Saimiri oerstedii x-stitch

 

 A while back, I made a little cross-stitch for my friend Jennifer. She and her husband Chance just had a baby named Bryce and he really likes animals (especially monkeys). I thought this Saimiri oerstedii (Central American squirrel monkey) would fit well in his nursery. I see these monkeys in Costa Rica (though they aren't around most parts of the country--they are the rarest monkey in CR). I am glad to see that Bryce likes this monkey as much as I enjoyed making it (Jen sent a picture of Bryce looking at it!).

Zoo day!

 Recently, Carlos and I had a day out at the National Zoo to relax and enjoy the animals and the nice spring weather. We started our afternoon by having a delicious lunch at the nearby Lebanese Taverna. We shared some delicious tapas and of course lots of pitas with yogurt-based dips!

From lunch, we walked to the Zoo and wandered around some of our favorite exhibits: Asia Trail and the Small Mammal House. In the Small Mammal House we watched a "Meet the animal" talk where we were introduced to an extremely cute naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber). I really love those guys.

We also stopped to watch the green acouchis (Myoprocta pratti), which are closely related to agoutis, but smaller and with longer tails. They were very active today and spent a lot of time eating, playing in the stream, and just looking cute. There was also a really beautiful elegant crested tinamou (Eudromia elegans) napping near the window, until a crazy acouchi stomped all over him and woke him up!

We had a really nice time at the Zoo and it is a great place to go and relax after some stressful days!

Orchids of Latin America at NMNH

 

When Carlos and I returned to DC after being away for two months, we were interested to see what new exhibits opened up at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) while we were away. One exhibit we were excited to see was the Orchids of Latin America exhibit. Hundreds of different orchid varieties were brought into the museum (mostly transferred from the National Botanic Garden) and make everything look (and smell) beautiful. The exhibit is set up to resemble a Latin American courtyard (it really looks like the Mexico exhibit at EPCOT!) with little balconies, thatched roofs, and even a tiled fountain.

 

 

 

We had a nice time admiring and smelling all of the orchids--my favorites are the ones that smell like vanilla, cinnamon, honey, and chocolate! This is a really pretty exhibit and a nice place to spend a break just walking around and relaxing. We have been back at least twice since our first visit!

Finishing up Costa Rica -- Las Alturas

Finally finishing up the last post about Carlos' and my trip to Costa Rica, I will talk about our short trip to Las Alturas. I really love this rustic high elevation site that is about an hour's drive away from Las Cruces. Carlos and I were the only ones there when we visited for 2 nights during our stay at Las Cruces and it was great having the whole station to ourselves!

 

 

 

While there, we hiked up the very steep Sendero Chai to Cerro Chai (a mountain about 2600 m high, which affords beautiful views) to look for beetles and plants for our CTmax experiments back in Las Cruces. The trip was very successful and we may have even discovered a couple of species new to science!

 

 

 

  

Our first night there, we found that the gas canister had been removed so we had to cook our pasta over a fire that we made--it was really fun and I think it made the food taste better!

The only drawback to Las Alturas are the chiggers--Carlos and I were covered with extremely itchy chigger bites after only 1 day of being in the forest here. Next time, we will try using sulfur powder/soap to stave off these annoying critters.

Las Cruces miscellanea

I have finally uploaded the rest of my photos from Carlos' and my Costa Rica trip. Expect two more Costa Rica posts: this one showing some of the cool random things around Las Cruces Biological Station, and another talking about our trip to a higher elevation satellite site called Las Alturas.

Las Cruces is a new favorite field station of mine. I really enjoy the calm, quiet atmosphere (especially compared to La Selva) and there are so many amazing animals and plants nearby that it is the perfect place for me to conduct my research. I will be back again this summer (mid-late July) with my course and I plan to conduct some more work using SNAX.