Shrunken creatures & storm events

I just learned we might get a “storm event” tomorrow- 0.15” qualifies here in the rain shadow. Might be out for some sampling, we shall see what the rain gods provide.

Lots to do for the upcoming conference & school in general of course. Some interesting articles forwarded by Streamkeepers, one about how the organisms (wild) in the food web are getting smaller & smaller because of humans- check it out.

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=honey-we-shrunk-the-foodreally-real-2009-01-15

& so it begins

For the second year I attended the annual Nearshore Consortium Technical Meeting last week. This event, presented to involved parties by local researchers, allows for a catch up on various projects, mostly instigated by & involving the pending Elwha dam removals.

Last year this meeting was organized to coincide with a SeaGrant meeting, at that point I was particularly interested in listening to the comments of both the scientific & general community. It was inspiring to hear all the input from people with a deep concern for both the broad issues & our local environment. After a busy year for both SeaGrant & the Puget Sound Partnership the priorities for regaining ecosystem health have been largely established. I see today that Anne has put together a comparison of the priorities of the consortium with these two groups. I think it is going to be an interesting year in the nearshore, seeing how all this information regarding needs begins/ continues to be implemented & organized.

Rebecca & I (& Ron too) were also excited to learn about the paleo-spits of the Elwha. First of all, it’s just a great term, & second an interesting topic. (I am also particularly fond of the related term geomorphology). Detailed studies of the bathymetry around the delta have provided some great images, including those of ancient spits that have been covered by rising sea levels after the glacial maximum. I think there are currently a total of four on the east side of the river delta. Wonder how much climate change it will require to turn Ediz into the 5th…

Long Quarter & Neglected Blog

Well this sure has been a long quarter, one of the most difficult classes I have taken- bioestadidistica (I like the spanish name cuz it sounds like sadist) & then another that was one of the most ambiguous- in terms of grading & clarity of assignments anyway. I did get a lot out of both but spent lots of time frustrated at the same time= also lots of time at Peak's. I actually felt like I did a better job of starting assignments early but ironically it only prevented me from drowning & did not prevent some gpa dings. Now I get to start working on a poster about some of my REU work this quarter & work on some data analysis/ write up of my summer work, as this hasn't got done by itself.

But for more entertaining things- here's a shout out to the lovely Cynthia Rossi, who has joined us on the lovely Olympic Peninsula & is currently freezing in this most beautiful of weather. I made her acquaintance at my favorite jungle research station where she had been living for a couple years & doing GIS work, now she is out here working for the Makah. I met up with her & Scott & we made a most entertaining trip to Sam & Erin's this weekend, it was a little alarming when our late pm approach was met by a bumping house with flashing lights visible through the window, wasn't really prepared for a dance party extravaganza, who knew one could dance in fleece.

Update

I had been away from internet access for sometime so had been unable to post my blogs, but not to worry I have been amassing a collection via word processor & several are ready for release…

Have been having difficulty adjusting to being back in the US & mostly to the lack of sun. Pete & I had a great vacation at the end tho, we will see if I ever get to writing about that.

Check out below- dates are when older ones were written.

A Little Wallowing…

Bye to Brenda & Bill

I have been at Laguna del Larto Lodge near Boca Tapada for about 10 days now. I am not quite as enthusiastic on the birds & the bugs do indeed still lay in wait to attack me later in the evenings. But that doesn’t change the fact that I love it here & am sad to be leaving so soon.

Brenda & Bill left yesterday, they were headed to La Selva to drop off some equipment & samples for long term storage, & from there they were to head to the airport (today). Already I miss Brenda’s cheeky self. We have had an amazing summer together &- at the risk of sounding sappy & sentimental- a summer that (my words fall short here) won’t be repeated or outdone.

So now it's time to say goodbye to Shea who's heading off for further adventures before returning home, & then everyone else too... muy triste...

Laguna- The Arrival

Brenda & I were sorry to say goodbye to La Selva, our little room & all the great people we met there. Time to move on the next stage of the journey, we had been there for a while by now, but bittersweet to say goodbye I think. I do hope to be back someday...

I am currently sitting on the lovely veranda of Laguna del Lagarto Lodge, not really that far from La Selva, as the crow flies (maybe 60km I heard today?), but as it turns out at least an 8 hour journey for us yesterday- actually from San Jose but back to that story at another time & post.

So I am in heaven- I have seen about a thousand different chestnut mandibled & keel-billed toucans by this point our travels, about the same number of Montezuma’s oropendulas (related to the Oriole with super cool hanging nest baskets), but not like this. Sitting in a real chair in the shade, under a fan, with no ants crawling on me, no spiders, mites, chiggers etc, not even any mosquitos right now (okay so I did just have to remove a spider form arm, but really this is nothing), with coffee & water at hand, not 1, but 2 pairs of binocs & the BIG Costa Rica bird guide- no little dog-eared book that will fit in the ever-present fanny pack. The positioning of this veranda is relatively high on a hill so the crowns of the trees are pretty much right in front of us, so here I sit, observing the details of the oropendula’s orange tipped beak & pink facial skin- like I said, heaven.

I know that many of you have not caught the bird enthusiasm bug & will not understand my previous plight but I am going to tell you about it anyway. La Selva is an amazing place, with an incredible amount of variety in the birds & other wildlife, maybe in reality more than here, but the whole time I was there I just wanted to pull up a chair in the big clearing between the labs & housing & grab my water & coffee & bird book & take the time to look the freaking birds up in the book, since I am a bird-watching newbie. But this dream was just not realistic, as the ants would have started crawling up my chair a long time ago & probably would have actually carried me away by now, among other problems. I can’t wait to see the macaws- both the Scarlet & Green.

Brenda & I had a sweet paddle through one of the lagoons after breakfast, just sat out in the beautiful hot weather until it got to be too much. Now, towards the end of this journey, I have my first jungle sunburn, not much sun makes it through the clouds & to the jungle floors of La Selva.

Tortugero & the Journey

We (me, Brenda & Shea- let’s call it a haphazardly assembled trio- full of contradiction) arrived here yesterday evening after a semi-insane day of bus travel. Brenda & I started the day, after a little coffee & cake that is, at the Jade Museum, where we proceeded to get jaded out, a good thing of course.

We had arrived in San Jose after a lovely visit to Tortugero, where many tourists come to watch the Green sea turtles nesting. The park has worked out a pretty efficient & relatively low impact way for tourists to observe the actual nesting, park scouts are posted on the beach with their red lights, they locate the turtles & then radio guides from the town who are in charge of getting the tourists to the turtles in a polite & safe manner. The turtles will turn around & not lay their eggs if they are confronted with lights, they will also not bury the eggs well if they are interrupted in the nesting process, but they go into some kind of a trance when they are actually laying the eggs & people are generally able to gather around the “business end” without causing problems.

These turtles were pretty amazing, I think the holes that they dig impressed me the most, they are just about Volkswagen bug sized, dug with flippers that obviously (well obvious when your are watching the process) are much better suited to the sea than the land.

Brenda & I discussed the ethics of this turtle watching phenomena, as we both had some mixed feelings of a sort of invasive voyeurism etc. But these turtles were facing extinction without a different understanding & interpretation of them & their importance in the world- by Ticos & foreigners alike. They have always been important to the native people but in order to preserve the species it has been necessary to perceive the significance of & challenges to their long-term survival. In a way, the turtles support Tortugero & Tortugero supports the turtles. This is not to say that I don’t have concerns about this tiny town on the canal & it’s impacts, with the heavy tourist traffic. Two-stroke engines abound on the canals & I don’t feel too assured that the sewage treatment facilities of this narrow strip of land are equipped for the amount of traffic present. But this is all constantly a work in progress & Costa Rica & its people have shown an amazing concern & ability to adapt & work in order to protect its amazing natural wealth.

Estupido Gringo Tourist Moment

That said, let us talk about the Haphazardly Assembled Trio’s most really stupid tourist moment. After a long morning of travel northwest from La Selva to Tortugero, actually about 9 hours including bus wait times etc, we checked out the town a bit & walked on the lovely beach, chilaxed in general & then returned to the beach- after dark. Recall the bit about the turtles turning around in the face of light & disturbance. Yes, this trio of environmental science/ study students was actually kicked off the beach- by a park employee- while in the process of trying to disturb an endangered species.

Of course (I first thought this was in our defense but in actuality screams Foreign Tourist) we have a very Estados Unidos perception of National Parks. Both Shea & I were convinced that the beach directly in front of the town would not be part of the protected area & turtles wouldn’t be using it much due to the level of disturbance present- WRONG- fortunately this entire beach is actually off limits to everyone that is not under direct park supervision during turtle season- way to go Costa Rica, bad us! Live & learn. (For the record we did have our lights off & Brenda was not convinced of the legality of our actions).

Boca- The Journey

The trip from La Selva to Tortugero did require 9hrs, 3 buses & a boat ride, but it still didn’t quite compare to the trip from San Jose to Laguna. In general we did pretty well navigating the bus system, Brenda did an awesome job researching the numerous buses required & we pooled our espanol words whenever we needed to ask for information. The public transportation here rocks, by the way, you can get just about anywhere by bus.

After 2 nights at Tortugero we headed to San Jose bright & early (0600) & made it to San Jose smoothly by ~1130. We stayed 1 night at Hostel Pangaea in San Jose, pretty cool place, mostly full of Europeans, North Americans & some Canadians, nice bar on the roof- a bit noisy but I was too exhausted to care. After hitting a couple of museums & a market Sun pm & Mon am we hit the road again. There may have been a way to get from Tortugero to Boca without hitting San Jose, but it is much easier & sometimes only possible to locate the buses to the big city.

This leg of the journey was to be one of highs & lows/ ups & downs (literally & figuratively). We were off to a pretty good start after getting pointed in the right direction & walking to the bus station from the hostel, we did manage to hit a pretty gritty part of town on our way to the bus stop that serves Cuidad Casada (aka San Carlos) but arrived without incident. This is a pretty town & a pretty bus ride through higher elevations. I made a friend on the bus, with my poor Spanish & his poor English the precise details of the conversation are a little sketchy but I am hoping to practice my Spanish & fill in the details via email. I am fairly certain he was a DJ for a local radio station.

Things started to get a little trickier after this point. This is the stage of the journey in which the buses began to be particularly crowded & we had to stand much of the time, while dealing with our backpacks. There was a little confusion regarding whether or not we were actually on the bus headed to Pital, as a kindly gentlemen was trying to explain to us (in espanol of course) that there was actually a large rock slide running thru the middle of the street & we would have to change buses at this point. The bus just went to the end of the line at the rockslide; we walked across & got on the bus waiting on the other side. Well somewhere in all this madness I managed to part with all of my cash- around 35,000 colones/ $70. I am not sure what happened, but I know that I wasn’t paying attention by then (& had already left the infamous fanny pack open at one point), I am not convinced that I actually lost it, I think it had some help disappearing, but I certainly wasn’t keeping tabs.

So I was pretty pissed off at myself/ my carelessness by this point & the bus station in Pital was an experience. We were faced with a 2hr + wait here, as these buses running to progressively smaller towns don’t run as often. There were a few sketchy characters just hanging out at the bus stop so we eventually decided to just head for a beer. The crowd on our return looked much more legitimate & we garnered the attention of the entire throng with more English/ Spanish attempts to make sure we were getting on the right bus- amarillo grande- aka big yellow school bus. We met several more people that were genuinely concerned that we arrive at the right place, the owners of the great little bar/ restaurant in Pital- where we also had some totally delicious Sopa Marisco- let us use their cell phone to call the lodge to let them know we were headed in on the bus. (We were a little confused when the person on the other end of the line told Brenda that they would be there at between 7 & 8, didn’t realize it would actually take that long to cover the distance).

The jam packed bus headed out we hit the gravel road that we were to travel on for the next almost 3hrs. It started pouring rain as darkness fell & the thunder & lightening hit. Once the bus started to get stuck going up a hill & had to back down & try again- with success! Brenda spent much of the ride with her arm extended upward in order to keep the window up & prevent getting soaked. By this time my sense of humor had returned, mostly thanks to all the kind, helpful & laughing people on the bus- including my awesome traveling companions Shea & Brenda who were both very sympathetic regarding my cash woes. Lesson learned I hope!

Confession

Side note here- I have to admit something that some of you will be really disappointed in- I AM ADDICTED TO DEET. I like to live & breathe it on a daily basis. Okay, I've said it, say & think what you will. I know that the bugs could be a lot worse, I actually expected them to be a lot worse. But keep in mind that I spent my entire youth covered in itchy red scabbed spots & scars. I still get chewed up at home & have become covered in bites once again here in Costa Rica. I obviously just taste really sweet (or I just stink). So I get up, spray on the DEET, spray on some DEET, go to dinner, then roll around in bed with it at night & as god is my witness it has helped!

My ankles have been swollen to an unhealthy size from ant bites and I look like I am suffering from the worse case of adult chicken pox you have ever seen. So what do I do? I get up, spray on the DEET, brush my teeth with DEET, spray on some more DEET, go to dinner, wash my bed sheets in the DEET, spray on even more DEET and slip in between the saturated sheets for a night of DEET filled dreams & as god as my witness it is working!!!!!