Darwin is Right!

The entire Costa Rican experience is so amazing so far. It is impossible to summarize it all in one blog entry. Even though we either had no sleep or little sleep on Sunday, we all got here safe, encountering little to no problems.When we got here we travelled around a little visiting a few places - The Fortuna Park and the surrounding towns. We travelled through Monterey and arrived at Leaves and Lizards at about 6.00 pm, three of us having no idea the adventure that awaited us here. We all settled in comfortably and took an early night, even though sleeping was hard to do since we are all so excited. On Monday, every one got a lot of rough work and preparation for the rest of the week. It was amazing. Geovanni, Dr. Brown, and I discovered 56 species of birds and many of them were new from last year. On Monday as well, we hiked up Mount Arenal, the active volcanic mountain in the pouring rain. It was a refreshing experience. When we came down the Mountain, we watched it erupted. Mount Arenal is so magnificent. Tuesday was equally exciting. I discovered a Green Breasted Mango, a species of Hummingbird for my hummingbird study. Even though sitting in the scorching heat with many ants and bugs and dogs, it was well worth the experience. I learned a lot about the nesting habits of the Mango. One thing that was especially interesting about the Mango is not only it's territorial behavior when it is nesting but also the fact that the male Mango is the only parent that was observed so far incubating the young. We've seen so many new bird species from last year, including the Breasted Mango as well as nine plus species of hummingbirds and a few that can't come to mind right now. The rest of the experience is very refreshing and thrilling. Hiking through forests and encountering bugs, possible snakes and the RAINFALL is all an extremely wonderful experience. My Darwin experience - standing beneath this fully shaded tree and still getting wet from the rainfall. It is really intense. The Costa Rican food is amazing and some of the best I have had in a few months. Dr. Brown and Mr. Marsden have helped us so much and Steven and Debbie have been so hospitable to us as well as Madesia. Gotto go. Until next time, hasta la vista.