Post that should have been posted a month ago!!!

So this is a post that I should have posted a month ago, but I just now have the pictures! Sorry!

Wow, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize how long ago the last post was!  So the kids didn’t end up coming April 5^th.  They are now coming April 25^th, next Monday.  Since I was originally going to only stay until May 3^rd, the fact that I would only get about 5 days with the kids was not good.  I ended up switching my flights and now I don’t leave until May 20^th.  I haven’t been doing much since I last updated, until about last week.  I worked on the Tirimbina newsletter for a couple days, which kept me occupied.  I also went out into the forest with Eugenia (the woman in charge of the education program) to look for bat tents to show the kids when they come.  We found a few, but also made a few artificial ones on the trail that we are going to take the kids on, just so they would have more experience spotting them.  Building bat tents is not as easy as it sounds! It’s pretty tough to be a bat!  Here are some pictures of the tents we made.



Apical



Pinnada



Inverted boat



            I also helped some of the researchers go out and collect bat tents for an experiment they were doing about temperature in bat tents.  The day after that I helped a different researcher change mammal traps that were high up in trees, and he even let me climb one!

Triumphant!!

            It was pretty tiring, but very exciting. 

            And then this Saturday, I visited Alex, the woman who rescued me the first day I got to Costa Rica.  Her boyfriend Felix picked me up at 7:30 am and took me to their farm.  I got to help her and Felix do some field research (because she is a biologist working on reforestation experiments) as well as get some well needed animal time!  In the morning I helped her change seed traps that she had set out, which she then takes the seeds and grows them to see what they become so she can make a seed identification type guide.  Then, in the afternoon, I got to play with her 3 dogs, meet her cows and calves, and go horseback riding through her old growth forest!!!!!!  And to top it off, she made pizza for dinner!  It was a great day, and I only got one tick! (My 5^th one, and no, I haven’t found the best home remedy to get them out).

            Yesterday was pretty low key, just walked around the forest a little and went for a run.  This week is Santa Semana, which is pretty much the same as Holy Week, but they take it to the extreme here and practically everything closes down for the whole week.  I’m about to venture to the grocery store with my new roommate in hopes that they are still open.  So yes, I just got a new roommate, Joyce, from the Netherlands, and she will be here for 6 weeks!  But now I am really outnumbered because out of the volunteers and researchers living here there are 5 Germans, 4 Dutch, and me, from the US.  But everyone here is awesome, so I don’t mind.

I will post an update hopefully later today since this is from a while ago :)