Beach, Futbol, Research

Since Nicaragua, life's been pretty great. We're almost finished with the class section of the program (finals are this week!) and the directed research portion starts after our 5-day break next week.
Since Nicaragua I've:

• spent the weekend at the beach. We went to Jacó, one of the closest beaches to Atenas, on Saturday morning. It's a small, surfer town with beautiful beaches and fun waves to play in. Two full days in the sun is a great way to spend the weekend!



The church in El Sur

• explored a small rural town called El Sur. Located on the edge of Carara National Park, this town  is only about 60 people and centered on the ecotourism industry. They live in harmony with the land around them and everyone is really happy to show off their little town (which consists of a church, a community center, a two-room school, a bar/convenience store complete with pool table, a sugar cane mill, and a pasture area used as a soccer field). Getting to meet the locals was especially rewarding. One day we explored the river with the kids of the town for any invertebrates we could find to put under our microscopes. Later that day we all went to the soccer field and played an exciting game while trying to avoid the cow poop. Another day, we got a tour of a traditional sugar cane mill. I even got to help juice the canes as a team of oxen turned a giant juicer! The power went out one night and we all had dinner by candle light in the community center. It definitely helped us understand the rural, small town life they led and helped us fall even more in love with this beautiful country.

At the sugar cane mill

Helping milk one morning in El Sur

• gone to my first Costa Rican soccer match! Our secretary here at school, Yendry, called me earlier in the week, excited to invite me and whoever wanted to go to see the two most important teams in Costa Rica play. LDA, "La Liga," from our neighboring city Alajuela was playing the (often hated) purple team from San Jose, Saprissa. We were told to only cheer for La Liga because the game was in Alajuela and to definitely not wear purple! La Liga was in the lead in Costa Rica, but Saprissa was only one point behind, so this game was really important and judging from the amount of police they had waiting, it was going to be a crazy game. Fights were breaking out before the game even started! The first half was really exciting and ended with a 2-2 tie, which only made the fans even more passionate. Unfortunately, Saprissa won. But we got to see an exciting game!



Coffee beans out to dry

• learned a lot about what it takes to be an organic coffee farmer in Costa Rica. We visited a local farm in the hills surrounding Atenas and got a personal tour from the owner of his organic coffee farm. With the use of agroforestry (using trees on your farm for added shade, biodiversity, erosion protection, etc.), they had converted their farm 15 years ago. We also learned how to make coffee from scratch, from the seed on the coffee plant to the roasted beans. Since we have a few coffee plants scattered around our campus, a couple friends and I decided we wanted to try it for ourselves! As I write this, the beans are drying on the porch, waiting to be de-shelled so we can roast them! Eventually we should have a cup of our own organic coffee!

The three of us got to pick some coffee berries!

• chosen my research project for the remainder of the time here! A group of eight of us are working with Achim and a forest fragment. We're continuing a project that was started in 2008, that compares the carbon storage and diversity between organic and conventional farms and forests. Our group is focused on a forest in the Atenas area and my specific topic is the relationship between species diversity of trees and the amount of stored carbon in the forest. It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm very excited for it!

Now, I'm just sitting here on the porch in one of the hammocks, an arcoiris (rainbow) is pocking out of the clouds and mountains on the horizon, and the birds are singing. We only have about 4 weeks left in Atenas and I'm definitely going to miss this different pace of life! Tomorrow we are going to the beach for the day and then off to San Jose for the night. By next Thursday we will be off on our adventure of climbing Mt. Chirripó!