Apologies for this late post of our first day in Costa Rica. Uploading pictures has been a challenge, due to the bandwidth required to do so. Finally, we have good internet (for now) here in Tortuguero, so we will try and get a couple of posts done tonight!
The trip is going amazing so far. Wait until you see the pictures from today’s walk up the side of an extinct volcano, and our boat ride thru the Tortuguero canals. Spectacular!
—————————— Day 1 Post ————————————————
All students arrived today via their flights from all over the country (including Hawaii!). Students spent time unpacking, getting settled into the Hotel La Rosa de America, and taking pictures of the beautiful flowers, birds, and even a Cane toad Rhinella marina. Lunch was at a nearby restaurant (see pics attached) and the afternoon was spent getting acquainted, getting some very important safety tips, and learning about the History of Costa Rica, from our esteemed MVI guide, Mark Wainwright. Dr. Auger then outlined some of the course items on the trip, including the importance of keeping a field notebook as part of the course grade, and an outline of the potential project format. Students were provided the Trip Itinerary and the Course Syllabus, and more details will be provided as the course gets underway tomorrow.
Tomorrow we head to Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast for two days, where students will be immersed in a tropical coastal environment, tour the Tortuguero canals by boat, explore the village of Tortuguero, and learn about the various species of nesting marine turtles from the staff at the Sea Turtle Conservancy. We hope to be able to witness the nesting process, which is purely a timing situation, so hopefully our group’s timing will be good! It is an amazing process to witness.
Please enjoy today’s pictures below from the various animals and plants we photographed today at the Hotel, including the Cane toad mentioned above, an arachnid, butterflies, a cool lizard that we think may have been a Ctenasaur , various other plants, and our favorite, a Rufous-naped wren Campylorhynchus rufinucha near his/her nest. We even took 2 pics with our FLIR thermal imaging camera … a butterfly and the Cane toad! Continue to stay tuned in, as we journey through the beautiful country of Costa Rica!
BIOL 398 Tropical Ecology & Culture in Costa Rica 