After an intense 8 days at Cabo Blanco we went back to the Arenal Volcano. This time we were on the other side, in a town, at a hotel resort. It was nice. We relaxed, hiked in the park, and had fun for a couple days. Went to a bar and saw the US pretty much give away the soccer match against Costa Rica. Wasn’t surprised since the US put in a lot of their second-tier players, and they had already qualified anyway. Congrats to Costa Rica for making it to the finals.
I took a lot of pictures, but it’s been raining here at the Ecolodge for the last 10 days straight with no break. Apparently the whole damn mountain fell down the slope above the access road to Santa Elena (where we go to eat dinner and check internet once a week). The road is covered with mud and rocks and such the size of a house so we can’t get there. The only access I have right now is a dialup connection, so pictures will have to wait a while.
From Oct 1-7 we spent time near a marine environment (aka “the beach”) studying aquatic life and diversity and all those other nice things that scientists do. I think we all felt like badasses since only about 125 people per year are allowed in the reserve, and it’s totally closed to the public. Not bad to be 10% of the elite, and it helps that your professors are national park guards.
While there, we studied the differences in plant life of a dry forest vs rain forest, shell diversity, invertebrate diversity, and fish diversity. Tiffany and I did a project on how the freshwater input of a river draining into a marine lagoon affects the salinity during tide changes. We found that there is a strong gradient during low tide and it’s pretty much homogenous during high tide. I’ll post a PDF of the report when we’re done with it.
I also was able to snorkel in the lagoon, although it rained most of the time we were there so the water was murky. On the last day we had so-so visibility and I identified about 15 different species of fish. Wish I could have seen more, though. At some point later in the semester we get to go snorkeling on the Caribbean side… hopefully the weather will clear up by then.
I took some great pictures here, especially of the stars and the Milky Way, but I can’t post them yet (see explanation in next post).
Eating Rice and Beans at almost every meal sucks.
And Costa Rican food is terribly bland in general.
More later…