Day 4

The selva verde lodge is very nice. I guess we would call it primitive. The only electricity is lights. There are no tvs, but happily there is a bar!

We started yesterday with a 6am bird walk (You all know I'm such a morning person!) with edwin our guide! I wish i drank coffee...its really good here according to susie. Edwin is the coolest guide ever. He's a costa rican biologist. We saw some parrots and great green macaws (which are endangered) and lots of frogs. The frogs here are beautiful. Very vibrant and colorful.

After the bird walk, we met for a mock field study I the rainforest with Paulo, who lectured for us the night before. There were 3 sites and we were split into groups and had to catalog and map all the species in our quandrant. Karla, Susie, and I were in a group with Leslie and Angie from PA. Susie and karla refused to go into the actual brush ( they were "recorders", so Leslie and Angie and I did. It was cool doing actual field work.

After the field work, Edwin took us for our first tour of the rainforest. It's hard to describe..very green and lush. It's true...there are many layers. An abundance of underbrush or leaf litter, off the path. For someone like me, who values some sort of order, it's a mess! There are plants everywhere and anywhere there could be sunlight. It's nice, though I don't know if you could exactly call it pretty. The colors of flora and fauna, when you actually see them, are bright and vibrant! The frogs are all over the place and have cool colors and designs on their backs. Butterflies and birds are beautiful.

We finished our walk and then headed back to the lodge. After lunch we got to meet with local teachers and ask them questions. It was really interesting, and it totally made me wish I spoke Spanish. I keep formulating sentences in half spanish ( with words I know) and filling in with french words. I actually understood a lot of the spanish because of that french. We talked to them for a long time.

Them we had to sit for another lecture by the director of the local learning center where they try to help the community through education. I was getting pretty tired of lectures by this point. I had no idea how many lectures we'd be sitting through.

During dinner, we got to continute our conversations with the local teachers, this time on a more personal level because we were at tables and split up with interpreters. It was fascinating! I have to send them something when we get back. The two guys at our table were both ecotourism teachers which is like a vocational type of class (similar to shop or auto tech). They were great and once we'd gotten over the initial awkwardness, we had a great conversation.

That night, Edwin had promised to take us on a night hike, so we grabbed our flashlights and he led the way. We didn't see too much, a couple of bats (which freaked a lot of people out...I won't name anyone) and that's about it. The stars were amazing! So many when we got away from the lights.