Tres Semanas

Oh what a weekend! Friday morning kicked it off with a tour of the beautiful Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Hummingbird Gallery. Costa Rica is home to 54 species of hummingbirds, 8 of which live in Monteverde. We were lucky enough to catch glimpses of all of them, as well as the famed Quetzal, on our trip into the forest.

 Friday night was then marked by an amazingly fun night out dancing with our entire group at the local Bar Amigos. Saturday was spent on some much needed relaxation, reading, and eating an amazing faux-Thanksgiving meal with the lovely Natasha and her host family. Just as an aside, Costa Rican sweet potatoes are far, far sweeter than those back at home!

As for today, I just got back to the institute after Quaker meeting, and need to actually focus on some homework before catching an acoustic concert tonight. Thus, enjoy the pictures until I post again!

These hummingbirds were literally so close to us that we could have
reached out and touched them. As if they would hold still long
enough for us to do that!

In action...

At rest!

A single tree bearing several hundred pounds of epiphytical plants.

The view from the trail. Sometimes it feels like I am living in Jurassic Park.
(Fun fact: Jurassic Park actually was filmed on Isla de Coco in Costa Rica.)

This is a root leading up to a tree living on top of this tree. The curly-q pattern
was formed when a vine, which has since died, constricted the growth of the root.

A strangled fig tree. The tree is completely hollow, since the
poor tree that it strangled has since died and decomposed. The
smallest members of our group could squeeze in between the roots
 and climb the tree from the inside!

Avocados growing way too high up in the canopy to
 be picked. Nothing about this is fair.

La Catarata de San Luis

Since one of our professors is out of town for the week, two of my friends at the institute, Natasha and Jacqueline, and I didn't have any classes yesterday. Thus, we decided to embark on an epic horseback adventure to the beautiful San Luis waterfall. Little did we know that our adventure would include an hour and half long trek on horseback down the steepest road in the world and a 45-minute hike up the steepest trail in the world just to reach the waterfall. However, despite the intensity of the trip, and our extreme soreness today, I think we are all in agreement that it was worth it. I wish that these pictures did more justice to the beauty of this place than they do.

Mostly, I wish you all could have experienced it with me. ¡Pura vida!

Me, Jacqueline, and the most loyal dog in the world,
Papí, in front of the waterfall. Papí goes with us everywhere.
He is the real-life version of the dog in Homeward Bound.

Jacqueline and Natasha swam in the freezing cold water at the
 base of the waterfall. Son chicas locas.

My noble steed, Pasia, looking rather annoying that she just had to trek up a giant mountain with me on her back. Lo siento, Pasia, lo siento.

We crossed a series of terrifying plank bridges during
 our hike to the waterfall. Not a fan.

Baby waterfall along the hike.

A dry waterfall along the hike that probably only runs in the rainy season.

Our first view of the lower half of the waterfall.

I really, realllyyy wish the mist didn;t obsure the full view of the falls. They were about 30-40 stories high in totality.

However, the reflection of the sun on the mist was really beautiful.

EL MEJOR DÍA DE MI VIDA

I JUST SAW MY FIRST EVER REAL LIVE WILD COSTA RICAN MONKEY.

I was measuring plant species diversity in El Bosque Eterno de los Niños with my tropical ecology class, and as we were leaving we saw a white-faced capuchin monkey literally right above where we were working. I unfortunately did not have my camera with me, but he was close enough to us at some points that I could have taken a close-up photo without using my zoom as he searched for insects in dead leaves.

It was literally one of my top ten moments. Unfortunately, this little guy was injured, possibly from a fight with an agouti (an example of which we also saw) or he was possibly kicked out of his home group by the alpha male. He was muy lindo nonetheless.

 I will never forget him. For those of you who get the reference, it was a "that is a gorgeous goldfinch" moment in every sense--except that it lasted more than ten minutes and nearly involved some tears of joy.

Hasta luego, mis amigos.

The Monteverde Institute!

Here are some long overdue pictures of the Institute where I am taking my classes/spending most of my time for the duration of this semester! Pictures of my AMAZING professors will follow shortly, provided I can find a sneaky way to take pictures of them all without them being totally creeped out. Enjoy!

The breezeway where we eat/work/procrastinate.

Jacqueline drinking a milkshake from the amazing Monteverde Cheese Factory
whilst whittling a piece of sugar cane.

The walkway up to the breezeway.

The open-air entrance to the institute. I love how much
more colorful the architecture is in Central America.

The view of the institute from the front lawn.

Slightly more close-up view.

A flower from the beautiful hibiscus hedge in front of the institute.

Beautiful lily blossoming along the walkway.

... beautiful lilies part 2.

One of the stone retaining walls in the garden behind the institute.

The spiral staircase off of the breezeway.

The beautiful view that we have while doing our homework!

Domingo 1/23

Happy Sunday! 

Thus far, this weekend has definitely been a pretty good one. Aside from accidentally waking up my entire family coming home from watching the CR v. Panama fútbol game on Friday night, which was somewhat less than amusing. Nonetheless, GO TICOS! 

Yesterday we visited a local, organic, and sustainable coffee/bananas/sugar cane/plantains/tomatoes/everything plantation down a very steep road in nearby San Luis. As you will see in the following pictures (I hope!) it was truly an amazing place, and the farmer was so charming and adorable. 

We also saw the same farmer this morning when we went to the local Quaker meeting--I have never been to a religious service that was so calming with so much time for personal reflection and introspection. If there is any better place in the world to find religion in nature than in Costa Rica, I don't think that I will ever find it. There is no better church than a rainforest. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

The lovely view from the main house on the plantation.

Cute little farm kitty!

Seriously, who wouldn't want to look out from
their porch and see this every morning?

The beautiful road up toward the main coffee/banana fields.
The coffee bushes are all shade grown beneath the banana and
 plantain trees. As an aside, fried plantains are the best food
 in the whole world.

One of the family farmers (he is one of 12 brothers and sisters)
demonstrating how to harvest/tie a banana bunch.

Unripe, mostly green coffee beans. The beans will turn bright, deep red
when they are ready, and each bean contains two individual beans.

PAPAYAS!!!!

The inside "rings" of a banana tree. They remind me of a sea shell.

Beautiful ripe coffee beans! Handpicked by us!

Fresh cane juice inside of a banana petal cup!
You can't get any fresher than that.

Unroasted, organic coffee beans drying in the sun.

A close up of the drying coffee beans. After this step, which can
take a week, the beans will have their inner shells peeled off and
will be roasted and sold at the local fair trade co-op.

It's been two weeks!

Wow, I can't believe that, as of tomorrow, I will have been in Costa Rica for two entire weeks. SO. WEIRD. But, this past week has been lovely, and tomorrow we will be visiting a local, sustainable, polycultural coffee plantation i nearby San Luis. Then on Sunday I will be attending the local Quaker meeting ( fun fact: they are called Qwauckers here in Monteverde) and going out for pizza after with some of the girls from the institute. Salsa lessons are also on the agenda for this weekend!

As promised, here are some more pictures of the lovely Monteverde!

One of the beautiful views that I have during my walk to the institute.
Sadly, most of the mountains/the Gulf of Nicoya are obscured by the copious clouds.

One of the dairy farmers delivering today's milk to the
Monteverde cheese/ice cream/everything delicious Factory via mule.

Another one of the farmers delivering his cows' milk via oxcart!

My lovely host family, minus mi padre. It was mi abuela's birthday... and
apparently Roy Anthony could not wait to blow out her candle.

Yet another one of Monteverde's b-e-a-u-tiful mountain vistas.

¡Fotosfotosfotos!

Leaf cutter ants! They travel in MASSIVELY long lines, and like to
 crawl up your pants. Not particularly pleasant.

One of the aqueducts at Guayabo. Absolutely beautiful.

The cutest pig in the whole world, who happens to live on
 a family-owned dairy farm, La Finca Florita.

A bird of paradise flower at CATIE/all over Costa Rica everywhere.

The view of the Veragua rainforest from the Sky Tram.

Look closely right at the center of the picture and you'll find
 a two-toed sloth staring at you!

A strawberry poison dart frog. They were EVERYWHERE in Veragua.

Pretty pretty. But don't eat them. Unless you aren't a human.

The same fruit as above, only opened!