Tour with the Professors- Tuesday

Today we toured with the professors many different areas within EARTH University.  This is our second day here at EARTH with the professors which is part of their short 1 week stay in Costa Rica.  Some of these areas I had seen before but many of the tours were new and exciting and took us to places I had never seen before. 

Also since we have been here it has been pouring rain all but about 8 hours since we have been here more than two days.  Many rivers and creeks around here are out of their banks and they are now having to deal with issues such as mud slides which has shut down the road between where we are and San Jose which is a major highway connecting San Jose to the port Limon.  Many people around here are actually hoping that it stops raining soon since so much water has fallen the past week.  I will try and send some of this moisture north since I know many of you need it.

Below is pictures of today's tours.

In the morning we had the opportunity to travel back into the forest reserve which is my favorite part of this campus.  Here is another one of the walking trees and this one has very long legs!

 

Today we had our very own tour guide that works in the reserve so he was able to take us back off the main trail and to what they think is the largest tree on the property.  They call this the turkey tail tree because I guess the leave resembles one but I couldn't see that high up.  This tree has a very extensive buttress system and it is taller than I am!

 

This is a picture of one of the fruits that we found in the woods.  What stood out to me about it was is vibrant colors as well as the fact that it was growing not from a branch but rather directly from the stem of the tree.

 

Here at EARTH University they have some tree plantations that are 20 years old.  They are harvesting this timber to put through the sawmill and then all the wood is used around campus.  What I couldn't believe was how large these trees were for only being 20 years as well as how straight and clear the wood was. 

 

This is a pile of the logs that they are dragging out amid all the mud.  It seems here that all of these sites are extremely muddy and the continuous rain isn't helping with that. 

 

Here is Cory and I once we were done with that logging site.  We were very muddy and I learned that would have been a great day to wear my muck boots but we had fun anyway.  That evening I actually just got into the shower with my pants and shirt and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed to try and get the mud off before it permanently set in. 

 

This is the small scale saw mill where all the wood is processed on campus.  This process takes a lot longer than it would in the states because everything has to  be done manually unlike many of our mills where it puts the log on for you and you really don't have to touch it much once it is on the mill. 

 

This is some of the boards they are cutting out of the logs.  The wood is very clear and light and these pieces would normally cost them about $12 a piece to buy.  Unfortunately even with this nice clear wood they are using it as forms for pouring concrete because that is what the need is right now around campus so we were a little puzzled about that, why they would use such good wood for just concrete forms. 

 

This is the workers trying to flip the log and they are doing everything by hand including the guy who is trying to make sure the log is level for then next cut.  After seeing their small mill and learning that they can only cut about 9 logs up per day I am really appreciating some of the mills we have in the states.

 

The afternoon was a little bit cooler than normal so I decided to go to the coffee shop here on campus to try and warm me up as well as get me some caffeine.  What I really liked about it was the great attention to detail as well as the lovely drawing she made out of chocolate syrup on the top of the cream. 

 

The picture above and below is a student that came and gave a presentation to us in the afternoon.  All of the students here have to have an entrepreneurial project as part of their classes at EARTH.  We were able to hear from three different students about their project and the success and difficulties that they are having.  This student here is from Ecuador and her and her group decided to make chocolate.  The students here buy the organic beans from a local professor and as part of the project they have to process and package it themselves.  Above you can see their finished product which was in fact very good!

This student's project was to grow rambutan trees.  Here in Costa Rica rambutan trees grow out in the wild but the fruit is very bitter and not so good to eat.  As part of the project their group has grafted the wild seeds (saplings) with the more domesticated fruit producing trees and sells them around the area for people to plant to produce fruit.  It was very interesting to hear from him about his experiences with grafting trees as well as the niche market for his product. 

 

Here is a view of the volcano from campus today.  This is the volcano that we will be visiting later this week.  They have actually shut it down to the public due to an increase in seismic activity and hazardous gas spewing out the top.  The fun part is that we will be having a private tour with the vulcanologist who works daily with this volcano and so we will be able to be in the park and learn about what is going on with it.  I am very excited because the last active volcano I saw was in Hawaii when I was three (which I don't really remember), so I am very excited to have this chance to learn about the volcano!