After 6 months spent video analyzing, TAing, and presenting talks in the U.S., I have returned to Costa Rica for round 2 of my PhD research.
The trip to my field site was a bit of an adventure. I flew in to San Jose, the capital, but almost didn't make my flight. In Phoenix, US Air gave me a hard time for not having a roundtrip ticket (although numerous monkey assistants have flown one way in the past) so I was forced to buy my return ticket right there in the airport in the 20 minutes before my plane boarded. Talk about stressful! I spent New Years Eve in Alajuela (near San Jose airport) with a friend I had made at the airport and saw tons of fireworks. The next day I met up with my new field assistant, Shira.
Me and Shira, my new field assistant in Alajuela
We found out that no buses were travelling on New Years Day and the trip was delayed. But we had fun touring Alajuela that day. Unluckily, I got very sick that night and was barely able to make it through the 4 hour bus ride to Bagaces the next day. I found out that chewing on ginger root is great for fighting nausea. Once in Bagaces, I rested up and started to prepare for the trip to the forest. Yes, I am living in the middle of the forest this year. No town life for me...I will be one with the monkeys :) ! But first, we had to go on the big supply trip. Marlon, our friendly local taxi driver, took us to the "big" city of Liberia to buy a locking filing cabinet (to keep electonics safe), pots, pans, plates, utensils, and lots and lots of food. Then we drove out to the Centro de Lomas Barbudal, the park guard station for this reserve, where we will be staying for the next months!
My new home, the Centro (de Lomas Barbudal)
I really like my new home. It's great living out in the forest. We even have wireless internet!!!
My assistant, Shira, enjoying the plentiful internet access on our porch/dining room
We have a nice kitchen which we share with the park guards
The kitchen
And the best part...the monkeys travel right by our house every day. Well only one of the groups does, but still pretty cool, right? And sometimes the monkeys sleep right behind our house so we can just get up and walk outside and say hello...much nicer than a 30 minute car ride every morning.
Monkey stopping by the Centro to say hi
Monkey hanging out by our clothesline
Our house is right next to one of the main trails we take to get to the monkeys
The trail/road leading from our home to the monkeys (and the poza)
And if we get overheated we can take a dip (just a 5 minute walk)
Our swimming hole (aka the poza)
The poza
The poza
I am excited to be back in the forest and hanging out with monkeys again! Look for more exciting updates on the life of a monero in the future!
Back in the forest again!!!
The place you're living at this year looks way better than where you were staying last year, at least as far as I can tell from photos. Looking forward to visiting in two-and-a-half months.
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