The places you'll go...: Tracking in Turrialba

Hey all,

I hope everyone back in the states is doing well, I am doing fine. After two weeks volunteering at CATIE (Centro Argonomico Tropical de Investigacion y Ensenanza), I feel that I have a strong grasp on radio telemetry and am having a fun time mist netting Toucans and Aracaris. My days start at the crack of dawn around 5am and I end at 6pm with a three-hour siesta somewhere in the middle. I typically walk over 5 miles a day tracking the toucans, taking GPS coordinates, or manning the nets we set up. When tracking we triangulate the position of the birds every fifteen minutes and make any and all observations we can when we spot them. It is fun and tiring work but I am having a great time learning new skills and gaining unique experiences. I also have the opportunity to help another student here mist netting small songbirds, which requires me to wake up around 4:30am, but as they say the early bird gets the worm…or the early field researcher gets the bird. It is such a delicate process holding a wild bird in your hands, especially the smaller songbirds. Since I have been here we have caught two of the Firey-Billed Aracaris and are still attempting to catch their larger cousin the Keel-billed Toucan (looks like the Toucan on the Fruit Loops box).

The group of volunteers I work with are great too! There are two girls from Philadelphia, two girls from Montreal Quebec, another girl from Minnesota, a guy from New York, another from Maryland, another from Massachusetts, and another who just arrived yesterday from central California. They are all really unique and interesting people who share a common interest in the outdoors and wildlife. On weekends we often go on day or overnight trips to some of the better sites to see in the area. When I first arrived we had gone down to Puerto Viejo to stay and swim in the Caribbean. The water was so warm and the surf was amazing. Later on we traveled the Aquaires Waterfall where we could jump in the water and slide down a natural rock waterslide. There is a Volcano located really close to where we are staying and we can see smoke rising from the top of it, but officials won’t let us summit it because it is too active and there is a high probability of becoming sick from the noxious fumes. However, there are other Volcanoes down here, which I will definitely get to one weekend. We are also planning a trip to go whitewater rafting on some class four to five water. I also hope to get in some scuba diving, which I think would be an incredible experience in the Caribbean.

Well that’s all for now, I will keep you all posted on my adventures to come,

-John