Las Cruces, pt. 1

Exiting San Jose, as seen from a bus window.

 Wednesday morning at 7:45 we left the Hotel Cacts in San Jose and began our 7-hour journey to Las Cruces Biological Field Station, the first real stop on our trip. Las Cruces is southeast of San Jose, right near the Panamanian border.

Map of the places I will be traveling with OTS this semester.

A few hours into the drive, we stopped at a restaurant to use the bathroom. The building had hummingbird feeders hanging outside of the windows, and a nice garden in the back. It was definitely a good place to stop, and we had a little time to wander around and explore before we headed out on the road.

One of many hummingbirds feeding outside the rest stop.

Plants in the garden behind the restaurant.

After another few hours, we stopped for lunch, which, unsurprisingly, consisted of rice, beans, and fruit, among a few other things. The break was only about 45 minutes, and then we were driving again, in the final stretch to the station. I felt slightly bus-sick most of the way there, so I slept as much as I could. When I was looking out the window, though, I got to see some gorgeous views going up through the mountains.

Then, finally, we got to Las Cruces. After a brief orientation we had some free time before dinner so some of my roommates and I walked around and explored the grounds.

Tessa standing next to a large palm tree. So tall!

Fruits of Pinanga kuhlii, a palm tree from SE Asia.

Me standing next to a giant palm!

Stephanie, Tessa and I standing in a patch of bamboo.

Miguel, Ashur, and Tom enjoying the view from a lookout point.

As it started to get dark, we returned from our walk so we would be back for dinner by 6. A bunch of other students had gone out running, and we ended up being the first ones at dinner, so Tom got to ring the giant bell that means our meal has been served. This seemed like quite an accomplishment at the time. Dinner was surprisingly excellent... While I was expecting somewhat minimal camp-type foods, we had a complete meal of chicken, white rice, black beans, mixed vegetables, and salad, with spice cake for dessert. Everyone seemed pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food, as well as the overall quality of the field station.

The station itself is quite large (325 hectares), but all of the buildings are in one central area. We're staying in a large, clean building with shared bedrooms. My room has three bunkbeds, so I have five roommates for the extent of the time we're at Las Cruces. We got a relatively large room with a closet and big shelves; this means that, unlike in some of the other rooms, there's space for all our stuff so the room can stay somewhat organized. The water here is clean and (obviously) we have internet access that seems pretty reliable. We even have hot water... sort of. There are no water heaters, but the shower heads have coils inside of them that you can turn on, so if the water isn't running too fast it heats up a bit before it comes out. I was a little worried at first since I'm not a fan of cold showers, but it ended up being comfortable since it's warm here. Other than that, the only weird thing is that we have to throw our toilet paper in the garbage instead of flushing it so we don't overwhelm the septic system. That took a little getting used to. On the bright side, they do our laundry for us, for free! So apparently there are perks to being a scientist after all.

After dinner on Wednesday we had our first class, which was a lecture given by the director of Las Cruces. He told us a lot of background information about the station. Here are some fun facts:

• 10 hectares of the total 325 are the Wilson Botanical Gardens
• The station has 410 known bird species living here, with more than 250 in the gardens alone
• Over half of all hummingbird species in CR can be found here
• There are over 100 species of mammals, 3 of which are endangered
• Three species of monkeys are present
• There are over 2,000 species of native plants and about 3,000 collected from around the world
• The Wilson Botanical Gardens contains the second largest collection of palm trees in the world

At night we all did homework and then played Mafia in the common room. Even though most of our day was spent sedentary on a bus, most everyone was really tired and we went to bed pretty early. This is not surprising, since our schedule every day from here on out starts with breakfast (gallo pinto, duh) at 6:30.

Today (Thursday) we had our first activity at 8. We split up into two groups, and my group went into San Vito, the nearest town, to get some stuff for our time here. With thirteen people piled into a car, we drove about 15 minutes to the town. We stopped first at the bank so people could withdraw cash if they needed to. Then we went to a store where we purchased rubber boots, which we have to wear sometimes during the semester both to keep our feet dry and to protect us from snake bites. We also stopped at a grocery store so those who wanted to could buy snacks. I bought a large bag of GORP: good ol' raisins and peanuts.

We returned to Las Cruces by 10 and set out on an informative stroll around the gardens with Rodolpho, a professor at the station. Some of the things we saw and learned:

Bromilina is the compound in pineapple fruit that makes your mouth hurt when you eat too much of it.

This plant is called petrea, because its leaves are "rock-hard;" they actually feel like the texture and toughness of a nail file!

Petrea flowers

A large cycad.

A heliconia flower, often confused with the bird of paradise plant.

A prayer leaf showing beetle herbivory that took place when the leaf was coiled up, making the pattern. These plants don't like to get too much sun and the leaves move and coil relatively quickly.

This is a tiny epiphytic bromiliad growing on a tree leaf!

Another heliconia flower.

Nate standing next to a 150-year old fig tree, the oldest tree in the reserve. When the land was originally bought in the 60s, much of it had previously been cleared for farming, and few trees were left behind.

Rodolpho holding an unripe torch banana.

The inside of the banana. This kind has large seeds, and, since it's unripe, is exceptionally sticky and acidic.

Torch bananas on the banana tree.

My group learning about palm trees from Rodolpho.

A large pine nut. After dispersal, they take 11 years to germinate!

Bromiliad roots hanging from the tree they live in.

An orchid

After the walk, we had lunch and then two classes in the afternoon. The first was a lecture by Mauricio ("Mau") titled "Dangerous and Annoying Creatures," which covered all of the less than fun things that we may potentially encounter in Costa Rica. Some of the more interesting concerns:

• Hippomane mancinella, a plant that is poisonous in basically every way possible... even the smoke from burning it can blind you!
• 34 species of tarantulas, 17 species of scorpions
• Bot flies, mosquitoes, biting midges (aka "no-see-ums"), ticks, and chiggers
• killer bees
• bullet ants
• sting rays
• mangy dogs
• jaguars and mountain lions
• crocodiles and caimans 

and, last but certainly not least,

• 137 species of snakes, 20 of which are lethally venomous to humans

Luckily most of these things are not seriously dangerous and can easily be avoided by being cautious and not doing stupid things! Our second class was taught by Erika, and was the quick version of Costa Rican history from the 1500s to the 1990s. The lecture was really fast-paced considering how much information we had to cover, but very interesting. One of the cooler things learned is that Costa Rica's relatively stable political situation is the result of having reliable exports (coffee and bananas are the biggest ones) that can be produced by lower classes, which results in less tension between the rich and the poor. As a result, Costa Rica has only had one civil war, which lasted just over a month. In contrast, other Central American countries have many more revolutions and wars.

We had dinner after class, and then one more "class" that turned out to just require us to act out scenarios of what to do in sticky situations that have occurred in the past. It was pretty funny and everyone did a good job with it.

We are at Las Cruces until February 11, so I will definitely be posting again at least once or twice before we leave! I'm sure there will be lots more pictures of plants to come. Haha.

San Jose

(Click on all images to see larger versions.)

Flying over the coast of Nicaragua shortly before landing in Costa Rica

My flight got in a little late because, in the cold weather in Newark, the water in the plane froze up and then had to be defrosted for about 30 minutes before we could leave. After landing, we (there was another OTS girl on my flight) went through immigration and customs, and then found one of our professors waiting for us at the exit. Instead of leaving immediately, we waited at the airport for another two hours for two other girls whose flights were coming in around the same time as ours. When all four of us had arrived, our professor, Erika, brought us back to the hotel. During the 30 minute drive, I started to get a feel for what Costa Rica is like: lots of motorcycles, horn honking, and fast driving. Houses with tin roofs, houses painted bright colors, even houses made entirely of corrugated metal, orange with patches of rust. Lots of trees and vibrantly colored flowers, and green mountains on the horizon everywhere you look. (San Jose is in a valley, roughly in the middle of the country.) Everyone wearing sandals in January, because it's summer. Birds making exotic birdcalls at all hours of the day and night, even in the middle of the city. It's a pretty amazing place.

Flowers at Hotel Cacts. Top: on a bush on the rooftop terrace. Bottom: directly outside of my room.

We got back to the hotel around 2 pm. It was kind of like a motel by US standards, but because it is in CR it is beautiful. When you enter the front gate into the building there's a normal check-in, but when you go upstairs you realize that, while the rooms themselves are fully indoors, the hallways and courtyards are all open-air. There are plants everywhere, and you can look up from the hallway outside my room and see the stars at night. The dining area is on the fourth floor, which is the top of the building. The tables are under a rooftop, but there is a beautiful patio fully open with plants lining the perimeter. You can see some nice views of the city from there.

San Jose, as seen facing southwest from the rooftop terrace at the hotel.

There are three people to a room, so two of the girls and I were placed in one room and the fourth girl who came back in our group was in the room next door, with her roommates arriving later that day. After we all settled in and changed clothes (we were dressed warmly for our flights, but it was beautiful weather in CR!), we decided to look for a bank so Tessa could take out some money, and a place where Francesca could buy a prepaid cellphone. Finding the bank was easy and quick, although there are hardly any street signs here so I'm unsure how people navigate. The streets have names, but they're just not posted anywhere. We also managed to find the place where prepaid cell phones are sold, even though it was off the map that we had. When we got to the store, the sales clerk tried to explain to us in Spanish that they didn't have any phones in stock, so we bought calling cards instead for 3,000 colones (about 6 USD).

On the way back, we walked through La Sabana, which we later found out is the largest park in San Jose.

A small part of the large park about 15 minutes from our hotel.

In addition to lots of beautiful trees and a few playgrounds, there were countless kids skateboarding, biking, and rollerblading! I haven't seen so much rollerblading since the 90s. In the park there is even a paved area with a roller hockey rink in the middle and a track around the perimeter with slightly banked walls, specifically for rollerblading.

The outdoor rollerskating rink in La Sabana.

When we were exiting the park we passed by what looked like a country club or hotel, but when we came around to the front of the building we saw that it looked like they were setting up for a huge outdoor concert. We didn't know what it would be but we decided to sit down with the crowd (which was already pretty big) and wait for a bit to find out. We stayed for 40 minutes but the music never started and we had to head back to the hotel for dinner at 6.

The (as of yet) mystery concert near the park.

We found our way back to the hotel with no problems, although another funny thing about San Jose is that since the streets aren't marked clearly, places are identified by landmarks. For example, our hotel has a street address, but really what you need to know in order to get there is that it's 200 m north of Pizza Hut. I love how that is perfectly acceptable here. It's so funny.

At dinner we met up with the other people in the program who had arrived. We had 18 of 28 students by then, with the rest arriving from the airport after dinner. Overall I like everyone I have met in the program. In addition to meeting other somewhat eco-nerdy college students from the U.S. (which I was expecting), we have two Costa Rican students in the program, which is awesome.

After dinner we decided to go back to the park to see what the concert actually was, since we left before it started. It turned out to be incredibly eclectic, with performances ranging from Latin American pop to emo/punk to a capella to rumba. We left after about an hour and a half because most of us had been traveling all day and running on little sleep, and got to know each other a little more on the walk back to the hotel. Some of us stayed up on the rooftop terrace and drank tea and talked some more before going to bed.

The next morning, we had an early breakfast (rice and beans, aka gallo pinto, and fresh fruit) and headed to the OTS office on the other side of San Jose for orientation. The building is beautiful, with lots of plants indoors, like the hotel. We spent the morning doing regular orientation stuff like introducing ourselves, going over the course materials, and inventorying our equipment boxes.

Inside the OTS office at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

After a lunch break we took a Spanish language placement test so they know what level classes to put us in when we come back to San Jose mid-semester, and then headed back to the hotel. We had a few hours of free time, and then went out for dinner as a group to a Costa Rican-style restaurant. That was nice, since we had pizza for dinner the night before. The food was good and it gave us a chance to interact with people we didn't know yet.

After dinner we returned to the hotel and then decided to go out as a group to a discoteca, since it was our last night in the city. I think that almost everyone decided to come along, and we somehow managed to find the place despite San Jose's winding and effectively nameless streets. After a fun night of dancing to both American and Latin American music, we took taxis back to the hotel, packed up our bags, and went to sleep. The next morning we departed at 7:45 for our first field station: Las Cruces!

The journey begins

Somehow I managed to fit everything into my one bag! This is all I have with me for the semester:

 

I am literally leaving for the airport in 10 minutes, and at 7:30 am my flight leaves for San Jose! I will be in Costa Rica by noon. What a crazy thought. 

If you want to contact me, these will be my addresses:

Mail only:

 Lauren Carley

Organizacion para Estudios Tropicales

Undergraduate Program

Apartado 676-2050

San Pedro 2050

Costa Rica

Mail and packages:

Lauren Carley

Organization for Tropical Studies

Undergraduate Program

CRC Interlink 341

P.O. Box 025635

Miami, FL 33152

Although we are moving around the whole semester, supposedly the mail will be able to get to me. Next time I update, it will be from Costa Rica!

End of break update

So, as I anticipated, the last bit of my winter break has been very, very busy. I never got to visit Emily in Philadelphia because the day I planned to drive down we got a heavy snowstorm and the roads weren't great for driving. Other than that, however, everything I'd planned to do has happened (or is still in the process of happening). As my failed Philadelphia trip implies, we have been getting a good deal of snow this break, which means I have been doing a good deal of shoveling and tea-drinking.

I woke up to this view waaay too many times during break.

Despite the weather, after I said my goodbyes to my NJ friends (Michelle was the last one to go, and she has safely made it to India!), west-coast friends began to make their way east one by one. I got to visit Jessica, Jessie's friend from high school, who was in New York visiting PR firms for a journalism class. Liz was also here visiting her boyfriend, River, who goes to NYU Law. Because she's been here before and has done most of the standard sight-seeing-y stuff, Adam and I decided to take them to Coney Island.

We took the subway all the way out and got a chance to catch up, since I haven't seen Liz since last summer. (She was in Madrid this semester!) When we got there, we walked around on the beach, which, unlike the streets, was cleared of snow and gloriously empty. It was also cool to see the amusement park in the off-season, since every other time I have been to Coney Island it's been pretty crowded.

"Wait, this place is famous, right?" - River

Even though it was really cold, it was sunny and beautiful on the beach. Liz and River climbed out to the end of the jetty. Adam and I passed on that one because, while they were wearing sneakers, we were not properly equipped in the footwear department to climb out on the slippery rocks without falling into the water.

Liz and River coming back from walking out the jetty.

It was so sunny, we could barely keep our eyes open!

We also stopped at the original Nathan's so Liz and River could try the hotdogs. Then we walked about a mile to a bowling alley where games were only $3! Around here, bowling is a lot more expensive. We played two games, and Liz won both times, making up for the fact that I have beaten her twice in the past. We then took the subway back to Manhattan and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant on St. Mark's, followed by frozen yogurt. Over dinner I got to tell Liz about our dormies, since she is taking over as House Adviser in my dorm while I'm abroad next semester. We parted ways at the Strand (I went there looking for a novel to bring to Costa Rica, and they didn't have it! It made me miss Powell's...) and said goodbye for another semester in different countries.

The next day, Alina arrived from Colorado! She had to fly through New York on her way to Morocco, so she and Ashley arranged her flights so she had a full day layover and could hang out here for a bit. Unfortunately, her flight came in at rush hour and it took me and Adam four hours (two hours in, two hours out) to pick her up from JFK. When we finally got back, we ate dinner and played some Kinect sports (this is a somewhat embarrassing theme of my winter break...). It had already begun to snow while we were on the way back from the airport and was getting heavier so we couldn't leave the house. Luckily the roads were clear by morning and we were able to make it into the city. 

Alina in Times Square for the first time!

We met up with Jeff and Eitan, both of whom we lived with our freshman year at Reed. Since Alina had never been to New York before and likes things that are old and/or interesting, we went to the American Museum of Natural History, spending most of our time in the dinosaur section and the hall of gems and minerals. After spending a few hours there, we walked through Central Park to the Met so Alina could see it. We were going to go in, but we decided we were too hungry and had some pizza for lunch instead.

Jeff, me, and Eitan in Central Park

 Eitan departed after lunch and the rest of us headed to Jeff's place to hang out until dinner time. We eventually trekked back downtown and met my dad and Adam for dinner at Carmine's. Alina discovered that their "family-style" portions also apply to the desserts after ordering the Titanic, a brownie sundae that lived up to its namesake in size. Even with five people we didn't come close to finishing it. The next day, Alina's trip to Morocco really began and she was scheduled to fly out of La Guardia around 3 pm. Luckily none of the delays from the snowy day prior carried over, and she made it out on time... first to Philadelphia, then to Paris (two separate airports!), and finally to Morocco. 

On Friday I finally got my yellow fever vaccine, and that night my parents and I had dinner with Adam and his parents. That was the first time we have ever done something with just our two families, which is kind of hard to believe, but true. We ended up having a really good time, and his parents even came over to my house afterward to play Kinect (I told you this was a theme). Saturday was spent cleaning and packing, because Sunday morning Adam went back to Chicago. Now, unless he makes any surprise visits to Costa Rica (which is actually impossible) I won't see him until May 10, cuando vamos a Ecuador! That's pretty crazy to think about.

Monday I saw my friend Michael, who had been in New York since the Thursday before. Instead of making me trek into the city in the snow for the fourth time in a week, he decided to come out and see a little bit of New Jersey. After a public transportation mishap he decided to walk across the George Washington Bridge (probably not the greatest decision, it was so cold and windy that day!), and I picked him up in Fort Lee. We stopped at the house so Michael could meet my brother and my mom, and then headed out to a diner for some lunch and time to talk. We also saw Black Swan in the afternoon, which was pretty good! We played (do I even have to say it?) Kinect bowling for a while, ate dinner, and then I dropped him back on the upper east side, since he was headed back to Colorado the next day. Since Michael was the last Reedie I got to see over break, after dropping him off it really began to sink in that I was not going to see any of my school friends for a loooong time.

Luckily Sharyu finally got back from India earlier this week, so I have had one last friend to hang out with before I go. Our adventures so far have included plentiful medical procedures as doctors try to figure out what's wrong with her digestive track, obligatory mall-going, and middle eastern food. Oh, and diners. Because what would NJ be without diners?

Now it is time to get serious, since I'm leaving in four days! I got my travel debit card yesterday and am picking up some Costa Rican currency (colones) tomorrow. Today I am running my last errands to pick up the remaining things I need for my trip (toiletries, band-aids, etc.) and hopefully convincing Shar to help me pack. :) I am slowly but surely finishing up my summer job applications. As hard to believe as it is, I think I will be ready to go by the 24th, when my adventure finally begins!

Happy New Year!

Ahh, winter break is flying by. I hope everyone had a nice holiday season and that 2011 is off to a good start. I can hardly believe it's a new year already! I think it's going to be a very good year, though. Definitely better than 2010. I'll quikly recap my winter break so far.

I made it back from Portland with a surprise trip to Texas thrown in due to extremely improbable circumstances at PDX. Luckily I was back in time for the Christmas party! I then spent a solid week doing Christmas shopping for my family since my parents had to work. Now that the holidays are over, I get to do the returns! Haha. I have spent an unbelievable percent of my time in NJ in malls. Christmas was fun though, and I got lots of stuff for my upcoming trip, including a new backpack from Adam, a handmade journal from Emily, a waterproof digital camera from my parents, and lots of supplies (guidebooks, Rite-in-the-Rain notebooks, a new pocket knife, etc.) from my parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

My new backpack!

I also bought myself a new pair of hiking boots (I wore a hole through the sole of my last pair!) and a sleeping bag that is small enough to fit in the bottom compartment of my new pack. Because Adam and I are going to travel in Ecuador after my semester is over, I have to be able to carry and easily travel with everything I take with me. That means that everything I'm going to need for the whole semester has to fit in this backpack! We did a practice pack a few days ago and I actually had room to spare, which is exciting. I am only bringing a very limited selection of things, especially considering how my indecisiveness usually makes me overpack for most trips. Packing light is liberating, but I hope I won't feel limited by bringing so few things. I have also been getting ready for the trip medically: I got Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccinations, a tetanus booster, and a prescription for some anti-malaria pills and antibiotics in case I need them while abroad. The only thing left to do is get a yellow fever vaccine, which I didn't need at first but will need to re-enter Costa Rica from Ecuador before I come back to the U.S.

Taking care of all this preparatory stuff makes it feel like I'm actually going to leave soon! Adding to the anticipation is the fact that most of my friends from home have already departed to exciting faraway places... Sharyu is in India for a few weeks, Cody is in New Zealand, Rena is gone to Kenya for the semester, Kelly is digging in Egypt and then headed straight to Rome for the spring, Alice and Nikkitha are both in London, and Corey is leaving soon for Israel. All of their adventures are making me even more excited for my own semester abroad. Luckily, while most of my friends from home are already gone for the rest of break, I will get to see a bunch of Reedies in the next few weeks! Liz, Alina, and Michael are all coming to New York, and making trips into the city to see them will definitely keep me busy.

...Not that I will need too much help to stay busy. I still have a LOT of important things to do before I leave on January 24:

• Finish acquiring everything I need for Costa Rica and pack it all up!
• Decide what summer jobs I want to apply for, and then do all the applications
• Write recommendations to my dormies who are applying to be House Advisers
• Thoroughly clean my room and donate all my extra clothes... possibly re-paint, get new bedding and maybe some bookshelves
• Do some preliminary reading about Costa Rica, and brush up on my professors' primary literature
• Get my hair cut
• Visit Emily in Philadelphia
• Officially decide what Adam and I want to do in Ecuador, and book our flights

Hopefully I can finish it all in the next 20 days! Time for me to stop blogging and start doing.