Today, we had a long day travelling from Uvita to the Osa Peninsula. Luckily, the weather was nice and we had adventures along the way. Specifically, we stopped in Sierpe at Kokopelli for a little shopping, lunch, and a boat tour of the mangrove forest. During the boat tour, we learned that there are three types of mangroves on the Rio Sierpe: the red mangrove, the tea mangrove, and the white mangrove. Mangroves are important for many reasons, particularly because they help protect the coast during storms, and they are excellent at carbon sequestration. In fact, the mangroves are the best ecosystem for carbon sequestration because the absorb carbon dioxide and release it into the mud through their roots. Once the carbon dioxide has been returned to the mud, it will stay there for a long period of time; thus, keeping the carbon dioxide from returning to the atmosphere. To ensure that our tour of the mangroves was carbon neutral, we each planted a mangrove tree to cancel out all of the carbon that our boat’s engine produced.
After we planted our mangrove trees, we quickly began to see an abundance of wildlife! We saw many bird species including a baby green heron with its mother, a king fisher, a white ibis, a purple gallinule, and several scarlet macaws! We learned that the male purple gallinule will build a large nest to attract a female, and after the female lays her eggs, the male will protect and raise the chicks. Additionally, the scarlet macaws will mate for life (up to 80 years!) with a monogamous partner, and the female will lay 3 eggs a year each January. In addition to the birds, we also saw some reptiles, including a crocodile, a Jesus Christ lizard, and a tree boa. My favorite animals that we spotted, however, were the monkeys! We had the pleasure of seeing the smallest and most endangered monkey in Costa Rica, the squirrel monkey. These monkeys are only found on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, so we were very lucky to see them. We also saw a troupe of ever-curious white-faced Capuchin monkeys; one even crawled into our boat! Finally, to highlight our boat tour, we finally spotted the elusive two-toed sloth!
After the boat tour, we travelled to the Finca 6 Archaeological site where we learned about the large stone spheres of Costa Rica. These stones were made 2000 years ago and are perfectly round. So far, no one has been able to determine how the ancient indigenous people were able to make the stones so perfectly round without iron tools. However, researchers believe that these stones had several important uses. The stones were found marking the entrance to important, possibly religious, buildings and to mark constellations. The most fascinating way that these stones were used was to mark the changing of the season by aligning the stones in a triangle formation. When the rising sun aligned with one side of the triangle, the beginning of the dry season was indicated, and when the rising sun would align with the other side of the triangle, this marked the coming of the rainy season. These stones are an important part of Costa Rica’s history, and the Finca 6 Archaeological Site gave us some great insight into the lives of the ancient Ticos.
At last, we arrived at Fundacion Neotropica, our home base on the Osa Peninsula. After dinner, we learned about several qualities that make the Osa Peninsula a very special place. Some have claimed that it is the most biodiverse place in the world. Tomorrow, we will be learning more about the diverse species that live on the Osa Peninsula and the importance of protecting these species.
Pura Vida!
Madison
Pura Vida!
Madison