Traveler's Addiction: Costa Rica!: La Selva Biological Station

This weekend was a field trip with my Tropical Ecology class to a rain forest on the Caribbean coast. La Selva is a private organization dedicated to studying wildlife in the rain forest near Braulio Carrillo National Park.

We spent Saturday and Sunday hiking around in the forest. Saturday we got there around 11 and had lunch at the indoor/outdoor at the dining hall, which we feasted at every meal. Those scientists don't lack having great food! Afterwards, we went on a hike as a class along with the Ecological Photography class for a few hours. It was a great time and I learned so much! We talked about the green vine snake, the walking palm, the tree Sura, and many others. After dinner at 6pm, we went on a night walk in smaller groups. The nightlife is incredible, there are probably like 10 times more animals out at night, most being insects - YUCK! We saw things such as praying manti, bullet ants, frogs, and a couple common pauraque, which is a bird that comes out at night and nests around the grasses near bushes.

Green Vine Snake

Bromeliad - a plant that grow on anther tree, but isn't parasitic.

Sunday, a few people got up at the crack of dawn to go bird watching, and I made the mistake of not going.. BUT there is a next time for me, in two weeks in fact. I am so glad my Land Vertebrates of Costa Rica class is going back. Anyways, after breakfast, we split into groups of two or three for our project with the photography students. We each had a partner, and in my case, there were three of us. We had the assignment to photograph bromeliads. Bromeliads are plants that grow on trees, but aren't necessarily parasitic. At the end, we pick a photo to present and describe to the rest of the class. So we spent the morning on a trail that went deeper into the forest, where the path became narrow and the wildlife a little more diverse. It was a beautiful time, and I couldn't help but stop and photograph constantly. During this time, we spotted howler monkeys, lizards, a beautifully radiant green spider, and two nesting crested owls! This sighting made my day!! I love owls, and now have decided to do my research project for my Land Verts class on the crested owl :D One of the last cool things we saw was a hummingbird's nest. It was one of the most intricate and tiny nests I have every seen. My love for hummingbirds was also satisfied. In all my years feeding hummingbirds in my backyard, I had only seen one other nest. I am so glad I got a great photo!

There was no way to capture the full beauty and teeming life, but I will share with you as best I can. :)