This past week was our second and last at La Selva. A majority of the time was spent doing our research projects, however we went to the cacao plantation on Monday. We got to watch the process of turning cacao seeds into chocolate and we got to try the result of each of the steps along the way. My favorite was the cacao nibs, because they were rich and bitter, like coffee. Then we went back to La Selva to prepare for the next four days of research collection.
Mahek and I walked along three transects to test the air quality. One was along the road every 100 meters, the other was in the secondary growth forest, and the last was in the primary forest, along the CCC trail. On Tuesday, we had to measure the height of the tree and the canopy density. This part was a little monotonous and was hard to complete in the heat. After that, the next few days of data collection were easy. Mahek and I fell into a nice routine. We would have our coffee after breakfast and start data collection around 8 a.m., and complete the road transect and the secondary forest transect. Then we would take a break in the library because of the air conditioning, and complete the CCC before lunch. Mahek played music on her phone and measured the canopy density and I would measure canopy height and air quality. Mahek also was in charge of the spreadsheet of data collection. This routine we had made me realize I had fallen into a similar routine with La Selva after one short week.
Each morning when I woke up, I could hear the howler monkeys in the trees. I got better at spotting them as the weeks went on. I quickly figured out the areas they liked to be in. The trees by the cafeteria usually had a few in the morning or evening, and Mahek and I would spot them along the secondary forest path. One night a pair of them were hanging along the bridge, and they came down to jump to a tree and I got to be really close to them. The howler monkeys were just one thing at La Selva that became a norm for me.
Another species I got familiar with was the leaf cutter ants! There was a massive colony along the path to the River Station and every time I walked pass I would remember to step over them. Sometimes they were very busy and sometimes there were only a few carrying leaves. I also liked to check on the ones that lived by the bridge. It was cool to see them climb along the trees. I saw these two colonies every day, but I also saw them along all the trails and I started to be able to identify which leaves had leaf cutters taking pieces off of them. They are another thing I will miss about La Selva.
The trees, although not as active as the howler monkeys or leaf cutter ants, were one of my favorite things to look at in the rainforest. The huge ones that are really old were my favorites. They were very majestic. I am used to trees in Indiana, so it was fascinating how a single tree supported so much life growing all over it. It was never a singular tree, it was a structure for other things to live and thrive on. This is a perfect example of how crowded the rainforest is with life. The trees were always so peaceful to look at because they were huge but still and silent unlike the rest of the rainforest.
One thing I won’t miss but got accustomed to was the bullet ants. There was a branch before the stairs leading up to the river station that was named the bullet ant branch, because it always had at least one crawling up it. I usually checked and waited for them to pass before I walked under it.
This past week, I went on a lot of runs with Marina! We always ran around 4 o’clock, and would go about 3 or 4 miles. On some of our runs, we saw agoutis, a pack of peccaries, several different birds, and once a blue butterfly! I got used to expecting to see something new on our runs.
Everything at La Selva was scheduled, including the wildlife. The howler monkeys woke up at the same time, the birds were always out in the morning etc. We had breakfast lunch and dinner at the same time every day and we always had a new flavor of juice that I looked forward to. It didn’t take a long time for me to settle in there and even get accustomed to the heat. I think everyone in our group adapted pretty quickly, because we did not have any other choice, but it was our little home for about two weeks and I will miss the things that became familiar to me. Like the leaf cutter ants and the geckos squeaking in the class room. I’ll miss looking for the iguana that liked to chill on a tree branch near the bridge and the cayman that was usually on the river bank. And obviously I will miss the constant supply of coffee that was available to me. However the one part of La Selva that I really enjoyed was the fact that I saw or learned something new every day. For example, on the very last day I stood on the bridge for awhile looking at the fish. I noticed they all clustered under one tree. Frequently the tree would drop some kind of nut or fruit into the water and all the fish would go after it. They waited under the tree for food! On the second to last day, I saw some possum looking thing crawling along the bridge. Unfortunately I forgot what it was called, but even after two weeks of a routine, the rainforest never failed to surprise me. It is so full of life that is constantly moving and changing that you could spend your whole life there and probably still find something new every day.
Leave a Reply