 The sky in Puntarenas gave quite a color show of blues, golds, purples, and finally crimsons before nightfall. Additional photos
Jeanette is holding a relaxed parrot in Puerto Viejo. The man that owns the parrots rides around with them perched on the handlebars of his bike. The parrots were so tame that they would let you hold them laying down!
 The Caribbean Coast
¡Hola a todos! ¿Qué tal?
Wow, time is flying by, and a lot has happened since I wrote my last article. I had a great time on the Caribbean coast two weekends ago, and although I don’t have any more underwater pictures for you guys, I do have some of the beach at Puerto Viejo (where we stayed both nights) as well as some of Playa Negra which is father north towards Limón. The snorkeling was great, thanks to the clear skies that lasted all weekend, and I was able to see lots of cool tropical fish in the patch reefs. I also have some excellent pictures that my friends Jeanette and Laura gave me, including a series of pics from an amazing sunset.
The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is much, much different from the Pacific coast. There are lots of Jamaicans, and it seems like every other person you see has dreadlocks. The atmosphere is very laid back, and while I was there relaxing on the beach listening to distant reggae music I kept thinking that I was on some island in the Caribbean rather than mainland Costa Rica. Tiny Puerto Viejo was very tourist oriented, with the whole town consisting of mainly souvenir shops, hotels, scooter rentals and restaurants. At night all the street vendors came out and set up shop, offering a wide range of goods: handcrafted jewelry, carved wood figurines, clothing, music...you name it, they had it.
 A rasta-colored boat in the harbor at Puerto Viejo has the name "just like that" painted on it.
Among the fish I saw when we went snorkeling at the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge were parrotfish, angelfish, groupers and a barracuda to name a few. The water was crystal clear, and felt like bathwater on my skin. I guess this is because I'm used to swimming in the great lakes, which are pretty chilly this time of year. We unfortunately were unable to go snorkeling at Cahuita National Park, which is better known for its extensive and complex reef structure, although we did go to Playa Negra which is just north of the park.
Last Thursday I went with the vast majority of my fellow USACers to a Thanksgiving party which was put together by the staff. They rented out an entire hacienda for the party which had two pools, and plenty of space for us to play soccer, ultimate Frisbee and volleyball. To top it off, there was meringue, salsa and cumbia playing all night for us to dance to. Despite my complete lack of skills on the dance floor, I actually did dance for a short time. The food was excellent, and they even had apple pie for desert! As sort of a grand finale, the staff provided us with a firework show right before we left at around 11:30.
 These are some ticos playing a tune on the marimba near the beach.
The next day, I went with my conservation biology class to the Tirimbina Rainforest Center near Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí. I know that sounds familiar, but it’s actually a different town farther north from the Puerto Viejo I visited the week before. Now declared a Costa Rican National Wildlife Refuge, the reserve protects 840 acres of mid-elevation cloud forest, also known as premontane forest. I was surprised to discover that Tirimbina is actually a division of the Milwaukee Public Museum, which bought the property from the tropical agronomy (a kind of applied soil science) pioneer Dr. J. Robert Hunter of Wisconsin. The center is a non-profit organization created for preservation of natural forest, environmental education, and scientific research. We stayed in the dormitories inside the reserve, which were quaint and had all the necessities like drinkable running water, showers and a dining hall. Our guides Chris and Wilson were very friendly and informative, and obviously knew a lot about the area. It didn’t take long to see our first new animal; as we were unpacking in our room my friend noticed a gigantic golden orb spider (see pictures) hanging just outside our window!
 Chris is holding a fruit bat we caught. We also set up a sheet with a fluorecent light behind it to attract insects. That allowed us to see a sample of the amazing diversity of moths and other insects in Tirimbina, such as the praying mantis.
We were able to participate in a wide variety of activities that the park staff performs on a daily basis. The first night, we set up some bat nets that looked somewhat like layered volleyball nets, but were unable to catch anything. However, the second night was very eventful as we saw several different kinds of nocturnal frogs and caught a small fruit bat in the nets. We were able to identify the type of bat and species by the bone structure and mouth, and we were even able to hold it ourselves. Chris told us that there are well over 100 species of bats in Tirimbina, from insectivores, carnivores and vampire bats to nectarivores, pollenivores and frugivores (fruit eaters) like the one we caught. Saturday we went on a thorough hike of the forest into the primary old growth regions, and in the meantime saw many different kinds of wildlife including frogs, birds and a couple different kinds of ants. When we were deep within the park, we set up parameters and analyzed a plot 30 yards long by 5 yards wide. We counted the number of trees and estimated their heights and ages, as well as measured the percent of light that enters through the canopy to judge whether our portion of forest was undergoing succession or was actually primary forest. Then later on that day we hiked to a small river in the rainforest to take larvae samples with some handheld filters. After we identified the larvae, we were able to determine the relative cleanliness of the river by checking our data to see if pollution sensitive species were present or not. As it turns out, our river was very clean because pollution sensitive species were abundant.
 This is my pal Roberto, who I have run into numerous times this semester, who actually turned out to be the driver for the Tirimbina trip. In this photo, he just got done trying to spearfish in the river using an old broomhandle with a nail tied to the end and snorkeling gear. His attempt was unsuccessful, but we all got a kick out of it anyway.
Sunday we packed up all our gear and hiked out of the reserve to meet our driver Roberto at the visitor’s center. The hike took us through beautiful pristine rainforest past waterfalls and rivers of the Sarapiquí watershed. There were several canopy bridges we crossed that allowed us to walk well over 50 feet up in the treetops, the last one crossing the Sarapiquí River itself. The trip was yet another great experience, and I learned a lot from it while having a blast at the same time.
I know it sounds crazy, but this weekend is my last one here in Puntarenas this semester! I’ve already made plans to go to Playa Santa Teresa near Montezuma to go surfing with Melissa Saturday, and I might stay overnight. After that, all I have is my bio finals Monday and Tuesday, since I audited my last Spanish class. Then Wednesday night I’m going to San José since my plane leaves at 8am Thursday morning. Although I know I’m going to miss the gorgeous weather down here, I can’t wait to spend Christmas with my family and my girlfriend Tegan. Wish me luck on the finals.
Until next week, ¡chao!
Additional Photos
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