In transit: Finca Lia and Calandria

While our next official destination for the course was San Gerardo station in Monteverde, we made some interesting stops along the way. First, we stopped during the long bus ride from the Nicoya Peninsula back to Monteverde (about half way back to San Jose, but we drove the whole way instead of taking the ferry to cut across to the mainland) at the home of Mau, one of our professors. In addition to teaching with OTS, he owns a teak farm and sells the lumber for additional income. On his farm, he has a tiny house that he built himself, with an open-air kitchen on the first floor and a loft bedroom above. The whole house is just two rooms, and all the openings can be boarded up and secured for when he's away months at a time teaching and doing research. We ate lunch there (bean and cheese sandwiches, yeah!) and hung around, exploring the property. It was a beautiful little home, named Finca Lia after his mother, and it was lovely to see a little bit more into the personal life of a professor who was quickly becoming a friend.

The front of Finca Lia

Lee and Tessa

We also got to take a tour of the farm itself and learn a bit about how and why Mau grows teak. At the end of the tour we hiked down to a creek where we cooled off before heading back for another few hours of bus riding.

The class listening to Mau talk about his trees

Mau lives in a small town on the outskirts of Monteverde proper, so we made it to Monteverde by mid-afternoon. Since the San Gerardo station is quite remote and takes several hours to hike into, we spent the night at another station, called Calandria, that we could drive to and rest at before our big day. Calandria station is a private reserve that was established specifically to promote the conservation and study of three-wattled bellbirds, which are endemic to the region and rapidly declining as the land occupy while migrating is converted to other uses. In the afternoon, we met a prominent bellbird researcher and got to see her very interesting presentation about bellbirds, ranging from their life history and conservation to their complex vocal patterns and mating behaviors. If you don't know what a bellbird is or what its call sounds like (I certainly didn't before this lecture), I encourage you to check out this video, since my descriptions will simply not do them justice. They are amazing and bizarre animals!

After our lecture, we settled into the station, taking advantage of beautiful sunset view looking down the mountain, as well as an unspeakably delicious dinner. We got guacamole, which was a rare and momentous occasion, so we were quite happy. We had a second, brief lecture at the station from an OTS alum who now runs a really cool educational website called Canopy in the Clouds. He talked to us a little bit about his graduate research in the hydrology and physiology of tall canopy trees, but also more broadly about the importance of science literacy and outreach on top of traditional research. It was a bit unconventional compared to our other lectures, but really cool!

Sunset from Clandria station

Looking out from the porch of Calandria

By far the most delightful aspect of the station, however, was the "luxurious" feel of our temporary accommodations. Compared to Reed dorms or my house in the U.S., it was nothing particularly special, but compared to the field stations we had stayed at so far, we may as well have been staying in a five-star resort. We all reveled in hot showers followed by clean, fluffy towels that were lent to us by the station. The beds had real bedding, the windows had glass, and we even had proper mattresses instead of thin foam pads on top of wooden slats, which was the norm elsewhere. Needless to say, we were giddy with comfort, and we spent the remainder of our free time that evening drinking wine and gushing about this little oasis of a field station.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to re-pack our backpacks, eat breakfast, an press on to San Gerardo station! Calandria was a beautiful respite, but I was ready to get the full Monteverde experience, even if it meant living in a more "rustic" setting.

Leaving Calandria with our packs

Our "luxury" accomodations