aimless erin: April 2005

murcielagos y oso hormigero

More exciting animals. Last week there was an ant eater out in the forest near the lab clearing. so i had a little crocodile hunter moment where i went out into the forest to track her and take pictures... and this week i went out with the bat researchers one night and caught a few bats. they are really neat animals. the researchers i was with are looking at diversity of bat species in the primary rain forest. i got to hike out to where they were set up at night and ran across the BIGGEST FER DE LANCE i have seen so far at la selva. she was HUGE! and hunting right along the trail. so it was an exciting evening. and an hour or so after i left for bed, they caught a vampire bat! too bad a missed it. but somehow i think my 8 hours of sampling in the swamp the next day would have been even worse if i had stayed up past midnight.

anyhow, i'm exhausted and its off to bed! today i had hiked 5 miles through the forest (which feels like more when you factor in mud and humidity) and had re-visited three of my sites to take denisometer measures all by 1o am. then went back out into the field after lunch to hike to the moveable tower of the torres research project. so i'm beat. and its off to san jose to visit ro tomorrow, then beaches on the caribbean side and panamA (the accent is on the 'a') with mo for a week.

enjoy the pictures! there will be more coming when i return. to make you all horribly jealous.

bat!

Kim holding bat

more white bat

me holding little white bat

little white bat

oso hormigero! (ant eater)

estamos perdidos

Science update, anyone?

After 6 weeks of general uselessness, I've finally designed my OWN project. I know I must be a huge science nerd, because I've been really excited to set everything up. I have some awesome resources here. The plants in the family I am studying (CYCLANTHACEAE) are especially interesting because there are epiphytic, hemiepiphytic, 'climbing,' and terrestrial species all within the family. In addition there are individuals within two of the terrestrial species that also climb and appear to be genuine hemi-epiphytes. So within the family and even within species I have the opportunity to look at different environmental factors that might influence the succress of different growth strategies. The ecology of these plants, although many make a huge biomass contribution in the understory, is virtually un-studied. There have only been systematics and identifiation studies done on the cyclanths in Costa Rica. So I'm going to be doing the FIRST ecological investigations. Which i find really exciting, but I'm a nerd. Although I'm going to have my hands much more full than I thought. My boss has decided that he really likes my experimental design and wants me to try to sample the aroids and understory monocots in addition. That is basically EVERY PLANT except iding trees to species. Fabulous. So I guess I'm flattered? I haven't decided yet.

There is an awesome GIS lab here as well, so I've been able to utilize the GIS to set up a truely random sampling within 4 different soil types (alluvial, residual, swapy, and stream associated) within the primary forest. I can look for patterns in distribution of the 18 cyclanth species here with respect to soil type and topography. And I got to make a bunch of cool graphs! hooray for GIS. La Selva is also unique in that it has a grid system set up throughout the forest. Metal tubes with a lat and long numbering are set every 50 by 100 meters. So all I need to do is find my randomly selected tube that is the corner marker for my plots. Exciting, isn't it? I can tell y'all must be riveted.

Today I got to go out in the field to try and sample my first alluvial plot. With my map, compass, and grid, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to find my markers. HAH! We found the first 2 markers (only 50 meters apart) but still had 2 more (100m) to go, when my assistant and I somehow lost them completely. I think it was when we had to scale down the steep muddy hill, dodge around the 3 tree falls, and then cross the river. Somewhere in there. DUDE, who would have thought it would be this hard to find a spot only 250 meters off the trail? The vegetation is incredibly dense! These poles are marked with bright orange flagging tape and we still had trouble. One we found had been sunk so far into the ground only 6 inches were above the mud (probably the result of an old tree fall) and some others are missing entirely. We ended up tromping for almost 3 hours through the forest, before we hacked across to one of the other trails and called it a day. But it was great fun slipping around and getting muddy and slightly lost. Just not so great for getting my research done in a timely manner. I'm hoping to head out this weekend and try again to find it. Vamos a ver.

more pictures...

my favorite stream

golden orb spider

la playa san popa

la fuente de juventud

I think I've managed to stumble across the key to eternal youth. Since I've been here working and living in Costa Rica, time and time again I've found myself struck by how "young" everyone seems. Initially I was surprised to discover the researchers and ticos with whom I've been drinking beers at Machaca and shooting the shit in the afternoons were in their late 20s early 30s. at the youngest. some with wives and children. some just with the children. I had just assumed that they were in their mid 20s. And I have been wondering, what it is about everyone that makes them seem young to me? Not that age really matters, but there seems to be some underlying difference in the majority of the people here that I cant quite place. Is it just that everyone LOOKS younger? not necessarily. Are they more light-hearted? Carefree? Am I just really bad at guessing people's ages? What IS it?

Back home in the beloved EEUU there's this overwhelming weight of responsibility that descends when you hit your mid-20s. Hell, I was feeling it before I left to come here and i still have a good many years of footloose traveling with no repsonsibility! So many people seem to be caught up in their individual little worlds. Too busy to take the time and enjoy what really matters--friends, family, getting outside. People are too busy stressing over inconsequential details. In the long run, is it really going to matter? At what point did everyone have to start scheduling in time for friends, like just another thing on the 'to-do' list?
'Life is what happens to you when you're too busy making other plans.'

Many people back at home are busy finding jobs, applying to graduate schools, applying to medical schools. Working for that EVENTUAL success and happiness. With the greatest achievement of making themselves worried, stressed and generally unhappy.

Its not that there is a lack of responsibility here. Try raising a child as a single mother. Or no larger goals to work for (all my researcher buddies are working on PhDs). The responsibility is still there, but it isnt looming. People have TIME to spend with each other. They arent 'fitting' anyone into a schedule. I am in a place where people are CURRENTLY happy. They are doing what it is that they love or enjoy. No one is working for the eventual, distant-future happiness and success. They HAVE it. My assistant is just about the most outgoing, positive person I have ever met. I have yet to see him anything less than ecstatic to be out in the forest EVERY morning. He has no desire to become further involved in the 'research' portion than he already is. He is easily THE expert of Costa Rican monocots, but does not want anything to do with any of our publications. He has all he wants to be happy-- working in the place he loves. This seems to be the underlying factor. I've always believed that you have to choose to work doing something you enjoy (even if it is at the cost of other things), but haven't been quite so good at following it. I like to spend countless hours worrying about things that i have absolutely no control over. And in costa rica, the land of subtle seduction, this just isnt done.

Llast night I had one of my most fun nights here. Not out partying, but in the researchers lounge playing guitar and singing with a bunch of the 'older' researchers. The Clarks, a married couple that are huge tropical researchers and have lived at la selva for the past 20 years, have music nite once a week. And people show up with whistles, harmonicas, guitars, bangos, and a few cold beers to relax and let their inner 20yr olds out for 3 hours of music. I've never seen such an animated crowd of people that should have been dead exhausted from the work they did that week, but were only barely winding down at midnight. It was refreshing getting showed up by a crowd of mostly 50+ year olds. The second key to eternal youth appears to be music (but I always had a hunch about that one).

Maybe its being outside, enjoying life. Just doing something physical. Our bodies weren't designed be trapped at a desk INSIDE (shudder) 24-7. The most relaxed I've been since I've gotten here was after a week of days spent hiking through the forest and planting my species in the shadehouse. And aside from little bouts of worrying about the "future" i've recently found myself much happier than I have been in a long while.

so i'm going to learn a little lesson here in Costa Rica, and hopefully continue to apply it when i return to the states in the fall...

mas fotos!

hola. in the spirit of procrastination, here are some more pictures. of course they are mainly plants. come on its me... what else would you expect? enjoy!