7:30 am: We’re heading out. Breakfast was Gallo Pinto, scrambled eggs, corn pudding (like polenta), corn tortillas, fried cheese, coffee and hot chocolate. I can’t find the orchid from the cloud forest in the field guides. The textbooks and field guides are kept in a sealable plastic tub to guard against moisture; still the books are damp and smell of a mold that happily eats through paper. It’s raining off and on, kind of hard, actually. The bird people were up early, we were up at 6:30, most people in the other room chose to sleep in a bit. Must go brush teeth.

11:57 am: Productive morning: 4.5 quads done, there are lots of potential sites, we rejected a couple due to the difficulty of accessing the tree ferns or extreme terrain. We’ve got everyone looking for good tree ferns in the forest. Dick suggests a few of the other trails around the station, we’re still working on the first trail we picked. I think we’ll be plenty occupied.
    We’re usually up before 6:30, have breakfast, procrastinate until 7:30 or so, forget stuff at the station, hike out, really get going at 8, then it’s under an hour to do an average quadrat. We head back around noon for lunch, then go out again at 1-1:3o, then back when it gets close to dinner (and gets dark) at 6. I like the machete and the inclinometer, they’re both in caramel brown leather cases, the machete sheath says “Costa Rica”. We’re becoming very efficient, one trip in to the site, do all the measurements, count the plants and move on. The good thing about our project is that we have no worries about weather affecting our observations or not being able to get data. Having lunch now.

12:59 pm: Elaine is reading “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” out loud, taking turns with Katsky. I don’t know why. (I later found out Katsky likes listening to stories, as evidenced by the many books on tape she brought to the lab.) Lunch was Gallo Pinto, shredded beef with tomato, actual salad; lettuce tomatoes, avocado, and onions with dressing. We also had deep-fried tortillas, white pineapple, papaya, and orange tang. (Apparently “exotic” fruits to Costa Ricans include grapes and apples.) I did some laundry as well. We’re heading back out soon.

5:05 pm: Back at the station. The last quadrat was totally frustrating. We were up Sendero Nacho (sendero=trail) on a plot with 35% gramminoid ground cover, so we counted every blade of grass. We also had a large, low, overhanging tree in the middle of the plot which smelled strongly of citronella and got in the way of trying to move and stretch a measuring tape straight. I had some fun with the machete. The data collection for this experiment is horrible. I cannot be a field biologist.
    We re-visited our old sites to get more information (angle of the slope of the ground using the inclinometer, and an ID of the tree fern, since Calixto helped us narrow them down).
    Yesterday after dinner, Diane mentioned a work/study position available in her lab to draw mites. I’m not eligible, but I said I’d like to do it. Maybe I can still have a career in biology. (I later did the work under an NSERC scholarship.)
    I feel hot and dirty and the bugs are getting to me. I’m bathed in 30% deet and a mosquito still bit me on my thumb. I felt it bite and squished it. Also gray flies with red eyes constantly buzz around our heads and have added to the bites on the back of my shoulders. Nicole has 90% deet. I really like the machete.

6:34 pm: I have far too many scabs on my arms. I’m scratching in my sleep. I thought my elbows were crusty with mud, but they were scabs. I like people much better when there are hot showers and laundry nearby (yeah… this was pretty far into the trip, and certain aromas from certain people had the chance to mature).
    Dinner was Gallo Pinto, French fries, deep fried corn tortillas filled with beef (I drew a happy face here), salad with mayo/ketchup dressing. I ate a whole pickled chili. I’m drawing tree ferns now.

9:30 pm: Sleep, the bird people have been in bed for hours. I drew ferns and the orchid, no luck on classification. I drew on the blackboard as Josué (the Ranger’s 5yr old son) and Chantal named things in Spanish: parahito, mariposa, gato, perro, bicycletta, camion, auto, rana, pollo.