Welcome to la Pura Vida

Luke collects data for his field project on the habitat preferences of the Neotropical river otter. Photo by Shalynn Pack.

By Luke Golden, Westminster College

Our first views of the Central American spider monkey, up close and personal. Photo by Shalynn Pack.

It really hit me that I had arrived in Costa Rica as I walked out of the doors of the San Jose airport on June 22 – I felt the humid heat hit my face and heard the voices of taxi drivers trying to convince me to ride with them. I spotted a sign in the crowd – our new leader for the next 6 weeks, Chris, was smiling and holding up a Round River sign – and we headed off in a taxi toward our hostel. I was filled with joy as we drove there, so happy to be starting this adventure here. Once we arrived at the hostel I met our other Round River instructor, Shay, and then we immediately went out for lunch. I was amazed by how many people could fit into a city — even the parks were filled to capacity. San Jose is Costa Rica’s capitol city, and also I learned, holds over half the country’s population. I was constantly interested and felt the joy of walking through a new city in a new country. At around 9 PM, my fellow students Avery, CeCe, and Jori arrived at our hostel. We all met for the first time and sat down for a late night supper that consisted of pizza and fresh fruit (the mangoes here are delicious!).

Our first morning together in San Jose. Photo by Shalynn Pack.

The next morning we met for breakfast and then walked around San Jose for an hour or so. We exchanged money and walked into a couple of produce shops – in one shop, a sweet older man taught us the names of several tropical fruits that were new to us, and the shop owner even let use taste them. We noticed that many people would end a conversation with “Pura Vida” or “Pure Life” – this would become a favorite phrase, as it encapsulates the good life and happy spirit this country and its people embody.

Once we were finished walking around the city, we said goodbye to the urban life for the next 6 weeks, packed our bags, and headed to the bus station to catch our eight-hour bus ride towards the southwestern point of Costa Rica: the Osa Peninsula. We filled the long hours with some orientation, music, much needed sleep, and beautiful scenery from the bus windows. The sights were breathtaking as we drove up into the Talamanca mountain range, passing through the mountains and countryside of Costa Rica. As we gained elevation in the beautiful landscape, we entered the clouds: rolling hills that were either very dense green jungle, or fields that cows grazed on, were covered in a thick layer of silverly, misty clouds. We’d be back in this cloud forest environment at the end of the program, for our final hike to Chirripo Summit. As our trek continued we left the high elevation of Central Costa Rica and made our way to the coast. We passed through small villages, many pineapple plantations and more jungle, the heat increasing with each passing hour. We eventually arrived in Puerto Jimenez where the humidity was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

We put our bags in our air-conditioned room (lucky us!) and then went out to a beach-side restaurant to learn some salsa dance moves and get moving after a long day of traveling. The next day, we took the colectivo to where we would be staying for the next 10 days – this was not a bus, to our surprise, but a large pickup truck with an open-air cargo area in the truck bed.

The colectivo that brought us to our campsite next to the Piro River. Photo by Luke Golden.

After a bumpy, but beautiful drive on gravel roads through the forest, we arrived at our destination: Piro Biological Station. Once we arrived at the field station, we set up our tents and unpacked the food that will sustain us for the week. Our campsite and home for the next 10 days is a series of three covered platforms, surrounded by jungle and the nearby Piro River. One platform is for our tents, and the others are for cooking, classes, and hammock time. The nights are lit by candles or solar-powered Luci lights, due to the fact that there is no electricity, yet we have running water and a trusty stove. That night we went on our first night walk, where we saw a pair of doves sleeping in a tree, a scorpion hiding in the roofing of a nearby building and more frogs and toads than I can count!

Chris making a pathway from our camp shelter to the dining shelter. Photo by Luke Golden.

The crew eating fried cheese burritos on the first night at Piro base camp. Photo by Luke Golden.

The next day we awoke around 6:30 AM and went for a nature walk through the jungle. We saw many different species of birds, lizards and ants. Leaf Cutter Ants are a very common sight as they follow one another carrying pieces of leaves back home that are double their size. We were also lucky enough to see a troupe of Army Ants travel through the jungle floor with blue-eyed Ant Birds not far behind them, looking to eat the myriad insects that the marching ants stir up. Later that day, we began our first day of Otter Surveys – our goal is to better understand how otters use the river systems. We began our first survey a couple kilometers below our campsite on the Piro River, and continued the next day by collecting data on another four kilometers upstream on the Piro, looking for more Otter scat and tracks. We were successful in finding two Otter scats (we set up a camera trap to track their use) as well as witnessing Spider Monkeys, White Faced Monkeys, a Three Toed Sloth, a baby hummingbird in its nest, and many other amazing birds. I am excited to see what this experience will bring and everything I will learn during this six weeks in jungle paradise!