Day 3: Hike, Hike, Bird.

Buenos Dias! Saludos desde Costa Rica (Good morning and greetings from Costa Rica)!!  Today, our day was exhausting and full of excitement.  We began Monday ( May 27th) with nature shaking our bunk-beds because we experienced our first earthquake in Costa Rica (according to Adrian, our tour guide, the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.7.) But, no worries family and friends, we are all safe and sound. Some of us (Patty and Abby) didn't even notice their bunk beds swaying from side to side and just kept right on snoozing while others were cautiously calling for Dr Mo!  This 3:40am wake up call did not prevent us from quickly calming down and falling back to sleep.

Two and a half hours later  we were ready to birdwatch with Dr. Mo, Margarita: our amazing biologist, and Adrian.  Equipped with knee high rubber boots, binoculars, cameras and water bottles were set out to enjoy a sunrise and the sounds of the forest coming to life.  While we were out, we saw beautiful birds - some of which we recognized from our "Mo bird teaches" back in Arizona and others that were brand new. As Mo would call it, our bird list 'firsts.'   It was an amazing walk as well as a learning experience. The birds in the Cloud Forest range in size, color and shape.  Margherita is an amazing birder,   she can hear a few notes of the call and identify the bird making the sounds.  She and Dr Mo were quick to locate the birds, help us find them in our binoculars and spotting scope then show us in their bird books so we could confirm and place in our memory banks the color, size and shape!  The colors of the birds in the cloud forest are vibrant!  As the bird flitters to and fro, they flash their colors.  





We learned that usually it is the male bird that is most colorful so they can attract and gain the attention of the female.  In no time we had accumulated thirty-eight different species we had spotted!





We returned from our bird-watching experience and had a traditional Costa Rican breakfast back at the Lodge.  The breakfast consisted of fruit, scrambled eggs, rice, beans and hand-made corn tortillas ( note, these tortillas are quite different than the Mexican tortilla). Nevertheless, they were delicious!  Along with foods, we had costa rican coffee and juice.

Soon we were off on our next adventure.  Our morning hike was to be a hike through the Cloud Forest.  The goal was to experience the flora and fauna up close and personal. Though we thought that we were going to start our walk by walking through a cow             

pasture, we ended up walking through what seemed like the opening scene in the movie The Sound of Music.  The ground was soggy from the early morning rain and normal misty conditions.  We sloshed along watching out steps and enjoying the immense beauty of our surroundings.  After about 40 minutes, which included Dory getting her boot stuck in the mud, we came to a beautiful look out.  We were high up and were able to see the thick rainforest in the distance.  It was so gorgeous that so many photos were taken, we felt like  
     we were going to prom. We started through what is known as the Cloud Forest of Monserrat. On our journey we walked through a narrow path filled with rocks and mud that at times reached up to our knees.  

The jungle was dense and the amount of light reduced drastically.  Every once is awhile we would come to an area where a tree had fallen and the sunlight streamed through the opening enhancing the different colors of green.......   The the next thing we knew Adrian was missing from the pack.  When he rejoined the group we learned he experience a wasp battle and the wasp won!  He was the proud owner of a wasp sting and welt. Though Heather was bummed that we didn't find any snakes everyone's bladder had moved from empty to full and it was time to start heading back.  On our way back to the lookout we were once again stopped to see a rare bird that was playing hide and no see.  However,  with  Margherita bird calls and Mo's ambition they were able to track it down.  Though the hike in was pretty easy going, mostly down hill, going back to the learning center was a much bigger challenge, it was all up, up and up.  It was now time to climb up those rolling hills, which basically felt like a 90 degree angle. Though many of us fell in mud, ran out of breath, and required Fabio's rescue efforts we all made in back in relatively one piece.  For those of us who do not hike much, the hike was a challenge.  However, the experience....the beauty....the new experiences made it so worth the effort.

After surviving the much difficult tiring journey through the cloud forest, we came back to another lovely lunch spread. You would think that everyone would be starving and wanting to devour all the mouth watering food,  most of the girls solely desired a shower and a nap!  

As a service project to Monserrat and as one of our assignments for the Cloud Forest, we were scheduled to observe and record the interaction between animals and plants.  The goal was to record how many and which type of animal visited a plant.   We were also to make observations about the health of the plants which included recording the herbivory, bit marks from animals and if anything like moss or lichen was growing on the plant or plant stem.   Each girl was assigned two trees/bushes to watch for animal activity. Everyone went in pairs or groups and took notes of the different activity on each plant. We collected all of our data and made sure to give it to Margherita. All of our hard work will be combined with last years ASU group work into a book to map the area (to look at how the plants effect the animals and how they work together in an ecosystem) of the cloud forest. 

After our research project, we enjoyed yet another delicious dinner.  Our dinners were family style.   We all sat around the U shaped arrangement of tables eating, chatting and laughing a whole lot.  After dinner we lined up to take our cold shower, even though there is a change of hot water!    Another wonderful day of exploring Costa Rica was under our belt and a forest filled choir fill our night of sleep. On to another day!

With love from all in Costa Rica

Pura Vida