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!