Bittersweet Goodbyes

 Today was a very bittersweet day.  I had to say goodbye to many of the great people that I have met here.  This is a picture of me and Wendy who was the one that arranged everything for me from the home-stay to the organizations that I was able to work with for the Children's Eternal Rainforest.  The entire time I was leaving she kept reminding me to come and visit and that my work there will never be forgotten.  

 This was the last sunset that I will see from here in Monteverde.

 Today was Tarcisio's birthday (the dad) and so all of the kids pitched in to make the cake.  By the time it was all said and done no one knew what kind of cake it was, it had raisins, blue blotches of food coloring, as well as many other random things thrown into it.  Everyone ate some of it though!  Below you can see a picture of the entire family (minus the mom who is out of town).  Below that you can see a picture of all of us staying here.  This family has been amazing and so full of love and support even though I am someone they only met a month and a half ago.  They said if I ever come back to just let them know and I would have a room for anytime that I return to Monteverde.  Tarcisio also hand made me a beautiful leaf charm for my necklace for helping out in their community and as a token of joining the family.  I will never forget this beautiful family and look forward to hearing about the future of all the children.  It sounds like Sury is going to be attending Virginia Commonwealth this fall so perhaps I can get her to visit for the holidays!

I will be leaving in the morning and going back to La Fortuna for the evening and will hopefully enjoy a wonderful evening in the hot springs before I white water raft on Thursday.  Will try to have another blog post up by Friday or so.  Only 8 days until I'm home, it is so bittersweet!

Saying Goodbye to ProNativas

This morning was my last morning to work with ProNativas with Willow and Lorenzo.  We worked in Cerro Plano which is just a small "town" between Santa Elena and Monteverde.  We also worked at Monteverde Institute in the gardens there.  It was really hard to say goodbye to them today because I have been working with them since the first day I arrived in Monteverde.  This afternoon I had a meeting with Wendy at Monteverde Conservation League going over my project which I will have completed by tomorrow!  Tomorrow I am going to finish up my project (if I don't get it done tonight) and will try and enjoy my last full day in Monteverde!

Let the Countdown Begin...10 days until I'm HOME!

Well many people have started sending me e-mails to make sure that I am alright since I have not had a blog post for a few days.  I am fine but I decided to post to catch everyone up on what I have been up to the last few days.  The weather here in Monteverde has finally turned "normal" for Monteverde with rain, mist, clouds, and fog which is very beautiful and peaceful.  The last few days I have been very busy working on my project for Monteverde Conservation League as well as working on and off with Willow and ProNativas.  I have also been spending as much time as I can with my Costa Rican Family.  Yesterday I spent the better part of the day with them shopping.  They only go to the grocery store about 2 times a month and yesterday was one of those days.  It was a good day for shopping because the ENTIRE STORE was 20% off, this never happens in the states but the entire store was 20% off so we stocked up on a lot of things, but I guess this is common  here.  We then went to the Farmers' Market and stocked up on the things they had left.  I only have 2 more full days in Monteverde as I leave early Wednesday morning so I have also begun to pack and get things ready here for my departure.  I have also begun planning my one last week in Costa Rica which I am super excited about and includes: the hot springs, white water rafting (again!), and the beach later this week.  So stay tuned this week and I will try to have more photos and information up.

The Snake House!

 This morning I walked back into Santa Elena and went to the Serpentario de Monteverde.  I had tried going here yesterday but it was closed due to the holiday so I decided to go back today.  Here they have over 40 species of snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, and turtles on display for the public to see. 

 This is a yellow eyelash palm pit-viper.  It is called this because it sits on the edge of branches (usually at eye level) and will strike its prey that way.

 This is also a pit viper but a a Central American jumping pit viper that blends in perfectly with his surroundings!

 Can you see me?

 The snake Costa Rica is known for and sadly I have seen in the wild.  The Fer-de-Lance!

 Here is a boa constrictor that evidently is found in Costa Rica but luckily I have not encountered.

 This is a rainbow boa that has a nice name but is still pretty scary.  

 This is a small green iguana.  I have seen many iguanas especially on the coast but they are much larger than this one.

 This is the Jesus Christ lizard, this is the lizard that I have seen out in the wild that can run across the top of the water.

Here was their small turtle pond and all the turtles were just enjoying all the sunshine.  This place was a great place to visit and probably good that it was during the last part of my trip because many of those snakes are common, so I am kinda glad I didn't know about them.  This afternoon I am working on my big project again as it is due next week.  Glad to hear that Columbia has been getting some rain, I know you all need it.  Will be home in less than 2 weeks now!

22nd Birthday in Costa Rica!

Yesterday morning I decided to go into Santa Elena and visit the Orchid Garden.  Here at the orchid garden they have a collection of more than 425 different species of orchids.  Of course not all of them were flowering but I was able to see a lot of beautiful orchids and learn a lot more about them.  Each species was identified with its scientific name and I was able to see species that are endemic to Monteverde as well as saw the smallest orchid in the world!  Below are pictures of that!  I was also planning on going to a couple of other exhibits but July 25th is also a Costa Rican Holiday:  Guanacaste Day. To mark the annexation of Guanacaste from Nicaragua in 1824.

In the afternoon I decided to take my family out for ice cream for my birthday so here you can see 3 of the 4 kids (the other daughter was at play practice).  Sury and I decided to share brownie delight which was brownie, chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, oreo cookie crumbles, and homemade whipped cream.  (I think we got all of our calories for the week!)

But we finished it without a problem!

We had a good dinner consisting of fresh fish that Tarcissio (the dad) brought back from the coast.  He had to go there yesterday to pick up a package.  So we had fish and then when we were done eating out came the cake.  I had no idea this was going to happen but I really enjoyed it none the less.  So I was sung Happy Birthday in 2 different languages Spanish and English!  

This was the beautiful view of the sunset last night from the porch, this is something that I will be missing.  Is still finalizing plans but will for sure be leaving here next Wednesday morning to do a little bit of travel before I go back home in 13 days!  Today I am trying to get some projects wrapped up as well as go and see the snake garden in Santa Elena!

Saying Goodbye to the Cloud Forest Reserve

Today I was able to travel back up to the Monteverde Cloud Forest.  This will be my last time up there before I leave next week since there are so many other cool places I will be seeing before I leave.  Last time I was here I stood at this location but it was clear and you could see all the way to the Gulf of Nicoya.  Today though the cloud forest earned it name because you couldn't see very far at all but it was still worth the long walk up to the divide.  

 This is a view from along the trail before all of the clouds moved it.  It was a beautiful day for hiking because it was cloudy and cool which is what I expect for the cloud forest.  The view though was still spectacular.

 Here is a picture that I took along the trail looking into the woods.  I am really going to miss this place with all of the beautiful trees and animals!

 Here was the view from the La ventana on top of the Continental divide.  

 Here is just another picture that I took of the cloud forest.

 I went back to the hummingbird garden right next to the reserve and was able to take some amazing pictures of more hummingbirds.

This was my favorite picture that I took today which I took hiking up the hill.  Today I was able to meet my old guide Bernal and was able to sit down to coffee with him and I was able to get a lot of my questions answered.  I am also going to be going on a night hike with him into the cloud forest (at a different location) and I am really looking forward to that.  Tomorrow I will be working with ProNativas again at Monteverde Centro.

Jardin de Mariposas

Today I was able to walk down to the Butterfly Garden located just outside of Monteverde.  Below you will see a lot of pictures of many of the creatures (more than just butterflies) that I saw today.  

Here is an orange kneed tarantula that is laying on her eggs.  These tarantulas can be found throughout Monteverde and they are found in small burrows in the ground.  Luckily for us they would not bite us unless we stick our finger into its mouth, which I don't plan on doing anytime soon. 

Here you can see one of the scorpions found in Monteverde.  These can bite humans if provoked but would rather not and if they did it would just hurt like a bee sting.  There are over 16 different species of scorpions in the area.  There are two facts that I found surprising about these creatures.  One is that they can glow under UV light which we were able to see.  The second is that they give live birth to their young, usually about 50, and then young then stay on the mother's back for a couple of months. 

This is a tailless whip scorpion that looks very scary but is in fact harmless.

These are a bunch of millipedes, many of which I have seen around Monteverde.  

Here you can see the Hercules Beetle and the one on the right is the male while the female is on the left.  Believe it or not there are over 400,000 species of beetles worldwide and make up 40% of all known animal species.  Sadly though many insects are not studied by many and there are probably a lot more out there left to be discovered.

This is an Assassin bug also known as the kissing bug.  This bug is responsible for causing Chaga's disease throughout the tropics.  This disease can go undetected for 20-30 years before it "wakes" back up and causes heart attacks.  They are found in Costa Rica but mostly around livestock, chickens, farms, etc. 

Can you see me? I'm a leaf katydid! This is an insect that fits perfectly into its environment by looking like a dead leaf.  

This is a caterpillar that in a few months will turn into a beautiful butterfly.  What I liked most about him was the fact that he has the perfect camouflage in decomposing leaves and the hairs on his back keep predators away.

Both above and below you can see many pictures of butterflies.  Some of them I was able to identify but not all.  The gardens were set up in a wonderful way going from the lowlands of Costa Rica to the mid elevations and up to Monteverde.  Each region had its own enclosed garden as well as a beautiful glass winged butterfly garden.

This is a Zebra butterfly, I wonder why. :-)

These two orange butterflies are Julia butterflies, which are named after the scientist's wife who discovered them.

Both here and below you can see the beautiful glass winged butterflies.  I have seen these around Costa Rica but here was able to get some beautiful pictures.

This is a ruby patched swallow tail butterfly.  We were actually able to release him because he had just recently come out of his cocoon so we were able to release him into the butterfly garden. 

Another part of the garden was a large display of the leaf cutter ants.  I have seen these ants all over Costa Rica so here it was good to learn a lot more about them.  I was able to learn about the ant's social structure and how they each have specific jobs within the colony.  They had a large enclosed box that had a tube leading out across this bamboo to the plants the ant cutters use to collect food and bring back to the colony.  

Here is the ant colony and you can see all of the green leaf drops amid the food for the ants.

Tomorrow I will be heading back up into the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve to meet with Bernal who was my tour guide when I was here earlier in the summer with EARTH University.  He is very interested in showing me around Monteverde Reserve so I can't wait!