Your concept of time really changes when you are traveling without a watch and a busy schedule. I just realized that today was Friday. On a typical Friday night, I'd meet up with some friends of mine and have a few drinks...except last weekend where I had ONE too many drinks (Thanks Rob for the tuna STAT!!). But today I'm not checking my emails seeing where Happy Hour is for this Friday, I'm currently sitting in a cafeteria, sweating constantly, listening to birds chirp, and hoping a bug doesn't bite me.
I'm in COSTA RICA baby!!!!
I got here 2 days ago so I'm still absorbing the beauty of the tropics. Sure it's 85 degrees with 100% humidity but it's worth it. EVERYWHERE you look is green, green, green. I've seen and heard about 30 different species of birds and it's true..the male is the prettier of the two. Less than an hour ago I saw a green/yellow/brown bird fly onto a tree, I thought it was beautiful. Then seconds later, I saw it's male counterpart - a drop dead gorgeous, black as midnight and red as a ruby majestic bird. It really puts the female to shame. I tend to forget names of things immediately after hearing them, so I apologize in advance that most things will be described by adjectives...even though someone was next to me and actually knows the name of every bird or every plant that is here. It really is quite remarkable. The names I do remember so far are all the mammals and a few of the easier to distinguish plants. There are little furry black pigges (peckaries) everywhere, I can't walk to the classroom without seeing one. They just walk on by, putting their nose in the ground, completely ignoring you. I'm still afraid to get too close because I'm weary of mammals with teeth. I've also seen quite a few kwimgees (all spelling is how it sounds in my head, I've yet to read these words). Good luck googling!! But I will post pictures sometime soon. They look like brown racoons. Then I saw 4 little bats resting on a tree...a few howler monkeys playing in the branches (no big deal :P). The scariest thing I saw besides the spiders that are as big as my hand was a kinkajou. They are nocturnal creatures, so we were actually looking for snakes but instead were encountered by this freak. Apparently kinkajou's are docile and sweet animals, but I'm not sure I believe it. We were walking towards the river and all of a sudden it felt like the skies opened up, big droplets raining down and a booming noise. I thought maybe it was the beginning of a tropical storm, but in reality, it was a kinkajou jumping onto a branch and splashing all the water on us. Instead of the animals just weerily walking away, it started coming toward us!! BIG EYES, moving deliberately, you could just tell it was going to ponce. I'll never know because I was screaming and running away at that point. Later that night I googled this animal and they said that 'some are aggressive and will claw and bite deeply into you'...yes, very docile creatures. If a wild animal has teeth, claws, stings...even if it's having a good day, you know I'm running away (quite quickly) if I see it moving towards me. You should see me around bees. Thank goodness I haven't seen any of those. You'd be proud of me, I'm not squirming when I hear "bzzzz", just swatting around me hoping nothing actually lands.
I'll try to update about the animals/plants I see. Maybe eventually I'll actually remember what they are called. Don't hold your breath though. That's why I never really enjoyed biology courses...always felt it was too much memorization. The questions I'm always asking involve HOW and WHY things work they way they do - the physiology of an organism, the mechanisms, the evolution...I don't really care what genus it's in, unless I understand why that genus is different than another. Maybe that's why I don't really study harbor seals ("HUH? Yes you do")..ok I do study harbor seals, but I study the biochemistry of them, and I can understand how everything is connected. It's like math, a + b = c. No memorizing!!
Lunch time is about to end and we have more tours of the reserve. We've done a few nature walks and seen the instruments they use to measure temperature, CO2 levels, etc. The rest of the day is seeing more of the facilities...think Lost Orchid Station (seriously, sometimes I feel like I'm stuck on an island with Benjamin Linus).
Love you all. I'll try to update often, but some days will be extremely busy or I'll just have nothing to say. xox
