Las Alturas!

Saturday morning we set out for a weekend excursion to Las Alturas. Las Alturas is a large private farm owned by an American businessman who apparently is interested in conservation and hobby farming. He bought the land from a logging company, which had bought it from a French national who had originally received the land from the Costa Rican government in the early 1900s. When the logging company was in control, they deforested about 1/3 of the property, but upon the most recent purchase of the land, logging stopped entirely. The current owner preserves the remaining 2/3 of primary forest on the northern part of the 10,000-hectare parcel. We set out early Saturday for a long drive, only the first 30 minutes of which was on paved roads.

Carlos, our wonderful driver, while driving through San Vito.

In transit.

Carlos in the rear-view mirror while we stopped to look at a forest edge on the way to Las Alturas.

Daniel, our TA, during the pit stop.

We made it! Yes, their logo really is a yin yang sun rising over green mountains.

When we finally arrived at the station, Zak, the director, realized that he had forgotten one of the keys! Most of us settled into our rooms and made the beds, but twelve people were locked out until someone from Las Cruces finished the journey out to bring the missing key. The station was rustic, with no hot water and no electricity, but everyone was excited to try something new after being spoiled at Las Cruces for so long.

The biological station, where we stayed.

We didn't have anything planned until after lunchtime, so a bunch of us played ultimate frisbee or soccer in our free time. Frisbee was fun, but the yard was uneven, and surrounded by barbed wire to keep out the cattle. This made chasing long passes extra exciting! No one got hurt, which was excellent. Then we ate lunch and got ready to go into the town.

Daniel and Ethan playing soccer.

Compas munchin' on lunch.

We were all excited to be there, except apparently Stephanie.

Cattle grazing behind the station.

When we got into town, we got to learn about how Las Alturas functions. The owner

 hires 49 families to work and live on the farm. They grow enough vegetables, chicken, and cattle to be relatively self-sufficient, and, since the owner is already wealthy, don't even sell their products. They also have a tree farm, where they collect seeds of native species from the primary forest, cultivate them, and then replant parts of the farm that they are attempting to reforest.

The elementary school and a soccer field in the community.

Lots of the houses are painted bright colors!

The river running through the community, which powers the saw mill.

This is the only store in town.

A chicken coop near the tree farm.

Coffee beans drying.

Achote, a red spice that can also be used as a pigment! We tried it in fruit lab.

The tree farmer amongst the seedlings he grew. He's been doing this for over 20 years.

Learning about tree growing from the farmer.

Another resident of Las Alturas, watching us get our lecture at the farm.

Daniel and Carlos playing with one of the many dogs of Las Alturas.

Baby trees!

An ox-powered mill where they extract the juice from sugarcane.

New friends peeking out of their houses.

ADORABLE!

Some of the group, with mountains in the background.

Cine las Alturas, the town movie theater, which plays one film a week.

The town even has a small jail to throw people in for drunkenness.

More colorful houses.

Farm equipment

Little kids playing soccer near the general store

Ashur and Tom admiring the owner's pond.

Tessa, Steph, Ashley, and Carolyn sitting outside of the owner's house.

Manny looking fly in our professor Mau's head scarf.

A bird of paradise flower.

Random caterpillar someone found on a leaf.

Zak, the director of Las Cruces, telling us about the vegetable farm.

Where they grow all of the vegetables for 49 families.

A tiny choyote, which we tried in fruit lab and is one of Chesca's favorite foods.

The vegetable farm, with fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing clover interplanted.

A banana tree.

A bunch of bananas, as seen from the bottom.

Leaving the veggie farm.

Rukhshana in the car on the way back to the station.

The sunset, as seen from my bunk bed in the station.

After an awesome day in the town, we headed back to the station for dinner and a lecture. At 8 pm we had a bonfire, singing songs and telling stories for a few hours until we all got tired. The next morning we woke up early and started a hike at 7:30 am. Arguably the coolest thing about Las Alturas is that it shares a border with La Amistad International Biosphere Reserve, which is 500,000 hectares of completely protected primary forest. We hiked a 2.5 km trail into the forest and gained 600 m in elevation, making it our most intense hike yet. As we hiked into the undisturbed forest, we could hear monkeys calling for a good portion of the hike, and about an hour and a half in we actually saw some! It was really awesome. Unfortunately no one got pictures because they were so high up in the canopy and moving so quickly. 

As we moved up in elevation, we also got to see a cool change in the plant life. We moved from a normal rainforest into a bamboo forest, and, at the highest elevations, an "elfin" forest where all of the trees are stunted. My camera was almost dead and I wanted to save battery for when we got to the top, so I didn't get too many pictures from the hike, but I can assure you that it was really cool. We also met a German researcher studying jaguars there, and he came on the hike with us so I got to know him a little bit throughout the morning, which was cool.

Passing through the bamboo forest was awesome.

The view from the top. It was definitely worth it.

Not the greatest picture, but proof that I made it!

After we hiked back to the station, we showered, had lunch, and cleaned up the station so that we could  head back to Las Cruces. Most people were on a bus that we had rented for the weekend trip, but I was in the OTS truck with five other people. Daniel was with us instead of the professors, so he let us stop at a field of sugarcane and cut some down for us to snack on with our machete.  

Nate holding some sugarcane.

When we finally got back to Las Cruces, everyone was reluctant to go back to normal classes after having our first experience at a more isolated site. It was an awesome trip, though, and definitely got everyone looking forward to Cuerici, our next destination, since we only had a few more days left at Las Cruces.