Thanksgiving dinner

Last night was a nice fairly low-key Thanksgiving dinner with tons of food! There were a lot of people there (from all over the world) and the dining hall was decorated for Christmas. It was a pretty fancy event -- so I was sure to not wear my muddy rubber boots!


After the station director related the history of Thanksgiving (in English and Spanish) we all traveled through the buffet line to get our treats.


I had turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy, a sweet potato, cornbread, cheese, an egg, and ayote (like pumpkin) pie. There was a LOT more food offered, but I couldn't eat any more.


After dinner and chatting with friends for a bit, Carlos and I walked home and who was there to greet us but Chola and Shakira! We didn't have any turkey for them, but we gave them each half a hamburger bun and they were pretty happy. Who knows where I will be for Thanksgiving next year?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving and my last one at La Selva. Even though I am in Costa Rica, there is a big celebration here at the station (since most of the researchers here are from the states). This will be my 3rd Thanksgiving at La Selva and it is always really fun -- tons of good food, wine, and even fireworks! Ticos love to set of fireworks -- the louder the better (I prefer the quiet, pretty fountain ones myself). I will bring my camera to dinner tonight to take pictures and I will try to post everything tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends back in the states!

The flood is over!

Yay, yesterday, the flood waters started to go down and today things are back to normal after about 4 days of forest closure here at La Selva. This was a pretty big flood and I am really happy to be able to return to the forest now to check on my seeds. I am also lucky that all of my seed depots are located on high ground that doesn't flood so now I don't have to contend with any wayward water-mediated seed dispersal!

Still flooded...

Wow, this is the worst flood that I have seen during my 2.5 years here at La Selva! We are still unable to work in the forest due to the floods and yesterday we even had to ride a boat to the dining hall (a first for me). The soccer field next to recepcion is super flooded with the full-size goal nets almost completely submerged!


Carlos and I had to take an alternate boat home last night since a fast-flowing river had newly formed across the road where we normally exit the station. This was a real-life jungle cruise -- so fun! We boated through the flooded soccer field to the Ariera-Zompopa trail, through a gate until we hit the un-flooded hill on the main road.


The waters had subsided slightly when we came on station this morning (the fast-flowing river that formed yesterday was gone now), but the forest is still closed. Maybe things will be back to normal tomorrow?

Flood!

We have been receiving a lot of rain (and rather chilly weather, for La Selva anyway) recently and they have actually just closed the forest for the day due to flooding. When the rivers and streams start flowing backwards, things can get a little dangerous out there and it is best to stay inside. I am keeping busy cleaning up the office, organizing, packing, and readying things for my return to the states (only 28 days left!). I am starting to get really excited about visiting Washington (I love it there in the winter) and seeing my family and friends.

The rain isn't coming down too hard, but it must be pouring in the mountains. I am going to try my best to stay high and dry!

Earthquake!

Apparently there was a rather large (6.2 in magnitude) earthquake that occurred last night (after midnight) centered near the Panama/Costa Rica border. I didn't feel it, but it was strong enough to wake a lot of people up here and really frighten them. Sheesh, I am too heavy of a sleeper!

Bocas del Toro -- Day 3

Today, we planned for a very easy-going day filled with visiting shops, wandering, and planning our trip home for the next day. Arietta and I went to a little German bakery for breakfast where I had a delicious latte and a disappointingly stale cream pastry (boo!). We also stopped by Om again for strawberry smoothies. We had a few things to do (visit the bank, pay for the hotel, purchase our boat tickets for tomorrow morning), but for the most part the day was very relaxed. We visited a curious store called Pet Tienda (pet shop) which had lots of funny dog outfits for display outside, but it wasn’t that exciting. We also bought some more snacks at the Super Gourmet grocery store and browsed souvenirs. I didn’t end up getting anything since all the items were waaaaay overpriced and fairly crappy. I used to like the artisan market since the Kuna Indians would sell their hand-made goods there, but now it is inhabited by creepy old men.


We spent more time at the hotel enjoying TV and had a late lunch/early dinner at a pizza parlor in the center of town. I had ham and onion thin-crust pizza and it was the best pizza I have eaten in a while! I saved half for a snack later that night.


We went to bed early since we were scheduled to take the 7am boat from Bocas to Changuinola and from there, take a bus back to La Selva. This was a very successful trip -- I renewed my visa (last time before I return to the states), enjoyed a relaxing island beach, and ate good food. I would highly recommend anyone visit Bocas del Toro, but only if you don’t have to travel far to get there (the trip from Puerto Viejo is a killer!).

Bocas del Toro -- Day 2

After a restful night’s sleep at the hotel (such a nice place!), Arietta and I woke up hungry and left the hotel around 8am to search for some breakfast. Nothing was open yet, except for the Indian restaurant Om so we decided to have a delicious breakfast there. Om is only open for breakfast and dinner and the breakfast menu was extensive -- there were American-style and Indian-style food offerings. I ordered a Masala Chai and a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese, tomato, and cucumber. It has honestly been years since I’ve eaten a bagel and this one was great! The chai was also excellent -- thick, sweet, and spicy.


After our leisurely breakfast, we stopped by the hotel to pack for the beach and we also went to the Super Gourmet grocery store to pick up items for a picnic on the beach. We caught a taxi/bus (colectivo) at the park in the center of town and after about 40 minutes, we were at Boca del Drago on the back end of the island. This beach is absolutely gorgeous and we were very lucky to have bright, sunny weather. I love this beach since it is very quiet (you hardly see any people here), has tons of coconut palms lining the beach near the water, the water is clear turquoise and warm, and Boca del Drago is extremely easy and inexpensive to visit.


Around noon, Arietta and I ate our picnic (a fresh baguette, havarti cheese, and an apple for me) next to the water and beneath the shade of a large palm. After a snack, we walked around the water’s edge and saw many large sea stars and sea cucumbers through the clear water. We stayed until around 3pm whereupon we took another colectivo back to Bocas town.


We took a break in the hotel until dinner -- we decided to return to Om in order to have delicious Indian food. I really like this restaurant -- it is a good deal and the food is excellent. I had another Chai to drink and for dinner I ate naan bread, daal (spicy lentil mixture), raita (cucumber and yoghurt mixture), curry potatoes, and tons of rice. After dinner, Arietta and I waddled back to the hotel and went to bed awaiting a relaxing day of wandering and shopping tomorrow.

Bocas del Toro -- Day 1

-- (NOTE): Sorry it's taken me so long to post about my Panamanian adventure. Things have been super busy recently (I cannot believe that I only have 35 days left in Costa Rica!) --

Today (6 August), I awoke early to catch the 5:30am bus from Puerto Viejo. I met my friend and fellow researcher Arietta at the bus stop and we rode until the cruce (crossing) where we disembarked the bus and waited to flag down another bus that should pass by around 7am. This part of the trip was a little stressful since that bus isn’t necessarily guaranteed to stop, but we managed to catch it and continued on down the Caribbean coast for about 5 hours until we reached the border crossing town of Sixaola.

There weren’t many people passing through the border when we arrived and we went through with no problem. After that, we took a half-hour taxi to Changuinola to catch our boat to the island. The boat ride is my favorite portion of the trip from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to Bocas del Toro, Panama. There are a lot of interesting wetland birds (egrets, jacanas) and (allegedly) manatees hanging out in the canals. If you have ever been on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland -- that is similar to the canal trip...but with fewer evil hippos wiggling their ears!

Once we arrived on Isla Colón (the main island of the Bocas del Toro island group), we checked into our hotel (Hotel Dos Palmas) and went out to wander the town in search of food. We settled on a quick bite to eat at a diner where I had a pretty decent cheeseburger and banana milkshake. It was fairly late in the afternoon by this time so Arietta and I went back to the hotel to nap and watch TV. Tomorrow would be our first full day in Bocas and we planned to visit Boca del Drago -- a beautiful beach on the back of Isla Colón.

Home again, home again

I am back from Panama and trying to catch up with all of my work now. The trip was really fun and relaxing -- everything is really nice in Bocas del Toro. I am going to work on the blog posts for each day of the trip and try to post them soon. I had a nice time on the beach, but I really like being here in La Selva -- back in the forest!

Off to Panama

Tomorrow morning (at 5:30 am) I set off for Panama to renew my visa here for the last time before going home to the states. I will stay in Bocas Del Toro for three nights and I am really looking forward to a little break. Unfortunately Carlos can't come with me, but my friend Arietta is and she is great. I will take lots of pictures so that I can blog about my trip retroactively when I return!

Hurrah!

I must say that I was very relieved and excited to turn on my computer this morning and learn that Obama is our new president-elect! I was cautiously optimistic that he would win, but after 8 years of idiocy and 2 suspect elections, I wasn't putting anything past the GOP -- they are pretty tricksy!

Anyway, I am not really into politics and I don't preach to convert others, but I think this is a good step forward for our country. We are already receiving a positive response from so many world leaders and this is very heartening news. Obama will definitely have his work cut out for him as he tries to repair all the damage done by the Bush administration...

In other news, last night while walking home across the bridge, Carlos and I saw a young 2-toed sloth! He was the cleanest and fluffiest sloth that I had ever seen and he was definitely in reach of petting (although we didn't pet him). He had a super wet and squishable-looking nose (my mom wouldn't have been able to resist squishing it!) and his face was so cute with his little blinking eyes. While we admired this little sloth, we also saw a wooly opossum walking amongst the branches overhead. So many nice animals!