San José y Las Cruces: Días Uno y Dos

So I'm currently at the Las Cruces Biological Station in southeastern Costa Rica, almost precisely 2.53 miles from the Panamanian border. (see image below, which you'll probably have to click on to enlarge). Let's start from two days ago.


I made it to XNA and got on my flight with about 10-15 minutes to spare (after they had to take out half of my camera equipment and re-scan my backpack) and slept through the hour-long, drinkless flight to Dallas/FTW.

During my (theoretically) ~6 hour layover, I took another nap, ate a too-expensive burger and onion rings, and walked around the airport a lot. I also spent $6 for a day-pass for the internet, which ended up not letting me log in about 30 minutes before my flight actually started boarding.

The plane took off at about 8, when it should have done so at 6:10. Apparently it was late from Steamboat Springs, and then they had to take EVERY SINGLE PIECE of luggage off of the plane until they found two certain pieces they were looking for due to a security threat. Lame. Therefore, I arrived in San José after midnight instead of at 10:05. Migración and Aduanas (immigration and customs) were easy, I exchanged some money, and flawlessly evaded the numerous taxi offers. Three students were picked up at that time, and we were driven to our hotel. Everyone was asleep, of course, as it was about 1 a.m., and I had to use my well-forgotten Spanish to persuade the guy on duty at the hotel that yes, we were in fact students with the big group and that he should show us the list of names so we could find what room we were in.


Fast forward to the next morning, where we had some gallo pinto (basically, black beans and rice and some cilantro), fruit (pineapple and papaya), toast, eggs, and juice at about 7 a.m. ¡Qué sabrosa!

Then began orientation at the OTS/OET office (OTS=Organization for Tropical Studies; OET= Organización para Estudios Tropicales). General ice breaker/syllabus/schedule/paperwork stuff that I don't need to go into.

Then lunch and back to the hotel. Most of us lounged by the pool for a while (two hours=already a little sunburned), then I took a shower and almost took a nap. Dinner that night at a restaurant with excellent food (chicken fajitas, but quite different from the mexican variety). The tortillas here (you get two with fajitas, and there isn't a sizzling sizzler plate thing) are smaller than a DVD. It was all most excellent. As we were leaving, I ran into Harriet! A friend from high school who I knew was in Costa Rica (doing research at one of the next stations we go to) and leaving the next morning, and did not expect to run into). It was a nice surprise.



That night was the real icebreaker--about 10 of us walked about a kilometer and bought beer at a convenience store. Haha. There are three Costa Ricans on the program, and I'm glad one of them came with us. It was nice to sit around the pool and chat for a couple of hours with absolutely nothing to do. The imperial beer of Costa Rica isn't bad.
That was the extent of my exploration of San José.

This morning, after getting up at 6:30, eating at 7, and leaving at 8, we embarked on the 8 hour bus ride to Las Cruces. It was a really nice bus, and of course the views were glorious. Stopped at a pineapple plantation along the way, stopped for lunch (arroz de pollo, black beans, and pico de gallo), and then made it to Las Cruces by around 4.

There were tons of hummingbirds at one of our pit stops.

Scott, Gabe, and I went on a short hike (about 1.5 hours) to el Rio Java (a creek in the dry season, basically). I haven't seen a single mosquito, but I bet that will change at some point.

Las Cruces doubles as the Wilson Botanical Garden. There are literally thousands of species of plants and animals here, and many of the plants have been brought in from all over the world. In a word, it's pretty impressive.

Tonight we had a mini-intro to Las Cruces. Tomorrow we're exploring the garden and going into the closest town, San Pedro (which is twice as far as the Panamanian border, as the crow flies) to get snake boots and various other supplies. Bed time.

Here are pictures.





(I am in the middle of the fucking rainforest. Yes, I said fucking, and I mean it. No excuses, no regrets.)

A Blurb

Long story short, I made it (after a silly flight delay), and now I'm going to breakfast.

Here we go.

I'm currently in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind of hurrying, packing, and saying goodbyes, and I won't be home for 15 weeks. Whoa.

I didn't have time to finish processing my pictures from India/Nepal, so those will have to wait until mid-May/June when I return. Sad, but it's something that shouldn't be rushed!

After about two hours of sleep, Darby, my parents, and myself finished last minute errands/packing and made it to the airport. I got on the plane with about ten minutes to spare, since they chose to take out most of my camera equipment and run my backpack through the x-ray machine again to get a better look. Then I had to repack it (without Darby's supreme tetris skills present). Lame.

Obviously, nothing exciting has happened yet, since I haven't even left the country. However,


Obama+Energy
Obama+Kata?

Interesting to think about.

Also, there are goofy old people at the Dallas/FTW airport who volunteer and wear tacky green sports jackets and cowboy hats and are supposed to answer questions people have. I understand why they do it, but I don't understand why they accept the tacky-green-cowboy-hat-status-quo.

The flight from XNA to DFW was only an hour, and we didn't even get drinks. The captain said the flight crew had to stay seated during the flight because they might experience some "weather," so they couldn't even get me a goddamned glass of water. Good thing I had my Nalgene full of that wet goodness.

Time to go brush up on either Spanish or Biology stuff until I board my plane in less than an hour. Next update: Central America. WHOA.

On the Road Again

This blog was created to document the tests, trials, and tales of my upcoming semester of study abroad; I am going to Costa Rica for the Spring semester of 2009, during my junior year at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, to study tropical biology and Spanish through Duke University and the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). Many of you will be familiar with this blog-system; I just returned from spending the semester in India/Nepal studying Tibetan and Himalayan culture, and kept up with a blog for that trip as well. I will update this as often as possible--which may not be often enough for some, and may be too often for others.

On 26 January, I will fly from Fayetteville to Dallas to San José, Costa Rica. I'll be joining a group of (approximately) 16 students from the States, 3 from Costa Rica, and 2 from South Africa. I still have a ton of things to do; I haven't even finished processing the 6000+ pictures I took in India/Nepal. I have to review biology and Spanish, buy things, and see people I need to see. I've spent the past semester doing anthropology work and learning Tibetan--I haven't thought about biology or Spanish in at least seven months. I have to completely shift gears, and I have to do it all in the next three weeks.


I return on 12 May. If you need to contact me while I'm there, just email me or, if you're extra patient, try to catch me on Skype. My skype name is stephen_ironside. Lucky for you guys--Costa Rica is in the Central Time Zone! Better than an 11 hours and 45 minutes difference like Nepal.

I'll get an e-mail listserv started, so let me know if you want to be added to it. I'll send out a message whenever I update this; you can also add it to your bookmarks or subscribe to the RSS feed if you wish.


Time to get to it.