Hill of the Dead; Palo Verde Volume 1
So I've returned safely from the Hill of the Dead (Cuerici Biological Station) and am now currently sitting in a hot room with two fans next to a marsh in el Parque Nacional Palo Verde (Palo Verde National Park) in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Time to back track.
After spending a couple of weeks at Las Cruces Biological Station, we migrated to Cuerici, a small reserve in the mountains about four or five hours from San José. Cuerici isn't a national park, but rather a reserve area (semi-protected, I guess) and trout farm run by don Carlos, a true "papa bear"-type figure. Here he is now, super-casually sticking his machete in a tree along the continental divide. He always, always wore that hat. It had a parrot on it. I liked him.
Anywho, Cuerici has been (and probably will be) the most primitive of the stations we visit. No internet for a week--gasp!--and an emergency-only phone. At Cuerici we explored the Montane Oak Forest, which is a completely different ecosystem than the Tropical Lowland Forest of Las Cruces or the Tropical Dry Forest of Palo Verde. Basically, a bunch of people (around seven) got together to buy the land that has become Cuerici, only one of whom actually lives and works there, don Carlos. His family has owned the land for generations, and he has, essentially, single-handedly created a private reserve with the purpose of preserving/regrowing the old oak forest and educating people about it. Here's the building/house where we stayed (upstairs in one big room). It had a wood burning stove, a dining area, hot showers, and a classroom/lab attached to it with a huge fireplace inside. It got pretty cold at night--four blankets weren't enough if you weren't wearing sufficient clothing. It was nice to not have internet for a week. We went to bed at around 9:30 every night. Haha.
Don Carlos also runs a trout farm. Trout ("trucha") is an introduced species of fish in this area, and no fish occur naturally at such a high elevation. This is the main "crop" in the area, along with some blackberries. He generates his own electricity with a turbine hooked up to a small creek (being sure to watch how much water he takes from it), and allows a stray horse left by a French couple to roam his property, using the manure to help feed the worms that he feeds to the trout. Don Carlos both uses his land sustainably and conserves it, a rarity for Costa Rica, much less the rest of the world. Here is the aforementioned ungulate involved in a staring contest with the author:
One day we went up to an area of Páramo ecosystem. You could see the pacific ocean, and it looked more like a shrubby desert in the Andes than anywhere else in Costa Rica. There are more facts in this picture than I'd like to explain at the moment, but if you ask, you shall receive. In short, note the leaf shapes and reflectiveness of the flowers.
There were some speckled lizards that would bite and hold on to anything, including the ears of South Africans.
Typical Bromeliad.
One of the reasons that Cerro de la Muerte is called such is because when the fog rolls in like this, people suddenly become completely incompetent at driving. The same thing happens when there is ice. The automobile accident rate is ridiculously high in Costa Rica, and this only adds to those figures.
Here's a view from a lookout point on a trail at the station:
This moss is called Barba del Viejo, or Old Man's Beard. It was pretty sweet, and covered many trees, including this small one.
One day we took a morning hike, resulting in these "typical" rainforest pictures.
Look at that cute little epiphytic bromeliad growing on a stump with a sketchy looking tree in the background. It was quite foggy.
Three other students and myself (voluntarily) got up at 4:55 a.m. to hike up the road to see the sunrise on one of the last days. The clouds were completely covering the valley--usually you can see all the way to the Pacific. Way cool.
This tree was really, really tall. like hundreds of feet tall. Not as big as "El Abuelo" (the grandfather) the HUGE (about five people, arms spread out, across), centuries-old oak that we saw on the day we hiked across the continental divide and my camera battery conveniently chose to die.
So jump ahead a few days, and we're at Palo Verde Biological Station. It's the complete opposite of Cuerici: dry, hot, and lots of mammals and tons of birds. So far I've seen two raccoons, a couple of male coati, some howler monkies and white-faced capuchins, and countless storks, cranes, and egrets. Oh, also lots of iguanas (and bugs)!
This marsh used to be a cattle farm. They're doing some crazy difficult things to try to restore it that I won't go into right now. Here's a sunset from the second day.
And a Ctenosaur (black iguana). There are lots of them here.
A note about Palo Verde from our orientation materials:
Through an agreement with the Costa Rica National Park Service, OTS maintains this field station within the Palo Verde National Park. This reserve, located in the northwestern region of the country, lies on the boundary between an extensive marsh and seasonally dry forest underlain with limestone. It protects part of the lower Tempisque River Basin, the largest river drainage of the historic province of Guanacaste. Palo Verde is recognized internationally as one of the most important wetland habitats for nesting waterfowl. It is also a great place to see monkeys, deer, lizards, and crocodiles. Several trails lead to lookout points with incredible scenic vistas, favorite spots for watching the sunset. The park is currently impacted by rice and sugar cane cultivation in surrounding wetlands. It is also unique among Costa Rican parks in that domestic animals (namely, cattle) have been incorporated into its management program; a somewhat controversial decision that we will have a closer look at when we are there. The field station is rustic.
That said, coati!
Howler monkey and baby.
Today we went to sugarcane and rice fields. I've seen two scorpions, one of which was as small as a penny. Crazy.
As a testament to our location, we get complimentary bug nets for our beds. Luckily, however, there aren't that many mosquitoes right now because it's the dry season.
Also, yesterday was my birthday. It's the third birthday in a row this week, but my cake (banana) has definitely been the best, in my opinion. Yep, I spent my 21st looking at water hyacinths and crocodiles in a lagoon and getting lectured on both the potential seed dispersal effects of Gomphotheres and ant-acacia interactions in a Dry Forest ecosystem.
We're here until mid-March. Next week we have to start our independent projects. I might do mine on something to do with spatial-temporal learning and dietary needs of the ant Ectatomma Ruidum.
Bedtime.
After spending a couple of weeks at Las Cruces Biological Station, we migrated to Cuerici, a small reserve in the mountains about four or five hours from San José. Cuerici isn't a national park, but rather a reserve area (semi-protected, I guess) and trout farm run by don Carlos, a true "papa bear"-type figure. Here he is now, super-casually sticking his machete in a tree along the continental divide. He always, always wore that hat. It had a parrot on it. I liked him.
Anywho, Cuerici has been (and probably will be) the most primitive of the stations we visit. No internet for a week--gasp!--and an emergency-only phone. At Cuerici we explored the Montane Oak Forest, which is a completely different ecosystem than the Tropical Lowland Forest of Las Cruces or the Tropical Dry Forest of Palo Verde. Basically, a bunch of people (around seven) got together to buy the land that has become Cuerici, only one of whom actually lives and works there, don Carlos. His family has owned the land for generations, and he has, essentially, single-handedly created a private reserve with the purpose of preserving/regrowing the old oak forest and educating people about it. Here's the building/house where we stayed (upstairs in one big room). It had a wood burning stove, a dining area, hot showers, and a classroom/lab attached to it with a huge fireplace inside. It got pretty cold at night--four blankets weren't enough if you weren't wearing sufficient clothing. It was nice to not have internet for a week. We went to bed at around 9:30 every night. Haha.
Don Carlos also runs a trout farm. Trout ("trucha") is an introduced species of fish in this area, and no fish occur naturally at such a high elevation. This is the main "crop" in the area, along with some blackberries. He generates his own electricity with a turbine hooked up to a small creek (being sure to watch how much water he takes from it), and allows a stray horse left by a French couple to roam his property, using the manure to help feed the worms that he feeds to the trout. Don Carlos both uses his land sustainably and conserves it, a rarity for Costa Rica, much less the rest of the world. Here is the aforementioned ungulate involved in a staring contest with the author:
One day we went up to an area of Páramo ecosystem. You could see the pacific ocean, and it looked more like a shrubby desert in the Andes than anywhere else in Costa Rica. There are more facts in this picture than I'd like to explain at the moment, but if you ask, you shall receive. In short, note the leaf shapes and reflectiveness of the flowers.
There were some speckled lizards that would bite and hold on to anything, including the ears of South Africans.
Typical Bromeliad.
One of the reasons that Cerro de la Muerte is called such is because when the fog rolls in like this, people suddenly become completely incompetent at driving. The same thing happens when there is ice. The automobile accident rate is ridiculously high in Costa Rica, and this only adds to those figures.
Here's a view from a lookout point on a trail at the station:
This moss is called Barba del Viejo, or Old Man's Beard. It was pretty sweet, and covered many trees, including this small one.
One day we took a morning hike, resulting in these "typical" rainforest pictures.
Look at that cute little epiphytic bromeliad growing on a stump with a sketchy looking tree in the background. It was quite foggy.
Three other students and myself (voluntarily) got up at 4:55 a.m. to hike up the road to see the sunrise on one of the last days. The clouds were completely covering the valley--usually you can see all the way to the Pacific. Way cool.
This tree was really, really tall. like hundreds of feet tall. Not as big as "El Abuelo" (the grandfather) the HUGE (about five people, arms spread out, across), centuries-old oak that we saw on the day we hiked across the continental divide and my camera battery conveniently chose to die.
So jump ahead a few days, and we're at Palo Verde Biological Station. It's the complete opposite of Cuerici: dry, hot, and lots of mammals and tons of birds. So far I've seen two raccoons, a couple of male coati, some howler monkies and white-faced capuchins, and countless storks, cranes, and egrets. Oh, also lots of iguanas (and bugs)!
This marsh used to be a cattle farm. They're doing some crazy difficult things to try to restore it that I won't go into right now. Here's a sunset from the second day.
And a Ctenosaur (black iguana). There are lots of them here.
A note about Palo Verde from our orientation materials:
Through an agreement with the Costa Rica National Park Service, OTS maintains this field station within the Palo Verde National Park. This reserve, located in the northwestern region of the country, lies on the boundary between an extensive marsh and seasonally dry forest underlain with limestone. It protects part of the lower Tempisque River Basin, the largest river drainage of the historic province of Guanacaste. Palo Verde is recognized internationally as one of the most important wetland habitats for nesting waterfowl. It is also a great place to see monkeys, deer, lizards, and crocodiles. Several trails lead to lookout points with incredible scenic vistas, favorite spots for watching the sunset. The park is currently impacted by rice and sugar cane cultivation in surrounding wetlands. It is also unique among Costa Rican parks in that domestic animals (namely, cattle) have been incorporated into its management program; a somewhat controversial decision that we will have a closer look at when we are there. The field station is rustic.
That said, coati!
Howler monkey and baby.
Today we went to sugarcane and rice fields. I've seen two scorpions, one of which was as small as a penny. Crazy.
As a testament to our location, we get complimentary bug nets for our beds. Luckily, however, there aren't that many mosquitoes right now because it's the dry season.
Also, yesterday was my birthday. It's the third birthday in a row this week, but my cake (banana) has definitely been the best, in my opinion. Yep, I spent my 21st looking at water hyacinths and crocodiles in a lagoon and getting lectured on both the potential seed dispersal effects of Gomphotheres and ant-acacia interactions in a Dry Forest ecosystem.
We're here until mid-March. Next week we have to start our independent projects. I might do mine on something to do with spatial-temporal learning and dietary needs of the ant Ectatomma Ruidum.
Bedtime.
Labels: Cuerici, Palo Verde
posted by Stephen_I @ 10:02 PM
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