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