Directed Research

Hemispherical canopy photo

Thursday the 18^th we left for our directed research (DR) field work. For Gerardo’s DR, we got to go to two different locations on the Caribbean slope, Manu where we were for our first trip, and also a farm called El Zota. But before we even got to leave we had to not only pack up our stuff for the trip, but we also had to pack up almost everything in our rooms because the staff scheduled a fumigation to get rid of all the assassin bugs while we were gone. So my life was in two backpacks and a very large black plastic bag. After we were all packed up, we split up for the car ride because only a few could fit in the car Gerardo was driving and the rest of us had to go in the taxi they hired for a two and half hour ride. It was nice recognizing everything as we got closer to Manu, although it was weird because that was where we started our trips and now we got to end there, but without the whole group. We did a little bit of field prep (labeling the jars for the macroinvertebrate sampling, making tags for the palm and collecting supplies) before we actually went out and started collecting our data. Since it was later in the afternoon, and there is always a good chance of rain then, we only worked on the palm data. We measured the height, diameter, number of leaves and number of developing leaves on the palms in the open areas around Manu and also some in the forest. After the measurements were taken we also got to take the hemispherical photos with the fisheye lens. I got to do about half the photos in the open areas which was a pretty cool experience. The process was more detailed than I expected because you had to point the top of the camera due north, then make sure the tripod was level based on two levels that were built in and then most importantly, get out of the photo and snap the shot. It took me probably close to 45 minutes to take about 15 photos. After I finished, Coral and I had been told to meet the group in the forest to hand off the camera, but we had very vague directions and wandered around in the forest for a bit before we heard the group yelling for us. Since not everyone was needed for the photos, I was able to head back to the rooms. During that time I went down to the little swimming hole they have at Manu to check it out, but I didn’t get in past my knees. I wasn’t thinking about how it wasn’t very hot anymore and the sun was out. We had dinner at our normally scheduled 6.00 and didn’t have any more DR requirements, so we all brought out our sleeping bags and watched a couple of episodes of Planet Earth before going to bed at a pretty early hour.

Macroinvertebrate sampling

Friday was our full day at Manu for sampling macroinvertebrates in the Rio Santa Clara. I woke up to the sound of something hitting our window, but I couldn’t figure out what it was as I sat in bed and listened for almost 20 minutes. I finally got up and realized a little bird was flying into our window repeatedly and then sitting on the ledge before going at it again. Different alarm clock than I’m used to. To collect the macroinvertebrates, we split into groups of three so each could have a net. One person would hold the net and the other two would lift up rocks and stir up the water and push it over the net to catch everything (living and non-living) we stirred up. Then we would take the net out and, quite often while we were standing in the river, we would pick out all the macroinvertebrates we could see squirming around with our tweezers. I was again soaked up to my waist, although I fared better than some others in the group who fell all the way in the river. To collect five samples from four different microhabitats (deep and shallow pools and rapids) it took us almost three hours. When we got back, Gerardo declared the time before lunch nap time. It was nice to have a break and then lunch before we went back out to do more sampling at a section of the river further downstream. This time, instead of walking to the river, we had to drive. We thought we were going to have to take two trips because there were 11 of us and only a five person car. That didn’t matter though, the car had a big open trunk area in which we squished five people. It must have been quite a sight to see 11 people pile out of this car, all with rubber boots on and carrying nets, sampling jars and tweezers. We finished our sampling at that site in under two hours, which was good because we came back and got started identifying all of our newly acquired macroinvertebrates. As someone who does not have a background with macroinvertebrates, it was overwhelming to sit down with loads of little bugs and try to identify them based on physical traits that I could often not distinguish. We only identified to the order level, because with our lack of good microscopes and limited time, we weren’t able to identify to the family level. After staring at the macros for so long, I thought I would be talking in –teras the whole time because of all the dipteras, plecopteras, tricopteras, coleropteras and ephemipteras that we identified.

Pond at El Zota

Only slightly flooded path

Saturday morning I woke up to not only the bird flying into the window, but also a howler monkey in the distance. Our data collection for the day was for the palm part of DR. No more getting soaked in a stream looking for little bugs. Instead, we got soaked in the forest while doing a transect study and searching for Euterpe precatoria (palm trees). We had to measure a 50 meter distance from the edge of the forest in, and then 1.5 meters on either side of the line we looked for E. precatoria. It required a lot of bushwhacking and staring up into the rain trying to count leaves on the tall trees. Even though I ended up soaked again, it was pretty fun. Since I was already cold and wet, I took a cold shower to make everything better. After lunch we packed up and moved to our next site, one that we hadn’t been to before. It was a long, bumpy ride from Manú to Finca El Zota, but it was worth every head-rattling bump. When we pulled up to the farm, the pastures, pond and house were bathed in the late afternoon sun. It looked like the most gorgeous, tranquil place. The owners of the farm, Carlos and Nuria Chavez, were very welcoming and were very patient while we all got excited about seeing toucans in the tree next to the house and toucanets on the plantains out front. We were told that space was going to be tight, so we brought tents and set one up in the front yard. While it was still light out, Carlos took us to the garden and we were all in heaven. They had green beans, cilantro, cassava and lemongrass that we harvested among other things. The sun was still out and consequently we were all in great moods. On the way back from the garden we saw some of the cows, chickens and goats they have on the farm. Since we had time and daylight, we went for a walk to see some of the palms that Nuria planted on the farm. As palms aren’t very small and cute, we were all probably more excited to see the green and black dart frogs that were all over. When we got back, Maranda and I helped Nuria with dinner. We made delicious chicken (not from the farm unfortunately), mashed potatoes, chayote, carrots and heart of palm, green beans and plantains. As if that wonderful home cooked, homegrown meal wasn’t good enough, we finished it off with fresh brewed lemongrass tea. As we drank our tea, Nuria told us the story of how they started the farm, down to the little details about their oldest son sleeping and playing with the goats when he was young. By this time, the nice weather was over and it started to rain. I was glad at this point that I wasn’t one of the people sleeping in the tent that night.

Sarah and I milking a cow!

Lauren and I making queso palmito

Sunday morning I woke up to the sound of rain. It appeared that it rained all night and I was still glad that I wasn’t in the tent. I helped in the kitchen again cutting the cassava bread (pan de yuca) and somehow I was put in charge of making the coffee even though I have had a total of two cups of coffee my entire life. After we finished eating breakfast it was still raining, which thwarted our plans to go measure the palm seedlings and take the photographs. So instead we did farm chores, although we were probably more of a hindrance than a help. We all got to milk cows and a few people collected eggs. During the time that all eight of us milked two cows (with the help of Carlos Jr.), Carlos Sr. had milked at least 10 cows. It was a fun experience, but milking cows is not my calling. We also got to go see the pigs and their organic fertilizer system, which was really neat. As it was still raining pretty hard, we put off going into the forest once again. This time we got to help make cheese (queso palmito and queso presado). The first stage of making queso palmito, which is just string cheese, was to add whey to the milk and stir in a couple of cultures before letting sit for a few hours. While we were waiting for the cheese, we had another delicious meal of rice, beans and meat, yuca, plantain salsa, salad and platanos dulces (sweet plantains) for dessert. It wasn’t until we were finished with our meal that we realized the delicious meat we were eating was veal. There were quite a few of us that wished we hadn’t just eaten the meat and enjoyed it that much. After having helped Nuria so much in the kitchen, there were a few of her recipes that I wanted to make sure I got before we left. I now have the recipes for her delicious pan de yuca, salsa de platanos and platanos dulces. I know what my next experiments in the kitchen are going to be. Since we were still stalled out waiting for the rain to let up, Maranda and I got to go help Carlos herd the terneras (calves) back to the corral. On our way back from a successful cow herding, we met up with the rest of the group. Gerardo had apparently decided that we needed to go out and collect the data even though it was still raining pretty hard. Even with rain boots, a rain jacket and an umbrella, I was soaked by the time we got to the forest edge. Then the real fun started. We had to walk along a flooded path in the forest (sometimes the water was up to the top of my rain boots) and try to find the palm seedlings that had been marked by previous groups. We found most of the seedlings, measured them and didn’t have a dry piece of clothing between any of us. When we got back and dried off a bit (nothing is ever completely dry in Costa Rica) we got to help finish up the queso palmito. To do that, Nuria added boiling water to the milk/cheese that had solidified while we were gone and mixed it all together. Then she rolled the cheese out to about ¼ inch thick and cut it into strips. She then showed us how to salt it and roll it into a ball. We all got the chance to roll our own ball of queso palmito, which was really fun (and delicious)! We had to wrap it up and let it sit in cold water before it was ready to be eaten. We then had more free time since it was still to rainy to take the photographs. We started working out what our specific DR topics were going to be and more importantly we set a time with Gerardo when he promised to take us to Harry Potter 7. I got to help with dinner once again and Maranda and I made some mora (blackberry/raspberry) juice. Nuria surprised us when she brought out a bowl of corn and a grinder. We had been talking about chorreadas, a type of corn tortilla/pancake, with her earlier but we didn’t think we were going to actually get to make them. We got to grind the corn and then she mixed is with sugar, a little salt and some milk to make a batter. She showed us how to pour a spoonful onto the griddle and spread it out thin enough to make the chorreada just right. We had the many fruits of our labor for dinner – queso palmito in a casserole, chorreadas and mora juice. We had another homebrewed mint tea after dinner as Nuria told us about the uses of palms for over 30 species. I wish I was more interested, but by the time my watch said 9.00 I was ready for bed.

All decked out in our rain gear

Our DR group with Carlos and Nuria

Monday was a sad day, as we had to leave and head back to the center. Gerardo and three of the people in the group went out to take the photos of the canopy above the seedlings since it finally stopped raining. Those of us who didn’t go to take the photos had a nice relaxing morning. After the photo group came back and we had breakfast, we all went back out to see the frogs that were out along the edge of the forest. Carlos and Nuria’s other son, Bernie, took us over to the forest edge where we saw loads of strawberry dart frogs, green and black dart frogs, some type of brown frog, bats and one of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen. I’m still kicking myself that I forgot my camera on that excursion. Good thing everyone else took lots of pictures. We came back with  a flower called clusia, that has a center that is sticky enough to trap ants, and enough time before lunch to have Nuria show us how to make baskets with palm roots. It was a pretty simple process and we all got to make our own little baskets for our keepsakes. We had our final meal at El Zota and were all very sad to have to leave so soon. We got back to the center late that afternoon and even though we all still wanted to be at El Zota, it was nice to only have Achim and our DR groups at the center. The rationale for our coming back early was that we had a lot of data analysis of the photographs to do. Let the craziness of DR begin.