Cattle Trucks and Real Beds

So surprise, surprise, I got way too caught up in experiencing the majesty of the waterfall completely lost track of time. Hannah, another waterfall-enthusiast friend Carly, and myself stayed back for one last jump off the rocks, which turned into 7 last jumps. We ended up having to haul our butts back to the bus in half the time it had taken us to hike to the waterfall in the first place (rough, let me tell you). Sweating profusely, we collapsed in to the bus and promptly fell asleep.

Riding in a Cattle Truck

About an hour later I was woken up by the bus jarring to a stop. We appeared to be in the middle of a forest on a dirt road.
"Well okay children, the bus can't make it any further, so grab your cameras and towels and get off. We're taking a cattle truck to the beach to watch the sunset," our director informed us. We all laughed nervously, exchanging is this a joke? looks, and collected our things. Sure enough, a large truck with a blue tarp-covered bed awaited us, so we all climbed inside (boy was that a snug fit!). We lurched down a pothole-filled road for about 15 minutes, completely unable to see where we were going when all of a sudden the truck stopped. After untangling ourselves from each other we fell out of the truck on to the most beautiful beach I've ever seen (I realize that I've said that about every beach so far, but this one was really the most beautiful I swear).

Because the beach is only accessible via foot or cattle truck tourists never visit it, and as a result it was pristine. The sand was flawless, the waves rolled in perfectly, and the clouds were clearing to reveal the most perfect pink sky.
Amidst our ooh's and aahh's, we realized that our teachers were unloading coolers from the cattle truck behind us. Not thinking much of it (we are perpetually fed here. Seriously, when in doubt, it's snack time) we ripped off our shorts and tshirts and ran to the water. After frolicking for 10 minutes we heard shouts coming from the sand. Turns out the students who were feeling a little water-averse after our scare at Playa Naranjo had stayed on the beach and had decided to investigate the coolers. "Guys! guys! There's beer in here!" We all rocketed out of the water and descended on the coolers. Sure enough, our wonderful, wonderful teachers had packed us a cooler of Costa Rica's finest national beer--Imperial. We each grabbed a can or two and ran back to the water. The next couple hours were quite possibly the most perfect in my life; floating in the salty waves, drinking beer, and watching the sunset.
Once the sun was well below the horizon we all clambered back into our cattle truck, sang songs and laughed the whole bus ride to a seafood restaurant where I had my first brush with ceviche--a raw fish (I had shrimp) dish made with lime juice. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Back at camp, our director broke his guitar out and we continued singing the classics--the Beatles, choice 90's tunes, and a few Disney songs made it in to the mix--late in to the night. The next morning we tore down camp, packed up the bus, and began the long journey to the place I've been writing from for the past 3 weeks; Monteverde.

Margay (I think...) at the WRC

After a brief stop at a Wildcat Rehabilitation Center, our bus pulled into the parking lot of a hotel on the side of a mountain. A hotel? We all looked at each other quizzically, I thought we were living at a research station? I mean a hotel is cool, but unexpected... 
"All right children, the bus can't make it up this hill so--" our professor began
"CATTLE TRUCK TIME!" we all yelled excitedly. He just shook his head at us incredulously.

This is class--leaning about
coffee/banana organic farming from
a finquero with a machete the size of my leg.

"No, it's time to get used to mountain life children. You can put your stuff in the cattle truck, but you, you will be walking to the station from here." 20 minutes after a straight uphill hike, the research station came in to view.
It's a wooden building about 1500m up the side of the mountain that houses all 22 of us, our kitchen and eating room, and our classroom/library/study room where I'm currently typing.

Class time includes eating
fresh sugar cane from the
 machete-wielding man's farm
when you're in Costa Rica.

I live in the cloud forest, so frequently we're completely engulfed in clouds and it's impossible to see out the window, like right now for instance. Sometimes during lectures clouds will come streaming in through the windows, and when the sun sets the clouds turn pink--it's like I live in cotton candy!
Days here are always different based on whether class is being held in the forest, in the classroom, or somewhere around the grounds of the field station. However, they all follow a general formula structured around meals (shocker: my life revolved around food!). Breakfast is at 7am, followed by class until snack time at 10.

Milking Cows is a part of class in Costa Rica and Wisconsin

Then we have more class until lunch at noon, a siesta until 1pm and more class until 2 when we leave for our classes at the Spanish immersion school down the mountain.

Guitar-player and Professor Alan
 "eating" an owl butterfly--also class.

We have class there until 4 when it's, you guessed it, snack time again! Class ends around 5:45 and a huge van takes us back up the mountain for dinner by 6pm.
 I get to sleep in a real bed (on the top bunk where the dreams are better, obviously) and take real showers. There is always a HUGE pot of hot coffee in the kitchen and someone does my laundry and cleans my bathroom.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am a princess.

Laying in the middle of the road for a comical photo op while you're
supposed to be collecting data for a group project--class.

How to take a shower by lantern-light

We left the hotel bright and early (after a delicious shower and some highly unfortunate gastrointestinal issues) and stopped at Carara National Park to learn about some species. Sadly due to the aforementioned issues, I don’t really remember much about the park, the species, or anything other than the public bathroom stall (which was quite lovely, actually). Once those cleared up and my classmates appeared from the woods, we boarded the bus and embarked on longest road trip of my entire life. Literally we were on the bus (coach, obvi) for the entire 2^nd of September, due to rainy season construction (whoever thought that was a good idea is a moron). However, it was nice to catch up on my sleep!

When we arrived in Santa Rosa National Park it was pouring and pitch black. However, my expert camping skills shone again, and my new tentie Caitlin and I got our tent up without a struggle.

Emerging from our tent in the morning was an…enlightening experience, as the sun had risen, the rain had stopped, and we could now see our campsite for the first time. Someone (a saint, possibly) had erected a massive tarp over a picnic table cluster, where we would eat all our meals and have many lectures. We spent the week adjusting to living without an ocean, enjoying some incredible cooking, and exploring our new home.          
On the 5^th, we had another long hike. We left in small groups with instructions to “absorb the forest.” Also, that if we “found ourselves discussing things like the NFL or facebook, to shut up for 15 minutes, and refocus.” The 15.6-mile round trip hike wasn’t over any treacherous trails or anything, but it was long and had some lovely views. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on the bus (don’t worry, it has been recovered), so I was unable to capture any images of the beautiful old forest, but my memories are crystal clear! Around 11am we found ourselves walking on sand, and pretty soon Playa Naranjo came in to view. The waves were HUGE, so naturally I wasted no time stripping off my clothes and going to play. We all laughed and body surfed (sort of) for an hour and had a fabulous time, until the waves got bigger. I was just thinking it was about time to head in, when I hear a scream from behind me. One of the girls had gotten swept up by a wave, and couldn’t swim hard enough to get herself free of the tide’s pull. Another girl and I were within a couple strokes, so we worked together to get all three of us safely in to shore. Never have I ever been so grateful for my lifeguarding and swimming training. Once we were safe on the sand, a few shaky breaths later and I was up and playing ultimate Frisbee with the rest of the gang. Our professors joined in, and soon the whole group was playing. It was so much fun! But soon it was time to head back.

The hike that had been lovely and pleasant on the way down to the beach turned into a brutal 1.5-hour hike uphill. At the top of the hill about half way home there was a gorgeous vista where we stopped to watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean where we had just been playing. Again, I lamented my forgetful brain and the absence of my camera. We continued the hike back in the dark and made it safely back to camp, thanks to our handy dandy headlamps (which also saved my life in the showers later, but that’s a different story)! And in what was the best turn of events possible, we arrived at camp to fresh grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup!

Two days later we found ourselves back on the bus and headed to Rincon de la Vieja, one of the several volcanoes in Costa Rica. After the park ranger gave us his schpeel about what we could and could not do in the park, we were given freedom to hike wherever we wanted—the bubbling mud pits or the waterfall.

Now I love mud as much as the next seven year old, but really if all I could do was take pictures of it (my camera had been recovered at this point), I decided the waterfall was higher on my priority list. I hiked to the waterfall with my friend, and future roommate, Hannah. The hike was a lot of straight up and straight down, through streams and across a large valley, framed by mountains. Hannah and I spent the hike bonding over our mutual love of horses, nature, Avatar and Harry Potter, and made quick time to the waterfall.

If you would like to hear the story of my time at the waterfall, you’ll have to ask me in person as there are far too many emotions and pure unadulterated elation involved for me to ever properly explain it via the blog-o-sphere. It just wouldn't be fair to the experience.

It just doesn't get any better than this...

 The 30^th of August marks what would be the most magical day of my life (until approximately a week later, but hang on that’s a different story). Our favorite boat drivers from Sierpe met us on the beach at 8am and took us on a not-as-crazy ride 17km across the ocean to Isla del Caño. On the way, we stopped at a reef just off shore to snorkel. 
The coral was gorgeous, the fish were numerous, and the water was lovely. I saw little yellow pufferfish, a parrotfish (actually maybe it was a grouper?) and a Dory. My underwater camera survived its first true test, but perhaps not surprisingly, taking pictures through snorkel goggles is a bit of a challenge, so most of the photos are clear blue nothingness. So you’re just going to have to trust me, I saw some really cool stuff. Until, that is, the jellies arrived. However, this story requires much wild gesturing, so you’ll have to wait until we’re face to face (or skyping) to hear it.Once we arrived on the island we spent the day hiking to an incredible vista, playing on the beach, and learning all about island biodiversity—turns out lectures on the beach are exactly my learning style (surprise, surprise?). On the boat ride home we saw something so cool that I cannot accurately record how excited I was. I couldn’t even breathe to take a picture (sorry for those looking for evidence). Skype me or wait til January for this story…

That night the tide came up so high that may of my friends’ tents got soaked! Luckily, my tentie, Julia, and I are camper extraordinaires, so our tent was safe. 

That afternoon our professors gave us a list of organisms and sent us on a wild goose chase (a wild coati chase?) through the rainforest, with the prize for the most interesting photos of the scavenger hunt items being an extra drink at dinner the next night. This prize never came to fruition, and being that my and Julia’s photos were the clear winners, I was quite disappointed. 

Jaguaripus juliata

A quetzal...obviously.

However, using my camp counselor intuition, I saw through this thinly veiled “educational activity” for the truth of what it was—an efficient method of getting us out of our professors’ hair for a couple hours. 

Touché guys, touché. Although we had been bamboozled, Julia and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and saw all sorts of cool things, a couple of anoles, a jaguar, and a large bird, possibly a quetzal?

Norops spp. 

All joking aside, we were quite impressed with our own tech-savvy when we used our binoculars and the extensive zoom on Julia’s camera to get a crisp, clear picture of some macaws that were nesting in a tree some miles away. 

There are macaws in that tree I swear

Because the tide had once again come in, by the time we finished our scavenger hunt and were ready to cross our little estuary and had once again become a deep rushing river. Rather than rest for an hour, miss dinner, and wait for the tide to go down Julia, myself, and a couple of our other stuck-friends left our backpacks and boots on the bank and leapt into the river. Laughing, we all made it safely across. For those of you scoffing at our decision-making (why wouldn’t we just enjoy a relaxing hour on the river bank and swim across when it was safe?) you clearly don’t know me well. Me? Pass up food? You can’t be serious.

And for those of you concerned about the belongings we left behind, (Jim and Joan) don’t worry; after dark (when the tide was lower) we headed back across the river with our professors, off the trail, and into a swamp. We found snakes, frogs, and a giant toad that made a noise like a crying baby when our professor shook it around a little bit.

We packed up our camping supplies the next morning and got ready to leave Corcovado. The boats showed up around 7am and we had them all loaded up by 8. However, the tide had gone way down since the boats had arrived, and now only a foot of water covered the sand where the river (where the boats had easily parked an hour before) emptied into the ocean. The last clean outfit I had saved for this day of traveling was quickly salt-a-fied as our entire group jumped in the river, found a good pushing spot on each boat, and shoved all three of them over the sand, out into the ocean, and scrambled aboard. After these initial shenanigans, our boat ride back to Sierpe was smooth. We boarded our favorite bus, made a quick stop at an old plantain plantation (a plantain-tion?) and arrived in a little surf town, Dominical, for lunch. Our restaurant had a ceiling made of surfboards—ones that people from around the world had broken while surfing, signed and nailed up there. Years and years of great surf stories hung over us as I enjoyed the first “American” food I’d had in a week—a bacon cheeseburger. Around 6 we arrived in…well I can’t remember what the city was called, but our hotel was fabulous. I don’t really remember much about the accommodations, but the shower was incredible. It was the first totally naked, hot shower that I’d had in a week and it was absolutely glorious. I took one upon arrival, on before bed, and one before we boarded the bus the next morning. Excessive? Absolutely not. 

So my front door opens to the beach, and out my backdoor is the rainforest…

The story continues…

On August 26^th our mangrove drivers took us on the wildest boat ride I’ve ever been on (yes Rausch, even wilder than the one where I bit a hole in my lip) across the Pacific Ocean to Corcovado. We had to take boats because the park is so protected that roads cannot be built through it to the ranger station on the beach. After roller-coastering us across the Pacific, the drivers landed us safely on the beach and we spent the next 20 minutes scrambling to unload all of our

new friends just hanging out in our
front yard--aka the beach

supplies before the tide left. I’ve always respected the olympic beach volleyball players, but unpacking those boats took that to a whole new level—running on sand is hard! Once the boats were safely out to sea, we set up our tents and I was really able to absorb the status of my life. I would be spending the next 6 days living and learning in one of the most beautiful national parks in the world.  I was surrounded on one side by the most beautiful beach I had ever seen, and on the other by vivid green rainforest. At that moment, I was convinced that life couldn’t get any better (not surprisingly, I have several of these moments daily).

We spent our first morning hiking in the rainforest with our professors, and decided to venture out on our own in the afternoon. With the TAs’ careful directions, all 22 of us headed up river (oh, did I mention that our campsite also had a freshwater river next to it that emptied into the ocean just outside my tent window?) towards a waterfall.  We were clipping right along, chatting and having a great time, when all of a sudden it started to pour. Nobody in the group wanted to turn around, so we pressed on, crossing the river, tumbling over rocks, laughing the whole way. The further and more damp (damper?) that we got, the more appetizing the river/mini waterfalls looked, so that day we never made it to the big waterfall. 

I jumped down that waterfall in the back and landed
right here

We swam and slid down the river, jumping down the mini waterfalls until we got to a large, slower moving stretch of river.  Everyone was content to keep on floating, however my internal alarms started going off (thanks for instilling very LOUD ones in me, Mom) and I made everyone get out and hike back to camp.  Turns out that my internal alarms are in excellent working order (kudos to you, Mom) as the TA’s informed us that the area where I hauled everyone out of the water was the beginning of crocodile territory!

We spent the next day hiking in smaller groups collecting data for professor-directed experiments and my group made it to the big waterfall! The afternoon was spent analyzing the data, playing in the ocean, and I took my first outdoor shower right on the beach! I’m convinced this is the best way to get clean.

On the 29^th we embarked on our first big hike to Playa Llorona. We had a great time on the trail, keeping each other hydrated, trying to catch anoles, crossing little rivers, getting way too close to spider monkey territory (they threw poo at us to let us know this) and sinking knee deep in mud. After what seemed like an eternity (4 hours) we arrived at the most beautiful beach I had ever been to (for the record, every beach I’ve been to on this trip has been prettier than the one before it) and played all afternoon. 

Literally this place looked like one of those “beach theme” screen savers, I could not even believe it was real. A little ways down the beach there was a light waterfall where we showered and filled up our water bottles before hiking back to camp. 

Because the tide had come in, some swimming pools had formed upstream in one of the rivers we had to cross. Naturally I got my river otter on and spent a couple hours with a few of my friends cannon-balling off some nearby rocks, floating, and playing in the freshwater pools. As the sun was setting we started hiking back to camp, however while we had been playing the tide had still been coming in and when we reached the river that separated our camp from the trailhead we were faced with quite a conundrum; the students that had kept hiking had only had to tread through waist-deep water, but now the little estuary had become a running river way over my head. It soon became apparent that the only way we were going to get across this river was by swimming—backpacks, boots, and all. We hung all our equipment where the ocean breeze could dry it overnight, and spent the night stargazing.  

My name is Emily and I'm a zip-off pants addict.

Hello Future self and Current Reader Audience! I am finally out of the pacific coastal rainforests, and up in the mountains of central Costa Rica in a cloud forest. I'll be living at the research station here for the next couple weeks, will have regular internet access, and  am going to attempt to share the incredible adventures that have filled my life for the past two weeks over the next couple of posts. 


My last day in San Jose was spent exploring the city and chatting with the locals about their environmental footprint (to find out yours click here) in spanish, which was challenging, but really fun! I met an inorganic chemistry professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica,made friends with the coffee man at el mercado central, and enjoyed walking around the city sipping my free coffee. 
On the 25th of August we boarded a coach bus headed for Sierpe, but stopped at the Basilica of the Patron Saint of Costa Rica, la Virgen de Los Angeles, in Cartago. It is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. 

The entire inside is hand-carved mahogany, and we were lucky enough to arrive as a service was starting. Although I don't call myself a Catholic, there was definitely something holy and beautiful about the place. We also visited the stream of holy water in the backyard of the church and I blessed myself, hoping la Virgen will protect me against anything the rainforest was about to throw at my immune system. I'm not sure if that's really how the whole holy-water-catholic-blessing thing works, but I'm pretty sure Jesus understood the intent. 
After Cartago we drove up a mountain to Cierro de la Muerta, a mountain top with incredible views, many villages and tons of horses. Needless to say, all my new friends were made quite aware of my horse obsession on this bus trip. After hiking up the mountain a little way, we had our first lecture and learned about several mountain plants. Some humming birds joined us for lunch at a little mountain side restaurant, and we boarded the bus again. We arrived in Sierpe just before dinner, in time to witness some fire extinguisher training outside our hotel...at least I think it was training. 
After dinner one of the local dogs, whom we named Gato, joined us at the hotel's open air bar/restaurant for several rounds of our group's favorite game and evening class. The best part about having class in a restaurant/bar? Beer with lecture!
It turns out, Sierpe is located right on el Rio Sierpe, one of the premier mangrove habitats in Costa Rica. We spent the day boating up and down the river, pausing for lectures on each type of mangrove and all the species they host like 3-toed sloths, crabs, and crocodiles! 

The other 2 boats, getting up close and
personal with the mangroves

After a long morning our boat drivers took us to a patch of red mangroves, and dropped us off on the exposed mangrove roots, and took our professors to the other side of the patch. We all played "don't touch the water" tag across the mangrove cluster, and spent a relaxing hour swimming in the river and cannon-balling off the roots. That afternoon we packed all our camping equipment on the boats and took a crazy ride across the ocean, to el Parque Nacional Corcovado where we spent the next 6 days camping on the beach, playing in the ocean, and hiking in the rainforest.  I'll fill you in on all of these adventures in my next post, but my journal is down in my room by my bed (you have no idea how wonderful that sentence is to say after 2 weeks of "in my tent next to my sleeping bag) and I can hear a Beyonce dance party starting in the study room down the hall...