Captions now on photos

Thanks for following us on the blog and for the comments--we'll share those with the students. We had a great day today out in the field learning about predation rates on caterpillars--real ecology research for the students! I didn't have that experience until college and grad school--an opportunity of a lifetime! The students have done a great job making observations of things they see along the way and in collecting the data. It's an incredible experience to be on a research station working alongside the researchers. They are showing us lots of great relationships between the organisms and are bringing the forest to life for us.

For those of you viewing pix, I tried to add helpful captions to as many as possible (and continuing to force the flash--good advice Mr. Krejsa!).

More adventures to come tonight and tomorrow...off to dinner (the food has been really good!)

Day 2

How you doin' Illinois? Cause we're REALLY hot...majormajor.



Well hopefully you've figured out that this isn't one of the adults typing... andddd you're right! It's Kerry, Katie and Delaney coming to you from COSTA RICA! It's our second day here and so far we've learned a lot of cool stuff and seen a bunch of cooler stuff. We were supposed to get up at the (butt) crack of dawn (6:30) to go to breakfast. Instead our roomates woke us up at 6:00 to sing in the shower. Kerry yelled at them to be quiet and this caused some early morning tension. Also last night, our electricity went off at 2:00AM and the fans turned off and our bunkmates decided this would be prime time for a 20 minute discussion about how hot they were, which somehow led into a questionnaire about their favorite colors. Kerry was EXTREMELY irritated, which explains why she woke up cranky. Breakfast was really great. We had rice and beans, which we are expecting to also have the rest of the week. Kerry turned a tortilla into a pancake so that was some good times. We think the rest of our group had a good breakfast too, but Courtney, Emily and Katie made breakfast burritos with avocado and beans and rice. Mr. Carlson also made a burrito but he added cheese, which he said was good. D-WOOD rocks.

Today was our first day collecting data for the clay caterpillar project. To prepare for our hike in the forest, we wore long pants tucked into our socks, our hiking boots, and long sleeves. We put on SPF ten billion (as Mr. Carlson likes to call it) and 99.25% DEET bug spray to stay bug-free. We also were fitted for palinas, which keep our ankles safe from snakes. They were pretty fashionable, and we looked liked safari babes (including the guys). Early morning hiking was cool and nice, but also extremely humid. We broke up into 3 random groups and went to collect caterpillars in a medium growth forest. After we collected all of the caterpillars, we came back to the only room in this country with fans, and inspected the red, green, and blue caterpillars for bite marks that animals could've left on them. Half of the class actually just napped while the teachers were talking. Ms. I was dozing off as well so we were only following her example.

After this we had lunch...you guessed it! Rice and beans. We ate outside with another tour group who was casually visiting for the day, and then leaving for their hotel. We were extremely jealous. Kerry and Delaney bought a Coke and it was literally the best thing they'd ever drank. After lunch we all came back to the cool air room and played Egyptian Rat Screw (a card game which Courtney is really good at) for 20 minutes until we went back into the field to collect more caterpillar data in the old growth forest. The old growth forest was a considerable distance away from our lodges so we crammed 9 kids at a time into an air conditioned cars and drove the bumpy road over there.

The old growth forest has very tall trees and is much more shaded than the other medium and new growth forests. Because of this, not as much sun reaches through the canopy trees to the floor, and the growth on the bottom is minimal. This makes the forest very cool, but still humid. In our 3 groups we collected the rest of the caterpillars and brought them back to the airy room.
In our Rite in the Rain book we recorded our observations and they are being used in a college research project to determine the effects of the forest and color on the predation of caterpillars. Tomorrow we will be finishing up this data collection and our weather prediction is hot.

Although it is REALLY hot here, we are having a great time and meeting a lot of people and learning a lot about the Costa Rican tropical dry forest ecosystems. "It is an experience of a lifetime" -Kerry Cummings

Adios for now,
Katie Krejsa, Kerry Cummings and Delaney (D$) Atkinson

Follow us in Pictures

If you would like to see pictures of what we are experiencing, I will post pictures throughout our trip at the following site:
http://gallery.me.com/stevekarin#100066

Day one photos I took are all there.

We made it!

After two uneventful flights, we arrived in the hot, soupy air of the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.  You know it's hot when even our guide (Jeff Klemens) and some of the locals are complaining about the heat.  Leaving the airport, the kids immediately starting asking about every bird, plant, and bug that they saw.  While we didn't see much in terms of diversity while on the road to the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG), the life practically exploded before them once we entered the national park.

After having read part of The Green Phoenix before our two summer school sessions, the students were familiar with the ant-acacia coevolutionary relationship, but in the ACG, they were actually able to observe the relationship first-hand.

One of the highlights of the day occurred almost immediately as we got our of the car in Santa Rosa as a troupe of white-faced capuchin monkeys jumped through the trees over our heads.

Our walk in the woods culminated in a hike up to an overlook where we could see the three volcanoes of the park:  Orosi, Cacao, and Rincon de la Vieja.  There was so much more, but we have 8 days to fill you in on all of that.

Pura vida!

One more day

Can it really be this close?  Are we really leaving tomorrow morning?  After all of this preparation, I can't believe that the trip to Costa Rica is finally here.  It's been eight long years since I've been to the ACG and I can't wait to show all 18 students what I truly believe to be one of the most special places anywhere.  I can't wait to be woken by howler monkeys at 6 in the morning.  I can't wait to see dolphins skipping through the surf at Naranjo.  I can't wait to see the steaming caldera of Rincon de la Vieja.  I CAN'T WAIT!

Before we see any of that stuff, however, remember to have your passport, luggage, and your eager brain at Stevenson by 3:00 AM tonight/tomorrow.  That's right, 3...in...the...morning...

Pura vida!