Resbaloso

its been quite an exciting week. in addition to the sloth over the weekend, last wednesday i ran across a hog nosed viper. which M decided to poke with a stick to try to make it strike. hmmm. yes, i feel safe with my assistant... i also decided to take some time off (from WHAT i dont know) and went floating down the river for 3 days running. there is a stack of huge inner tubes at the river station. so whenever its sunny and i have time off, i take off for the river and tromp the 20 minutes downtrail in bathing suit and sandals, dragging the inner tube thats bigger than me through lianas and branches. again, i'm probably just asking to get bitten by one of the snakes. so far the most exciting thing, though, was seeing the cayman that lives near the station bridge while floating one afternoon. that and i almost stepped on a fer-de-lance saturday night on my way to dinner. i suppose it could have been a mimic, poised like a fer de lance to strike. but i didnt exactly get close enough to count scales or look at the shape of the pupils to tell for sure. soooo, i'm going to just assume it was a fer-de-lance.

and, if you hadn't already guessed, "resbaloso" is the spanish word for the day, meaning "slippery":

i had decided that i needed another species for my shadehouse study and that monday morning right after the huge lightning and thunder storm, was the best time to go down to the river to collect it. and yes, my Dicranopygium only grows on the slippery rocks in and along the river. which was a good foot or so higher than normal with the rain. here is a reinactment (imagine this is all in spanish):

M: don't grab that tree.
M: it has bullet ants.
(i slip on a rock and grab tree)
M: dont put your hand there either.
M: there are litter snakes everywhere.
M: its dangerous.
(i do it anyhow)
M: that rock is slippery
me: this rock?
**slliiiiiiip**
M: yes, that rock.

M: here... (with an exhasperated sigh)
M: just give me your hand!
then he leads me around saying things like:
"dont step there" and
"watch out for the slippery roots"
me: where?
M: there!
i step.
i slip.
he grabs me.
i end up flat on my back next to the river.
feet in the river.
would have been all the way in the river if he hadnt hauled me up by my arm.

PEREZOSO!

spanish word of the day is "perezoso," which is the word for sloth.

yesterday i saw my first LIVE sloth in La Selva! 2 weeks ago i had gone hiking and stumbled across a less than live sloth on the trail at the back of the property. a bit dissappointing, because i was hoping my first sloth would be alive... but yesterday a mother sloth had come down from the tree with her baby near the lab clearing! sloths can't crap in the trees, the have to come down to the ground (which makes no evolutionary sense, but oh well). so mama had taken baby down to do its buisness before climbing back up into the canopy. you can see the fur is green from algae growing in it. these are three-toed sloths. there are also two-toed sloths here, but i have yet to see one.

up in the tree

can actually see baby a bit more clearly (hanging on the chest of mama)

mama and bebe

fur is green from algae

Mama sloth!

some furry friends:

bueno amigos! meet rico suave the big hairy resident spider of my bathroom. rico liked to hang out near the toilet or in the shower, poised to launch himself off the wall and into my hair and down my shirt. or so i was convinced. one nite rico and i went to take a shower. once working up the nerve to rearch across rico (who was chilling next to the water faucet) i turned on the water. and scared the resident frog who also lives in my bathroom. the frog freaked out and went jumping up the wall straight for rico. jumped into rico, freaked out again, and jumped onto the ceiling. rico freaked out, dropped the insect he was eating, and scurried towards me. i squealed like a little girl. rico freaked out again. and scurried back to the faucet. where he chilled for the remainder of my shower. yeah, i know, i'm a girl.

and here are some pictures of bats! the long term german researchers here are all studying bats. a few weeks ago, one of the girls brough back a couple speices for show and tell. unfortunately i dont remember the names, but enjoy the pictures! the other 2 were off one of the trails. they had made a little tent out of a palm frond by chewing along the mid-rib.

last one

another

more bats

little white bat

rico, prior to his "mysterious dissappearance"

oh. and my hat got stolen on the bus, so if anyone down in LA could maybe check out UCLA hats, lemme know. i can give you $$. and i would love you forever. ok, so maybe THAT isnt really incentive, but at least the $$ is. and damn it all, it was my favorite hat that had been through ALL my trips (oz, nz, fhl, now cr...). ah well. at least i have mi hamaca.

dios mio (literally...)

sooo. i now have jesus in my heart.

well, not really. but a couple of ticas and one SHADY SHADY youth pastor from alajuela think so. only I could manage to go to san jose for a weekend and end up the victim of an attempted-converting by a tican christian group. i'm not sure how i feel about this. i guess releived that i escaped when i did. before they managed to bring me on stage and have my "new found faith" broadcast to all of alajuela. um. so. yeah. those of you that know (or perhaps share) my opinion on organized religion can truely appreciate this.

pretext: this week is "la semana santa," which is a huge deal in costa rica. almost everyone takes off to spend the week with their families and go to the beach. and although I am working for most of it, i decided to go to san jose this weekend in order to get some essentials and get off-station with a friend from la selva. essentials being una hamaca. oh, and to eat chicken. saturday nite there was also a free outdoor concert with a bunch latin american/tican groups at Laguna Fraijones in a nearby province, Alajuela. about 15k past the TOWN Alajuela. and after congratulating myself on making phone calls, getting directions and finding the bus stop for Alajuela city ALL in SPANISH; i figured "how much harder could it really be to get the last little bit of information i needed?" unfortunatley a vital little bit of information on how to get from the Alajuela bus to the concert bus. its a pretty small town and a pretty big concert--the bus driver ought to know. and he did. i think. and agreed to point me in the right direction once we got to the stop in Alajuela.

soo...after getting the shady shady man next to me to stop asking me if i had or wanted drugs and if i would be taking drugs at the concert, i settled in for the 30 min ride to alajuela (in traffic). as we arrived near the city center, a woman who had heard me talking to the driver offered to show me where to go. i ASSUMED she was going to show me where the buses were. until she started talking about her church. and saying how she was going to the concert too. hmmm... highly suspect. she didnt really seem like she would be going to the type of concert i was... and then i started hearing jesus-singing. and preaching. and she led me to her church's jesus-christ-alive-concert. that was in full swing with lots of praising and jesus love for everyone. but, since she was really nice. and had decided to watch out for me (theft is a HUGE problem in costa rica and its not safe to walk anywhere after dark if you are a woman. even in a group. and it WAS afterdark...). so i felt obligated to thank her and endure a few minutes of religion to be polite.

until she ran off to find her friend from the congregation. and tell her how she had found an american here who wanted to love jesus. so her friend ran off to bring the youth pastor who immediately commenced trying to pet and hug my friend (who speaks less spanish than i). and there was lots of talk about the "el unico camino" and "en el mano de dios" and "jesus christo en nuestros corazones." and at this point i was afraid they were going to take us on to the stage to be converted. (which had just happened to someone else). so we took off, but not after getting religious fliers shoved on us.

by now it was getting a little late and even shadier outside and we STILL had not found the buses we wanted. so we decided to grab food and just head back to san jose. and never did make the concert. it was an interesting weekend in the least. oh. and on the bus ride home, there was a police barrier set up. we stopped for 20 min while la policia boarded the bus to check everyone's ids, then for reasons i didnt understand, escorted a man off our bus.
----

i hope that i haven't offended any of you. religion is something that i dont really do, but if thats your thing, bully for you. do whatever you want, as long as you're are tollerant of other beliefs and not trying to force things on other people. just keep in mind the number of deaths/wars that organised religion (esp. western religions) have been responsible for... ok, i will not preach more at any of you, cuz i dont appreciate being preached at myself. oh, and primas y primo, lets keep this hush hush from mis padres (por favor, primas!) seeing as how we had that whole phase where mom liked to tell me over and over that she had failed as a mother because i did not believe in god.

sun in the arboleda

una rana on mauricios shirt

palm in the morning sun

strawberry poison dart frog!

un dia tipico en la vida de "doctora erins-maria"

4am - 5am: howler monkies. 6 am stumble out of bed and out of my cabina, startling the pack of pecaris (pigs) that camps out by the lab clearing. mild panick ensues, with frantic snuffling and snorting as pigs scatter into the heliconias. i continue across the suspension bridge over rio puerto viejo, dodging the tourists our bird watching, to the comedor for a desayuno consisting of huevos, frijoles y arroz, dos tipos de pan, carne, fruita y cafe. y a veces fried plantians. mmmm. for those of you that have not experienced fried plantains, you have not yet lived life. and i pity you. and we can no longer be friends.

7am meet up with mauricio, who has taken to calling me "doctora erins-maria" and i'm not sure where that "s" came from. heee. "doctora." we arm ourselves with bug repellent, flagging tape, map, water, clippers, bags, cameras and head out for el campo. to collect plants for shade house studies, try to id cyclanths, or to tag individuals for long-term monitoring. or more often, to watch me get stuck in the mud. or get tangled in lianas. in the process, though, we see countless poison dart frogs, spider and howler monkies, a fair number of snakes, bullet ants, tropical birds i still cant identify, and the occasional coati. we make it back in time to curse the spanish identification keys and realize that our asplundia is actually a dicranopygium. and read "fruits partially or completely fused, often circumciselly dehiscent berries, forming a cylindrical or sometimes globulose syncarp." clearly. and THAT is helpful.

11:30 - 1pm: almuerzo. mas frijoles y arroz, ensalada, veggies, some sort of vegetarian stew/casarole/tofu/roasted veggies and pineapple/quesadillas/avacado. fresh passionfruit, or mango, or starfruit juice. and fresh watermellon, pineapple, mango and papaya for dessert. and while i sit, unable to move because i am stuffed like a little sausage and the heat and humidity is at its miday worst, the ticos somehow have the energy for a noon juego de futbol. whew, futbol in the tropics. at noon.

then its back for more time in the field and spanish pronunciation lessons. i still cant say burro or perro. damn those doble erres! and if we're lucky i'll fall off my bike. again. icecream or a swim in the river despues. perhaps some loafing in the rocking chairs or hammock outside the old labs. then a 6pm dinner that rivals lunch. and after all that floundering in the field, you HAVE to get a second helping. back to the hammock after dinner. to read. or partake in wine nite. where pablo busts out a bottle of wine to share with rebecca, frankelin, mamood, or joel and i. and i try and understand and participate in conversation, but usually end up highly confused. or a veces we head over to "la machaca" the bar on the out-skirts of puerto viejo. where karaoke is in full swing and the beers are 500 colones a piece (440 colones = $1).

anyhow, its off to bed. its been a long day in the field, and the mark of a full 4 weeks here! enjoy the pictures! buenas noches amigos.
besos

changing leaf morphology in a climbing Monstera sp.

fruit of Anthurium trisectum

fruit of Anthurium formosum

flower of the cyclanth Evodianthus funifera

flower of D. umbrophilum

here is a cyclanth: Dicranopygium umbrophilum

hooray for cyclanths

For those of you who are interested in the SCIENCE that i am doing, a little about my research project:

despite all appearances, i AM actually doing research while i am here. Phil Rundel (my boss) from UCLA has been working on understory herbs in La Selva, CR for the past 5 years or so. what started as a biomechanics study has expanded to include ecophysiology and some natural history of both these herbs and aroids (philodendron, anthurium, monstera, etc). what I am doing is extending his work with parallel studies on species of the CYCLANTHACEA family (monoecious perennial herbs). there are 17 cyclanth species at La Selva, and many look remarkably like palms at first glance. they are incredibly tricky to ID, the keys are all in spanish, and there are no voucher species in the herbarium, only a few poor photocopies. which does wonders when the main distinguishing feature between two species is the color of the fruit or petiole. little work has been done on them, although in many areas certain species dominate the understory.

so i have decided that i'm going to categorize them and collect some info on natural history of these species. and seeing as how there are terrestrial, epiphytic, and hemiepiphytic species, i am interested in differences in biomass allocation, water relations, growth rates, leaf production and light responses between species. so i will be running around censusing cyclanths and finishing up some odds and ends with aroids for the next 5 months. repopulating the shade house we have to try to determine growth strategies for different species. and trying to determine if what are currently called hemi-epiphytes are indeed hemi-epiphytes (lots of running around and measuring biomass and primary and secondary root connections). and hopefully rasoul and phil from UCLA will be able to do some ecophys by the time i'm done to add a bit more data.

sooo.. lots of time in the field awaits me. with my first censusing in the swamp. i think. at the moment all i've managed to accomplish is IDing 15 species. no small feat with the spanish keys. the only thing worse than botanical keys and jargon is botanical keys and jargon in SPANISH. and i havent found the remaining 2 anywhere yet, although one is supposed to be very common. hmm.

first residence: estacion del rio 

entering la selva across stone bridge 

A few things i love about costa rica after my first three weeks here:

1) everything in costa rica is an adventure

my first forray out to the river for a swim. seems harmless enough, plus no one has actually SEEN the crocodile in el rio since sometime before january. after heading out on the 3k trail to the river, i realize the bike has a flat tire. no problem, i'll walk. once at the river, discover in order to cross to the other bank, you pully yourself over in a metal cart that swings 20 ft above the water. and has the tendency to come of its cable. excellent. lots of fun. and once in the river, realized i didnt remember to bring a flashlight with me and it will be dusk soon. so i maddly scramble to make it back to my cabina before dark. but the trip was well worth it, and EVERYTHING is more fun when its an adventure.

2) and the good-natured attitude of everyone. especially my field assistant

who has to watch me at almost every turn. because if i'm not almost falling off a fallen tree while trying to cross the river, or sliding down a muddly slope straight for a spiny palm, or trying to grab onto branches and lianas with bullet ants on them, then i'm DEFINITELY sunk up mid-leg into the mud and need to be pulled out. we get along great. i wave my hands at him and try to speak spanish. while he tells me that he is going to a) make me swim back to the river station, b) make me climb trees to collect some epiphyte 20 m in the canopy or c) ditch me in the woods to test my sense of direction.

3) there is always something exciting going on

poisonous snake tracking through swamps at night, poison dart frog collecting during the day, trying to find the 2.5 m boa in the field, mist netting for bats... endless possibilities.

4) the national passtime in costa rica is the art of 'subtle' seduction.

so maybe its just the culture and i just need to adjust, but... Its monday nite. hot and humid i have big plans of sprawling on my bed with minimal clothing and the ceiling fan going full speed. until i run into one of the costa rican researchers here. he wants to have a party. music. beer. wine. dancing. he'll even teach me salsa and merengue. sounds good to me. i agree to dance lessons, assuming he must mean at the currently fictional party. until he finds me 5 minutes later. cds in hand. to give me a private party and private dance lessons. in his room. his dimly lit room.

so i now have a fictional boyfriend. who is very tall. and strong. and protective. did i mention how strong he is? oh, and we've been dating for over 5 months now. i'm thrilled. never thought my longest 'relationship' would be FICTIONAL. if things go well, who knows. maybe we'll get a fictional apartment and live together somewhere nice. and the wedding is sure to be something. maybe i wont be the crazy old lady with 40 cats. i'll be crazy with 40 cats and imaginary friends.

now, if i could only get the lab manager to stop trying to apply lotion to me at night, then i would be set. don't even ask about that one...

oh, and one more thing: 5) the second national passtime of (rural) costa rica. KARAOKE. every bar has karaoke. and drunken ticos like to wail off-key love songs in spanish. i love it.

despite the sarcasm (i am ALWAYS sarcastic), i am seriously enjoying myself. i cant wait to see what the next 5 months are going to bring me or where they will take me.

bienvenido

In an attempt to let friends and family track my whereabouts as i run loose and unsupervised through the Costa Rican rainforest, I've finally set up a blog. oh, and to also have an outlet for my ranting, so no one friend has to overly suffer from my rambling emails. so whether you've stumbled upon my blog by mistake, or actually INTENDED to, stay a while, sit back, and enjoy. welcome to the latest adventure of my life ("Erin's Big Adventure no. 5" according to my family) at the Estacion Biologia La Selva.

besos!
-rina