La Selva

For the field trip, we stayed a night at Estacion Biologia La Selva, essentially a research station in the middle of a jungle about halfway down the road to nowhere.  It was awesome!

The bus left at 730 in the AM, which made for an extremely interesting morning (see last post)--I had this weird headache, who knows why... Anyway, I got up at like 545 to pee, and Mama Tica, having already finished cooking breakfast, caught me as I attempted to stagger back into my room.  I was planning to wake up at 723, so this was a bit of an annoyance.  I ate quickly and napped from like 615 on.

They say you learn a ton from your host parents (probably mostly Spanish...not in this case), and this could potentially be the best nugget I've taken from them.  After my nap, I felt GREAT.  Ok, not great, but not awful! And definitely better than I would have if I'd just woken up and tried to start my day without a nap.  I don't know how or why it works, but the old wake up before you need to, eat, and nap strategy back at school.

Anyway, traveled in a small bus, blah blah blah, and got to the station.

(actually at Monteverde...)

Had a couple minutes of down time... and explored.  We saw a ton of cool aminals including monkeys, toucans, POISON DART FROGS (one hopped on my boot, then from that boot to the other), toads, spiders, grasshoppers, etc.

After lunch, our first activity was a day hike.  Saw a ton of animals and some pretty amazing scenery.

Finished up and had some downtime, which we spent exploring some more.  Next, we had a night hike, and again, we saw a ton of stuff.  I was using my phone as a flashlight and still finding critters on the side of the trail.

SIDENOTE: Both hikes were guided. 

After the hike, we crashed.  We were advised to check under our mattresses before getting in bed and to fold ourselves up in the covers so creepy crawlies didn't eat us at night.  Anyway, the next day we picked up our assignment and went on a bikeride.  Saw a couple cool animals and such, but didn't take too many pics.

After that, the trip was essentially over! We had lunch and waited for the bus to arrive--it was an hour and a half late (Tico time...).  Didn't seem too long to me, though.  See pic.

We got back in time to watch the Super Bowl, and went to a bar called Rios.  At halftime though, me Adam and Steve all walked back to Barrio Cordoba and hung out at Steve's with his host folks--speaking Spanish and drinking beer responsibly.  It's legal here, after all.

About at the start of the 4th, Bret, Hope (LOL) and Brenda all came over and hung out.  All in all it was an awesome weekend.  

TODAY TOURS GOT NEW HIRES.