Blue Morpho!

        Well, a lot has happened since Wednesday when I updated last.  Thursday I went out into the forest with Laura again, helping her set up more traps, and in the afternoon I translated stuff for Eugenia while Laura patched up some more traps.  Friday morning I went out with Laura again, to help her bait the traps with the banana stuff that I helped her mush the other day.  I got to see howler monkeys (we set up a trap right under where they were hanging out actually), a ton of blue morphos (a BEAUTIFUL big blue butterfly), a red morph of the pit viper, and again, more cool butterflies and bugs.  Friday afternoon I went on the chocolate tour (again) with Matt, Claire and Julia (3 Ball State Students) and we saw an agouti and a beautiful hog-nosed pit viper!  Then later that night we all went on a night hike, but didn’t see much because it hadn’t rained in a while.

            Saturday I slept in and had a relaxing day.  I went out into the forest with Matt to help him collect ants.  He wanted a bullet ant, but instead we found some ants that mimic wasps with their coloring, so he got those instead.  Then I went to lunch and came back to my room to find that I had a new roommate!  Her name is Lisi (and I have no idea if I am spelling that right) and she is from Spain and she is a photographer.  She seems pretty cool.  In the afternoon I went into town with Claire, Julia, and Annie (another researcher) and we got some supplies and ice cream, because ice cream here is ridiculously cheap and tasty.  Then Saturday night, Matt, Julia and I watched the Chronicles of Narnia in Spanish (with English subtitles) which was pretty cool.

            Sunday it was raining in the morning so I didn’t do much, but in the afternoon I went to the hot springs with some of the researchers and some of the Tirimbina workers.  We had a whole bunch of beer and food, intending to make a day of it, and when we got there they told us we couldn’t bring in food or drinks (not knowing if we had any or not) but we brought them in anyway.  Nobody ever said anything! It was a lot of fun, and we didn’t get back until around 10pm. I was surprised that Lisi wasn’t in the room, but she had talked about going to Tortuguero for the day, so I thought she might be back later, but she didn’t come back at all.

            This morning I got up nice and early to go help Catherine, one of the Tirimbina researchers, but it was pouring buckets outside, so she said to see if I could help Christian, another Tirimbina researcher, collect caterpillars.  When he came by, he said that it was raining too hard to find larva, so we would do it later.  So I came back and went to bed for a bit, and now I’m updating!  I’m not sure what I will be doing today, if anything, but I will keep posting!