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19 DEC 2018

Today was the big day, the day of the research presentations! Our group was the first to present, which was good and bad. Good, because wwe could get it over with right away and not have to worry about it all day, but bad because it’s a little nerve-wracking to be the first to present. All in all, it went pretty well! After our presentation, we stayed for the duration and watched all the other students present the results of their research, which was very interesting to see! We even had time to ask the students questions afterwards, which helped everyone understand each other’s projects in a little more detail. After everyone had presented their projects, we had a few announcements to listen to, and then we were free! Many people, myself included, stopped at the station’s gift shop to do a little souvenir shopping (I did almost all of my Christmas shopping there!). Towards the end of the day, we notice the clouds were getting thick and looking dark. Then, near sunset/dinner time, it s
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18 DEC 2018

Today was another long day in the lab, putting the final touches on our posters for the presentation tomorrow. A lot of the work wee did on the posters today was cosmetic, making sure everything was flowing smoothly. We spent a good portion of the day in the lab, only breaking for lunch and to test out our posters on the projector. After getting everything done, and having the mentors give it the stamp of approval, our poster was finally finished! It felt really good to have that weight off of our shoulders, and to know that the only thing we had left to do was present our research findings. The rest of the day was free for us to do as we pleased, and I decided to relax and read a book. After dinner, the mentors had a few different night hikes planned for us - I decided to go o the observation tower night hike. Even though it was cloudy and misty, the hike was very nice. We couldn’t see much from the tower, so our group decided to continue our hike down the path a ways. We saw a few d
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17 DEC 2018

Today definitely felt like a Monday. We got up early again and spent the entire day in the lab reviewing and compiling our data. We finally got to review the footage we got from the cameras we set up last week, and we were pleasantly surprised! We had a lot of birds visiting the flowers, but we also caught rodents and even a pack coatimundi! Identifying the birds was the most time-consuming part of the day, as many of the birds look plain and similar to each other. The day was rather uneventful besides that.
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16 DEC 2018

Today wee had a free day! Before starting my journey here, I was busy studying and finishing finals for my fall semester at college, and when we got here we hit the ground running. I feel like I’ve been on the go for a few weeks straight with how much I needed to get done, so it was very nice to have some time to relax. I planned on sleeping in, but I get too restless after I wake up, so I ended up being awake at the normal time anyway. I decided to walk around the gardens and take some photos (indulging a few of the toucans!) after breakfast, but it got hot very fast, so I went back to the room to relax for the rest of the morning. After lunch, the entire group had plans to visit San Vito for the day, and even though it was very hot, we had a blast! A lot of the people in the group have fun facts about the town, so it was still a day of learning! The group I was with went to a grocery store, and bakery (amazing bread!), and a few different clothing stores! We were all admiring the clo
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15 DEC 2018

Today was the last day of our field days! We spent all day counting out plants in transects, starting with a transect we missed in the secondary forest the other day. We also counted out a few transects on the side trails before moving on to the primary forest. I thought yesterday’s work was hard, but today’s work was ever more difficult. Most of the transects we did today were on ridiculously steep hills in very thick forests, and there was even one in the thick bamboo forest! I’ve always wanted to run around in a bamboo forest, but it’s surprisingly dense and difficult to navigate. We counted out transects across the river, and even though it was very steep, it was pretty rewarding to get it done. We managed to finish replicating the original research! When we come back to look at the data we collected in a few days, I wonder how much the numbers will have grown?
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14 DEC 2018

It was another grueling day in the forest today. We were surveying plots of land every 50 meters and 5 meters on either side of the trail counting the amount of ginger plants in each plot. It’s really hard work walking and punting plants in the forest, every time I take a beak it feels like I could lie down and fall asleep right there! I was either bit or stung on my finger when we were surveying spots. It hurt so bad, I wasn’t sure if I should have gone back to the camp or not! The pain was very intense and lasted for hours, my finger was even swollen! Luckily it was only a temporary pain, and the pain and swelling were gone by the time I went to bed, though my finger was still a little tingly. Despite the pain, it was a good day! I am excited to see what our cameras capture when we look at them in a few days.
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13 DEC 2018

We started th day early today, eating breakfast at 6:30am and immediately gathering our equipment from the lab and heading out into the field. We had a Ngobe guide with us, Celestino. He is very good at identifying tracks, animals, plants, and has an answer for just about every question we ask. He is very mindful of the different dangers in the forest as well, often warning us to be careful in certain areas on our hikes.  We placed a total of 9 camera traps and kestrels, two of them we placed on animal trails that Celestino showed us. The rest we had placed on different groups of shampoo ginger, we are hoping to collect data on what varieties of wildlife use the plant. We place most of the cameras in the secondary forest (which is forest that has been selectively logged) and one or two cameras in the primary forest (which has not been logged).  We hiked a total of 7.5miles, up and down hills and through thick forest. Because we were expecting such a long hike, we requested a packed
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