Day 11

All the hard work is done, so now we can relax a little on the ride home. Scott planned ahead really well allowing us to have some time at the beach after lunch. We were able to see the local way of life at the beach, watch some surfers and enjoy some of the local arts as we walked the boardwalk.

After lunch we stopped at the crocodile bridge where we saw over 15 of them just hanging out. After we stopped at a gift shop where most of us finished our Christmas shopping. When we arrived at the hotel tonight, they were expecting us and knowing we had been away from home during our holiday they had the restaurant decorated.

This trip has reminded me how much joy people can have over just simply being alive. We were so blessed by the ngobe and there willingness to welcome us and teach us about their native land. They have very little material things but yet Victoria gifted me a traveling wallet as we departed. We shared many laughs and smiles with the two women over the last week and it humbles me that they go home to no power and possibly no water. I live very a very busy life between going to school, taking care of the people I love and maintaining at work. This trip has shown me many things and I was reminded by them to stop and take in the simple things in life, take time to be aware of the surroundings.

It was such a blessing to see Costa Rica's rainforest and how the development has really effected it.

Day 10

Presentation Day!! Today was pretty high anxiety as I have never presented a poster before. You could feel everyones nerves starting last night and into breakfast. Our practice run was a little rough which did not help. I feel like our presentation went okay, this was also my first time presenting with another person. I did enjoy our project but if I could have changed something I would have had a better understanding of our project before we started collecting data. Doing this it would have allowed me to ask more relevant questions as we were in the field. Our presentation went fine, I do not have the confidence talking in front of a group, but I do believe people when they say with practice it gets better.

Day 9

Today was Prep day, we put the finishing touches on our posters. We had a heck of a time designing our project last minute due to being in a group of 3 in which we collected a ton of data and thought we were presenting on the clarifications of habitats as the stream delineated. Last minute we were split up and are now analyzing the data we collected on the hydro lab. I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!!! With us working in the lab most of the day we were able to sneak away and check out the gardens a little more. It was amazing how much ground we covered but we did not get the chance to see as many birds as we did today. The kitchen crew puts out fruits to draw them into the patio area.

I'm a little anxious about presenting tomorrow with such little tine to prepare but I have a great partner so I think we will be okay.

This evening I went on a night hike with a couple people one of which was the man from NSF, he was super nice and interested in our project. Thankfully I did not see any snakes because it would have been really embarrassing. We did see a cute little fog though:)

Day 7

Last night we were all swapping stories and everyone is talking about the things they saw that day, a few mentioned seeing snakes... Yuck talk about my biggest fear,  thankfully even with all the ground we have covered we have only seen one, and that is one to many for me. I asked them where they were seeing these snakes (so I could avoid this area) apparently they have been swimming in the river, the same river that I have been standing in all week!!! Never been so thankful to be done with field work. 

Today we worked on our posters off and on through out the day. It was the first day we really hung around here and got to explore the gardens. As we were walking to the lab from the Wilson House Cass and I saw a bunch of monkeys. They were adorable, one got a little curious and was swinging from tree to tree towards me. It got so close that I started to back up, I thought it was going to try and poo on me.lol As they wondered off we went up the the patio where we just happened to be in the right place at the right time and all these beautiful bright birds were flying around. 

So our work day turned into be quite the animal sighting day. 

Day 7

Today is our free day, which I spent the morning getting life back together the past week has been so busy that everything is everywhere. We learned how the ngobe use the plants to make bags. Victoria let use help her strip the plants to get the threads.

Later in the day we went to town where I again was reminded how I should know know Spanish. I had probably the best blended coffee I have ever had, then we headed out to check it out. We went to a local fruit stand where the owner showed us every fruit that we never knew existed so naturally we had to buy them and try them. We are full about half way through but so far they are quite interesting. We then went to the grocery store to get some snacks and as I was looking pretty closely at this bag and I feel someone pet me. Apparently the two men working were interested in my long Bleached blonde hair and just had to touch it.haha

Day 6

Last Field Day!! We finished collecting the last of our data at "the headwaters" which was really down stream a ways but as far as we could go. The stream bed consisted of mostly bedrock which was awesome to see because in theory thats what we should expect. We brought two of the Ngobe visitor on our hike today as we did the first day and they are so knowledgable about their land. We stopped many times learning about the different plants and there medicinal uses. On our way back we split from the group and swam in the pools of the Java river. After the long hike it was amazing, the clay stones were so soft on the bottoms of our feet. The clay stones are so interesting as they can be broken down simply by your fingers.

This evening we had some free time to just roam the gardens taking in all the vegetation and birds. After dinner we did a cultural exchange where a man shared a traditional story, a young woman sang a traditional song with the most amazing voice. The two men from SKC shared how to play stick game with everyone and we ended the night with a round dance.

Day 5

Today we went into San Vito and explored the agricultural effected sites. We found this crazy road which led to someones house and the man was super nice and gave us directions to the water saying it was short hike and pointed us in the direction. "Short Hike" was quite a steep adventure to say the least as we got suck in the soils and climbed thought trees. As we walked down to the site the soil was polluted, we had a hard time walking through it. There were random panama trees with the remainder mostly pasture. You could see places on the hills where the cattle had warn down the grasses and with no trees to hold it into place land slides had occurred. The future for their land there could really be in trouble. We hit a few sites on our way back to town where we had lunch at a little pizza ria which wasn't super great because we have great pizza in america.lol
Tonight was a data night where we entered in what we had collected so that we could spend some time tomorrow in the Primary forest with our time restraints.