Week Three(?!)

            Like I said in my last post, I’m really sorry that I haven’t been diligent in keeping up with this blog. Our days are so crazy I barely have time to breathe. And when I do have free time, I try to read or write but end up just sitting there watching the birds or the clouds pass overhead. I spend pretty much every second of the day outside. I’ve been here for three weeks, and still can’t get over how beautiful it is here. The weather is perfect, and the views are unbelievable. I’ll try to give a quick summary of what I’ve been up to recently.

            Last week we spent Sunday through Tuesday at the center, with the usual class from 8:30 to 5. On Wednesday, we visited a mangrove forest on the Tárcoles River. As we started to sail down the river we saw what looked like large logs floating in the river. We quickly realized that these “sticks” were actually crocodiles coming to check us out and see if we had any food. Some of them were ginormous! The biggest one we saw was probably between fifteen and seventeen feet long. They were really cool and reminded me of dinosaurs. (The dinosaur thing seems to be a theme here in Costa Rica. And fun fact- apparently the original book Jurassic Park was set here in Costa Rica!). We then had class on the boat in the middle of the Mangrove forest, which was neato. There were several crab species that lived on the root systems of the forest. This ecosystem is really interesting, and is incredibly important in terms of both how it benefits humans and other organisms. It acts as a natural buffer against storms and helps a lot with erosion control. On a grander scale, it helps sequester a lot of carbon. But the mangrove forest is under a lot of pressure from deforestation, because many people just think of it as a breeding ground for mosquitos (which isn’t really true). The trees that grow in the mangroves are specially adapted to grow in higher salt concentrations, which is something most species of trees can’t do. The fate of these forests is unknown, but a lot of education is needed to save this beautiful environment.

            After our lecture, we went on a hike and had another tropical ecology class on a bridge in the woods. This lecture was pretty interesting, because it was on road ecology and the effects of anthropogenic noise on the surrounding areas. This is a global issue that  impacts virtually every ecosystem. One of the most important effects is the habitat fragmentation that occurs when you put in a road. This causes a loss of habitat, and acts as a highway for invasive species to move in (invasive species are essentially organisms that move into as system, and have huge detrimental impacts on native species). Roads also increase the amount of erosion and heat that goes into the forests (cars push hot air further into the forest). We also talked about possible solutions to this issue.

            We then went to a Pacific beach to have our next lecture of the day for natural resources management. But it wasn’t as nice as it sounds. This beach is at the bottom of the watershed, and so all of the trash gets swept down during the rainy season to be deposited on the sand. All of the waste from San Jose and the Central Valley (where most Costa Ricans live) is swept down here as well.  It apparently wasn’t as bad as it has been in the past (when the class would have to climb over piles of trash four feet tall), but it was still pretty disgusting. Costa Rica is still considered a developing country, and has al the growing pains that are associated with it. One of the biggest problems developing countries have to deal with is waste management, and its an issue that doesn’t lend itself many easy solutions. Most of Costa Rican burn their trash, and the rest of it is sent to giant landfills that are not properly managed. Most landfills do not have the proper containment systems, and so a lot of pollutants simply drain into the soil. Medical waste is thrown in with normal waste and can also leach into the soil. They also don’t deal with the gas buildups that normally occur, and so fires and explosions can occur. The problem with this area is there is a high number of people and amount of wildlife, but the surrounding community is incredibly poor. They have no way to pay the billions of dollars it would take to clean up the river (some studies say it would take twenty years and a billion dollars to properly clean up the river). It’s really unfortunate that the people who have to deal with the consequences of the issue are not the ones causing the problem. About twenty years ago, a management plan was enacted to try to counteract the issue. It almost worked, and was an inspiration for many other watersheds. It was a bottom-up approach, and had a commission composed of locals from the watershed. I say almost because unfortunately a change in government officials resulted in the new government changing the committee to a top-down approach, which failed horribly. Now the Tárcoles River is basically back to the same way it was twenty years ago.

            At the end of the day, we went to El Sur, which is about a three, three and a half hour drive from the center. We stayed in a tiny village just outside of the park. And I mean TINY. There were eighty people total who lived in the village. There was a church, an elementary school, a large dormitory style house for visitors like us, and a little bar-snack-hangout place in the center of town. There was also a large building that was large enough for the community to gather in which was apparently also where the doctor had his office for his once a month visits to the town. The nearest hospital was an hour and a half ride down an extremely bumpy unpaved road. Moral of the story? Don’t get sick. Ever. It was here in this area that we had our final class of the day at 5pm, where we learned more about the history of Costa Rica.

            The last activity of the day was a night hike, which was probably the best night hike I have ever been on. We saw so many different frogs and toads. We found a bunch of cane toads (which are extremely loud and ginormous). They vary in size, with the biggest approximately the size of my head. When agitated, they swell up in size and shoot out a posion that can cause you to go blind. The one that I found had a tick on its belly (which Edgardo, the prof leading the hike, promptly took off and stuck in a vial to study later). There were a bunch of different tree frogs of all different colors. We also saw a few scorpions. But the most prolific of all the species we saw that night were the spiders. They were on pretty much every single surface- the trees, the rocks, the roads, everywhere. We saw tarantulas, wolf spiders, and little tiny spiders. I don’t really mind spiders, but I did find it creepy how if you shone a flashlight into the darkness you could see hundreds of spider eyes glowing back at you.

            The next day was also really neat. I milked cows for the first time, which was really fun. There were three cows with calves, all of which were under a two weeks old. The youngest calf (who was two days old) couldn’t figure out how to get the milk and kept on ramming the poor mother in between her two front legs. He eventually had to be led to the udders and shown how to drink. After breakfast we went on an extremely strenuous hike. I thought I was going to pass out it was so hot! We hiked to a series of cascades or waterfalls and got to swim in the water. It was unbelievable. It was absolutely gorgeous and so refreshing.

            Once we got back from the hike we had two more lectures and a community discussion where we got to meet some of the locals and learn more about their lives. Apparently they used to have a much larger community. They originally moved there because the government gave them cheap land. But in the mid nineties, the government forced about half of the village out to make that land a nature reserve. Before half the forest moved out, the village mainly relied on agriculture (which wasn’t very good because the soil is very poor). An NGO helped start ecotourism in the area, and they are slowly growing the number of visitors (they currently have about 200 visitors per year of mainly volunteer groups and student groups).  Those who are not part of the ecotourism work in small-scale agriculture, government positions and within the national park. Their biggest concern is what the next generation is going to do. Kids have to go elsewhere for their education, and they are not sure how they are going to provide opportunities for kids so they stay. There are currently twenty-three families here. They are optimistic that they will be able to convince their children to stay, but time will have to tell. They are also concerned with how a new paved road would impact the community; would it be a blessing or a curse? Again, only time knows the answer to this. I hope that they can keep the authenticity of this beautiful little town.

            Friday was our last day in El Sur, and it also started early with a bird watch and then breakfast. We went to a sugar cane farm and got to make sugar. It was really fun- they had two giant oxen that were attached to a large grinding machine. They showed us how to do it, and then left us to it. They then showed us how they boil down the sugar (similar to how they make maple syrup), and then gave us sugar cane juice and solid sugar to try. The candy-like solid sugar was delicious. We had one more lecture and then had free time for the first time in days. There was a little river by the dorm where we stayed, and I went down and just sat by the river and read. Across from me a cow slowly ambled toward me and watched me for a little while. It was a nice hour well spent. The entire time spent in El Sur was amazing, and I wish I could go back. The people were incredibly open, and invited us back any time we wanted.

            On Sunday we went to Poas National Park, which I was really excited about. But I was rather let down by what we saw. It was my first chance to ever see a volcano, and it was cloudy the entire time. I was really sick that day, and thought that I was going to pass out on the hike. It was pretty bad. I saw the volcano for a grand total of thirty seconds when the clouds cleared. The rest of the time in the park was spent doing research for the park (they only have maybe ten people who work in the entire park and have no one to help). We conducted surveys for the park so they could make improvements. The Costa Ricans we interviewed were extremely nice (and patient with my rudimentary Spanish), but the Americans and other English-speakers were all for the most part pretty rude. But that’s enough of that day.

            We had a free day off on Sunday, and a large group of us went white-water rafting. It was such an unbelievable life-changing experience. Its something that was on my bucket list of things to do, but something that I was absolutely terrified to actually do. It was rated one of the top five places to go rafting in the world, and well worth the trip. There were categories three and four rapids (out of five), which were really intense. We paid seventy dollars each for transportation, breakfast, lunch and a three-hour rafting trip. What I found interesting was how I didn’t have to sign a single waiver form. Our guide (named Fernando) was really cool. He was nineteen, and was the best on the river.  We only got stuck twice (most groups got stuck at least ten times), and both times was because the river was so shallow. It was at times really scary, especially when I almost drowned. During one of the level three rapids, we hit one of the rapids  just as Fernando told us to stop paddling and get down into the raft for safety. Our raft tilted to the side at a ninety degree angle, and my foot came out of the strap attached to the raft, and I was thrown into the water. I was trapped at the side of the boat and the water kept on pushing me and holding me under the boat. I couldn’t do anything but hold on to the side and try to keep my head above the water. I thought I was going to drown. Fernando jumped to save me and hauled me in. There were a couple of other times when I thought I was going to be thrown out again., but luckily that was the only time. During the last level four rapid, we had to hold onto our foot strap to avoid being sucked under the water. It was a beautiful trip down eighteen miles of river. We passed so many giant waterfalls. I am so glad I got to have this amazing experience!