Costa Rica

by Gordon Coates, of University of Vermont Eight days ago we hopped in the back of blue 1960’s Toyota FJ cruiser flatbed truck. All 17 of our bags, all 4 of our boxes, and 5 of our persons were crammed…

Cover photo: Our view of the forest canopy is dissolved by clouds. by Alejandra Gallardo, of the College of Saint Benedict / Saint John’s University We’ve wrapped up our collaborative project with Fondo de Biodiversidad Sostenible that consisted of biodiversity…

by Megan McKeown, of University of Vermont How have your views on conservation and wilderness changed through the semester? A question asked to Round River students at the end of the semester to conclude our studies in conservation, and to…

by Micaela Roy, of Middlebury College I jolted awake after a drop of water fell directly into my ear. It had gotten cool, and the  humidity that hung in the air had condensed into fat drops on the inside of…

by Micaela Roy, of Middlebury College This morning I awoke to a crowing rooster and a loose piece of tin roofing banging about in the wind. My tent swirled around me, buffered by the strong gales that seemingly never stopped—I…

by Megan McKeown, of University of Vermont Week five here in Costa Rica! These five weeks have been a blur of amazing adventures and fascinating research. This week has been packed full of our final days of dung beetle research,…

by Karl Pfeiffenberger, of Seward, AK Piling our gear onto the small colectivo, we crammed ourselves into the small fold-out middle seats and started our bus ride to Piro. Along the bumpy ride, we passed cattle ranches, teak plantations, and thick…

By Alejandra Gallardo, of the College of Saint Benedict We have arrived at Costa Rica! We met in San José on February 5thand were greeted by a warm, Central American sun. We stayed in town for two days and explored…

By Jori McCune, Westminster College We arrived in Puerto Jimenez the morning of the 30th all overflowing with that euphoric ‘after finals’ feeling. Cece, Avery, and I booked it to the beach as soon as we could, where we were…

By Avery Driscoll, Westminster College This week we survived our conservation biology exam, became certified experts on the flora and fauna of the Osa (just kidding–that would take several lifetimes), and at least semi-successfully produced papers from the fieldwork we’ve…

By Cece Wheeler, Middlebury College Hello again! After a day of rest and smoothies in Puerto Jimenez, we’ve been back at Piro Biological Station this week, enjoying our last few days of field work with butterflies before launching into our…

By Cece Wheeler, Middlebury College Hey everyone! We’ve had an action packed week at Lomas del Sierpe, full of pungent aromas, early mornings, and some pretty amazing bird sightings. After spending Sunday working with dung beetles (see Jori’s blog for…

By Jori McCune, Westminster College Hi all! The Costa Rican life has been treating us well with everything from friendly faces to the most amazing fruit, however, I would not say that we have been operating on “Tico time.” We…

By Avery Driscoll, Westminster College Greetings from the Piro Station! We’ve spent the last week and a half here surveying for Neotropical River Otters along seven nearby rivers. Besides the work of the Round River crew over the previous two semesters, little research has been done on the Neotropical…

Written by Max Beal, Northland College After catching a ride in a cattle truck from Rincon, we unloaded our things and settled into our new home at Osa Conservation’s Lomas del Sierpe station. The station sits just off the road…

Written by Carolina May (College of William and Mary)   After returning from our backpacking trip to Cerro Arbolito, we spent the afternoon writing up Grinnell journal entries that described all of the species and ecological observations we noticed on…

By Katie Goodwin, University of New Hampshire   The semester is getting under way here in Costa Rica! It has been about a week and a half since we got here but I think we all agree that our campsite…