La Tirimbina

After leaving the Chiquita Farm, we made it to the La Tirimbina National Park on the eastern side of the country. La Tirimbina and the surrounding area is climatically pretty different from Atenas – it's much more hot, humid and the mosquitoes are slightly relentless. Nevertheless, it was a great trip. We all stayed at a lodge (this includes professors and faculty), went for a hike through the National Park and had classes in an outdoor classroom near the lodge. La Tirimbina National Park is your classic tropical rainforest – lots of thick, diverse vegetation. I’ve included lots of pictures with captions:

Views from the lodge we stayed in at La Tirimbina. There is a little green roof at the bottom of the picture, this was another lodge we occupied. 

My Tropical Ecology professor holding a bird. He set up nets that biologists use to safely catch birds during the night, and he showed us this one in the morning. It looks like he is holding the bird tightly, but he was actually very gentle and was able to show us very interesting aspects of bird anatomy. He let the bird peck him saying something (half-jokingly I think) along the lines of "I think it's better for their stress level if I let him just attack my finger".  That night we went to a forested area by a creek and looked at frogs. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera. I also wasn't able to hold any because I had put on insect repellent that day, which will kill the frogs when you touch them. I wasn't too bent out of shape about it - it was something I might rather watch than do. Hopefully later in the program I will feel better about touching amphibians. 

Our outdoor classroom at La Tirimbina. I took this during a break. I didn't post a picture, but there is a beautiful creek behind me. 

Us in La Tirimbina National Park. Yes, that is me clinging for dear life on the huge suspension bridge. I believe it is one of the longest ones in Costa Rica, and possibly Central America. The river pictured flows from Costa Rica into Nicaragua.

Big leaves - something you get a lot of in Costa Rica. This is actually by the outside classroom, not in the park. 

In the understory of La Tirimbina National park - Note how much light the canopy blocks out. I just learned today that it blocks or reflects 99.5% of incoming solar radiation from reaching the forest floor. 

Unreal vines that grow in the forest. 

A mediocre picture of a Howler Monkey.