The Caribbean Coast

So, I'm sitting in the airport now, waiting to be thrown into the stratosphere. Of course, that's not until four hours from now, so for now, I can try and update (or, and I don't want to be too ambitious, perhaps finish my blog?).

Anways, our second trip started off by reminding us how weak our bodies are. We took a five hour long hike from our stable, non-strenous home in Monteverde to a small biological station names Peñas Blancas. While on the hike, we went to a lookout where we were supposed to be able to see both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, but no luck, it was foggier than ever. So, after many river crossings, puddles, a swimming hole, a stuck boot and a backpack transporter, we finally made it here.

This place looks like heaven after a day long hike.

This place is actually heaven.

Anyways, on this day, I was the slowest of the guys in our group (clearly my hiking skills are in need of practice). As there were two rooms with 10 or so bunks each, this meant that I was thrown into a room where I was the only guy. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the rooming situation greatly. Great times were had there.

Of course, as our program is called CIEE Tropical Ecology and Conservation, we had to start sciencing. On one of our first days there, we had our Fungi Diversity Day. After viewing a bootlegged powerpoint on the Ascomycotes, Basidiomycotes and more, we were thrown off into the forest for a scavenger hunt. My partner was the splendid Ms. Julia G. Pitkin, and we made quite the excellent team. Whether this teamwork was shown while scavenging the forest floor, trying to identify different genera, or by me laughing at her for at least five minutes after she fell and was subsequently immersed by a river, our teamwork was never in question.

She's trying to look triumphant here, but in reality, the only one who was triumphant was the river.

On one of our last nights at Peñas, we got to take an amazing night hike. We got to see some snakes, some toads,  and some frogs, one of which is known by Hyalinobatrachium valerioi, AKA a glass frog. Basically, this means that the skin on most of its body is translucent, allowing us, the sciencers, to see its internal organs. I definitely cannot say that I had heard of, much less seen, an animal like that before. The next day, we got to see yet another breathtaking waterfall. The hike there was treacherous, but the scenery on the way was beautiful. As usual, the CIEE planners did not fail to disappoint, as we reached this perfect place.

Unfortunately for us, Peñas Blancas is located in a valley. And while our hike to get there was mostly downhill, our hike out was mostly uphill. This hike seriously tested my will. Numerous times I thought about stopping, but I could not just stop, especially since my hiking partner, Logan Brock, was such a powerhouse. Near the end of our hike, a few us of realized that two people from our group had seemingly gone missing. After an initial lack of success finding them, our TA, Moncho, made a mad dash back up the hill in an attempt to scour the pathway for them. No less than ten minutes later, they were found. Apparently one member of our group, who shall not be named, thought it was time for a number two break. The other missing person, her accomplice, had been standing watch for her, hence their disappearance from the trail.

With our hike a success, we arrived at a wonderful place known as Poco Sol. It was here where the greatest statistics class of all time took place. After lunch, we were told that after dinner, we would be having a statistics class after dinner. This just sounded awful. When dinner ended, our class started with the basic correlation and regression concepts. Out of nowhere, Alan announced that we're going to be conducting a regression test with rum. They had eight different types of rum of varying prices. Our job was to see if rum price was linked to rum taste. After the test was over, the remaining rum was, as usual, thrown at us to finish off. Here are the results of that test.

I was not very good as this.

Después de Poco Sol, fuimos a un lugar que se llama La Selva. This place was probably my least favorite locale of all the places that we had the opportunity to go to. It was another biological reserve, but it was no where near as fun as the other places we had gone to. There were paved trails, we weren't allowed to touch any of the wild life, and there were stern guides who made sure we followed all of the rules. After coming from parks where we could do anything we wanted, this place was not the most fun. There was one enjoyable part though, and that was when we got to play soccer against another abroad program. The fact that we beat them was a merciless act, because as we found out later, they had the most boring abroad program in the history of programs. They had to spend a month in San Jose, they had curfews, weren't allowed to go to bars, and had to spend yet another month at La Selva. Well, too bad for them, because I was on the greatest program in the world.

After this wonderful place, our teachers brought us to a place called Tirimbina, where we got to go on a much needed hike. Near the end, there was what seemed like a half kilometer long suspension bridge that brought us 100 feet above the forest floor. Needless to say, many people in our group did not appreciate it when scoundrels from our group began to bounce and sway on the bridge (Obviously I was not one of these awful people. You believe that, right?).

On our last night there, we had a talent show. This spectacle had so many things happen in it that it would take much too long to describe all of it, so, needless to say, my friends in this program have many amazing talents and are capable and willing to do many more things than I would have thought. It was a night to remember. 

Our next destination was a place called Tortuguero. If you want to sea turtles, this is the place to be. Unfortunately for us, the egg laying season was almost over when we arrived, so I didn’t get to see any of them. Some of my classmates managed to see some hatchings though, so their 4AM beach walks were worth it (I guess?).

As our tourist visas only lasted for 90 days, we had to leave the country and reenter to renew them. Our destination country of choice was Panama. When we got to the border, we filed into the office and filled out customs forms. However, this process took almost no time, as our program coordinator is very, very efficient. And by efficient, I mean that she most likely bribed the customs agent with a pound of cheese in order to hurry along the process.

Panama was amazing. We stayed there for almost a week, in a place called Bocas del Drago. This portion of the trip for us was a marine wildlife utopia. We had a bird watching day where we got to see the Pterodactyl birds (Magnificent Frigatebirds), the I can’t walk birds (Red Beaked Tropic birds), the Sarlaac birds (Brown Pelicans), and the birds with the hilarious names (Brown Booby). For the underwater wildlife, we got to go snorkeling. A lot. We saw sharks, rays, turtles, squids, barracudas, jellyfish, corals, and a fish that I apparently called on my iPhone note simply as “bigass weird fish”. This is actually a fairly apt description, so, I guess, go me!

Crush!

On our last night, we got treated to a birthday party like not other. It was our Alan’s 53^rd birthday, and of course we had to celebrate somehow. Yes, there was a birthday cake, and yes, ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung.  But do you know what else there was? A calypso band. It was a great night that our teachers managed to get all on camera.

Ho-ly shit Alan

:)

Panama essentially marked the end of our second trip. We stopped back our favorite hangout place, Hotel Balmoral, for one night. I think it was the first time I had had a shower with warm water and high pressure in months. It was magnificent. Also, we were eating dinner in town when some guy came in, played a song for us, and then demanded like $8. C’mon man, that’s not cool. Our bus ride back was occupied by a card game called Wizard. I had never heard of it before but after playing it throughout the whole semester, I am going to snag it off Amazon as soon as I can.

Next blog post, homestays and the end of the program. Que triste.