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...