In the dry forest: Palo Verde, Costa Rica

I have been in Costa Rica for about two weeks now and I am currently sitting in the classroom working on data analysis and preparing my presentation for the 2013 Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation conference. I am leading one final graduate-level tropical biology course (8-weeks in the field with 22 students and a gaggle of every-changing faculty resource people) and things are going well so far.

We have been in the tropical dry forest (in Palo Verde National Park) for 10 days now and the air is thick with swarms of mosquitos (we abut a huge wetland where the mosquito larvae hang out) and hot, humid air. I really like this site in the dry season, but it is a little more challenging in the wet season (the season we are in now). I will be very happy to head up into the mountains tomorrow morning. We set out for Monteverde at 0700 h tomorrow morning and it should only be a quick 2-3 hour drive to the station. We will meet our resource faculty at the station, eat lunch, then set out for guided hikes in the cloud forest reserve and around the biological station.

My posting might be a bit sparse during this trip (internet, or even electricity, is not consistent between sites). I will try to download some pictures to post soon, but things are very busy! I will be in Costa Rica until 5 August and the course will be visiting five more sites before we finish at the end of July.