4 Peters in the jungle: 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.