Between 1992 and 2003 I was a contributor to Project ALAS: the NSF funded Arthropods of La Selva Project. The initiators and Principal Investigators were Robert K. Colwell an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Connecticut and John T. Longino, an ant expert, now at University of Utah, who was largely responsible for sampling design and implementation. The website of the Project (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/ALAS/) gives the rationale for this endeavor:
“The diversity of organisms such as mammals, birds, and trees is fairly well known, and their distributions and population sizes shape our conservation efforts, but diversity of these large organisms is dwarfed by the arthropods.
Arthropods are a sophisticated and powerful conservation tool because of their high diversity, fine-grained response to the environment, and short-term response to environmental change. Arthropods also form a large pool of untapped natural products (pharmaceuticals, other biochemical products, biological control agents).
Unfortunately, our nearly total ignorance of patterns of arthropod diversity and our lack of inventory products (identification tools, locality data, specimens, databases) greatly limit the inclusion of arthropods in conservation applications and natural products development. To address this problem, we initiated the Arthropods of La Selva Project (ALAS), a large-scale inventory of arthropod diversity in a lowland tropical rainforest.”
The site for this project was La Selva Biological Station, a rainforest reserve of approximately 1500ha in northeastern Costa Rica. Located in the Caribbean lowlands and bracketed by the Sarapiquí and Puerto Viejo Rivers, La Selva is covered with what is technically known as tropical pre-montane wet forest and more commonly referred to as rainforest. It is one of the best places in Costa Rica to study this endangered ecosystem. Since its purchase in 1968 by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) it’s grown into one of the premier sites in the world for research on tropical rain forest. La Selva offers a unique combination of pristine ecology. It also has a well-developed system of trails. Each trail has a name and standard abbreviation, and distances along trails in meters are marked on signposts along the trails. Localities at La Selva may be indicated by a trail name followed by the number of meters along the trail. Thus the GIS position of a collection was easily established and it was almost impossible to get lost in the forest.
The field station is run by the Organization for Tropical Studies (https://tropicalstudies.org/portfolio/la-selva-research-station/) and was a luxurious field experience, with an air-conditioned lab. for Project ALAS to ensure that equipment, insect and mite collections wouldn’t deteriorate in the humidity of the tropics. Of course, we as researchers benefited from that as well. There was an excellent cafeteria, and sleeping accommodations.
I had never been to the tropics. Rob Colwell was doing pivotal research on all aspects of the mites associated with hummingbirds, and luckily for me is a good friend and colleague of the acarological maestro Evert E. Lindquist, whose office was just down the corridor from me at Agriculture Canada. He invited Evert to get involved and Evert suggested me as another collaborator. We would be teaching a 3-week course in mites to the parataxonomists working on the ALAS project as well as to other parataxonomists working on different projects in Costa Rica. Evert and I successfully convinced our Agriculture Canada Managers that participation in Project ALAS was an opportunity to access mites from a country with which Canada traded horticultural and agricultural products. Also, it would form part of Canada’s commitment to international training. All our expenses would be covered by the Project and our time commitment would be covered by Agriculture Canada.
I have lost some of the letters I would have written home, but the following give some idea of the excitement of working in this Tropical biological paradise. We were especially lucky in that many of our 2-3 week stays at La Selva coincided with winter-time in Canada. I
7 November 1992
Dear Mum and Dad,
I’m on a bumpy flight to Miami on the way to Costa Rica with Evert Lindquist. We left Montreal this morning and are going via Chicago and Miami to San Jose. We’ll spend the night in San Jose and go to La Selva Biological Station tomorrow. San Jose is on the western slope of the mountains that transect Costa Rica and the biological station is in the eastern lowland tropical forest area. This is as close to the Equator that either Evert or I has been, so we are both excited.
Our Hotel in San Jose was right down-town, so we just went for a beer the first evening because we were stuffed with food from the plane. We had an interesting chat with a guy at Miami airport who was down from Alabama to repair telephone connections after Hurricane Katrina. He said that the devastation is unbelievable and that it will be April 1993 before connections are reestablished. He said that construction companies and associated industries are making a killing and also buying houses at a tenth of their value, and redoing them for sale. People just want to take the insurance money and leave New Orleans.
Saturday morning, Ronald Ochoa met us for the trip to La Selva. He is Costa Rican, doing his Ph.D. in the USA. His Prof. was meant to be along with us also, but was killed in a car accident the week before. The latter was from Poland, and Evert was instrumental in him coming to the USA, and his death was devastating for Evert and Ronald. Ronald is of German and Costa Rican parentage and looks like a good-looking Dutch guy of 35. He is bright, very emotional, was great fun to have along and he idolizes Evert.
The road to La Selva goes through a National Park with rain forest and cloud forest. Impressions: very green, even more moss than Ireland, the vegetation starts growing on you even as you stand, like Killarney on a very hot, muggy day in Summer and flowers everywhere. ALL those plants you’ve seen growing in houses, greenhouses and offices are growing wild here, the trees tremble with orchids, bromeliads, philodendrons, moss, so that it is often impossible to distinguish the original tree and some of everything is always in flower. Their weeds are impatiens, so you can imagine the colours. We came out of the park for the last 50km and where the land is cleared for agriculture it is scruffy. The land, being reclaimed rain-forest is not really suitable for cattle - it only supports 1 per acre, the cattle beat down the soil and there is lots of erosion. Coffee is easier on the soil, being native, and they only grow arborica beans which are the best and most expensive. There is also lots of banana, pineapple, hearts of palm and macadamia nuts grown in small family-size farms, and everyone seems to have chickens, a few coconut trees, some citrus and other fruits, I haven’t tried as yet.
LaSelva is a biological station about the size of Killarney Park. It is owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies which is an American consortium headquartered in North Carolina. Someone had the concept, bought the land in the late 60’s and now it is a model for Biological Stations everywhere in the tropics. Parts of it are a biological reserve, but in the rest of it you can collect and do research and it is classic primary rain forest getting 3500mm of rain a year with the temperature hanging around 25-27C. IT IS HUMID! The station can house up to 72 people and does so for about 9 months of the year. Luckily November is quiet and I have a bedroom to myself. This is spartan - a bunk bed, table and some hangers. There are communal shower & toilet facilities and there is electricity in the rooms. Though I only see these quarters about 7 hours a day because the 3 of us are teaching a course on mites to 8 people in the lab. of Project ALAS, the project that has funded our travel to Costa Rica.
Let me give you a rundown of a normal day. My alarm goes off at 5AM. I go downstairs for a shower checking the bathroom for frogs (1 large one so far and we really frightened each other) and other things (spiders and insects). I leave for the lab at 5.30 walking along the cement path and usually see lots of birds and some mammals (e.g., coati). The path crosses a stream by a bridge, which was blocked one morning with a large tree-fall. Ronald caught up with me and we had fun breaking through the spiny epiphytes, avoiding the pomerine ants which are about 3cm long and with a very painful bite, and walking along the trunk spanning the distance between the edge and the remaining part of the bridge. It has been raining at 5.30 on half the days. I get things organized for the course and then Evert and Ron arrive and we three go for breakfast at 6AM. It’s my favourite meal of the day - juice, muesli, toast, or pancakes, or tortillas (rotating), omelet or scrambled eggs and always rice and beans. The students who are staying at the station join us for breakfast - Uli, from Germany, doing an M.Sc. in Costa Rica, fluently trilingual, and a joy to have in the class, Carolina, the local project manager for ALAS, also doing her M.Sc., and with some English, Carlos, a senior research assistant at the Agriculture University in Costa Rica (no English), and Calisto, a parataxonomist, at one of the other Biological Stations in CR.
We’re back in the lab by 7AM to start the course and are joined by the 4 other parataxonomists - Francisco and Marinella from a Biological Station in southern Costa Rica (CR) and Ronald Vargas and Danilo Brenes, the two involved directly in the ALAS project at La Selva. The parataxonomist concept is wonderful - take high school graduates from local schools who are madly interested in nature and give them an intensive 1 month course in field biology, followed as needed by more intensive courses in specialties. And then send them to teach locally and/or be employed in projects such as the ALAS Project. It’s modelled on the paramedic or paralegal concept and is brilliant. None of the parataxonomists taking our course could afford to go to University. For example, Ronald Vargas who is one of the smartest people I have met, is basically a small farmer, with a wife and kids who cycles 1 hour each way to be here. They have extensive knowledge in so many areas. Danilo and Ronald are excellent climbers and climbed a tree to get us canopy bromeliads. One knows insects and the other plants. Neither speaks English.
The course alternates between collecting, formal teaching, and lab work. Everyone in CR takes a coffee break morning and afternoon and this is hard for Evert and myself to get used to. Lunch is on the dot of 12.00 and we all dash across the suspension bridge to the cafeteria. On the way we’ve seen snakes (trees and ground), turtles, coati, agouti and iguana (+4 feet long). Lunch and supper are always fish or a very tasty meat dish, rice, veggies, (many new to me), salad, juice and fruit. We try and go collecting each day unless it is pouring. Everyone carries an umbrella everywhere, downpours are as though a river opened in the sky. The course continues from 1PM-5PM (with coffee break) and the dynamics are great.
We have a beer, answer lingering questions, saying goodbye to people going home and go for supper at 6PM. This tends to be the meal where we chat to people in other projects at La Selva. By 5.45 it is pitch dark at La Selva and there are no external lights, so we walk everywhere with a head-lamp and an umbrella - both very important. Evert and I almost walked on a very dangerous snake one evening, which I just saw in time in the head-lamp. We continue working from 7-10PM, changing extractors etc. and I try to be in bed by 10.30. Even with the intense noise of the jungle (frogs, howler monkeys) through the screen (no glass in the windows), I have no difficulty sleeping!
November 23, 1992
Well my first day back at the Neatby Building after returning from Costa Rica. I came back totally unscathed except for a small case of ‘jungle foot’ which is rapidly disappearing now that I’m in a cool, dry climate. The trip was marvelous, but let me start where I left off.
The first weekend, we left early Saturday morning to go to Turrialba - a small town near which is the major Agriculture University in CR. Our tour guide and driver was Carlos, who is a research assistant at Turrialba, a very knowledgeable acarologist and who is taking the course at ALAS as a refresher. He didn’t speak a word of English and found it more difficult than others to understand my execrable Spanish and miming. We asked him to take a route that we hadn’t been on before and he passed by his home town and he introduced us to his mother and sister-in-law and showed us the lot that is close to them on which he will build in the future. His brother’s house looked typical of other middle-class homes we saw along the way. The house is airy and cool. People leave front and back doors open to create a draft. Poorer homes do not have window panes - just screens, though panes are not necessary, as it never gets cold. Carlos’ relatives are well off, and all except him, live in the same town which has gravel streets and muddy footpaths, but still women walking along in high-heels. From there we went to the new Undergraduate University which focuses on the study of agriculture in the tropics. This place was about 2 years old, was heavily funded by North American foundations and USAID and looked like a Club Med Resort. We were both really impressed. The grounds were immaculate, the washrooms so clean - it was the kind of place you would be afraid to drop a hair. The students come from all over Central and South America and the idea is that through formal education and through running a commercial and experimental farming operation they will get their degree. We saw a bit of the farming operation - a banana plantation with a small monorail running throughout onto which the banana bunches are suspended when cut. The monorail brings them to the processing plant where they are bagged, if for human consumption, or shucked and shredded, if going to pigs. They also have a large area under screen for tropical plants for export - in total the campus and farm are about 10,000 acres - no mean farm! This is tropical agriculture with all the mod-cons. The Director of the place, a totally bilingual American, is a friend of Carlos, so we dropped in to say hello. We passed his house on the way out - there are few College Directors who live in such splendor. Then onto the Postgraduate Agriculture University. This is set in a beautiful valley at about 3000ft, so the temperature is always gentle summer heat, with minimum humidity. The campus dates from WWII and is really lovely with old red-tiled buildings and a farm of 3000 acres. They grow mainly coffee, fruit and vegetables on an experimental basis and have about 1000 varieties of coffee that they have as a living gene bank. We got to meet the Director - an interesting American, living in CR for 30 years, married to an MBA Costa Rican, who started in CR as “the pest specialist for the country” and has developed the University and his position into one of the top in Central America. He and his wife live in a beautiful 1940’s open-plan house which goes with the position. They brought us for lunch to an inn-type restaurant in the hills overlooking the campus and town. Turrialba is famous for kayaking and rafting - the world kayaking championships were held there the previous year. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the campus with the Director and then he left us with Carlos who wanted Evert to go through his mite material. We stayed that night at the hotel attached to the University and got to sleep indecently early - what a pleasure.
Carlos was coming for us at 7.30 the next morning, so I had a chance to walk a bit of the campus - it was the kind of morning you would appreciate, Mum - not too warm, beautiful flowers, and birds and flat, well-tended pavements. When we were further up the hills we stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant overlooking coffee plantations and the occasional citrus tree. Breakfast was a change - thick fruit juice and quesados - a large pancake made of corn flour with a cheese filling and glorious coffee. We were on our way to Cerro de la Muerte - one of the highest parts of CR at 11,000ft. where the vegetation is an elfin forest of tree ferns, bamboo and shrubs that looks like and is related to heather. Again, Carlos was driving and we were glad of his skills on the road. For the most part we were on the Pan-American Highway, which has the same truck/car traffic as the NI in Ireland, without the wider portions, and because of the elevation change (3000-11000) is painfully slow if you meet a tractor etc. As it was Sunday, traffic was light. It was just wonderful going through small villages and seeing the weekend entertainment and finery. Each town had a soccer match on, loads of youngsters out on bicycles, horses and fishing. Everyone else walking to visit relatives - not much different than Ireland. Agriculture on the way was coffee, or sugar-cane or fruit trees.
Cerro de la Muerte was a wonderful change for collecting - being able to walk in almost bog-like conditions, sinking down in sphagnum and being able to see over the tops of all trees - what a change from the jungle. From there we went back through San Jose and reached La Selva - back to our home for another 10 days. In the Atlantic lowlands around La Selva pineapple, beef and hearts of palm are the main crops along with banana, with hearts of palm the crop for which they get the most money, though they have to export fresh, as there are no canning facilities in CR. The week passed uneventfully. Ron Ochoa, our CR colleague had left on Friday, so the students had to tolerate my lack of Spanish more than ever. But they are such a warm group of students - very appreciative of the efforts we were making. They all left on Friday at lunchtime and we were left on our own - what a weird feeling and almost a letdown after the intensity of the previous weeks. During the week we saw lots more animals - a 6ft iguana (probably male) every morning on top of a ca. 80ft tree taking the sun. Occasionally it moved and shook its throat skin, but usually it lay like a beached whale. A few mornings it was supplanted by a smaller version (presumably female) and it moved to a different branch. Saw an alligator in the river and a wonderful band of spider monkeys swinging through the trees one evening. One day a tayra (related to mink, but the size of a very large greyhound) bounded at eye level in front of the lab window, and we saw a few more snakes.
This weekend I walked some of the trails by myself which is a real pleasure, because when you move quietly you see all kinds of things - lizards, agouti, coati. Sunday night, Uli, the German student came back and Monday Ronald and Danilo kept us hopping with questions. We were leaving on Wednesday and the few extra days with the guys reassured Evert and myself about the project. Some of the researchers at La Selva are there for periods of up to 2 years on projects and graduate from the limited housing we were in to cottages. Carolina, who ran the project locally, shared a house (2 bedrooms, bathroom, living room/dining/kitchen, veranda) with Uli and a student from Venezuela. Their neighbour was a post-doc from Montreal, who had a house to himself because he was vegetarian and having to cook for himself. He (along with many others) had a crush on Uli and used to visit her in the lab. and getting to know Evert and myself invited us over for supper one evening. It was a smashing meal and interesting for us to see how the long-term people lived. I was impressed at the relative comfort. Most of the cottages face a losing battle against fungal growth, even though most are made of cinder block. And of course, every house has a resident very, very large spider. We had one in our bathroom at the short-term accommodation, along with a small iguana, but I was there almost 2 weeks before noticing them!
Wednesday we left La Selva, both of us pleased with our contribution to the Project and the opportunity to experience the tropical rainforest first-hand. We stayed in the same hotel in San Jose - close to all the action. The evenings are like evenings in Spain, everyone out walking the pavements - though people eat earlier than in Spain (about 8PM). Thursday morning I walked the town for about 4 hours. It’s a city of 1 million, so like Dublin, you can walk a fair portion of the centre in a morning, and I went into supermarkets to check prices. Both of us spent some time in the Central Market, which you would have loved, Dad. We met Uli for lunch at a cosmopolitan outdoor restaurant and the voices around were German, American, Spanish, amazingly, no Japanese or Australian.
Thursday afternoon we had an appointment with the Director for Public Relations for Institute Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), which are involved in the La Selva Project also, and which are the spearhead for CR’s initiative to complete a study of its biodiversity. CR is the first country doing this (with funding from US and drug companies etc.) and it is seen as a model for other countries.
The INBio operation is impressive, it depends on outside expertise, such as Evert and myself, to teach curators from CR, basically in exchange for getting access to specimens from the country for our own studies. The approach is very business-like and certainly could be a model. The PR guy (what a smoothie - a Ph.D. in sociology and film-star handsome) had received really positive letters from the students we had taught and that were attached to INBio - nice.
What a great trip - I just hope some photos come out.
March 12, 1998
Well Evert and I had a very early departure last Saturday morning - we left for the airport at 4AM - UGH! The charter flight was completely full with people going to Costa Rica mainly for sun - though I was talking to someone who was hoping to travel around the country - a girl, who like Dad, had all her belongings in a small backpack. In San Jose, we got a taxi to our hotel which is a few stars up from our normal hotel and has air-conditioning and was newly renovated. It was right on the main street, so having air-conditioning is important to drown out street noises. Evert and I walked the town for about 5 hours and just reveled in the warmth and people. Later the two of us went to a local cafe for papaya juice (one of the wonders of CR as far as I’m concerned) and the waitress remembered us (or at least Evert) Later, after eating we decided to go on a tour the next day – Sunday, as we could not get transport to La Selva before Monday.
Sunday we joined a tour to one of the local volcanoes. This is Volcan Poas, whose crater is the second largest in the world - VERY impressive. Our companions in the tour van were two 4 retirees from Miami, all originally from Cuba, and though they lived in the US for a number of years, their English was poor. But they were great - dressed up as though they were going to a dinner party (extensive jewellery, nylons, thin sandals, handbags) rather than a tour of a volcano. We stopped at coffee plantations, walked some trails in the National Park, and generally saw the countryside as well as the Volcano - great day, normally we don’t have time for a tour.
Monday, we took the Organization for Tropical Studies van to La Selva at 7AM. Great to see the ALAS crew - Ronald, Danilo, Maylin and Nelci. Last time at La Selva we were spoiled because we shared a house with another fellow. This time the place is very crowded so we have to share bedrooms with others of the same sex. This is not ideal, because everyone is on a different schedule - mine is bed at 10.30 and up at 5.30 to be at breakfast at 6AM. But some people work all night or finish work at 2AM. Evert decided to sleep in the lab. and after one night, I decided to do the same. Both of us left our luggage in the rooms and made up beds on the floor of the lab. each night. This is very comfortable - there are 4 rooms at the lab., a full bathroom and it is air-conditioned, so we slept like a log and have rooms to ourselves. I think our room-mates appreciated the arrangement also.
The first day we arrived it was 32C and it had not rained for a month (very unusual as this is rainforest). We were collecting with one of the guys and it rained sweat off us. But that night the weather broke and it has been raining almost continuously since and the temperature has dropped to a cool 25-28C. Mostly its heavy Irish rain, rather than tropical rain, and the locals don’t like it. They like it to rain heavily during the night and early morning and then it clears and is sunny in the afternoon. But we are collecting in an Irish-style mist. Because it’s so dry I got a few chigger bites, but nothing else. There are the usual wild animals - peccaries and agouti around. There are lots of snake sightings, but I think due to the snake-sighters being more vigilant. Everyone notes snake sightings as none wants a meeting with a venomous snake. Someone got bitten in January and almost died and then almost lost her leg - she is now recovering in USA - no joy.
As usual there is an interesting mix of people here - some from other times so that they recognize us. There is a film crew down from Canada and we have colleagues in common. There are loads of birding groups, from just about every country. Birders stick out from researches as they are much better dressed and never dirty when they come in for a meal, and carry binoculars, even to breakfast. La Selva is the type of place where you see rare birds while eating cereal.
This weekend I’m bringing Evert on the aerial tramway, which is a wonderful tourist event in CR - a silent tramway that brings you through and above the rainforest canopy. I’ve already been on it, but not Evert - it is an experience. Yesterday, Evert and I did a long walk in the rainforest - about 7KM - this doesn’t sound like much, but I forgot to bring water. It was muddy and very up and down, so we arrived back sweating and sopping wet with sweat. I know there were times that Evert could have killed me for taking him on such a long walk, especially when it looked like I had made a mistake in direction, but we were back before dark and even had time for a beer before supper.
Today Danilo brought us to a forest at 2000m to collect mites - it was a fabulous day - beautifully sunny and about 25C at the place we were collecting, so less humid and cooler than La Selva. Danilo brought along his daughter who is 9 and who was thrilled to have time with her Dad. It was a smashing morning, and to thank him I suggested we take the family for lunch when we returned. We went to the best restaurant in the local town. Super meal - excellent bass, and best papaya juice so far in CR.
“The diversity of organisms such as mammals, birds, and trees is fairly well known, and their distributions and population sizes shape our conservation efforts, but diversity of these large organisms is dwarfed by the arthropods.
Arthropods are a sophisticated and powerful conservation tool because of their high diversity, fine-grained response to the environment, and short-term response to environmental change. Arthropods also form a large pool of untapped natural products (pharmaceuticals, other biochemical products, biological control agents).
Unfortunately, our nearly total ignorance of patterns of arthropod diversity and our lack of inventory products (identification tools, locality data, specimens, databases) greatly limit the inclusion of arthropods in conservation applications and natural products development. To address this problem, we initiated the Arthropods of La Selva Project (ALAS), a large-scale inventory of arthropod diversity in a lowland tropical rainforest.”
The site for this project was La Selva Biological Station, a rainforest reserve of approximately 1500ha in northeastern Costa Rica. Located in the Caribbean lowlands and bracketed by the Sarapiquí and Puerto Viejo Rivers, La Selva is covered with what is technically known as tropical pre-montane wet forest and more commonly referred to as rainforest. It is one of the best places in Costa Rica to study this endangered ecosystem. Since its purchase in 1968 by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) it’s grown into one of the premier sites in the world for research on tropical rain forest. La Selva offers a unique combination of pristine ecology. It also has a well-developed system of trails. Each trail has a name and standard abbreviation, and distances along trails in meters are marked on signposts along the trails. Localities at La Selva may be indicated by a trail name followed by the number of meters along the trail. Thus the GIS position of a collection was easily established and it was almost impossible to get lost in the forest.
The field station is run by the Organization for Tropical Studies (https://tropicalstudies.org/portfolio/la-selva-research-station/) and was a luxurious field experience, with an air-conditioned lab. for Project ALAS to ensure that equipment, insect and mite collections wouldn’t deteriorate in the humidity of the tropics. Of course, we as researchers benefited from that as well. There was an excellent cafeteria, and sleeping accommodations.
I had never been to the tropics. Rob Colwell was doing pivotal research on all aspects of the mites associated with hummingbirds, and luckily for me is a good friend and colleague of the acarological maestro Evert E. Lindquist, whose office was just down the corridor from me at Agriculture Canada. He invited Evert to get involved and Evert suggested me as another collaborator. We would be teaching a 3-week course in mites to the parataxonomists working on the ALAS project as well as to other parataxonomists working on different projects in Costa Rica. Evert and I successfully convinced our Agriculture Canada Managers that participation in Project ALAS was an opportunity to access mites from a country with which Canada traded horticultural and agricultural products. Also, it would form part of Canada’s commitment to international training. All our expenses would be covered by the Project and our time commitment would be covered by Agriculture Canada.
I have lost some of the letters I would have written home, but the following give some idea of the excitement of working in this Tropical biological paradise. We were especially lucky in that many of our 2-3 week stays at La Selva coincided with winter-time in Canada. I
7 November 1992
Dear Mum and Dad,
I’m on a bumpy flight to Miami on the way to Costa Rica with Evert Lindquist. We left Montreal this morning and are going via Chicago and Miami to San Jose. We’ll spend the night in San Jose and go to La Selva Biological Station tomorrow. San Jose is on the western slope of the mountains that transect Costa Rica and the biological station is in the eastern lowland tropical forest area. This is as close to the Equator that either Evert or I has been, so we are both excited.
Our Hotel in San Jose was right down-town, so we just went for a beer the first evening because we were stuffed with food from the plane. We had an interesting chat with a guy at Miami airport who was down from Alabama to repair telephone connections after Hurricane Katrina. He said that the devastation is unbelievable and that it will be April 1993 before connections are reestablished. He said that construction companies and associated industries are making a killing and also buying houses at a tenth of their value, and redoing them for sale. People just want to take the insurance money and leave New Orleans.
Saturday morning, Ronald Ochoa met us for the trip to La Selva. He is Costa Rican, doing his Ph.D. in the USA. His Prof. was meant to be along with us also, but was killed in a car accident the week before. The latter was from Poland, and Evert was instrumental in him coming to the USA, and his death was devastating for Evert and Ronald. Ronald is of German and Costa Rican parentage and looks like a good-looking Dutch guy of 35. He is bright, very emotional, was great fun to have along and he idolizes Evert.
The road to La Selva goes through a National Park with rain forest and cloud forest. Impressions: very green, even more moss than Ireland, the vegetation starts growing on you even as you stand, like Killarney on a very hot, muggy day in Summer and flowers everywhere. ALL those plants you’ve seen growing in houses, greenhouses and offices are growing wild here, the trees tremble with orchids, bromeliads, philodendrons, moss, so that it is often impossible to distinguish the original tree and some of everything is always in flower. Their weeds are impatiens, so you can imagine the colours. We came out of the park for the last 50km and where the land is cleared for agriculture it is scruffy. The land, being reclaimed rain-forest is not really suitable for cattle - it only supports 1 per acre, the cattle beat down the soil and there is lots of erosion. Coffee is easier on the soil, being native, and they only grow arborica beans which are the best and most expensive. There is also lots of banana, pineapple, hearts of palm and macadamia nuts grown in small family-size farms, and everyone seems to have chickens, a few coconut trees, some citrus and other fruits, I haven’t tried as yet.
LaSelva is a biological station about the size of Killarney Park. It is owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies which is an American consortium headquartered in North Carolina. Someone had the concept, bought the land in the late 60’s and now it is a model for Biological Stations everywhere in the tropics. Parts of it are a biological reserve, but in the rest of it you can collect and do research and it is classic primary rain forest getting 3500mm of rain a year with the temperature hanging around 25-27C. IT IS HUMID! The station can house up to 72 people and does so for about 9 months of the year. Luckily November is quiet and I have a bedroom to myself. This is spartan - a bunk bed, table and some hangers. There are communal shower & toilet facilities and there is electricity in the rooms. Though I only see these quarters about 7 hours a day because the 3 of us are teaching a course on mites to 8 people in the lab. of Project ALAS, the project that has funded our travel to Costa Rica.
Let me give you a rundown of a normal day. My alarm goes off at 5AM. I go downstairs for a shower checking the bathroom for frogs (1 large one so far and we really frightened each other) and other things (spiders and insects). I leave for the lab at 5.30 walking along the cement path and usually see lots of birds and some mammals (e.g., coati). The path crosses a stream by a bridge, which was blocked one morning with a large tree-fall. Ronald caught up with me and we had fun breaking through the spiny epiphytes, avoiding the pomerine ants which are about 3cm long and with a very painful bite, and walking along the trunk spanning the distance between the edge and the remaining part of the bridge. It has been raining at 5.30 on half the days. I get things organized for the course and then Evert and Ron arrive and we three go for breakfast at 6AM. It’s my favourite meal of the day - juice, muesli, toast, or pancakes, or tortillas (rotating), omelet or scrambled eggs and always rice and beans. The students who are staying at the station join us for breakfast - Uli, from Germany, doing an M.Sc. in Costa Rica, fluently trilingual, and a joy to have in the class, Carolina, the local project manager for ALAS, also doing her M.Sc., and with some English, Carlos, a senior research assistant at the Agriculture University in Costa Rica (no English), and Calisto, a parataxonomist, at one of the other Biological Stations in CR.
We’re back in the lab by 7AM to start the course and are joined by the 4 other parataxonomists - Francisco and Marinella from a Biological Station in southern Costa Rica (CR) and Ronald Vargas and Danilo Brenes, the two involved directly in the ALAS project at La Selva. The parataxonomist concept is wonderful - take high school graduates from local schools who are madly interested in nature and give them an intensive 1 month course in field biology, followed as needed by more intensive courses in specialties. And then send them to teach locally and/or be employed in projects such as the ALAS Project. It’s modelled on the paramedic or paralegal concept and is brilliant. None of the parataxonomists taking our course could afford to go to University. For example, Ronald Vargas who is one of the smartest people I have met, is basically a small farmer, with a wife and kids who cycles 1 hour each way to be here. They have extensive knowledge in so many areas. Danilo and Ronald are excellent climbers and climbed a tree to get us canopy bromeliads. One knows insects and the other plants. Neither speaks English.
The course alternates between collecting, formal teaching, and lab work. Everyone in CR takes a coffee break morning and afternoon and this is hard for Evert and myself to get used to. Lunch is on the dot of 12.00 and we all dash across the suspension bridge to the cafeteria. On the way we’ve seen snakes (trees and ground), turtles, coati, agouti and iguana (+4 feet long). Lunch and supper are always fish or a very tasty meat dish, rice, veggies, (many new to me), salad, juice and fruit. We try and go collecting each day unless it is pouring. Everyone carries an umbrella everywhere, downpours are as though a river opened in the sky. The course continues from 1PM-5PM (with coffee break) and the dynamics are great.
We have a beer, answer lingering questions, saying goodbye to people going home and go for supper at 6PM. This tends to be the meal where we chat to people in other projects at La Selva. By 5.45 it is pitch dark at La Selva and there are no external lights, so we walk everywhere with a head-lamp and an umbrella - both very important. Evert and I almost walked on a very dangerous snake one evening, which I just saw in time in the head-lamp. We continue working from 7-10PM, changing extractors etc. and I try to be in bed by 10.30. Even with the intense noise of the jungle (frogs, howler monkeys) through the screen (no glass in the windows), I have no difficulty sleeping!
November 23, 1992
Well my first day back at the Neatby Building after returning from Costa Rica. I came back totally unscathed except for a small case of ‘jungle foot’ which is rapidly disappearing now that I’m in a cool, dry climate. The trip was marvelous, but let me start where I left off.
The first weekend, we left early Saturday morning to go to Turrialba - a small town near which is the major Agriculture University in CR. Our tour guide and driver was Carlos, who is a research assistant at Turrialba, a very knowledgeable acarologist and who is taking the course at ALAS as a refresher. He didn’t speak a word of English and found it more difficult than others to understand my execrable Spanish and miming. We asked him to take a route that we hadn’t been on before and he passed by his home town and he introduced us to his mother and sister-in-law and showed us the lot that is close to them on which he will build in the future. His brother’s house looked typical of other middle-class homes we saw along the way. The house is airy and cool. People leave front and back doors open to create a draft. Poorer homes do not have window panes - just screens, though panes are not necessary, as it never gets cold. Carlos’ relatives are well off, and all except him, live in the same town which has gravel streets and muddy footpaths, but still women walking along in high-heels. From there we went to the new Undergraduate University which focuses on the study of agriculture in the tropics. This place was about 2 years old, was heavily funded by North American foundations and USAID and looked like a Club Med Resort. We were both really impressed. The grounds were immaculate, the washrooms so clean - it was the kind of place you would be afraid to drop a hair. The students come from all over Central and South America and the idea is that through formal education and through running a commercial and experimental farming operation they will get their degree. We saw a bit of the farming operation - a banana plantation with a small monorail running throughout onto which the banana bunches are suspended when cut. The monorail brings them to the processing plant where they are bagged, if for human consumption, or shucked and shredded, if going to pigs. They also have a large area under screen for tropical plants for export - in total the campus and farm are about 10,000 acres - no mean farm! This is tropical agriculture with all the mod-cons. The Director of the place, a totally bilingual American, is a friend of Carlos, so we dropped in to say hello. We passed his house on the way out - there are few College Directors who live in such splendor. Then onto the Postgraduate Agriculture University. This is set in a beautiful valley at about 3000ft, so the temperature is always gentle summer heat, with minimum humidity. The campus dates from WWII and is really lovely with old red-tiled buildings and a farm of 3000 acres. They grow mainly coffee, fruit and vegetables on an experimental basis and have about 1000 varieties of coffee that they have as a living gene bank. We got to meet the Director - an interesting American, living in CR for 30 years, married to an MBA Costa Rican, who started in CR as “the pest specialist for the country” and has developed the University and his position into one of the top in Central America. He and his wife live in a beautiful 1940’s open-plan house which goes with the position. They brought us for lunch to an inn-type restaurant in the hills overlooking the campus and town. Turrialba is famous for kayaking and rafting - the world kayaking championships were held there the previous year. In the afternoon we went on a tour of the campus with the Director and then he left us with Carlos who wanted Evert to go through his mite material. We stayed that night at the hotel attached to the University and got to sleep indecently early - what a pleasure.
Carlos was coming for us at 7.30 the next morning, so I had a chance to walk a bit of the campus - it was the kind of morning you would appreciate, Mum - not too warm, beautiful flowers, and birds and flat, well-tended pavements. When we were further up the hills we stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant overlooking coffee plantations and the occasional citrus tree. Breakfast was a change - thick fruit juice and quesados - a large pancake made of corn flour with a cheese filling and glorious coffee. We were on our way to Cerro de la Muerte - one of the highest parts of CR at 11,000ft. where the vegetation is an elfin forest of tree ferns, bamboo and shrubs that looks like and is related to heather. Again, Carlos was driving and we were glad of his skills on the road. For the most part we were on the Pan-American Highway, which has the same truck/car traffic as the NI in Ireland, without the wider portions, and because of the elevation change (3000-11000) is painfully slow if you meet a tractor etc. As it was Sunday, traffic was light. It was just wonderful going through small villages and seeing the weekend entertainment and finery. Each town had a soccer match on, loads of youngsters out on bicycles, horses and fishing. Everyone else walking to visit relatives - not much different than Ireland. Agriculture on the way was coffee, or sugar-cane or fruit trees.
Cerro de la Muerte was a wonderful change for collecting - being able to walk in almost bog-like conditions, sinking down in sphagnum and being able to see over the tops of all trees - what a change from the jungle. From there we went back through San Jose and reached La Selva - back to our home for another 10 days. In the Atlantic lowlands around La Selva pineapple, beef and hearts of palm are the main crops along with banana, with hearts of palm the crop for which they get the most money, though they have to export fresh, as there are no canning facilities in CR. The week passed uneventfully. Ron Ochoa, our CR colleague had left on Friday, so the students had to tolerate my lack of Spanish more than ever. But they are such a warm group of students - very appreciative of the efforts we were making. They all left on Friday at lunchtime and we were left on our own - what a weird feeling and almost a letdown after the intensity of the previous weeks. During the week we saw lots more animals - a 6ft iguana (probably male) every morning on top of a ca. 80ft tree taking the sun. Occasionally it moved and shook its throat skin, but usually it lay like a beached whale. A few mornings it was supplanted by a smaller version (presumably female) and it moved to a different branch. Saw an alligator in the river and a wonderful band of spider monkeys swinging through the trees one evening. One day a tayra (related to mink, but the size of a very large greyhound) bounded at eye level in front of the lab window, and we saw a few more snakes.
This weekend I walked some of the trails by myself which is a real pleasure, because when you move quietly you see all kinds of things - lizards, agouti, coati. Sunday night, Uli, the German student came back and Monday Ronald and Danilo kept us hopping with questions. We were leaving on Wednesday and the few extra days with the guys reassured Evert and myself about the project. Some of the researchers at La Selva are there for periods of up to 2 years on projects and graduate from the limited housing we were in to cottages. Carolina, who ran the project locally, shared a house (2 bedrooms, bathroom, living room/dining/kitchen, veranda) with Uli and a student from Venezuela. Their neighbour was a post-doc from Montreal, who had a house to himself because he was vegetarian and having to cook for himself. He (along with many others) had a crush on Uli and used to visit her in the lab. and getting to know Evert and myself invited us over for supper one evening. It was a smashing meal and interesting for us to see how the long-term people lived. I was impressed at the relative comfort. Most of the cottages face a losing battle against fungal growth, even though most are made of cinder block. And of course, every house has a resident very, very large spider. We had one in our bathroom at the short-term accommodation, along with a small iguana, but I was there almost 2 weeks before noticing them!
Wednesday we left La Selva, both of us pleased with our contribution to the Project and the opportunity to experience the tropical rainforest first-hand. We stayed in the same hotel in San Jose - close to all the action. The evenings are like evenings in Spain, everyone out walking the pavements - though people eat earlier than in Spain (about 8PM). Thursday morning I walked the town for about 4 hours. It’s a city of 1 million, so like Dublin, you can walk a fair portion of the centre in a morning, and I went into supermarkets to check prices. Both of us spent some time in the Central Market, which you would have loved, Dad. We met Uli for lunch at a cosmopolitan outdoor restaurant and the voices around were German, American, Spanish, amazingly, no Japanese or Australian.
Thursday afternoon we had an appointment with the Director for Public Relations for Institute Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), which are involved in the La Selva Project also, and which are the spearhead for CR’s initiative to complete a study of its biodiversity. CR is the first country doing this (with funding from US and drug companies etc.) and it is seen as a model for other countries.
The INBio operation is impressive, it depends on outside expertise, such as Evert and myself, to teach curators from CR, basically in exchange for getting access to specimens from the country for our own studies. The approach is very business-like and certainly could be a model. The PR guy (what a smoothie - a Ph.D. in sociology and film-star handsome) had received really positive letters from the students we had taught and that were attached to INBio - nice.
What a great trip - I just hope some photos come out.
March 12, 1998
Well Evert and I had a very early departure last Saturday morning - we left for the airport at 4AM - UGH! The charter flight was completely full with people going to Costa Rica mainly for sun - though I was talking to someone who was hoping to travel around the country - a girl, who like Dad, had all her belongings in a small backpack. In San Jose, we got a taxi to our hotel which is a few stars up from our normal hotel and has air-conditioning and was newly renovated. It was right on the main street, so having air-conditioning is important to drown out street noises. Evert and I walked the town for about 5 hours and just reveled in the warmth and people. Later the two of us went to a local cafe for papaya juice (one of the wonders of CR as far as I’m concerned) and the waitress remembered us (or at least Evert) Later, after eating we decided to go on a tour the next day – Sunday, as we could not get transport to La Selva before Monday.
Sunday we joined a tour to one of the local volcanoes. This is Volcan Poas, whose crater is the second largest in the world - VERY impressive. Our companions in the tour van were two 4 retirees from Miami, all originally from Cuba, and though they lived in the US for a number of years, their English was poor. But they were great - dressed up as though they were going to a dinner party (extensive jewellery, nylons, thin sandals, handbags) rather than a tour of a volcano. We stopped at coffee plantations, walked some trails in the National Park, and generally saw the countryside as well as the Volcano - great day, normally we don’t have time for a tour.
Monday, we took the Organization for Tropical Studies van to La Selva at 7AM. Great to see the ALAS crew - Ronald, Danilo, Maylin and Nelci. Last time at La Selva we were spoiled because we shared a house with another fellow. This time the place is very crowded so we have to share bedrooms with others of the same sex. This is not ideal, because everyone is on a different schedule - mine is bed at 10.30 and up at 5.30 to be at breakfast at 6AM. But some people work all night or finish work at 2AM. Evert decided to sleep in the lab. and after one night, I decided to do the same. Both of us left our luggage in the rooms and made up beds on the floor of the lab. each night. This is very comfortable - there are 4 rooms at the lab., a full bathroom and it is air-conditioned, so we slept like a log and have rooms to ourselves. I think our room-mates appreciated the arrangement also.
The first day we arrived it was 32C and it had not rained for a month (very unusual as this is rainforest). We were collecting with one of the guys and it rained sweat off us. But that night the weather broke and it has been raining almost continuously since and the temperature has dropped to a cool 25-28C. Mostly its heavy Irish rain, rather than tropical rain, and the locals don’t like it. They like it to rain heavily during the night and early morning and then it clears and is sunny in the afternoon. But we are collecting in an Irish-style mist. Because it’s so dry I got a few chigger bites, but nothing else. There are the usual wild animals - peccaries and agouti around. There are lots of snake sightings, but I think due to the snake-sighters being more vigilant. Everyone notes snake sightings as none wants a meeting with a venomous snake. Someone got bitten in January and almost died and then almost lost her leg - she is now recovering in USA - no joy.
As usual there is an interesting mix of people here - some from other times so that they recognize us. There is a film crew down from Canada and we have colleagues in common. There are loads of birding groups, from just about every country. Birders stick out from researches as they are much better dressed and never dirty when they come in for a meal, and carry binoculars, even to breakfast. La Selva is the type of place where you see rare birds while eating cereal.
This weekend I’m bringing Evert on the aerial tramway, which is a wonderful tourist event in CR - a silent tramway that brings you through and above the rainforest canopy. I’ve already been on it, but not Evert - it is an experience. Yesterday, Evert and I did a long walk in the rainforest - about 7KM - this doesn’t sound like much, but I forgot to bring water. It was muddy and very up and down, so we arrived back sweating and sopping wet with sweat. I know there were times that Evert could have killed me for taking him on such a long walk, especially when it looked like I had made a mistake in direction, but we were back before dark and even had time for a beer before supper.
Today Danilo brought us to a forest at 2000m to collect mites - it was a fabulous day - beautifully sunny and about 25C at the place we were collecting, so less humid and cooler than La Selva. Danilo brought along his daughter who is 9 and who was thrilled to have time with her Dad. It was a smashing morning, and to thank him I suggested we take the family for lunch when we returned. We went to the best restaurant in the local town. Super meal - excellent bass, and best papaya juice so far in CR.