This morning we woke up with the sun at the lovely hour of 5 am to drive to a mangrove forest. We all got to plant two mangrove trees for the Blue Carbon Project, where mangroves have huge benefits for the ecosystem that they are found in. For example, the mangroves store carbon dioxide within them and in the mud. We also learned that seven of the eight species of mangroves in Costa Rica live on the Osa Peninsula. After planting our mangroves on a beautiful coast with the sun starting to come up over the mountains, we drove to another beach, Playa Blanca. We ate breakfast by the water and got to hangout for two hours, where several students sunbathed and napped on the upside down fishing boats, while a couple of other students kayaked around the area.
Next, we listened to two presentations back at the Fundacion Neotropica. The first one covered “Monitoring populations of wild cats and their prey.” There are five different species of wild cats that live in Costa Rica: the jaguar, puma, ocelote, caucel, and jaguarondi. These animals are being tracked by using the non-invasive methods of 14 camera traps in addition to monitoring their footprints on all the trails. The second one was the “Rescatemos la salud” (We rescue health). This presentation mainly focused on the difficulties involved in obtaining health services in rural Costa Rica and how inaccessible some of these services are. Overall, their goal is to create a health area within the Osa Peninsula.
Lastly, we visited a livestock farm, where the owners grew plantains, bananas, tomatoes, ayote, chile picante, yucca, maize, and papaya. Most of these plants were taller than all of us, by several feet, which made us feel like ants in comparison. We even saw more capuchin monkeys playing in the trees. At our guide’s farmhouse, we tasted some of his homemade cheese and starfruit juice, which was excellent! On the way back to the Fundacion Neotropica, we all got to experience the Costa Rican way of eating maize, which involves grinding up cooked corn, adding sugar, and then frying this mixture on a pan. It was served with sour cream to produce chorreadas, which again were amazing!!
Pura Vida!
Donna
Lastly, we visited a livestock farm, where the owners grew plantains, bananas, tomatoes, ayote, chile picante, yucca, maize, and papaya. Most of these plants were taller than all of us, by several feet, which made us feel like ants in comparison. We even saw more capuchin monkeys playing in the trees. At our guide’s farmhouse, we tasted some of his homemade cheese and starfruit juice, which was excellent! On the way back to the Fundacion Neotropica, we all got to experience the Costa Rican way of eating maize, which involves grinding up cooked corn, adding sugar, and then frying this mixture on a pan. It was served with sour cream to produce chorreadas, which again were amazing!!
Pura Vida!
Donna