Las Cruces + La Selva, Costa Rica

Carlos and I have been in Costa Rica now for a little over two weeks (and we have a little less than one week left here for a grand total of 3 weeks in the country) and we are currently in La Selva Biological Station. At the start of our trip, we journeyed all the way to San Vito to finish up a project at Las Cruces (agoutis + seeds with chemical defenses) and were there for about 5 days. We've been getting a lot of things done here at La Selva and we even made a 2-day trip up the Volcan Barva transect to 2000 m elevation to collect some beetles and mites from the cold high elevation site where we work. Here are a few photos from our trip so far!

One of my agouti friends at Las Cruces--right outside our cabina!

Another agouti friend interacting with my marked seeds. While this happened, a group of Costa Rican kids was watching and yelling (translated from Spanish): "it's eating the research of the researcher--SO CUTE!" and that was the best!

One of my Astrocaryum palms from my dissertation planted in the lab clearing--it is now producing fruits at about 6 years old!

Carlos ready to look for some beetles in a Heliconia:

The forest at 2000 m elevation on the Barva transect:

We leave here on the 22nd and turn right back around on the 25th to fly to Mexico for a couple of weeks to look for a place to live in Xalapa and to get paperwork signed (for residency visas and INECOL). This is a busy summer for travel!