So long… Fare well…

Saying goodbye, as I try not to do often, was very hard. I was able to say goodbye the landscape slowly, as we hiked down the mountain side on Tuesday. I could steadily ease myself into urbanity, from rural settings as well cruised along in the bus on Wednesday. I enjoyed each and every moment of the last night in San Jose with everyone, but there is always a point in which you find yourself hugging your good friend one last time. There is always that one point when watching your companions walk around the corner and out of your sight, wondering if you may ever meet again.

Wednesday night, we said our goodbyes. We sat down to dinner for the final time as a family, and we even got to celebrate two birthdays, Nate’s and Helenna’s. There were many tears, and just as many jokes and laughter.

The next morning brought more tears as five of us boarded the early shuttle to the airport, to catch our flights. I watched each one of these friends board their respective planes, and fly off, back into their normal lives.

Although I was excited to see my real family and friends again, I could not hold back the months of memories that I now held deep down as a part of my soul. Culture shock, they say is what gets you when you return back from a faraway place… and I will say that I have experienced this. But what I will most remember, forever about my time in Costa Rica, are the many people who came together as one family, in happiness and times of trial, and helped me to make the most of my time away from home.

Thank you to all who made this possible…

Brett, Ross, Nate, Rob, and Kevin – May your strengths, hearts for adventure and longings for a challenge take you to the ends of the earth, and guide you to better our world.

Tate, Erin, Tracy, Rose, Helenna, Hannah, Meghan, Amy, Laura and Melanie – May each of you in your loveliness and feminine beauty, follow your heart felt passions to send you forth, as explorers to redefine our world.

The CIEE staff and Monteverde community members – May your longing to teach, guide and care for students never end.

My family (left to right): Joshua (nephew), Albino (Dad), a niece, sister-in-law, Mauricio (brother), Ana (best tica mother in Costa Rica), not pictured- Davis (brother), Gloriana (sister), Yerlin (sister), Jeffrey (brother-in-law)

And just so everyone knows, this blog does not end here… I plan to continue my toe-ed shoe adventure elsewhere, and will keep you updated.

One last hike...

On Tuesday morning, we said goodbye to our host family for the last time and began our last journey, destined for San Jose on Wednesday evening.

Beginning by taxi van, we were transported to the Santa Elena preserve uphill from Monteverde and right along the Continental Divide. From there, our long, and I mean long, hike began. Fortunately it was almost all downhill from there. After about 30 minutes we arrived at the San Gerardo station, on the Atlantic slope, for a mid morning coffee break. Since I don’t drink much coffee, I went for a quick jog around the shortest trail look. I wanted to give my toe-ed shoes one last run-around on these beautiful trails before the final descent.

We met a couple of park rangers who then helped us to navigate the rest of the way down. And by rest of the way down I mean another 5-6 hour hike. The first couple hours of this were exciting primarily because of the steep declines that our feet had to navigate. More than once I can remember slipping and catching myself with my hands behind me.

On the way down, the lead guide pointed out a unique track, that we quickly determined to have been imprinted that morning by a Puma or mountain lion as we call them in the states. Then, not too far down the trail, we ran into another unique scene. The picture is below…

What seems to have happened, less than a couple of hours before our passing, is this. Sloths like to, for some reason or another, make their way to the bottom of their favorite tree to defecate. Unfortunately, for this little guy, from whom you can only see the fur of now, a Puma wandered along, and brought its appetite. What a crazy circle of life… can’t a sloth just go to the bathroom in peace? This was pretty cool to find though, and not something that you get to see every day in the rainforest.

Then it was time for a quick dip… which led to another quick dip, and other and another, finally tallying as five total river crossings, not including quite a few small creeks and muddy puddles. Oh what fun… and quite refreshing on a warm tropical day.

This is Amy and Flor, modeling how to pour water from your boots, without removing them. Or is this some sort of river dance?

Finally after the long haul, we entered into a pasture, almost as if we were in the film Jurassic Park.

I am sure if we waited long enough, either a brachiosaur or tyrannosaurus rex would have popped over the next hill.

The about picture is one some pretty sweet Oreopendula woven nest colony. The birds are related to the Oriels in the states.

At the bottom of our descent, we finally reached Lake Arenal, hopped into a pontoon boat, and crossed to meet up with our mini bus on the other side. Volcano Arenal was off to the South, and was unexpectedly clear of most clouds. That is a rare sight to see.

That evening we stayed at a hot springs resort at the base of the Arenal Volcano. These springs were just what the doctor ordered for all our sore feet and muscles, after a day hike like that. No homework, not tests, just family, laughter and relaxation. Maybe a few water slides as well.

The next morning I woke up early to hike up the hillside and catch a few pictures of the volcano while it was still clear of clouds. While there, I occasionally heard a rumble, which I soon figured out to be large boulders bounding down the steep slopes of Arenal. I am pretty sure I saw a car sized one roll down and crash into the woodlands at the bottom. But no worries, I was a very safe distance away.

As always we didn’t want to leave. But we did slowly load the bus and head toward San Jose.

An infamous tree...

Although my last full day in Monteverde was quite packed with activities, there was one thing that I made sure to get done. We as a class had heard of an infamous strangler fig tree recently that was said to be an epic climb and one that you would never forget. I’ll vouch for that.

A few of us trekked up to the bio-station in search of this tree in the late morning. After a little wandering in the woods, we finally made it to the stream and waterfall that serves as a landmark. Just across the stream and up the nearly vertical hillside, through the roots, and we climbed, and arrived at the base of this fig. This is when we realized it deserves its infamy.

This tree, first of all, is massive; which alone would put it in my top ten favorite tree list. But beyond that, as I can only explain with pictures, the climb is the most unique I have ever attempted. Beginning within the roots of the tree, you peer up into this cavity of a trunk, left by the long gone host tree, upon which the strangler fig had grown years ago.

Once inside the cavern, if it may be called that, you must climb for some 40 feet at about a 45 degree angle. This tunnel is barely large enough to squeeze two human bodies past one another, and displays an intricate weaving of thick roots. This ascent, felt surreal.

Then as you exit from the casm into the light, you realize that you are nearly 100 feet above the stream and waterfall. Looking up, you see that the fig has continued to climb skyward with a thick trunk probably 3-4 in diameter. I climbed this trunk further, until I was within the canopy, with my feet standing upon the horizontal branching, that now collects bits of leaf and debris. The amount of organic matter piling up on the limbs makes a nice soil pathway to wander around through the canopy. It also felt great under my toed-shoes which were crying for joy, that the chance to climb this tree.

The climb down was nearly a cinch, especially once, safely inside the cavernous tree again. The group gathered down at the waterfall to rest, and reimaging what a glorious adventure we just lived. When I am in Monteverde again, I will most definitely be returning to this infamous tree.

The canopy is the mist above is all you can see from the stream.

The calm and the storm…

So you may have noticed that I haven’t written over the last two weeks. I admit that I have not been extremely busy, relatively… but none the less, a lot has happened. The last two weeks have been “dead week” and “finals week.” Thus, just to put it out there I have been studying quite a bit, for 4 tests total. This is highly unusually for me, first of all because at ISU I rarely have 2 final tests… just design projects. I also am not used to studying so much, but these classes this semester have been extremely challenging, in a good way, to where I actually want to study and do well on the test just to make sure I know what I am talking about. So, now I am done with the semester! Just paradise left! Hallelujah!

But what else have I been up to? We still have had classes throughout these weeks, and for my sustainability class we visited two pig farms and one coffee cooperative farm. The pig farms were somewhat of a dichotomy, with Don Jesus’ farm being small and mostly sustainable, compared to the Cheese factory’s pig farm industrial scale with controversial environmental effects. It was interesting to see that both farms took the byproduct of making cheese, whey, and fed it to the pigs.

Oh and Don Jesus also stores the pig poop in a bio-digester with makes a kind of compost, as well as producing methane, a green house gas. But instead of releasing this methane, he pipes it to his wife’s kitchen where it is used to cook! So cool!

Oh yeah, and there was a dog… no wait that is a calf… running loose in the front yard?

The coffee farm was a pleasant adventure… and it was good to see it planted within a agro-forestry setting. Oh yeah and there was sugar cane too! It was so delicious… I might even say that it was too much sugar even for me. But check out the sweet, short video clip below of us pressing the agua dulce out of the cane.

We also took a field trip for my Tropical Conservation Biology lab to see Ex Situ conservation measures, meaning we went to places were animals are raised to protect the species and hopefully released into the wild at some point. We went to the Ranario (Frog thingy) as well as Las Pumas which is a rescue center for animals… especially big cats!

After taking three tests this last week (Spanish was the week before) we had to come up with some ways to celebrate. Fortunately, our professors are really cool, and our biology professor, Florencia, (Flor) from Argentina, invited us over to make dinner and hang out. Flor introduced me to Argentinean liquor called Bols, Dulce de Canela, which is pretty much the caramel with alcohol. I had a hard time putting the bottle down… not because the liquor was so good (though it was), but because the caramel tasted so good. I did control my drinking though, no worries. On the way to Flor’s house we were admiring the thunderstorm out over the Gulf of Nicoya, way down the mountain side. It was a wondrous spectacle.

Saturday morning we decided to go to the 2^nd anniversary of the farmers market. The short video of a youth cultural dance from the feria is below. The colors and movements are quite beautiful.

Then we played soccer, or at least our gringo version of soccer… it was fun none the less. My toe-ed feet were really enjoying their freedom during this game; I would highly recommend toe-ed shoes for soccer any day.

Then later in the afternoon, Tracy and I decided hike up the mountain to the biological station and see if we could find an infamous strangler fig tree. I have heard that it is a unique climb, and everyone know I am not one to pass up the opportunity to stretch my legs by climbing an tree. Unfortunately after 2 hours of hiking up and down and all around the forest on 4 different trails Tracy and I still hadn’t found the tree. Today, Monday, we are going to go again, with revised directions and a renewed spirit of discovery. Wish us luck!

Sunday I went to my last Mass of the semester at 9am, and then spent some time decorating for our family tea time (banana plantation themed). We invited all our host families to join us for some sweets, which were baked by us students, to thank them for such a wonderful semester.

Here are few more random pictures that I wanted to show…

This is Miel (translated as “honey”) one of three cats that stays at our study center. He is a home body, but has the strangest sleeping habits I have ever seen. Scratch that… he is the strangest cat I have ever seen, but is personality is just the thing to make us students smile on a rainy day.

I just like this picture…

This is a fungi… kinda like me right? Ha terrible joke, sorry.

Have I introduced you to the musician of our class yet… this is the skillful Kevin, diddling on the guitar. He has definitely taught me a thing or two about music. And his burly beard continues to grow… it has yet to be trimmed this semester.

Sunday evening was filled with laughs and tears as we reflected upon our 3.5 months here in Costa Rica by watching an 800+ picture, chronological slideshow with music. Our wonderful TA’s put it together for us, and I will say it was pleasing to look back upon this entire semester and see how we have become a close family. We finished the slideshow off with Queens “You can’t stop me now,” (perfectly orchestrated) as well as Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” (a classic) as we huddled together in a circle, laughing, and crying for joy. I felt as though I was at graduation ceremony with friend that I have grown up with all my life! I know I could not have asked for anything more out of this study abroad program… it has give me 10 times more than I expected.

These next few days are packed full, as I prepare to return back to the states and reality… I’ll let you know how it goes… please pray that my flights on the 20^th go well. San Jose-Dallas-Cedar Rapids! Most likely my next post will after I get back.

Bring the rain…

It’s official… the wet season has begun... and almost a month early. The first official downpour occurred last Saturday just as we were all getting back to our homestays. The wets season, mind you just means that there is rain every day, and in large amounts. It does not actually mean the dry season isn’t wet, at least not in Monteverde. Monteverde gets precipitation all year round; in the dry season from the Atlantic/Caribbean and in the wet season from the Pacific. I am really enjoying this weather because it reminds me of spring/summer thunderstorms and downpour in the Midwest. And it smells wonderful.

Other than the rain, this last week has somewhat uneventful… the calm before the storm as some would say. Next week starts our first round of test and final projects.

This is a random picture that I wanted to share for a while now. These improvised spikes are hypothesized to have warded off Giant Sloths many, many years ago... back in the days of mega fauna.

To celebrate our final week of freedom (relatively) we played soccer on Saturday morning! Tracy’s family reserved the “caja” for us just outside of Santa Elena. Now truthfully, a “caja” literally translates into “box” so I was not sure what to expect, nor did I know if we would have much tico competition. When we arrived, I saw just how much ticos love their soccer. The caja rubber padded, astro-turf, ¼ scale soccer field inside of an open aired metal shed. Somewhat skeptically, I got on the field and started to run around, kicking the ball and throwing a frisbee. It felt great, especially under with my toe-ed shoes on! You could slide, fall and kick without having to worry about getting rug burn, or terribly bruising yourself. Ticos really know what they are talking about when it comes to soccer.

We played on the field for an hour, usually 6 on 6. There were a couple of tico family members that showed up to play, but primarily we were just a bunch of gringos pretending like we knew how to play soccer. It was so much fun, and wonderful exercise. Other than biking, hiking and the like, I really haven’t had any direct physical activity while here. Although I wouldn’t call myself out of shape, I really could feel ALL my sore muscles when I woke up Sunday morning.

At one o’clock on Saturday we all piled into vans to go to our final Costa Rican Natural History class with our professor, Mark Wainwright. Our destination, Bajo del Tigre preserve. Just on the edge of Monteverde, this forested area is a mix of ancient dry forest and an old farmstead that is restoring itself to a dry forest. We were there to check out invertebrates as well as anything we could get our hands on. Here are a few picture of our bounty…

This is a weevil… a type of beetle. Look at his funny set of antlers… they aren’t really called that but look pretty sweet non-the-less.

Here is a frog we found in a small pool of water.

And another one… this one is a glass frog… see his innards?

And here is a spider. I learned that not all spiders have eight eyes, and that “daddy long legs” really aren’t spiders. They are” harvestmen,” although there is a true spider called a “daddy long leg” that doesn’t look like the ones thinks of. Just a bit of trivia for you all…

Did I mention that it was raining for almost the entire eight hours we were at Bajo del Tigre? IT was raining so much (as it does in the wet season) that some people were figuring out that their rain jackets really aren’t waterproof… I am glad I had my poncho. The funny thing is that we all went out to eat pizza and pasta at a restaurant on the way back. We were definitely underdressed and way too wet to be there, but the food was way too delicious and warm to pass up at that point.

Saturday was a very long and exhausting day, so I decided to take Sunday off, work on the CIEE t-shirt design and do my blog today… that is after sleeping in till 7am. I know it doesn’t sound like much but compared to 6 o’clock it was heavenly.

This is the artificial wetland that I showed pictures of earlier... it is halfway done. In the foreground you see the sedimentation pool and primary treatment. The back is the actual wetland that will filter the water slowly before releasing it to a stream, hopefully clean.

To all those taking finals… may the Lord be with you, and His mercy be in your professors. I am sure you will do fine! It is almost summer break!