Day One DONE and more weekend pics

A few of the research cams in their lock boxes, getting ready to be placed out in the jungle.




THE RESPLENDENT QUETZAL...right from my window! People pay thousands to see this thing, and it lives 50 feet from me...soo cool! Any name suggestions?




The TV station that interviewed us wanted some footage of the research students riding horses in the jungle...had to wear this stupendous orange helmet because they had this sense I was accident prone...





Dr. Mooring being interviewed in Spanish on our jaguar research by Tico Channel 7.




No Big Deal...just caballos en la playa...Manuel Antonio Beach...nice surf, warm water...sweeet!




Relaxing at La Mariposa (The Butterfly) Hotel infinity pool over the mighty Pacific in Quepos.




Our hotel friend Isabella with the baby anaconda we found. She was AWESOME





Well, after a 5am start, we survived the day and barely beat out the rain...it started DOWNPOURING at one (ten min after we got back), enough to cause a flash flood/wall of muddy water down the Savegre River outside QERC.

Today's mission was to set out the remainder of the cameras for the phototraps, which we did. We ended up hiking about 3000 vertical feet or so up Sendero De Los Robles (Trail of the Oaks) to place the last few cameras by streams and animal tracks...hopefully we'll find something. We also collected the memory cards from the first four cameras we set up on Friday morning, so they'd been sitting out for over two days. Here's what we "caught" on film: quite a few horses being led up the trail to the moutain pasture, tons of tourists walking by (some inquisitive of the camera traps, some completely oblivious), one Mapache (common raccoon), a few night-hikers, who proceeded to shine their headlamps into the camera out of curiosity, and one tail of an unidentified mammal (possibly a small cat or member of the raccoon family). There you have it...four cameras, nearly three days. Hopefully we'll have better luck with the next batch of photos.




After arriving back at QERC today, I tested out my arborist technique (improvised on the spot, of course) for ascending into the rainforest canopy to rig up the bioacoustical recorders (aka super expensive microphones to record animal vocalizations). It took a bit of manipulating to ascend up the trees, but I figured it out...getting fun was also a challenge, but I made it! It should provide another element of awesomeness to the research protocol for the rest of the summer.

First Weekend (& other updates)

Hola amigos. Este semana fue muy fantastico! Mis tres amigos y yo fueron a Quepos, un destinacion bonito a la playa (Mar Pacifico). Excuse my week attempts at Spanish. Basically, the four of us research boys ventured off to Quepos, this GORGEOUS beach town by Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific side of the country. We had a blast. We rented this hotel room, but then were upgraded to an amazing room with a huge deck, massive window/sliding glass door with a breathtaking view, complementary breakfast, hot tubs, pools, billiard tables, etc...it was luxurious to say the least, but splitting the cost wasn't too bad. Here's a brief rundown of what I've done since the last update:

Thurs: spent the vast majority of the day just getting groceries (about 9am to 5pm)! Allow me to explain: the nearest town with gas/grocery store is about 2 hrs away (San Isidro de General). Took a while to get there, on a very sketchy mountain road with insane Tico drivers...etc. The shopping took a while to find things/ask for things in espanol. By the time we finally made it home, we were scheduled for a TV interview with New Channel 7 (the national channel) on our research, but the team never showed up. Had the standard fare for dinner (gallo pinto) and studied GRE all night (woot woot)

Friday: The TV interview was rescheduled for 8am "tico time", so they really showed up at about noon. Dr. Mooring explained our research in Spanish, and Will, Bobby and I rode horses for a scene they wanted to shoot of us riding through the jungle looking for jaguars (which, of course, is not how we do it...but riding was fun!). Post interview, finally got out on the trails and set up our first four camera traps on hotspots (clear cat (non housecat) tracks). GOT COMPLETELY POURED ON...soak through everything ("rainproof layers") except the Gortex boots. Circa 4pm the boys and I drove the 3 hrs to Quepos, our first real adventure in Costa Rica...see the following days for details

Sat: AWESOME...had a great hotel in Quepos...fantastic views, nice people, muchos gringos (way too many Americans, but oh well). Went out for dinner in an airplane-turned-restaurant (El Avion...amazing sandwhiches), live music/dancing (yes...i attempted salsa) at a local bar, hung out at the pool, walked a few miles down to the national beach. The water was very warm and the surf was awesome (just body surfed for now...rent a board later this summer), met some cool people at the hotel, watched the USA vs Ghana FIFA game (lame sauce), and generally relaxed. This howler monkey walked about 5 feet in front of me by the hotel (completely wild) and was just chilling...unfortunately, no camera. Also found/held a small anaconda at the hotel, saw a three-toed sloth from the pool, etc...very very cool spot

Sun: woke up well rested. Another continental breakfast, then lounged by the pool the whole morning: did devotions, studied for the GRE, read up on how to get the most out of mammal tracks, etc...very productive yet relaxing. Met this FANTASTIC Chinese-American family with two cute little daughters, Isabella and Saraphia (about 6 or 7 years old)...they loved learning about animals and biology, so we basically gave little bio lessons on different insects, reptiles, etc the found...and spashed around in the pool with them. Were sad to go, but left Quepos at 2pm to drive back up to San G. Have yet to make it through a drive on the PanAmerican Highway without severe nausea/car sickness from the rain, winding road, crazy truck drivers, car emissions, etc...but oh well. Had our first dinner in the Lodge at Savegre, and then our first research team Bible study...all good to go. Tomorrow we start the research protocol, which means getting up and outside by 5am to beat the afternoon downpours (which are unpleasant to hike in and wash away valuable jaguar tracks). Better get to bed!

First hike/QUETZAL!

Jared and Will coming back from the hike...QERC research facility/home behind them.


Me at the waterfall...about a mile or so up a trail containing mammal tracks.

We also saw the first quetzal of the trip, a real treat for the first day...tourists pay thousands to get to this valley to see what I saw from my bedroom window...boo yah!

Dia Uno!

Greetings all! Today was the big travel day, leaving LAX and eventually arriving at our final destination, San Gerardo De Dota, about 2 hrs south of San Jose. In fact, I'm not really sure how long we've been on the move. The Moorings and I left San Deigo on Monday night, 9pm-ish, and met Jared at LAX at 11pm. We finally got all our heavy bags, filled with suspicious-looking metal cases, cameras, wires, and various GPS units. As you can imagine, every security and customs check point required open bags and thorough explanations of our motives for bringing such equipment internationally. All that to say, we left LAX at 1:30 Tuesday AM

The plane landed in Guatemala City, and we stayed on board as more people boarded for the continuation leg to San Jose. I saw this amazing shirt saying "Guatever"...classy. Flying out of Guatemala over green, misty volcanoes was a new experience to say the least. One of the scariest landings I've had too!

We arrived in San Jose at 9am or so. Bobby and Will were waiting at the end of international customs, so it was great to reunite as a research team without hiccups. Bobby, Will, Jared and I took a bus from the airport to downtown, got some aroz con pollo at the unique Mercado Central, then wandered around the crowded city streets looking for WiFi in order to find a rental car agency.

I learned a few valuable lessons: Mi espanol es muy pobre! Ticos (Costa Ricans) have NO CONCEPT of road rules...you're taking your life in your hands crossing the street or even walking on the side walk. When asking directions, note that Ticos can't explain where you are or where you need to go...no one seems to know streets, and everything is in reference to other buildings, etc....very confusing for the passing gringo.

To make a long story short, we finally got the rental car situated. Bobby drove, which was a trip because the drivers there are so insane and he was reacclimating himself on stickshift. We got outrageously lost in road work detours, lack of road signs, and traffic, but eventually emerged from the bustling downtown on our way to the mountains on the PanAmerican Highway.

The PanAm is a crazy road, with sheer dropoffs, drivers passing on double yellows with oncoming traffic and blind corners/hills, landslides on the road, sinkholes, etc...a hearty Tico adventure. We eventually made it (although I was a bit carsick and had a headache) to the 10km dirt road leading to QERC, our summer research facility. We met the research center directors, David and Sara Hille, then got dinner (pork chop, chicken, or trout) at the local Soda...way way cool. The last few hours will have been unpacking, cleaning up ALL my gear from a one liter shampoo bottle explosion, and preparation for bed...don't really know what time it is anymore since th redeye...

ten-four for now! tomorrow's itinerary: get up early, take a run around the valley to familiarize myself with it, watch the US world cup game, and eventually present to the village what a bunch of gringos with infrared cameras are doing in their jungle for two months...should prove to be a good first true day...peace!