2018 CRIRE December Summaries

12/12/2018--Wednesday--OTS Research Experience December Yesterday student project partner Christine Whitehorse and I tried all day to work on getting GIS access here at the Las Cruces Biological Station.  There were issues with access and the size of the data and we never did get the GIS connection with our school in New Mexico to transfer the software for analysis.  The software seemed to be too large for the system here at the Station.  We contacted students at Navajo Technical University in New Mexico, USA and asked them to send us the files we need for the imagery we will need for our research and presentation.  It looks like they are going to be able to provide this information after they find and magnify the abandoned pasture land using remote sensing. We discussed with Scott, the program director, our plans to go out on Thursday with the Panamanian Indigenous specialists that arrived.  In all, there is a Shaman, a Biologist, and Craftsperson, and Govern...

CRIRE--12/11/2018 Today we got acquainted with the OTS Research Station.  We had breakfast at 6am and then we all broke into our groups and began discussing how and what we are going to do. In the afternoon, we had a Station overview regarding rules and regulations for all visitors staying on the station site.  We also hike down to the river and we spent about two hours on this trail looking at the habitat, the plants and animals, and the streams and rivers. Upon return from the river, we had dinner and then we had an evening introductions meeting where all attendees introduced themselves.  Indigenous people from Panama also arrived and that, for me, was the highlight of the day. We are all beginning to get to know each other, and we are making friends and sharing our cultures with one another.  This is an excellent place to be for cultural exchanges while enjoying the rich and beautiful biota found in Costa Rica.  We are only 5km from the border of Panam...

12/10/2108 We awoke and prepared for the day, we were in the Aeroporto Hotel in San Jose, Puerto Rico.  We all met for breakfast with the group from the night before and we have a buffet style breakfast. After breakfast we loaded the charter bus and we also loaded our luggage.  We then embarked on a 10 hour bus ride through the southern mountains of Costa Rica, and we made our way through the mountains for the Las Cruces Biological Station, which is an Organization for Tropical Studies Research Station.  We visited a site located at 10K+ feet in elevation and it is called paramore habitat.  This was the very first time I have been into this type of habitat and so all of these species were new to me.  We hiked up to a viewing location along the trail in the paramore and I got some spectacular photographs of this habitat.  My friends back in the states that have seen some of my photographs are amazed at what I am doing and being able to do this during my wi...

We arrived in Costa Rica after making a connecting flight from Albuquerque, through Houston, TX.  We arrived in the evening and, after retrieving our baggage and going through customs, we met with Scott at the outside of the terminal.  Scott was ready for us and had vehicles ready for the transport of our luggage and us to the airport.  We disembarked at the airport and we unloaded our bags, the name of the hotel was Hotel Aeroporto, and it is located approximately 6 miles from the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica.  We were all assigned rooms and we were asked to meet at the restaurant in the hotel for dinner at 6pm.  We had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel that evening and we all informally met each other and began talking and visiting with each other over dinner.  Scot told us all to be at breakfast at 6AM in the same location and we were told to get some rest.  We then all went to our respective rooms for the evening to get some much needed rest...