Week 7 - Costa Rica

This week I didn't take many photos of our adventures, so to make this post a lot less boring, I've put some random shots of our time in Costa Rica that have absolutely nothing to do with this post!

On Monday we all drove into the Studio so that I could continue building orb-weaving spider frames after the power outage. This took a while, as the silicone we had bought wouldn’t bond to either the wood bases or the branches. So we resorted to using craft glue instead, which worked but took a while to dry in the high humidity. While I waited for them to dry, I took the girls to the playground. While I was gone our lift trolley finally arrived from the US. It had been sitting in Customs in Costa Rica for weeks, and then there were issues with getting it transported down to Puerto Jimenez. But it finally arrived! I wasn’t there when the box was opened and it was discovered that we actually had the wrong one – we were meant to order a pneumatic lift trolley that moved from ground level to over a meter high. What arrived was a lift table, that didn’t lower to the ground. This was disappointing, after waiting for so long for it! However, it would have to do, and at least it had a bit of movement capability compared to the table we were using from Mal and Mylene’s house.

The tree line above our house - a sight that I will miss

We did a bit of animal collecting this week, going out with Carlos and Steve up some local trails, mainly a trail that goes up the mountain behind Dos Brazos known to locals as the public trail. It is a wide track that is lined with mountainous rainforest on one side, and a decent drop on the other side! We’ve found quite a few invertebrates up this trail, including spiders, katydids, vinegaroons, stick insects, amblypygids, centipedes and more! We’ve also seen quite a few reptiles and frogs out this way, including blunt-headed tree snakes, terciopelos, cat-eyed snakes, and jungle mountain frogs, among other things.

Alan in his poncho ready for a night of bug collecting in the rain

A Masked Tree frog, the same species as the tadpoles we are raising

A yellow moth that Tayen spotted

Tuesday was my mum’s birthday back in Australia, so I managed to log onto skype and have a little chat with her, before the connection got so bad we couldn’t understand each other. The signal is always better when there are clouds overhead; clear blue days are not good for internet signal over here!

A harem of White lined bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) living in the eaves of our  guest house

These bats live in harems of one male and up to 8 females. This male has 5 females.

We all went into the studio on Wednesday to repair the orb frames, which weren’t holding up too well in the humidity. I was getting very frustrated at the fact that they weren’t working, and that the spiders were setting up their webs everywhere but the frames! It was also very difficult to work trying to supervise Tayen and Saige as well, and with the heat of the day I was not a happy camper! We all went out to Carolina's for lunch, where the crew at least are regulars now. Our Spanish is getting better, and we are now able to understand a lot more and hold at least the beginnings of a conversation with our Hola’s, como esta’s, muy bien gracias’s, y usted’s, por favor’s, and mucho gusto’s. We don’t have a lot of opportunity to speak Spanish in Dos Brazos as most of the people we have contact with speak English as well.

Tayen using Bronte as a pillow after a day out

That afternoon there was a massive thunderstorm in Puerto Jimenez, and the downpour created floods outside the studio in minutes. The tiles just outside the studio are very slippery when wet, and are extremely dangerous. Both Alan and myself have nearly gone head over heels before, so it was no surprise when Saige did. I wasn’t watching closely enough and let her go around the corner, where the tiles had been directly exposed to the rain. When Saige fell, she cracked her head on the tiles with such force that I heard it before she started screaming. She was still inconsolable an hour later, so it was off to the doctors. We had checked that her pupils were still dilating, and she had had a short snooze and was still very upset. The doctor confirmed that there was no concussion, but he still wanted to keep her for observation – for 4 hours!! It was 6:30pm when we arrived at the doctors, so we would have to stay until 10:30pm. A bed was set up for Saige, and Alan went to the supermarket to get some food as we hadn’t had dinner yet. After 20 minutes, Saige was herself again, sitting up and playing with Tayen. After another 40 minutes of her playing and laughing with Tayen, we realised that she would be fine, so we found the doctor (this itself took around 10 minutes) and he agreed that we could take her home.

Saige and I out to dinner

Tayen has been missing her friends at kindergarten back home, and is constantly drawing pictures and making cards for her friend Willow. Both Tayen and Saige have been playing ‘kinder’ and each pretend to be either Willow or another friend, Beatrice. I will often call to them for lunch and have them say, “I’m not Tayen, I’m Willow!”, and Saige saying “I’m not Saige, I’m Beatrice!”

A cool tree I found at Playa Tamales

The weekend saw us heading on the road towards Matapalo, in search for good collecting sites for invertebrates. The road is really bad, so it was slow going for a while. We found a side road that has the potential to be a great night hunting spot, so we decided to go back there after dark one day next week. We also picked up some Golden Orb weaving spiders (or Banana Spiders as they are called here) and some nice Argiope spiders with silvery spiky abdomens)

Saige holding a Costa Rican Red-rumped tarantula

And to top off the week, we are borrowing Tristan’s internet key again while he is away. He will hopefully be getting another one that is compatible with ICE while he is in San Jose. Meantime Steve is seeing if he can swap our ICE issued internet key with another one that may have a better aerial in it for picking up the signal at our house. The saga continues!!