a bit weird. It was fun though, there were pools of warm water and also cold, chlorinated water with water slides that were really really fast! It was fun to just be able to hang out.

After this, we headed to San Jose where there were going to be several bands playing in a park for a benefit for Habitat for Humanity. It started to rain on the way there, but the concert went on. It was actually really fun, everyone didn’t care that it was raining and put down their umbrellas and started to dance. It was sooo much fun, the music from the first band especially was very very good. I might have to look for their cd somewhere. It was very easy to get into the music and just dance, especially in the atmosphere of everyone doing the same thing despite the rain. So much fun. However, after the dancing stopped everyone got a bit cold because we realized we were soaked. So, that wasn’t as much fun, but we were able to keep ourselves warm by buying some warm food and walking around until it was time for us to go back home.

First band that played in the park

This was such a good field trip to have right after mid-terms, because we did a lot of very fun things and had a lot of relaxation/free time. Now today I need to do some readings for this week so I can keep ahead of the game and know what is going on in class. Hopefully a couple days of relaxation will energize me for the coming weeks.