Day Trip to Isla Del Caño

Coral being taken over by algae, yet still alive :\ and a common gold wrasse

Giant Hawkfish

School of Grunts

King Angel Fish

Some Encrusting Corals, Pocillopora coral, common gold wrasses, a couple angel fish

White Tip Reef Shark and 2 Panamic Porkfish

Tetraodontidae

Coral Hawkfish, Pocillopora coral

White crested blenny

After getting lost I was slightly worried about being able to go on the next days SCUBA trip to Isla Del Caño - - fortunately everyone was super welcoming and didn't blame me and were jsut happy that nothing bad had happened.

The next day we got on a boat and left for a Marine Protected area that is protected within 3km of the island. The visibility that day was increadible 50ft plus and I finally got to scuba dive without a wetsuit for once. Upon dropping down our divemaster took us to a small cave/hole where two harlequin shrimp were hanging out. pretty cool! We proceeded to check out the area on our first dive, confronted by an incredible amount of diversity I was blown away. Tons of gobies, angelfish (King Angel Fish, Cortez Angel Fish) A sea turtle, 3 white tip reef sharks, a giant hawkfish, cool garden eels, in the middle of them saw a JAWFISH (favorite fish) cool Gofftail Pompano Jacs, Panamic porkfish etc on and on. SO MANY FISH. These have been some of the most incredible dives i've ever been on. The amount of diversity that is able to pack into such a small area is amazing. Tons of live coral surround by coral spotted hawkfish and green chromis. Territorial damselfish . .. i could probalby rant and rave about this topic for a few more paragraphs. We took a break to snorkel before goin on our second dive. After the second dive we had lunch on the island and went on a quick hike to check out some ancient SW Costa Rican indian artifacts. Large perfectly sphereical stones placed likely to mark tombstones of great chiefs. Got to see a Basilisk (jesus christ lizard) along the way as well.

All in all one of the most incredible dives i've ever been on.

Only five phtos per post i guess... (wait now they're letting me add more)

Pseudoscorpion

Dendrobates sp. poison dart frog

Oophaga granulatis

Grasshopper with spermatophore gift from male

Me with Oophaga

The beach at camp

Cool Mangrove Tree Crab

More photos from Isla Violines

Getting Lost

Euglossa sp. FROM GROUP PROJECT

Ferdilance

GOLDEN ORB SPIDER

The next day we presented our group projects where we did an interpretive dance of our project process having some gorup members be the bees, others the odors, and I was one of the catchers. Lots of laughs.
In the afternoon we went on a hike in the woods to do an exercise called 20 questions. They instructed us to wander into the forest to find a good place to meditate about 20 questions. Bent on finding a good tree to sit in I got a bit too far off trail, only to realize I had no F****** clue where I was. I made it back up to the ridgeline trail in hopes of reuniting with the other trail. Offtrail isn't exactly like the temperate zone as there are giant Golden orb spiders everywhere, vines, snakes, and ants every step. Wandering back down the crest trail i never saw the trailhead for the connecting trail (which i found out later was a 180° right turn which was impossible to find if you didn't know where it was). Not being a good estimator of distance I overshot where I needed to be by a long ways. realizing this a bit too late I realized I was lost in the jungle alone. I began walking back, but still no sign of the trail. Noting the positon of the sun i decided it was best to try to head north and down hill to make it back to camp as the beach faced north and if I headed down I might have a chance of atleast geting to the ocean. Trundling across rotten logs, sliding down steep faces, running into giant spider webs, and bushwacking (wishing I had a machete) I still saw no sign of a trail and realized i had absolutely no idea where i was anymore. With the sun about to set I decided to chance getting bitten by a ferdilance often found along streams in leaf litter (super poisonous snake) and walk down a stream bed, as I new it owuld be the fastest way to the ocean.
After climbing down two ten foot waterfalls I finally got to the Ocean, only to realize I was still on the wrong side of the island. I saw the breakers in front of our camp way way way off to the right. Thinking about swimming i held my camera bag above my head only to be met wit ha head high set wave, which i scrambled away from back up the boulders towards the cliff. Not wanting to risk a longer than expected swim I climbed back up the cliff using a 10-15ft chimney a boulder and the cliff had made, wet shoes, no ropes, probably one of the stupider situations i've been in. finally grabbed onto some over hanging roots and pulled my way up the shear cliff not looking back. On my way back up the hill, I finally hear some voices. FINALLY after 3 hours in the jungle, after the sun had set, a real game of Marco Polo. Relieved, stressed and sitll full of adrenaline me and the search party made it back to camp, just relieved i had made it out alive before it got dark.
This little fuck up of mine not only taught me some valuable lessons, but served as a nice bonding session for the group and made it possible for them to learn through me.
I learned - if your lost just SIT. Carry a compass. A maps not a bad idea either. And try your hardest not to freak out, and really do rely on your friends, because they will find you!

FINALLY! some spare time to post what's happened over the last Month

Cool Spider under Wild Ginger

Arrival at Isla Violines (panorama credit - Viet Ngo)

Mangroves

Bufo Marinus

ARRIVAL ISLA VIOLINES

ON BOAT THROUGH MANGROVES, DEAN & FRANK

PARAMO 4000M

I should probably break this post up into multiple parts in an attempt to highlight each week of the trip separately.

To start where I left off -- We left from San Jose on a tour bus southward to the Osa Peninsula. After going up to 4000m to the Paramo where we saw Swanson Haks using thermals to glide in migration, We arrived in a town called Sierpe, which resides next to the Sierpe river where we had lunch and were exposed to the first real heat of Costa Rica. From the moment we stepped off the bus we couldnt' stop sweating and were just hoping for the slightest breaze to pass by. The women that served us lunch also accompanied us for the rest of the week on our trip to Isla Violines.
From Sierpe we piled onto two boats making sure to wrap our bags in plastic to ensure that the strom catching up with us didnt soke through. Traveling through the mangroves we made our way out to the Pacific Ocean before navigating some breakers to arrive at our destination for the next week. Even with the ocean (which was hott when you stepped off the boat) the temperature and humidity causeed you to sweat non-stop. Stopping at a beach that was met by giant primary forest I couldn't believe my eyes. This is where we would be camping?!?!? Walking past the windreak of palm trees the rain began as we frantically set up tarps and tents, only for it to stop as soon as we were done. The rain only added more humidity to the area and created sauna like conditions in the tent. After a quick swim and delicious food, I attempted to sleep in the tent. lying fully exposed on top of a sarong (sleeping bag was too warm) the sweat persisted, feeling like i was choking on the air in the tent. I finally fell asleep after getting up twice to take a cold outdoor shower.
Barely rested due to the heat of the night, classes began at 730h after a 630h breakfast. HOwever geting up wasn't a problem when you have Chestnut mandibled Toucans screaching in your ears at 530h in the morning. That day turned out to be quite a long day as it encompassed orientation hikes of the whole island as our first day of real class.
We started by looking at the intertidal, which due to thermal and UV stress, barely had any organisms living on it. Also human pressures on oysters.
Oh did i mention that we're on this island pretty much all by ourselves, surrounded by jungle and the ocean???
Anyways, after the intertidal we Checked out the mangroves and got to walk around balancing on the stilt roots they extend to balance in the shifting substrate they choose to live in. While there we saw some cool tree snails, and a cool tree crab that feeds on the leaves of the mangroves.
We had a break fro lunch before starting out second set of orienation walks that would take us up a skinny goat trail, looking at the different interesting flora found on the island. One of the coolest trees we saw was a strangler fig which is a hemi-epiphetic tree that lives partly as an epiphyte before extending its roots down around the host tree eventually chocking the old tree which decomposes and leaves a hollow fig tree standing.
After making it to the ridgline we met up with Pati, another one of out teachers, who taught us about Orchid Bees, stingless bees that are irridescent colors that pack in odors to their tibias to resynthsize their own pheromones.
On the way down from this part of the walk we found Oophaga granulatis, or "Blue Jeans" poison dart frog. I got super excited as i've dreamed of finding one of these since i was about 8.
Made it back to camp to split up into groups after dinner to discuss group projects the next day.
The next Day we chose to look at how far Orchid bees would be willing to travel form the forest in search of the right odor. WE got to use walky talkies and catch colorful bees alll day which was pretty enjoyable in comparison to all the hiking and running around form the day before. Went for a little body surf in the evening, glad i had brought my lunch tray, but unfortunately the velcro on my watch came undone and is now in the bottom of the ocean near the Osa Peninsula.