We spent some time the second week in Costa Rica visiting coffee, banana and chocolate plantations.  Coffee will only grow at an elevation between 700 and 2000 meters.  The plantation we spent time at is a coop between smaller, local farmers who work together to keep their businesses going.  Our guide showed us how they begin coffee plants, how the beans are processed, dried and then served us some traditionally made coffee.

Mi Cafecito Coffee Cooperative

Coffee beans are measured here.

Different stages of growth of the coffee plant.

Drying coffee beans naturally, without assistance.

David, our guide, making us coffee.

 The banana plants were much larger than I had imaginined.  The bananas are wrapped in blue plastic to help keep pests away as well as keeping the bananas from bruising, or getting brown spots.

Banana plants.....

Kirby putting a plastic bag on a group of bananas.

We spent the last two days finishing up our group research project.  The full day at La Selva each team presented their projects.  We also spent time hiking during the daytime and at night to catch more wildlife.  The biodiversity was astounding!  At every turn there was a new species of snake, frog, insect or mammal to see!  This opportunity has brought me many experiences to bring home to my classroom.

Finishing up our presentations....

Our cabin "Iguana"...rightly named:)

Sunset at La Selva at 6:05 pm.

My team from Erie completed our random sampling of primary growth forest on Friday.  It rained the entire 3 hours we were in the field.  All of our equipment and notebooks were soggy by the end of the sampling, but we completed data collection from 3 plots.

Lindsey, Cindy and Cal getting soggy while we collect data.

We agreed that it was an important learning experience that we can take back to our classrooms.  We were collecting our equipment and leaving the area when Cindy spotted a snake......It was venomous and luckily no one stepped on it while we were working.

Rain Forest Hog Nosed pit Viper

 We toured the Rio Puerto Viejo on a river raft, while it continued to rain for most of the trip.  We stopped near the end of the trip to feast on some local fruit...

The pineapple here is outstanding!!!

The weather cleared up Saturday so we were able to visit the canopy towers.  They are 46 meters above the ground.  Scientists use them to collect climate data and data on parts of the canopy.

Our group getting ready to climb the towers.

We made it to the top.

The bridge between the towers.

One of the canopy towers.

View from the top, Volcan Barva in the background.

We had some free time on Sunday, so we went ziplining....

Over the river....

Nicole, Lindsey and Cal

Our fearless guides.

We have spent some of our time in the classroom learning TEAM's protocols for camera traps, vegetation sampling and climate data.  We were able to practice the quadrat vegetation sampling in the field as well as the camera traps, but had to postpone the climate data field experience because of weather.  We were going to climb a tower which holds the climate monitors and it was too dangerous with the thunder and lightning.

One of the teams from Florida set up their camera traps on Monday in various locations around La Selva.  A Puma was recorded at 8:30 pm on Tuesday evening and the scientists here were very excited. The location of that particular camera trap is about 100 yards from our classroom.  We were walking back to our cabins from a presentation about that same time that evening.


Our team will be sampling primary and secondary growth forest to determine their CO2 sequestration potential.  We have set up a unit plan to use the techniques we have learned here in our classrooms.


Wednesday afternoon we took a 3 hour guided tour where we saw a few animals, including iguanas and sloths.  We also saw several different species of birds, bullet ants and remarkably varied and beautiful vegetation.  This morning we went on a 10 km rafting tour down the Rio Puerto Viejo.

Spider Monkeys hanging out on the bridge....

View of a stream from our guided tour.

 

 

View of the Rio Puerto Viejo.

Our guide showing us Bullet Ants. 

 It is extremely painful to be bitten or stung by a bullet ant and one woman in our group was bitten the first day in the field.  She's was ok, but in alot of pain.

Just a really cool tree along the path.....

These are peccaries.  They are everywhere and not at all afraid of us.  They have a strong, unattractive odor, so you know when they are close.

The coffee here is really good.....and bold!

Lizards are every where...I'm sure you're not surprised.

It rains here....... a lot!!!!!.....it is sunny one minute and the next is a downpour, so we have our umbrellas with us constantly.  The staff here has perfected the skill of riding a bike while holding onto an umbrella:)

When we arrived at La Selva, the first thing we did was have a safety talk from Kenneth, one of the guides.  The only two issues are Bullet Ants and venomous snakes.....most importantly if you are bitten by a snake, keep calm! (Don't try to suck the venom....it only makes it worse.)

On my way to our cabin this guy met me.....

The air temperature here is comfortable, but the humidity makes everything feel damp and it is difficult to sleep.  Below is the Iron Bridge over the Rio Puerto Viejo which takes us to the classrooms.

We also stopped at La Paz on our way to La Selva.....

We arrived in San Jose yesterday at about 12:00 pm local time. We've been here less than 36 hours and we've done so much I don't know where to begin.  Once we arrived in at the airport, we took a taxi to our hotel, Adventure Inn, where we met the rest of the teams and our facilitators.  The hotel was very comfortable and the food was delicious! I tried Mamon Chino...a very peculiar fruit.

Mamon Chino top left....

Our hotel lobby, restaurant, bar and all the hallways were open and filled with plants and paintings....also a Koi fish pond just below my room.

We left for La Selva Monday morning about 8:30....we traveled by "mini-bus" and this was painted on the window, made me feel safe:)  (For Marielle)

Views from our trip to La Selva....San Jose is in the valley.

On our way  we stopped Vocan Paos one of the active volcanoes in Costa Rica.  It last erupted in 2009...one of the crater lakes there has a pH of less than 1 :0 - Don't fall in....!!!!

Unfortunately the cloud cover was very thick so we couldn't get any great pictures of the craters...

Volcan Poas Summit

There were several signs about what to do if the volcano erupted....#1.  Stay calm......thank goodness we didn't need to worry about that!!!

My favorite part of that spot was the Cloud Forest....

August 2nd I will be traveling to La Selva Biological Station located in the Sarapiqui region of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. The Northrupp Grumann Foundation and Conservation International awarded a grant for myself and 3 other Erie Public Schools employees to study the rain forest in Costa Rica.

La Selva is part of TEAM Network (a partnership between CI, The Wildlife Conservation Society, Missouri Botanical Garden and The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), which collects standardized ecological data at 17 sites in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

During our time there we will be collecting data on terrestrial mammals and birds (camera traps), carbon (by collecting vegetation data), and climate.

Below are links to CI, La Selva Biological Station and Northrupp Grumann Foundation for more information:

ECO Classroom
 
CI (Conservation International)

Northrupp Grumman Foundation

Our team will be focusing on Carbon storage and forest plants.  We will be using the TEAM Carbon calculator to investigate carbon sequestration of different forests types and ages.  We will then bring theses techniques back to the classroom and complete similar studies in our temperate area of Erie, Pennsylvania.