Field Trip

I was just saying in the previous post that you would have to wait for insect photos..well, tonight we went on a field trip to Villa Blanca to night hike and to catch some insects for our collections! We went on a solid three hour hike (moving verrrry slowly, looking for insects to catch) and then ended with a black light setup that attracts so many insects. I caught a stick bug, some cool beetles, and some other interesting orders. Along the way, we also saw snakes and frogs and lizards. It was so much fun hiking through the dark with our flashlights, and we all had a great time geeking out on nature. Before this class, I never ever thought about insects, but this class has completely changed my perspective and I love it! 

Just a view heading out to Villa Blanca

Night hiking! So much fun

Huge butterfly, probably the biggest I have seen in the wild

Ant colony on a leaf with some plants growing out of it!

Craaazy caterpillar 

Living Life

The past couple days have been pretty cool. On Monday, we went on a field trip to a little village down a dirt road named "El Socorro" to visit a group of women who make lotions and shampoos out of natural plants that they grow. They only spoke Spanish, so they would talk and the teacher would translate, but it was cool to see how much I could actually understand and have it validated. Like usual, I could get the gist when focusing. We had coffee and snacks with them as well. 

For my final project for the class, I will be making a mini documentary on the women, so I was filming too. I need to return once more and then film them at the farmers market, and I think I will be good. I am so happy that I took the Visual Anthro class at Chico and am super excited to see how this turns out. Here are some screenshots from what I have so far.

El Socorro is about 15 minutes on paved road, then 30 minutes of dirt road away from San Ramon

This is their space...for now..

All of the women who were here are housewives too, so some of their children accompany them at work

Today, after class I met up with my Entomology/Ecology professor to check out how my termite project was going. I set the wood up in the forest about a week ago, and so far no bites but we will see. When we were leaving, he spotted some army ants, which are really cool gnarly ants that are capable of eating humans. We caught a few and I got to experience first hand how strong they are. They have mandibles that are half the length of their bodies and are hooked and sharp. When I picked one up she clamped down on my thumb and easily pierced my skin, although it was just the top layer. When I was pulling my finger away, the skin ripped before the mandible broke off. Got that sucker. I would have taken a picture of her, but when you kill them they shrivel up so you cannot see the full effect. We will have to wait until my insect collection when I pin them up. This isnt my picture, but you have to check out how crazy these gals are.

I returned home and felt like going on a hike. I hit up a few friends and headed out to this waterfall that I have been meaning to go to for a while. The trail to it was good ol' Costa Rican style...steep as f**k and no switchbacks. We actually had to slide down a 15 foot section to get down, and then climb back up upon returning.  The waterfall was really cool and the water was nice and refreshing. 

My mom here has been talking about my abundance of hair for a while now, and today she cut her brothers hair. Whenever she bugs me about it, I go why don't you cut it? Well I think she finally had it with the hair, so now I have a new do! Not bad..

Pura Vida

This weekend was an awesome weekend. It started out on Friday with a solid Halloween party thrown by our beloved Gerardo, the man who has made USAC the outstanding program that it is. It was also his birthday so we celebrated that too!

The next day I headed to La Finca with Alexis and Ana, where we met up with some of their family. We went to one of their friend's houses nearby and picked up some fish out of their ponds and brought them back to cook. Some were still alive when we brought them into the kitchen; thats how fresh they were. It was also my first time eating a whole fish like that. At first, I was a bit skeptical but then I thought "when in Costa Rica" and it was sooooo good! 

We ended the night with guitar, hammocking, and some tragitos.

The previous night one of the guys had gotten his ATV stuck in the mud, so the next day his brothers came with another ATV and 6 of us headed out to get it. We drove up this hillside with a beautiful view, and then hiked the rest of the way since a car couldn't make it. Two of the brothers led ahead with the other ATV.

nice lookin view

crazy colored horse

I thought the guy fell last night and needed help getting it from a hill or something, but it turns out that it was just straight muddy. 

The guys that went ahead ended up being our first save. Alright, so we are getting muddy today...

Legs covered, I thought this was the worst of it..

Second save of the day, we ended up pulling this thing up the road with the rope because it was so slick. Got some more mud.

 I think we are done, but now that we are all good and know we can get it out of anything and are already muddy, why not explore? We spent the next couple hours, 3 on each, exploring"roads" that are even really hard to walk down. That seem impossible for an ATV, but then again there's six guys...so we spent the next couple hours riding for a little, then getting off and pushing, then riding some more, then pushing some more, and so on. Mud splattering every direction, everyone covered head to toe and everywhere else, we made it to a creek and washed off, then got just as muddy again. 

Shaking off my head, thinking that I am clean..this stuff sticks!

When I got home I showered vigorously and was still dirty. Couldn't have been happier. Played some foosball with them afterwards and got my ass kicked, but learned a new technique that helps a lot too!

La Fortuna

This past weekend us gringos headed to La Fortuna to enjoy some natural hot water and hanging bridges. It was packed into about a day and a half, but so much fun. We started out at out hotel, and the clouds cleared from the top of the volcano (rare). We actually could see a couple small plumes of smoke coming out of it! Later, we went to this giant resort, Baldi Hot Springs, which had water slides, so many different pools and cool rock creations, and the best buffet dinner I have ever had. The next day we did a little hanging bridge hike which was pretty mellow, but pretty awesome. We were suspended hundreds of feet up, I think the longest bridge was over 300 feet long, and there were awesome views. Time went by so fast, but so many good times all packed in a short weekend.  

Silas giving the approval. Notbad

I do love my Beam on the rocks, especially with this view

Salud!

Some friends way up there

Connor exiting one of the slides. This thing shot you a good 20 ft out, soooo much fun! I felt like a little kid again

Exploring

Today I went exploring around a little bit behind campus. Saw some good looking cows (the cows here are a different breed and very ugly and mangy compared to cows im used to back home), some cool flowers, and then a mosaic on a random rock!