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!