Monkeys, agoutis, and sloths, oh my!

The most exciting thing about Costa Rica, for us, was getting to see cool animals in the wild. And our favorite ones? The mammals! It was such a thrill to see them pass by (or in the case of the sloth, peacefully snooze), as if they didn't care at all that we were in their forest. Very magical!

No wonder they call them 'monkey bars'...

I love this howler monkey's expression.

A sleeping sloth! Curled up on a high branch

 The agouti trots down the path.

A sniffing coati...

Some birds of Costa Rica

I've never been particularly fascinated by birds, but after this trip, I can understand a little better why people can be obsessed with observing them and cataloguing their endless varieties. Maybe it's time to get into birdwatching!

The "reclusive" and "resplendent" quetzal! We were very lucky to spot this bird during our short stay. Look at its gorgeous coloring!

 We met this owl on a night hike in Monteverde. Hoot hoot

 A sleeping blue-crowned mot mot

A series of pictures of hummingbirds follows here. There was a hummingbird garden just outside the nature reserve, attracting all kinds of gorgeous birds. Such a variety of jewel-colored little birds!

 And finally, a pair of macaws that greeted us at a rest stop:

Monteverde

After Arenal, we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest area. First, we visited a local coffee farm to learn about how coffee, chocolate, and sugar are made!

Here I am with Don Juan, the owner of the family farm we visited.

A ripening coffee bean on the branch

Green coffee beans, after being dried but still in their shells

Green coffee beans, sorted by weight. After this, they are roasted and ground for consumption.

This is the cacao fruit! There is a tangy, sweet flesh around each cacao bean.

 Here is the dried cacao bean, still in its shell.

 And the shelled cacao bean, broken into nibs.

I drink coffee and eat (lots of) chocolate, and it was pretty nifty to see where things come from and how they are processed. I basically have no idea how anything is made in the real world, so I learned a lot of new things.

We also embarked on a particularly (for me) adventurous activity in Monteverde: ziplining! I would never skydive or bungee jump; I think ziplining is probably my limit. We whizzed through the tree canopy at pretty high speeds – not good for spotting wildlife, but beautiful in other ways. There were something like 14 separate cables, and we moved from platform to platform, culminating in a cable that is 1 km long! I spent most of the time yelling, "EEEEEEE!!"

And finally, a few pictures from our hikes in the cloud forest. Because the forest is usually bathed in clouds, moss and other kinds of epiphytes can grow on everything. The vegetation is incredibly dense and the very air seems almost alive. It was quite magical to hike through it on a quiet day.

Look at how the trees above seem to shape their own growth with reference to the surrounding trees! Almost like puzzle pieces. I had no idea...

Don't Bug Me

I used to be pretty excited about insects, back in high school. I've forgotten a lot, and my collection is now crumbling into dust at my parents' house – never did use formaldehyde to preserve my specimens. Still, it was exciting to observe (and not collect) some beautiful and unusual (to me) species in Central America!

A walking stick in the night, looking just like...a stick.

 Cool translucent wings on this butterfly

This shade of blue is so rare to find in nature!

When I first saw this beetle, I thought the white dots on its thorax were eyes...

I was stymied by this insect for a while...it reminds me of a damselfly, but it only has two wings, and the way the wings are positioned isn't like anything in the dragonfly family. I looked it up in my guidebook: it's a kind of wasp! an American pelecinid – never saw one of these in PA!

Arenal

Our first main stop on our Costa Rica trip was Arenal volcano. This volcano was dormant for centuries, until it erupted in 1968. Until that time, locals just thought it was a big...mountain. So no one was warned before the eruption, and over a hundred local farmers died. Scientists began to travel to Arenal after 1968, and tourists followed in their footsteps. The peak of the volcano is frequently covered in clouds; we were very lucky to see the top during our stay:

We went kayaking down a local river, and saw some cool animals (animal photos to come in a separate post):

It's low-season for tourism in Costa Rica right now (because it's the rainy season), and there was only one other couple on the kayaking tour with us. There were two surprising facts about them: 1) they're from Philadelphia, and the woman just graduated from West Chester University! and 2) they were FAR more useless in the kayak than we were! It was their first time kayaking, so of course it wasn't easy, but once they flipped over, they panicked and wanted to go home immediately and didn't think they were capable of learning, etc. etc. I was amused, and our guide was very nice to them.

One of the big attractions in Arenal is a Hanging Bridges tour. The area is dominated by rainforest, and all the animal action is concentrated in the top of the canopy, so they built a number of hanging bridges linking hiking trails that allows one to remain in the canopy. It was pretty fun, though you can see the ground below through the grate, which was a bit frightening to me! (I'm afraid of heights.)

 I loved this tree, whose spreading leaves look like a fractal pattern:

We also hiked down to the La Fortuna waterfall, where we swam in the pools at its base. The water was very chilly, and the current quite strong. We only went in where the water was calmer, and it was a beautiful view.

We also went for a hike near the volcano, through the forest that has regrown after the eruption. Here you can see the volcano reflected in a pool of water, the cavity of which was created when rocks from the blast created huge ditches in the soil:

The hike ended with a lovely view of Lake Arenal:

We spent our last hours in Arenal at some natural hot springs. Supposedly they're good for your muscles and your skin? I was just worried about overheating and fainting. Did you know that in the classical world, natural hot springs were often called "Baths of Hercules"? They were certainly relaxing, and I can see how an athlete tired from practice or battle would name hot springs after his patron...

hello from Costa Rica!

We are having an amazing time in Costa Rica! We've been hiking, zip-lining, swimming, and wildlife-spotting all week. This is a really special place: put it on your bucket list, everyone!

back in action?

I am slowly re-emerging from a summer of all-consuming, all-intensive language teaching. I didn't intend to take a complete hiatus from blogging, but I guess I'm not surprised that it happened anyway. I'm often overly ambitious about piling on activities, social events, and travel during periods of academic stress. This summer, I toned it down and just focused on getting through each day, trying to have a normal conversation with Dave before bed, and then sleeping! Even then, I didn't always succeed, but at least I never got sick.

But now I'd like to get back into updating this blog! I briefly considered abandoning it entirely: I've got a long and intimidating list of things to write in this upcoming semester, and the fewer distractions, the better! But I do love looking back on the record of the things I do write up, and the challenge of finding visual material to enliven that record helps me think and grow in new ways. Besides, we all need to take a break from work every once in a while!

So here's a quick catch-up on some highlights from the summer, starting with May:

The dress rehearsal for my choir's spring performance (all Beethoven) at Carnegie Hall! I've decided not to rejoin this choir in the fall (too much to do), but I'm glad I had the chance to participate last year.

U2 concert at Madison Square Garden – the band is on the near part of the stage, and the spotlights are about to come on. 

Our tenth college reunion!

 Paint Nite with Katie and Julie in Manhattan

 Dave and I recently discovered Cedarmere, the summer home of William Cullen Bryant (of Bryant Park fame). It's a little estate on Roslyn Harbor, perfect for a picnic!

And now it's on to fall. But first – Dave and I get to go on vacation! We're headed to Costa Rica for a week. More pictures when we return!