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day 7

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orchid orchid orchid Walking Palm tree the Ngabe Bugle Today my group stayed in the lab to work on data. ImageJ was a bit confusing at first and tedious but after the 3 rd or 4 th plant it was easier to work with. The data that we got from ImageJ proved that our hypothesis is correct so far now we have to collect the data from the Kestrels we set up and see if there is a correlation between our results from ImageJ/Kestrel and our hypothesis. Our group started working on a paper today in case we want to get it published, we pretty much have it finished so our posters should be easy to set up. We seen some Walking Palms that walk about 20 m per year. I’m very satisfied with being placed in this group because they both have experience with research/writing papers, their knowledgeable and are really helpful. Went exploring around the garden today haven’t been able to do that yet until today so it was nice. Seen some orchids they were pretty, made me want to watc
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day 6

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Kestrel adjusting settings Fer-de-lance Last night Pedro found a Fer-de-lance snake near the cafeteria along the side of the wall. The Fer-de-lance is perhaps the most lethal snake in Costa Rica! It’s a good thing everyone was already back in their dorms/cabins. Its name is French for spearhead literally “iron of the lance.” This morning Corbin, Mike, Monet and I followed Rebecca (the director of OTS) to see her release it in the forest. Our group went to check out the Kestrels we set up Wednesday. The first time we set them up was a trial and error because we didn’t know that it was on auto shutoff so none of the three we set up collected any data. We changed the settings to make it stay on and we also changed it to collect data every 5 minutes instead of every 15 minutes. We saw some vines hanging on the trail and I wanted to swing on them like Tarzan but I don’t have the upper body strength to stay on long :D We finished up early in the forest, made our way
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day 5

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making yarn from the cotton squishing the plant and yarn together final color from leave extract weaving demonstration traditional mask painting devil mask  Took a break from hiking today which I really needed; it was nice. We visited an indigenous tribe called the Boruca, they live in South-Pacific Costa Rica along the Talamanca Mountains 20 km from Panama. A Boruca family invited us into their home where we learned about their tribe’s history, traditions and crafts. It was surprising to hear her say that not a lot of locals know about their tribe and it seems to her that mainly visitors (like us) know of them. She said in the past the elders would be timid about showing people how to make their crafts but now that they teach the crafts in their schools they are more open to sharing it to keep tradition going. The Boruca’s own about 140 km squared of land which is protected for their use. But unlike in the US where water rights are important the id
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day 4

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banana tree hollow strangler fig observation tower hiking path in primary forest river we ate lunch at plant sample Today all the students were paired with their mentors and we have officially started our projects. Corbin and I were paired with Mike and our project title is “Comparing Microclimates Coverage by Foliar Epiphytes and Diseases.” Our hypothesis for the project is: Going farther down the elevational gradient will increase humidity and decrease wind speed, therefore increasing coverage by foliar epiphytes and diseases. At each 3 sites and for 3 plants we visually estimated the percentage coverage of foliar epiphytes and diseases on one of the 2 nd leaflets. We also set up Kestrels to collect wind speed and humidity data at each 3 sites. When we were first choosing our projects, I chose the wildlife project at first but I am glad that I ended up in this project. Our mentor Mike is nice, fun and easy to communicate with and I’m excited to see if
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day 3

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Fairy Ink Cap mushrooms the group during the hike start of primary forest cameras for wildlife project                                                             white witch moth                                                                                                                                           huge bamboo in the garden Rodo gave us a tour today of the garden and a guided walk through the forest. The Wilson Botanical Garden featuring beautifully diverse plantings of tropical and subtropical ornamentals, representatives of unusual plant families and rare and endangered plants from Costa Rica and elsewhere. It also boasts remarkable collections of cycads, tree ferns, aroids, bromeliads, gingers, heliconias, marantas, and palms. We learned about the native and non-native species in the garden. There is a plant called the Bromelia that has been here for about 19 years and it still hasn’t bloomed(after they bloom they die); Rodo
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Location: San Vito de Coto Brus, PU, San Vito, Costa Rica
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day 2

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                                                                                             Toucan                                                                                           two Macaws View from our housing   I didn’t sleep much last night because Robyn woke me up a couple of hours earlier than we needed to wake up! Our phones were still on Miami time so when we thought we were waking up at 6 it was really 5.  We went downstairs and we were wondering where everyone was because we thought we needed to get on the bus by 7:30 and we thought we needed to eat breakfast by 7. So, we were sitting around waiting until Robyn decided to call our mentor Monet to ask about the departure time and the breakfast. Monet asked Robyn why we were downstairs so early and she told Robyn it was barely 5 lol. She also told us we weren’t leaving until 8 o clock.  We had breakfast and tried to sleep for a little while.  I ended up sleeping most of the bus ride from the hotel to
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day 1

On Saturday, our flight from Yakima to Seattle was delayed and our flight didn't leave until 2 hours later. I haven't been on an airplane in years so I was nervous for the first flight. But I got over it right after takeoff because I started to feel motion sick. We had 15 minutes to get off the plane at Seattle to get to the next flight before it departed. We had too much lab equipment for each person to handle so it was hard getting it around and through check in.   The flight to Miami was about 5 hours (I can officially say I've been to Miami!) The flight from Miami to San Jose wasn’t too bad because it was short. It was exciting being above Costa Rica before we descended, it was beautiful and way greener compared to the Yakima Valley. Costa Rica is the first stamp on my passport! Since we were coming from the cold in Yakima and Seattle I was dressed for the cold and when we got to San Jose I was so hot! But it felt nice to be in a warm place during December :) Right no
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