Biology
Costa Rica Trip
2007
Entry #5 - La Fortuna/Arenal
Live From The Field!
Here is the whole group in front of the Arenal Volcano. We have been in La Fortuna, a small town near this active volcano (note trails of dust and smoke from falling rocks in the background right). I haven't had much time to make updates as we've been busy. Friday we rode from Cahuita to San Jose on a public bus, then from San Jose to La Fortuna in a minibus. It was a long day of travel and we arrived very tired. The students were somewhat encouraged by the hotel, which had a pool and mysterious boxes that dispensed air that was not hot and humid. On Saturday we took a long ride and a boat tour at Cań0o Negro near the Nicaraguan border, where we saw a lot of wildlife. Today we had the Arenal hike; tomorrow we get up for a morning hike to a waterfall, then onto the minibus for the long ride up into the mountains at Santa Elena, a village close to the Monteverde cloud forest.
Sorry not to have pictures of everything we've been up to, but it's been pretty busy here. Our internet connection will get a bit more tenuous in Monteverde, and after that at Santa Rosa it will be non-existent, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for a few days.
Next up? On June 4th we travel to the cloud forests of Monteverde (we'll be staying in the adjacent town of Santa Elena). June 7th it's downhill to the Santa Rosa - a National Park and Field Station, then back to San Jose on June 10th and home on June 11th. Everyone is doing fine, and everyone is enjoying the scenery, food and wildlife. We'll try to get updates posted as we can; internet availability is scanty - as is time to edit the pictures and put something on the web, but we'll try to keep up. We probably won't have any updates after June 7th as internet is not available in Santa Rosa and when we get back to San Jose we'll be busy packing to come home.
Faculty web pages: McShaffrey Spilatro Utah Dinosaur Dig/Desert Ecology 2006
