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Bamboo
canes stripped
500
Temperature
at 5:00 PM
86 F
When
the chickens woke us up!
3 AM
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Lesson
Plans
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Daily
Dilemma
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We
have been using cars, motor boats, and walking
as our main modes of transportation as we
explore the rain forest. If you were exploring
the rain forest what modes of transportation
would you want to use?
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Hot coastal days, cool coastal nights!
November
3rd 7:00 PM Parismina, Costa Rica
November 2, 2003
Day 15 Parismina,
Costa Rican Caribbean coast
Click To Enlarge
The Great
Potoo, a relative of the great owl, greeted us as we
headed out for a nocturnal critter spotting |
The
last few days have been amazing! As The Rainforest Project
rolls on, we find ourselves in more remote, thicker stretches
of forest. While we were in Matina, at La Estacion de
las Tortugas (The Sea
Turtle Station), we had the opportunity to explore
the lowland rainforest by boat. The Station is far from
any town, and the closest town is only inhabited by a
few hundred people. The station has limited electricity
and water shortages are always on the people's minds.
However, they love the turtles and are willing to give
up the conveniences of city life to help protect one of
the ocean's most important reptiles. |
| After
dinner, we were invited by Alvaro and Cholo to go caiman-spotting
at night. We all piled into the boat around 9:00 PM to
try to find some of the rainforest's nocturnal animals.
One of the reasons I find the rainforest so fascinating
is that it's so alive with animals at every hour of the
day. Howler monkeys, sloths,
and birds can be easily spotted during the daytime. However,
at night the rainforest becomes alive with different animals. |
Click To Enlarge
The Educational
Center at La Estacion de Las Tortugas is looking great
after a few hours of hard work |
Click To Enlarge
Frosty
uses a machete to strip the bark off of the bamboo poles.
We stripped about 500 poles while in Matina |
Caimans
were what we were most interested in finding, because
let's face it, who doesn't love spotting crocodilians
at night? However, we found tons of other animals. Right
away Pika spotted a Great Potoo, which is a close relative
to an owl. The potoo was perched on a dead branch high
above the water. It's eyes glowed in the light we brought
along. The potoo is an endangered species and very rare.
In the two hours we were out, we spotted several sloths,
a raccoon, several caiman (though I never got a real close
look), several species of nocturnal herons, snowy egrets,
four anhingas,
and tons of bats. A successful critter hunt for sure.
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| The next day
we woke up early. The howler monkeys and chickens woke
us up as the sun was rising. Before the sun got too high
we started working on the station's new Educational Center.
Around 500 canes of bamboo had to be stripped, varnished,
and nailed onto the ceiling of the new building. We used
machetes to strip the top layer of bark off of the bamboo.
Once the poles were varnished, Cholo and Alvaro measured
the length of pole and made the ceiling. It was really
hot work (most of the day was in the high 80's), and the
sun cooked all of the workers. During the hottest part
of the day, we stopped for lunch and then each found a
shady spot to hang a hammock and catch a few Z's. |
| Today
our hands are still sore from the hard work, and our backs
are red from the tropical sun. And even though we didn't
get to see any turtles hatching, it was a truly successful
trip. Today we are at another research station in the
small town of Parismina. This station has a few clutches
of green
sea turtle eggs that will hopefully hatch while we
are volunteering. We'll keep you posted. |
Click To Enlarge
The chickens
and howler monkeys woke us up to tell us, "Get
up, check out the sunrise over the Caribbean!" |
FYI
- we've had to change the chat for next week so we can spend
an extra day at the turtle research center. The new chat will
be scheduled for Thursday from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. We apologize
for the inconvenience.
Notes
from the Trail Index
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