Back to normal

Our ecosystems tour of Costa Rica with the university students from the field station is over, and John and Heidi have left San Gerardo to return to Canada.  It was so much fun to share our Costa Rican home with family!  But now we are starting to settle back into normal life here again. 

With some coaching, the kids are getting back into the routine of early school mornings.  Transitioning from the adventures of travelling and then the excitement of playing with their cousins has been tough for them.  They will be happy when spring break arrives next week.  In contrast, Vern will be busy next week teaching an ecology course to the students at the field station.  So he would appreciate your prayers as he teaches each morning, April 2-6.      

On our travels, we saw an amazing array of places, habitats, and wildlife.  And ate more plates of rice and beans than we could have imagined!  At one point, after three days of gallo pinto (Costa Rican rice and black beans dish) for breakfast, lunch and supper each day, I thought I might scream if another plate was placed in front of me…but I digress. 

I will share some of our trip highlights in the photos below.

Our first stop--Pacific rainforest on the coast. This place typified what you'd most likely expect Costa Rica to be like--hot and humid rainforest.  We enjoyed a guided hike in the rainforest to learn about the vegetation and wildlife, a day at the beach, and learning about how our lodge is implementing sustainable tourism practices.

Our family's cabin at La Cusinga Lodge.  We had a beautiful deck with an ocean view out back, which was nice for homeschooling. Claire was thrilled to have a sleepover one night on a bunkbed in the room that the students shared.   

Our 2nd stop--dry deciduous forest of the Nicoya peninsula.  This was our hotel's sign--note the howler monkeys in the tree in the background!  They were everywhere, and were quite happy to wake us up each morning.  As you might guess from the lodge's name, there are turtles (Olive Ridley) in the area.  We had the priviledge of watching a turtle dig her nest, lay her eggs, cover them up and return to the ocean!  They do this at night, so it was too dark for photos.  The kids were fascinated by the whole experience.



Howler monkey with baby.



Like mangoes?!  This mango tree beside our hotel was laiden with mangoes! 

Breakfast of rice and beans with the students. We walked down the hot and dusty gravel road to this little family restuarant for most of our meals during the days at Playa Ostional.  We filled the space and used every dish that family had!  Micheal, the QERC field station manager, is on the left in the black shirt. 

There were amazing birds to find close to our hotel.  This is a turquise-browed motmot.  Notice the ornate tail?!  Seeing toucans (chestnut-mandibled) was really neat. 

An orange-bellied trogon. 

This view of the dry decidous forest landscape of Costa Rica's Nicoya peninsula shows just how different it is from wet rainforest.  This photo was taken as we were leaving for our next location.

Our 3rd location -- Palo Verde National Park.  The Organization for Tropical Studies has a field station here that we visited. This is a wetland sanctuary with an amazing abundance and diversity of birds within a very dry landscape. 

Vern leaving on a hike with the students at Palo Verde NP.  The kids and I joined them on several shorter hikes.  Again, it was very hot here, so the kids faded pretty quickly. 

Ready to go on a hike!  The kids really enjoyed spending time with the university students. 

The black-flying heron....hah, just kidding.  I don't know what this bird is called, so I'll have to check with Vern.  Beautiful though!
If anybody wants to see more of the birds we saw, just ask. We saw so many great birds (herons, storks, spoonbills, egrets, ducks, curassow, parrots....)!

Grandmas, avert your eyes.  We saw a bunch of crocodiles!  The guide stood by the water's edge so we did too, and got lots of great photos. 

Plants and trees in the tropics go to great lengths to protect themselves.  Just ask Caleb.

The field station at Palo Verde NP had a classroom, which was wonderful for homeschooling. 

The 4th and final location we visited was Arenal volcano.  We met up with John and Heidi in the nearby town of La Fortuna. This photo was taken out the window, so it's not a great shot.  Unfortunately, we never got a very clear view of the volcano, and didn't get to see lava (like when we were here in 2007).  But one afternoon we took a guided hike up to a nice view of the volcano right at sunset.  Perfect timing!

We did an all-day tour of the Cano Negro wildlife refuge in northern Costa Rica (near the border with Nicaragua).  The kids loved the boat ride, and we were able to see lots of interesting wildlife.



The boat ride took us up the Rio Frio for several hours. 



A very large iguana!



The kids enjoyed seeing the caiman along the shoreline. 

We had a great guide and boat driver who found an incredible diversity of birds and other wildlife for us. 

We enjoyed several days back home in San Gerardo de Dota with John and Heidi and the girls!

And this was my view, sitting on the bench outside our cabin organizing photos to put on our blog. The afternoon clouds have moved in. 

Together with John and Heidi

Claire and Caleb are enjoying a swim with their cousins Ella and Sophie right now at our hotel pool. We met up with my brother John and his family yesterday at Arenal volcano! The kids were excited to have time with cousins. Today we enjoyed a boat tour of the Rio Frio, which flows through a wildlife refuge. We saw amazing birds, cayman, sloths, and iguanas. It's possible Caleb was even more impressed by how our guide cut up a pineapple for our snack! Claire and Caleb are enjoying sharing their costa rican world with Ella and Sophie!

Vern is finishing up the trip with the university students right now, and we all return to San Gerardo the 23rd.

On the road

We are enjoying being on the tour of Costa Rica with the students from the field station. We are thankful that our family is feeling well. We did not bring a laptop, so blog updates will be thin until we're back in San Gerardo. Typing on my iPod is not my idea of fun.
We are at our 3rd location of our trip. First Vern hiked with the students and a guide down the mountain to visit a sustainable, family-operated farm that grows over 80 types of plants. A very different approach to agriculture that is attracting the attention of the community. The hike was too far for the kids so I stayed back with them and we drove with the van on tues morning (with the students luggage).
Our 2nd location was in the Pacific rainforest area on the coast; near the town of Uvita if you look on a map. We had a beautiful cabin overlooking the ocean. Vern's been doing field exercises with the students each day and teaching the students the local birds.
We are currently in the dry deciduous forest of the Nicoya Peninsula, at Playa Ostional. It's very hot and dry here. You sweat by the time you've sat up in bed in the morning! Speaking of which, there's troup of howler monkeys living here that wake us up each day. The sound is similar to a lions roar! Tonight we are checking out the turtles that lay eggs on the beach here; we are excited to head out after dark to do that!
(Laurenna, we spent yesterday in playa Guiones!)
Interestingly, we are only about 30kms from where my brother and his family are staying right now!
The kids are enjoying time with the students when they are not busy. The kids have travelled on the bus wonderfully, and any issues they struggle with are nothing they wouldn't deal with anyways.
Photos will have to wait until we are back at our cabin.

Upcoming Ecosystems Tour of Costa Rica

Allow me a short diversion before I describe our next trip.  Our first morning back from Panama, we were welcomed back by several quetzal birds!  We heard them calling while we ate breakfast, and so we went out in search of them and were fortunate enough to watch them fly around in the forest overhead.  It’s mating season, so they are pretty active in the San Gerardo valley these days.  Here’s a photo of a male. 

We haven’t been back a week yet, and I’m already preparing our family for our next trip—a tour of the biomes/ecosystems of Costa Rica with the students from the QERC field station.  We leave this Monday (March 12). Vern’s been working with the station manager to prepare reading material and field exercises that the students will complete on this trip.  There are several interesting focal points:  learning the ecology of different ecosystems of Costa Rica; seeing different types of resource management (eg. a family-owned sustainable farm, national parks, a biological research station, etc.); and reflecting on how to steward each of these unique environments.  This last point is important to the mission of QERC, since they/we are training students to be faithful to the call to care for God's creation. 

Our family is really excited to go on this trip for several reasons: we are looking forward to seeing and experiencing other regions of Costa Rica; we enjoy spending time with the university students, and the kids soak up the extra attention; someone else is making all of the travel arrangements, something we will appreciate after our Panama trip; and near the end of the biomes tour, we get to meet up with John, Heidi, Ella and Sophie (my brother and his family) at Arenal volcano!    

Vern will finish up the biomes trip and return to San Gerardo de Dota with the QERC students, and I will travel back with Claire & Caleb and John & Heidi’s family.  We all return on March 23^rd.  We’ve booked a cabin right next to ours for John and Heidi to stay at for several days before they return to Canada.  Claire and Caleb are anticipating showing their cousins our Costa Rican home here in San Gerardo de Dota. 

This past week has been challenging for Vern, as he’s been under the weather with a cold.  We appreciate your prayers for Vern to recover fully from his cold before we leave, and that our family would stay healthy.  We’ve been extra thankful for our vehicle this week so Vern hasn't needed to hike back up the mountain each day after working at the QERC field station.     

Back Home in San Gerardo de Dota

Yesterday we arrived back home safely from Panama! We left on Friday and stayed overnight in San Jose, to avoid travelling after dark.  After getting some groceries in the city, we caught a noon bus yesterday and arrived in San Gerardo mid-afternoon.  It felt good to be back in our cabin and unpack our things.  Not surprisingly, today is laundry day.

Thank-you for your prayers as we travelled.  We had a great week together as a family in Panama. Instead of writing a lot, I’ll share photos of the highlights of our trip, as well as images of the people and town of Bocas del Toro.  These travels are teaching us to be thankful for what we have in Canada—lots of space, abundant resources, and clean surroundings are the things that come to mind immediately. 

We are also thankful that we now have our Costa Rican tourist Visas renewed until we leave at the end of April. That was the reason we went to Panama (among other more-fun reasons!).  Vern was also able to investigate research opportunities at a leading marine research station run by the Smithsonian Institute.  One of his key sabbatical activities has been investigating the calibre of international research opportunities for his students at King’s University, so he felt our side-trip to Panama was time well spent. 

This week Vern will be continuing to prepare for guiding the “Ecosystems of Costa Rica” trip with the students from the QERC field station.  This trip begins on March 12, and is one of his teaching commitments while we are here.  Our family is joining the students on that trip.  The kids will get in one week of Spanish school before we leave. This week Vern will also be preparing for teaching an ecology course to the QERC students in early April.  He has a research paper out for review right now, so it’s a good time for him to work on other commitments.

OK, before more delay, here are some photos of our trip to Panama.



Claire and Jesse relaxing on the bus



I take snuggles when I can get them.



Walking across the bridge at the Panama border.  This bridge is over 100 yrs old and was very dilapidated! 

  

We stayed in a cabin over the ocean at KoKo Resort in Bocas del Toro. 



Caleb fished many early mornings right off our dock.

 

The kids were very excited to sleep in the loft

Homeschooling on our deck.



The sidewalk from our cabin out to the street.



Laundry day at our neighbour's, a local fishing family.  The kids would play and fish a lot out on the narrow deck!

Our other neighbour.  Claire enjoyed swimming with the 8-yr old girl living there.



Claire and Shana, who lived next to us.  She's a Dutch girl who was born in Panama.  Interestingly, she speaks 5 languages as a result of her heritage and schooling: spanish, english, german, dutch and hebrew. 



The road to a local beach.

We stumbled across this beachside research station.  That would attract a certain crowd....





We saw a few sting rays swimming along the beach.



We did a tour one day that took us by boat through the mangrove areas around Bocas del Toro. 

Can you see the sloth?  We stopped by an island that is known for its many sloths.  We regretted not having our zoom lens along that day!

We also stopped at dolphin bay, where we got to watch the dolphins jumping.  We also did some snorkelling at another location (no photo, unfortunately), and we all had a lot of fun snorkelling.

We did a short hike on an island with many of these very tiny poison arrow dart frogs.  There are many varieties of the poison arrow dart frog.

Vern and the kids took surf lessons one day.  They had a lot of fun!  I was the designated photographer.

Baywatch here I come!

The instructor was great with the kids, and first took each of them on the board with him to give them a feel for surfing.

Claire and Louis, the instructor.

Claire surfing!

Caleb surfing!

Ever wonder where your bananas come from?  This Chiquita cargo ship is loaded with bananas!

A banana plantation--we passed many plantations along the highway.  Many local people are employed by Chiquita. 

Our last morning in Panama.