Day 3 - La Calandria

 

What is the difference between an environmental student and a "regular" student?

ENVS student (f) 1: Oooh, there is a big bug in your hair

(expected reaction, regular student: Eewwwww, get it off)

ENVS student (f) 2: Quick, get a camera

ENVS student (m) 1: I wonder how many ants it would take to lift Nebraska

(expected reaction, regular students: That's just stupid, go to sleep)

ENVS students (m): Lets see. If we assume an total volume of .... and use only leaf cutter ants (a 30 minute discussion and calculations ensue)

Today, I thought we start by showing you pictures of our students hard at work - or not. See if you can spot yours.

We had an action packed day starting off with a three hour hike in the forest, where we saw agoutis, many different species of humming birds, orchids in and out of bloom, a baby tarantula (still big enough), a side-striped palm viper (at a safe distance, no worries),and  more birds and butterflies than we can count. Today's hike took us to the Curi Cancha preserve, which I understand is a former dairy farm that was converted back to forest starting in the 1970s. We had a chance to experience different habitats, from open fields to relatively new growth and also some ancient trees.  Your student will be able to tell you exactly what all we saw.

After lunch at a women's co-op (delicious) we visited a coffee plantation. Here, a group of farmers is trying to grow coffee in a more sustainable way, restore the fertility of the soil, and adapt to changing growing conditions such as a less reliable rainy season. It was impressive to see how knowledgeable, patient, and passionate our guide was. We also got to blind sample 5 different coffee roast and try to identify both he roast and the drying method of the beans. 

For supper, we visited a local family, were (almost) all of us were taught how to make tortillas from scratch, guacamole, fresh passion fruit juice, salad, guacamole, and desserts. Here you can see some of us working.

The food turned out so good, I forgot to take pictures.

The other people, those not working, prepared a secret special after dinner surprise, a Costa Rican dance complete with Cosa Rican traditional outfits. There is a video that I might upload once I have more bandwidth, but here are some pictures:

Finally, a shout-out to our driver, Senor Carlos, el maestro de autobus, who drove us up (and down again in the dark) some roads that now bus should be able to go. These roads are much steeper than they look in these pictures, and NOT single lane, there is oncoming traffic.

Day 2 San Jose to La Calandria

After an early morning (6:30) birdwatch that turned into a squirrel watch we took off for the  La Calandria field station. Kudos to our bus driver Carlos, who somehow manages to put  a 10 foot wide bus on a 8 foot wide road and leave room for oncoming traffic. I for one am glad a professional is driving. We headed South from San Jose to the Pacific coast, and then turned into the mountains. First though, we got to stop and sample assorted local fruit.

We had Passionfruit, Waterapple,  Guaba - Ice cream bean, Melon, Guanabana, Cashew (both the fruit and the "nut"), two kinds of plantain chips, a lychee relative, and a personal favorite the slightly like runny cheese tasting Nance. The textures were amazing, ranging from crunchy to fuzzy and frog-spawn like. All were delicious in their own, unusual way, and definitely an expansion of our northern palates.

Heading from the coast into the mountains, the area was much drier than expected, with cattle farms and very steep terrain. We are just at the beginning of the rainy season, and some trees are just starting to leaf out. All along the roads are deep gullies, many hillsides area re-enforced with concrete of steel mech, and there are plenty of concrete channels. We could tell that much rain is expected, but luckily we escaped the rain today...even though the rainy season just started here.

Finally we got to La Calandria, just in time for lunch. The location of La Calandria is absolutely spectacular, with views of  mountains and cloud forest and the Pacific in the background.

In the afternoon, we split into two groups to go on the first of hopefully many nature hikes. My group went to the Childrens' Eternal rain forest Bajo del Tigre section. You can learn more about them here Bajo del Tigre. There were so many interesting plants, animals,  and birds to observe, it took us almost 2 hours to cover our first mile. Here are a two examples of what we saw:

Leaf-cutter ants

Leaf-cutter ants are the main herbivore in the rain forest. We learned that a single nest contains only sisters (i.e. female offspring of the same queen) and can span an acre or more. The ants harvest leaves to feed a fungus in their nest, which provides the actual food for the ants and also helps with temperature regulation. Males  do not exist in the hive, in their very short existence they mate with a new queen and that's it. The new queen will bring a tiny piece of her home fungus with her, find a hole and start a new colony.

Three-wattled Bellbird

According to our guide Mark, there are only about 300 of these birds left, most of them living in Costa Rica. We first heard their calls throughout the forest, and then we saw them. At one point, we saw three males together. We learned that bellbirds are a major disperser of avocado seeds throughout the forest, and that there are about 30 species of avocado trees. that are a vital component of the cloud forest.  Bellbirds are thus a keystone species and essential for the continued health of this forest and vice versa.

Supper was chicken, vegetables, and salad followed by passionfruit flan on the deck as a spectacular sunset slowly faded and a thunderstorm rolled in.

But wait, there is more: In the evening Mark gave us an introduction to conservation efforts in the region. We learned about the importance of the rainforest for biodiversity and the interplay of ecotourism, the local economy, and forest protection.  

We've used Mark as a guide for Westfield State University trips for about 20 years.  He has a unique way of not just telling you WHAT is in the forest, but telling the story of the organisms, their life histories, and the interactions of them with one another.  Mark has been guiding in Costa Rica for about 30 years and is the author and illustrator of The Mammals of Costa Rica book, the book all the other guides learned from.  I'm always impressed by the respect the other guides show Mark when we're on this trip.  He is, quite literally, the best.