Creepy Crawlies and Forest Restoration

My apologies for the delay in the blog posts- the past couple days have been super packed and I've really only been able to hop on the computer to check up on things back home. That being said, the past couple days have been unbelievably fun.

For one, classes are going really well. I'm really enjoying the more hands-on approach that the classes are based off of. For example, we've recently been doing a lot of plant and insect taxonomy. For plants, we walked around the botanical garden and our professor and TA pointed out examples from the 20 families that we'll be tested on next Tuesday. I think I'll be able to recognize the features of the plant, it's more a question of the family names that I'll be able to remember. Insect taxonomy was also a lot of fun- our professor basically handed us nets and told us to go forth in the garden and see what we could catch and identify.

Clearly in my element here. (Also HHMI Scholars represent!)

Funnily enough, this also lead into our first assignment, where we have to collect and identify the order and family of 10 insects for each of the major sites that we visit. Thanks to my previous classes, I was able to identify all of my insects that I caught (except an assassin bug that seriously looked like a mosquito).

We also finally went on a night hike in which many more creepy crawlies were found. Frogs, lizards, and arthropods are abound during the night, which makes for a really fun time. Some of the highlights included a glass frog, a whip scorpion, giant cockroaches, and a lizard. Additionally, we saw birds sleeping in the trees in the garden- they basically just poof up their feathers so they look like adorable little bird balls. I also finally got to hold a frog! Although I only held it for about 0.2 seconds before it decided that my shoulder was a better place to be. I did freak out a bit when it jumped, mainly because I had just witnessed it jump on the face of one of my classmates (in my defense). But in the end I managed to calm down enough to enjoy being a frog pirate for a couple minutes. Probably my favorite part of the night hike though was the end. Our professor took us to the canopy tower and then asked us to turn off our lights. Unfortunately, it was too foggy to see any stars, but we did manage to see the fireflies all through the trees. It was probably one of my favorite things that we've seen so far (especially because the fireflies back home don't come out until around June!).

We've also recently been talking a lot about forest restoration, which is also a really interesting topic. In other words, what is the best way to return a piece of land to the forest that it used to be? This is especially true for parts of Costa Rica where agriculture has played a large role in the development of the country. Yesterday we hiked to an area in Las Cruces known as Melissa's Meadow, where some attempts at reforestation have begun. Essentially, each plot was treated with a different kind of rehabilitation (burning and then leaving the plot, cutting and leaving the plot, cutting and planting some primary species, etc.).

Forest to the left of the path was cut, had some primary species planted. Forest to the right of the path was burned and then left alone. Main difference is in the height of the canopy and the diversity of the species between the two. 

The long story short that I've learned about forest restoration, is that while very cool, it takes a LOT of effort and time. Melissa's Meadow is about 14 years old now, but the director of Las Cruces told us that the forest pictured above is still not what we would consider to be a fully developed forest. In addition, there are so many factors that contribute to each individual site (like animal species, seed dispersal, etc.) that it makes it very difficult to come up with an overarching plan that could be used for reforestation in other spots.

One of my favorite class activities so far was the fruit lab. One of our professors, Mau, clearly takes this very seriously and apparently spends weeks preparing for it. As we walked into the lab, we quickly understood why. There were at least 30 different kinds of fruits that were produced in Costa Rica in a circle around the lab. We were able to sample all of them, from the familiar (pineapple, papaya, mango) and some of the not so familiar (limon dulce, cas, caimito). Pretty much everything was super delicious. The only thing I hated was a fruit called noni. The fruit already looked weird, and then when you leaned in close, it seriously smelled like vomit. I did brave a taste, and it tasted disgustingly like soap. Despite that, I loved everything else and ate way too much. BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT.

Last Sunday was also our free day, which also happened to coincide with the Presidential elections. So we drove into San Vito and were able to see a little bit of the action. It was pretty interesting to see so much campaigning happening outside of the school where the voting was taking place. Apparently, the citizens of Costa Rica are really not impressed by any of the candidates, so most of them simply refused to vote. The results of the election showed that no candidate achieved the 40% necessary to gain the presidency. So the top two presidential candidates will go to the secondary elections in April, and the new president will finally be inducted in May. So we'll actually get to see the whole process, which should be really interesting.

We also finally went swimming on the same day, which turned out to be a little cold, but really fun. Following, we also did a bit of exploring on some other trails that are in the park, and found a pretty neat one that just winds its way back and forth to the same river that we swam in. We finished off the free day by watching the Super Bowl. Albeit in Spanish, and lacking the witty commercials, it was still nice to be reminded a little bit of home in the end. Additionally while we were watching, we had this nice visitor come up right behind my head and scare the crap out of me:

Clearly just came to root on the Seahawks.

So that's the update! Hopefully I'll be able to post a little more frequently!