Cuerici!

    I’m gone one week and McCain goes up in the polls and two major US banks go bankrupt!  What an adventurous week on both sides of the Caribbean.  Turns out I will also be out of internet range November 4th – for over two weeks. Someone please ESP the election results to me.

    So I am back from Cuerici, which contrary to expectations turned out to be fantastic.  There was a pony on the property, which helped me with my massive Roo-withdrawl to a certain extent.  Beyond that, the place was just beautiful.  It is a privately owned trout farm/biological station with a few hundred acres of protected oak forest.  We hiked, we slept in one big room (with some partitions, but they didn’t reach the ceiling), we watched trout lay eggs, we woke up at 430 to watch the sun rise over the mountains.  I know, it is the anti-Jessica, but I really had a great time.  

Here are some pictures of our mountain abode, and our tough as nails vehicle that we ride in in groups of 12.  There are also pictures of we went hiking through the oak forest and through the paramo, which is a high altitude ecosystem dominated by bamboo and shrubs.  It also contains a number of plants that have medicinal properties or are edible (like St Johns wort) so of course we tasted everything that we came across (in retrospect, no not the best idea).  In all, Cuerici was a large hunk of fabulous. 

Now I’m back to civilization (roughly), at La Selva Biological Station in Sarapiqui, which apparently is one of the most famous places in tropical biology.   I will talk about this place in subsequent postings, though as a taster today I swam in a river with a crocodile (or possible caemen? fingers crossed) about 200 m downstream.  So thats how this station is going (awesome!).  I’m here for somewhere around 3 weeks, and I’ll have internet the whole time.  I hope everyone back in the States (and elsewhere) is doing great!  Pura vida, compas

Adios, Las Cruces

    Our last day at Las Cruces!  Which is really too bad, because it is apparently the nicest station we will be at all semester (what an awkward place to start; all downhill from here!).  Tomorrow we leave for Cuerici in the Cerro de la Muerte – mountains; we will be up at around 3000 meters and everyone is worried about altitude sickness.  I for one am finally seeing the benefit of those Colorado 14er attempts (last summer we hiked up over 13,000 ft on a family vacation, so whats 9,000?  hopefully this statement does not jinx me).  Everyone is also worried about being cold, especially with no hot water!  And also no internet, so this is my good-bye until September 14th or so.  

    I also have a sick amount of bug bites at this time.  Somehow I got like ten while sleeping, and of course while sleeping I’m rolling around which amounts to scratching to the bites.  And then when I wake up, they are huge, the welt on one is over an inch in diameter.  Amen Costa Rica!  haha at least there are less bugs at Cuerici because it is so cold.  Also at Cuerici we (the 22 students) live together in one big room.  And one kid snores, so that should be interesting (and likely incredibly irritating).  There is also no hot water and no heat, but apparently a large fireplace.  ”rustic.”  However, I did manage to buy chocolate and peanut butter (oh, sweet lovely peanut butter) in town so it is hard to bring me down right now.  

    I finally figured out how to load more pictures!  The one of me in the headlamp I put on only because I think you will all get a kick out of it.  I personally am less than pleased.  The others are from a number of events: when we hiked into town in the rain; preparing to catch insects, also known as “bugging”; a field trip to a small coffee farm; and of course a snapshot of the preliminary scoresheet of our card league (note who is in the lead).  

    A shout out to my sister, who will be in thailand in t-minus 5 days!  This is the beginning of a lutkenhaus world takeover.  I can’t believe she’s going, fingers crossed that a coup is averted at least for the next five months.  Her adventures will be posted  http://nobagels.blogspot.com/  and are likely to be insane!  (And full of sinfully beautiful pictures of the food)

Talk to you all in a week!  Pura vida.