Day 1 at Las Cruces Biological Research Station

Woke up to a cacophony of jungle sounds as the sun began to rise and light trickled through the rainforest canopy. Spent the morning touring the grounds, the botanical gardens with Rodolfo the lead biologist at Las Cruces, and learning about the abundant flora and fauna. Some of the more interesting species included trunk bees which build their hives in tree trunks and are stingerless, the plate sized water spider, and my personal fav-the strangler fig tree. The strangler fig spends part of its life cycle as a parasitic vine which climbs up its host tree then blocks out its sunlight and steals its nutrients. The host eventually dies and the strangler vines form a massive, hollow tree mass of mangled, twisted vines. I climbed up about 30ft in the center of the tree. Good fun. We also hiked as a group down to Rio Java, where I'll be conducting my study along with my two Navajo/Dine students Jaiden and Christine. Spent the evening doing formal introductions and welcoming our Ngabe friends from Panama.