La Selva: mid-week
My suitcase arrived late Monday morning...missing my flashlight and Leatherman tool. In spite, I am in much better spirit given the presence of clean underpants.
Yes, this is an ecoinformatics/database workshop, but it is at a biological field station, so I am overjoyed to be back in a setting that feels much more home-like than my office. The organizers are providing lots of extracurricular stuff to keep us amused. Peccary and various small lizards wander freely everywhere all the time. Sloths and large gray-orange iguanas hang from the trees. There are a great many birds I've never seen in the wild...as well as migrants like chestnut-sided warblers that I see with frequency at home in season. I see fish in the Rio Puerto Viejo, but I'm the only fisheries biologist of our group and the only who seems interested in that facet of the wildlife. I'd guess most of what I've seen are characids. I don't know if anybody has completed an inventory of the fishes of Costa Rica. I'll try to explore in a bit more detail this week.
The heat and humidity in the lowland rain forest is incredible, but not dissimilar to what I expect of marshes along the lower Great Lakes in August. May-December in the lowlands, at least some daily rain is typical (it's pouring right now). Mornings are often clear; clouds roll in during the afternoon.
One of my roommates, Guillermo, is from San Jose, Costa Rica, and works at a field station near the border with Panama. His mother insisted on raising relatively cultured children and saw to it that they all at least explore a little music. Guillermo is an avid amateur pianist and percussionist; his early training was classical but he prefers blues and jazz. His brother is completing his guitar studies at the conservatory and is a fan of Brouwer. His sister played the violin, but, like Guillermo and I...and most of us who can't play better than avid amateurs...opted for the day job. We've been enjoying excellent, music-rich conversations.
Also, Guillermo can identify all the mystery juices that are served with each meal. Food here is pretty good. So far, rice & beans (gallo pinto) every morning, and it's mighty tasty with a bit of red or green sauce (salsa Lizano). Most meals are dominated by fresh fruit and vegetables. The bananas here are delicious. (A banana plantation tour is scheduled for tomorrow as is a night hike.) I had my first experience with the Costa Rican version of Chinese food for lunch today; it was good, but I doubt anybody from China would be any more likely to recognize it than the "Chinese food" in Ohio.
Today is my daughter's birthday. I didn't like missing that at all, but I've been told friends and family were liberal with gifts of cash to mitigate my absence. I have a set of jade earings carved with Mayan-style crocodile fetishes that I picked up in San Jose. I'm eager to deliver them on the 29th.
Still have to report on NOAA performance measures for Ohio to the National Sea Grant Office by 24 October, all assembled and submitted by e-mail, but that will wait for next week. I'm feeling remarkably little pressure from that deadline, much less than I usually would.
Yes, this is an ecoinformatics/database workshop, but it is at a biological field station, so I am overjoyed to be back in a setting that feels much more home-like than my office. The organizers are providing lots of extracurricular stuff to keep us amused. Peccary and various small lizards wander freely everywhere all the time. Sloths and large gray-orange iguanas hang from the trees. There are a great many birds I've never seen in the wild...as well as migrants like chestnut-sided warblers that I see with frequency at home in season. I see fish in the Rio Puerto Viejo, but I'm the only fisheries biologist of our group and the only who seems interested in that facet of the wildlife. I'd guess most of what I've seen are characids. I don't know if anybody has completed an inventory of the fishes of Costa Rica. I'll try to explore in a bit more detail this week.
The heat and humidity in the lowland rain forest is incredible, but not dissimilar to what I expect of marshes along the lower Great Lakes in August. May-December in the lowlands, at least some daily rain is typical (it's pouring right now). Mornings are often clear; clouds roll in during the afternoon.
One of my roommates, Guillermo, is from San Jose, Costa Rica, and works at a field station near the border with Panama. His mother insisted on raising relatively cultured children and saw to it that they all at least explore a little music. Guillermo is an avid amateur pianist and percussionist; his early training was classical but he prefers blues and jazz. His brother is completing his guitar studies at the conservatory and is a fan of Brouwer. His sister played the violin, but, like Guillermo and I...and most of us who can't play better than avid amateurs...opted for the day job. We've been enjoying excellent, music-rich conversations.
Also, Guillermo can identify all the mystery juices that are served with each meal. Food here is pretty good. So far, rice & beans (gallo pinto) every morning, and it's mighty tasty with a bit of red or green sauce (salsa Lizano). Most meals are dominated by fresh fruit and vegetables. The bananas here are delicious. (A banana plantation tour is scheduled for tomorrow as is a night hike.) I had my first experience with the Costa Rican version of Chinese food for lunch today; it was good, but I doubt anybody from China would be any more likely to recognize it than the "Chinese food" in Ohio.
Today is my daughter's birthday. I didn't like missing that at all, but I've been told friends and family were liberal with gifts of cash to mitigate my absence. I have a set of jade earings carved with Mayan-style crocodile fetishes that I picked up in San Jose. I'm eager to deliver them on the 29th.
Still have to report on NOAA performance measures for Ohio to the National Sea Grant Office by 24 October, all assembled and submitted by e-mail, but that will wait for next week. I'm feeling remarkably little pressure from that deadline, much less than I usually would.