BAThroom

I know what you're thinking. 3 posts in 1 day? Well i kind of slacked off this week so now i'm making it up to you.

Today I woke up and went to the bathroom. As I was brushing my teeth, something squeaked at me from up near the ceiling. I looked up and saw this little guy. I suppose the bathroom is a good place for a little bat to hang out - there are hundreds of bugs in there that would make a fine breakfast when it gets up this evening. Its pretty cute too... so I don't mind if it stays. Its much better than the giant jumping mouse that jumped on my hand last week while I was trying to shoo it out of the shower.





squeak, squeak
<3 Day

all-inclusive pics

so i finally got around to resizing my all-inclusive pics. check em out
:)

earthquake and tsunami

so apparently this morning a huge (8.8) earthquake hit Chile. there are now tsunami warnings for Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Central America.

Well, we couldn't feel any earthquake here in Costa Rica. And the park I live at is on a series of stepped plateaus and I live at the top - so we should be protected from any potential tsunamis here. Don't worry about me ok?! Everything here is good. (well not everything, I woke up this morning with a tick attached to my FACE! WTF?! HOW DID THAT NASTY THING GET IN MY BED!!!!)

I took an awesome class in university on natural disasters (Geopysics 375) and I know the warning signs for a tsunami. Do you?

Most people think that a tsunami (aka tidal wave) is a gigantic tall wave that comes in really quickly and causes massive death and destruction with the force of the water. Well this isn't true. A tsunami is actually a series of really long waves that is caused when some big force displaces a lot of water. If you look at this diagram, check out the wavelength. Now imagine that this wavelength is many kilometers long. Now imagine that there are like 5 of them in a row. That's basically a tsunami. Tsunamis aren't tall, but they are fast and they are relentless. The reason so many people die in them is because the current sucks them under the water or they get hit with debris and then they drown. I hope today's big earthquake didn't cause any tsunamis.

Here are some tsunami warning signs that you should remember if you ever travel to the ocean or live on the coast.

1. an earthquake. duh.


2. if the water looks like it is bubbling or boiling


3. if the sea recedes quickly exposing a great deal of the ocean floor


4. sometimes a very loud noise preceeds a tsunami.

If you see/hear any of these signs, get away from the water and find someplace high to hang out. Stay away from rivers and streams that lead to the ocean, and remember successive waves can be hours apart.

Hope this post was educational for you. Don't worry about me (well you can worry that i'm getting eaten alive by ticks and chiggers... cause I am)

xoxoxox
Dayna

monkey stuff

I know I promised I would post photos of the all-inclusive today...but I am really tired from a 13 hour monkey day and i don't want to spend the time resizing my images right now. Also the photos aren't very exciting.

Instead, here is a video of Pickles and Velveeta from LV doing ...something?

<3 <3
Day

brilliant

so I can't remember if I blogged about how I lost my bank card a while back. The last time I remember having it was in MonteVerde and then the next time I went to use it (like 2 weeks later) it was missing. slightly inconvenient to say the least.
I called the bank and they told me they would send a new card, blah, blah, blah. It should arrive here in about 3 weeks.
At the time, I thought to myself "this is annoying, but at least I have groceries to last for a while and my credit card is here for emergencies".

Well guess who lost her credit card this weekend.

Last night I went to go buy game-time for this little online game that i'm addicted to..and my credit card was not safely in my wallet where it belongs. I remember having it on Friday - when I withdrew money on the way to the all-inclusive. I left the bank machine feeling very relieved. "good thing I have this credit card to withdraw cash till my replacement bank card arrives. I don't know what i would do without it." I probably left the dumb card in the machine.

screw you, irony.

santa rosa

vacation is over. time to get back to work.
today we have rented a car to drive back to the park. I am excited to show my family the place that I call home. Hopefully the monkeys will swing by the dorms for a visit while we are there. On the way, we are going to stop in the town of Playa Coco as well as Liberia to check things out. I want to go to some of the souvenir shops cause I haven'thad a chance to do that yet. I also need to pick up some groceries cause my butt won't be leaving the park for at least 2 weeks once I get there.

My stay in the all inclusive has been great, but i don't know if I could survive here. There is just too much food! I always feel horrible guilt for visiting the dessert table but I just can't pass up such pretty little cakes and squares. I always find that they look so much nicer than they taste - but it is still fun to try them. Last night, one little square had the flavour of cookie dough and the texture of mashed potatoes. yuck!

Anyway, i'll be back to blogging about creepy crawlies in no time. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend spamming my Facebook news page with crap about olympic hockey (please stop!).

xoxoxox
Dayna

p.s. My parents spent a bunch of money on new hiking boots for me - but sadly, they are way too big. there's at least an inch of space in the toes... and my heels wiggle around. My dad thinks it would be ok if I just wore extra socks but I can't in good conscience keep a pair of $200 boots that doesn't fit me. Hopefully I get that vet school interview so I can come home and get a new pair that fits perfectly. Parents - you guys are the best. Thanks so much for trying. Love you!!

riu guanacaste

So my stay at the all inclusive has been pretty awesome so far. Yesterday I arrived at about 9:30am, we had breakfast, and then flopped by the pool for most of the afternoon. I started a new book (Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut) and pretty much vegged out in the sun for most of the day. Sadly, like an R-tard I managed to sunburn the front of my legs pretty badly. They are quite sore and ridiculously red today. Note to self: never wait to apply sunscreen. Always do it immediately. Apparently I also fail at applying sunscreen evenly and smoothly on my arms and chest cause here and there, there's a little burnt patch where the sunscreen was missed. I look like such a sun noob - and after 6 weeks here, I should totally know better. Today I am going to use extreme caution to make sure the burn doesn't get worse.

Here is a photo that I stole off the internet of where we are staying. I have been so pre-occupied with being lazy, I haven't really taken any pictures yet. This photo was taken in the wet season, so you have to imagine that the hills in the background are leafless and brown. It makes quite a contrast with the lush green gardens at the hotel.

So, I have never been to an all inclusive type place before. This hotel is huge and has endless buffet tables, all the drinks you want, and an abundance of couples made up of a wrinkled old man and a scandalously young woman. Eww! Right now as I type this, an old dude beside me is trying to help his much younger girlfriend connect to the internet. He's talking to her like she's in kindergarden. If anybody ever used that tone with me, I would punch him in the wrinkled old-man balls. Hard.

There was "entertainment" at the hotel bar last night - a michael jackson impersonator. I have never been big into pop music and wasn't really interested in hanging out with the seniors and watching it. Also, the show didn't start till 9:30 pm and usually by that time i'm snuggled up on my bed watching cartoons and getting ready to sleep. I was curious to see how hilarious it would be though, so I forced myself to stay up. While I waited, I ordered drinks off the fancy drink menu. I tried one called a Pura Vida that was rum, creme de menthe, and banana liquor and blended with ice. It was as gross as it sounds! I took one sip and left it on a table. never drink mint flavoured alcohol. EVAR!

The show was pretty funny. Imagine a costa rican dressed up like MJ in his nineties bedazzled military-jacket phase, badly lip-synching and dancing half-assedly. I made it through 1 song and then went to the hotel room to watch a movie. I was asleep pretty fast. Today, I think i'm going to do more flopping by the pool. We can also get snorkels from the hotel so I might borrow one and swim around in the ocean for a bit.

I will take some pictures today too and post them when I get a chance. The internet connection here sucks balls. I am never sure if I will be able to connect or not.

I'll write more if something interesting happens.
<3 <3 <3

Day

holiday

Today is the start of my holiday. My parents have come to Costa Rica and I am going to stay with them at a nice all-inclusive hotel. I can't wait.
I'll blog if I can get online, but if not i'll tell you all about it when I get home on Monday.

<3 <3
Day

heart attack

So today I had the day off. I planned to catch up on some data cleaning and work on a bibliography assignment that I have due soon. Things were going well - I was working and sitting outside with the Scottish ant biologist. we were talking about movies and music as usual. Then all of a sudden, he knocked over a cup of water on the table and it went all over my computer. There was a strange noise as the water went into the air intake for the fan. At first I didn't panic. I calmly lifted up my computer and the ant biologist helped wipe up the water underneath it. I then turned off the computer and removed the battery because water had gotten into all the cracks. After drying off the outside, I tilted the macbook a little and a bunch of water dripped out. At that point i started to worry a bit. We dried the water as best we could, but sadly when I tried to start it up, nothing happened.

At this point, I was beginning to feel panicky and I could tell that the ant biologist felt like shit. We were both very quiet as I tried over and over to make my computer boot up. nothing.

I then decided to use my hair drier to blow air into the fan to see if that helped dry the insides. I must have dried the computer for 10 minutes while using all of my mental powers to resist the urge to throw up. I kept thinking about how if my macbook broke, i would be bored, lonely, and completely cut off from everybody I love back in the real world. :(

Thankfully, when I finished drying the computer and tried to start it, it worked. I can't even begin to explain how happy I was when I saw that little apple on the screen. Could you imagine if I wasn't able to blog anymore? I mean... all of your lives would be completely empty! I just couldn't live with myself if that happened.

So anyway, I am really happy that my life partner (aka my macbook pro) seems to be recovering. I couldn't take the heartbreak if it left me for good. Obviously, the best way to get closure on my whole ordeal was to blog about it.

So I just did.

<3 <3 <3
Dayna

crab

sorry for the shakey camera. i was trying to walk and film at the same time. bad idea.

Nutella

Ok. So I thought I would start to introduce some of the coolest monkeys in the forest.

This is Nutella. He is nearly 8 years old and lives in the group Los Valles (LV). He is really easy to identify because he has a really long upper canine that sticks out of his mouth even when it is closed. It makes him look totally goofy and loveable.

All of the researchers adore Nutella. He's really mellow and hangs out near the ground a lot. He also doesn't seem to mind when researchers get really close to him (unlike some of the other monkeys in his group). I have yet to see him give a threat face. Nutella was born in this group and he spends a lot of time hanging out with his mom Salsa. Right now Salsa has a young baby and Nutella is also a great big brother! The baby Ketchup (stupid name) is only 3 months old and is just starting to venture off of Salsa's back and explore on his own. Nutella will often pick Ketchup up and give him piggy back rides. <3

Capuchin males disperse when they reach adulthood. What this means is that someday, Nutella will leave LV and venture off to find a new group to live in (one with lots of potential girlfriends). I will be really sad if he leaves while I am in Costa Rica. Often when males disperse, the researchers never see them again.

Today, while i was following Nutella I saw him have sex with Chutney - my favorite female in LV. I hope she has a little baby that has a goofy tooth just like Nutella. wouldn't that be cool?!

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll introduce more awesome monkeys as I get good photos of them!!

<3 <3 <3
Dayna

cucaracha

p.s. isn't my new header image cute? Those little ladies were having a siesta yesterday afternoon and I was able to get some good pics. <3 <3

playa naranjo

So here is my post all about the beach! It all began when we got up at 7 and had our driver take us to Liberia. We did our bi-monthly grocery shopping and then went to rent a vehicle for the drive to the beach. 4-wheel drive is an absolute must for getting to the ocean in Santa Rosa... and we had to try 5 different rental car places before we found one with an SUV available. I guess it was busy because it was Friday and all the tourists were arriving. We ended up getting a little SUV... the kind a soccer mom drives.

We made it back to Santa Rosa by noon and had a quick lunch. then me, the other field assistant, the PHD student, the british spider monkey chick, and the scottish ant biologist all piled into the SUV and prepared for the drive. The trip from our dorm to the beach was 13km, and it took us 1.5 hours to get there. The road was so rocky and hilly - i would have been terrified to try driving it. Thankfully the PHD student has driven that road many times. He got us there with no problems at all.

When we got to the beach, it was about 2:30pm. We had planned to arrive at that time so we could skip the hottest part of the day, but the sand was still so hot it would burn our feet if it splashed over our flip-flops. We all made a run for the ocean and played in the waves. I don't know what it is about the beach, but everybody was just so happy when we got there. We laughed and swam and took photos and had a really great time. The waves also kicked my ass a little bit and took my favorite blue glass earrings for my ears. I should have taken them out before swimming. Oh well.

The naranjo beach is beautiful. The forest comes right up to the edge of the sand..and there's a campground for people who want to spend the night. apparently, its also a great spot for surfing, but there wasn't another soul for as far as we could see. The beach is also gigantic - probably at least 2km long. After our swim, we walked all the way up the coast and back, taking photos and finding all kinds of cool critters on the beach. We watched the sun set, and then headed back to the SUV. The drive back up to the park was faster - only about an hour this time. When we got home, the PHD student made dinner. Then everybody went to sleep. It was a fantastic day. I hope I get to go there again before I leave and wish i had camping gear so i could stay overnight. oh well.

Anyway, here is a slideshow of some of the photos I took. Hope they add some sun to your cold February.

*warm hugs from Costa Rica*
<3 <3 Dayna

orthopteran from hell

My day was a lot better today. We went to the beach and it was a) completely empty, b) beautiful, and c) so fun. I'm pretty tired from the long day so i'll tell you all about it and post beachey photos tomorrow.

Today, you get a photo of a giant grasshopper type bug. I have never seen a bug this big before in real life - it is hard to tell in the photo, but this mutant was literally the size of my hand. It totally creeped me out because when i went to take the photo, it spazzed out and flew up and hit me right in the forehead. It had giant flappy wings and really spikey legs. blech! I ran away like a total girlie girl but then thought of all you bloggies and overcame my creepies to take the picture.




I want to go back to the beach.
<3 <3
Dayna

bad day

today sucked. I got up early (4:30am) so I could get to Exclosure's sleeping tree before sunrise. When I was nearly there, I saw monkeys on the road. Before I was able to ID them, they started going crazy and making intense vocal threats at something in the distance. Then they took off at top speed. I was able to keep up with them until they stopped in a big fig tree for breakfast. It was only then that I realized that all of the monkeys looked like strangers to me. It turns out that I arrived at the sleep tree just as two different monkey groups had an encounter. I ended up chasing a group that we don't study. :(

I spent the whole morning looking for Exclosure but never did find them. I feel like a failure for chasing the wrong group and losing our monkeys. I don't want to let the PHD student down. sigh. After lunch, there was no point in searching for monkeys since tomorrow is my day off. Instead, i took my machete to do some trail maintenance. After about half an hour of cleaning trails, I came across the Guanacaste group but there was no point in following them because it was already starting to get dark. I cleaned trails for a bit and them started back for the dorms. When I was almost home, I tripped on barbed wire and landed flat on my face - ripping the leg of my field pants. Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the beach (I kind of forgot that Costa Rica has beaches since I spend so much time in the trees). anyway, I hope it turns out better than today.

somebody give me a hug.
Day

stove mice

So um...yeah. Mice in our stove. This place is starting to remind me of home.




It got very hot underneath that little stove but you will be happy to know that no mice were harmed in the making of this movie. Even though I wanted to kill them, i didn't. After i finished shooting this movie, I helped them to climb onto a stick and set them gently in the leaves.

Interesting fact - in December, the PHD student found a boa constrictor under the stove. Probably because it is such a great place for mice (aka snacks).

nom nom nom
Day

monkeying around

here is a little video of a big monkey play session. This group (Guanacaste) has a lot of juveniles in it so big play sessions are apparently pretty common. I haven't seen much playing in my other two groups yet.
It was super fun to stand in the middle of these guys and watch their crazy games - at the time there were probably 5 other monkeys playing just outside the range of my camera. Sorry that the video kind of sucks. Its hard to know when something cool is going to happen and have my camera ready...

anyways..



xoxox
Dayna


P.S. I finished my book today. It was Kurt Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titan". I enjoyed it immensely and I totally heart Kurt Vonnegut's writing. Him and Douglas Copeland are my current favorites.

P.S.2. I have the day off today. If I am feeling really adventurous, I may hike to a place I heard about called Boulder Valley. It is pretty far, but it sounds really cool.

cheeky monkeys

So I have spent the last 2 days learning IDs for a new monkey group. The group's name is Guanacaste and most of the monkeys are named after the Harry Potter books. This group is awesome!! For one thing, it is the biggest group so there is always something going on. Also, this group has been studied a lot. So they monkeys are very used to people and are not shy at all. That means they spend lots of time close to the ground where it is easy for us to see them. They are also kind of cheeky. In fact, ONE OF THE MONKEYS TOUCHED ME TODAY!!!! This isn't really a good thing - because it could cause problems when this monkey is big... but thankfully this group only has contact with the researchers that study them and don't ever see tourists. Hopefully things will turn out ok.

Anyway, here's what happened. I was standing beside a small tree, and a juvenile male named Pigwidgeon (I think) came up behind me. When I realized he was there, I turned around and he was right in front of my face. He looked at me closely, and then touched the blue glass plug in my ear. Then he touched the top of my glasses, and then my labret on my bottom lip. Then i laughed and he ran away. It was crazy to have the little guy so close - apparently he likes my sparkly jewelry. I won't encourage this kind of behaviour or anything, but it totally made my day today that a monkey came so close to me.

Here is a photo of the little stinker. He's cute huh? He was close enough for me to reach out and touch when I took this photo today.



Here are some interesting and fun facts about capuchin monkeys that i'll bet you didn't know!

1. Up close, capuchins sometimes smell a little bit like B.O. !


2. Capuchin penises are flared at the end. Like the bell of a trumpet.


3. Capuchins regularly do this thing called urine washing. It's when they pee on their hands and then rub the pee all over their hands and feet. We aren't sure what function this serves yet. And yes, I am aware that Pigwidgeon may have touched me with pee-hands. I don't care.


4. When capuchins are friends, they engage in "hand sniffing". It's when one capuchin takes the hand of his/her friend and sniffs it deeply for two or three minutes. Sometimes they will even put the fingers right up their nostrils and sniff them!


5. Capuchins regularly throw-up for no reason! They make the funniest little puking noises. They are cute and disgusting at the same time!

Ok. Im going to go watch Archer now. Its the best cartoon since Frisky Dingo. Download it and laugh your sack off.
<3 <3 <3
Dayna

toilet-camera

I spent the last two days doing 13-hour monkey follows... so my day off is feeling very good right now. The work days went really well - I ended up getting a lot of data and feel pretty good about going into the field all by myself. The PHD student even told me that I did a good job (go me!).

I think I mentioned it before - but for the last couple days I was following the Exclosure group. This is the very first group that I started learning when I first came to Santa Rosa. At first, I found it difficult to tell the individual monkeys apart. I wasn't sure of what to look for and had trouble even telling the males from the females. Well, those days are gone. The PHD student told me that with more and more experience, it will just get easier to ID the monkeys and that's totally what happened when I came back to this group this month. Everybody looked so distinct. I must be a true researcher now. I was going to introduce you to the monkeys in the group, but I wasn't able to get photos of them all yet. I will try next month. (I am totally aware that my monkey blog needs more monkey photos. Its just really hard to get a good picture - the little buggers don't sit still. )
:(

Instead, here is a little video I just took in the bathroom. And no, its not a video of my butt.






XOXOXOX
Dayna

hot monkey love

So I finally found the monkeys today! I had a really good day collecting data and I saw monkey sex too! woo!

Capuchins behave really strangely when they mate. The hanky-panky started in the hottest part of the day. We were all lying in the sun and then Artemis (the alpha male with a girl's name) sat up. The female Electra jumped down from a branch, and just like that they went at it. Then after he was done, they both took off running at top speed. I jumped up and followed them because they were the only monkeys that were currently in my view (and losing the monkeys SUCKS). When I caught up to them, they were sqwaking and twittering at each other up high in the trees. Electra was being a bit of a tease. Every time Artemis would sit down, she would come close and get him all riled up. Then when he went to mount her, she would scream bloody murder and run away. This continued on for like two hours. Finally, they ran back to the group and ate some bromeliads. It was all backwards since the actual monkey-love happened right at the start. I would have gotten it on video for you all but sadly I forgot to bring my camera into the field today. next time!

well i need to go because I have to leave the dorm at 5am to get to the sleep tree before the sun comes up. Nite nite!

zzzzzzz....
Day

j-dogg

today is my day off. It has started off well.

• I slept in until about 8:30 and had a decent sleep with minimal tossing and turning.
  
• I got up, made myself a coffee, and read my book in the hammock in the sun.
  
• I made pretty much the world's most perfect omelette. leftover chicken, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and hotsauce. mmm.
  
• I ate the world most perfect omelette
  
• Now i am sitting in the sun writing this blog.
  

I think my next plan will be to walk the 100m over to the cafeteria and buy myself a delicious cane-sugar sweetened Coca-Cola Lite. Then I will drink it. That's as far as I have gotten with my plan so far.

Since my search for monkeys yesterday turned up a whole lot of FAIL, tonight I get to go and check out sleeping trees before dark to see if they stop there. I am looking for the tiny group of capuchins that is named after the greek gods and goddesses - Excolsure. I hope I find them so i can start collecting data tomorrow.

My awesome parents sent me a care package with new footy insoles in them (thank you guys!!). It arrived yesterday. Along with the insoles, they sent some jelly bellys, and some nice lotions to pamper my achey feet. It was sooo nice to get a package from home. If getting mail here wasn't such a pain in the arse, I would demand that you all follow my parent's fine example and send me letters, love notes, candy, and treats. Too bad it takes forever for things to arrive and there isn't actual mail delivery out here very often. Anyway, I currently have 3 pairs of insoles in my boots and I hope they make monkey/data days a little easier on my feets.

In closing, look at this crazy J-Dogg gear shifter I saw in a car while on holidays! This guy will never get in a car accident with that thing keeping him safe.



*love and kisses*
Dayna

fire-mouth

So dinner last night was great. The food and wine were sooo tasty and it was great to have new people at the dorm for the evening. The other PHD student's dad brought his wife as well as his brother, and his brother's wife along with him for the trip. The four of them took such good care of us - they brought the feast, cooked it, cleaned up, and then just like that - they were gone. It was such a treat to have them around.

Also, I realized what a small fricken world it is with their visit. It turns out that the dad's brother has worked with my Uncle Dave for something like 40 years. wtf? I come all the way out to the jungle and meet somebody that not only comes from the city I grew up in, but knows the family that I spent my whole childhood growing up with (Atkinsons - this means you guys). We were all pretty flabbergasted when we found this out. We laughed and all took photos together, and then they hugged me when it was time to go. :D

In other news, this is my new favorite thing:

1x tomato

1x onion

1/2 a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

- blend in the blender.

- eat with tortilla chips.

it is sooo good. be careful though - the heat from the chipotle peppers starts off sweet and then sneaks up on you. I ate too many too quick and nearly burnt my face off. (And I can take a lot of hot). Its soooo good!

ok that's it for now!!

<3 Day

p.s. I walked for 2 days straight and didn't find my monkey group. boo.

yellow

today is a search day. I spent the entire morning walking around, looking for a particular group of monkeys. The bad news: I haven't found them yet. The good news: I got to go back to the dorms for lunch and stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day. I think I have gotten a bit of sun already. My face feels very hot. :(

Right now, the weather keeps getting hotter and hotter and the forest floor is completely covered with fallen leaves. I usually associate bare trees and fallen leaves with approaching cold weather. Its really strange to me that it is scorching hot out. The forest looks very dead and brown, but there is still beauty to be found here. Today I came across a pretty sight. Amongst the bare trees, i found one tree that had no leaves, but was blooming with pretty yellow flowers. The heat had caused many of the flowers to fall off the tree - and the forest floor had the bright yellow blossoms mixed in with the fallen leaves. nice huh?

I love finding cool things in the forest. Today I also found a turtle shell! But no turtle. :|


Tonight we are getting a gourmet dinner! There is another PHD student at U of Calgary who studies capuchin color vision. She isn't in Costa Rica right now, but her father has a condo here. Today, her dad came by and brought us roasted chickens, french bread, and WINE! They are going to have a feast waiting for us when we return from the field. How awesomely nice is that?! I'm gonna drink a single glass of wine and get totally TRASHED! Its gonna be awesome.

I'll let you know how the dinner is!! Taa for now.
xoxoxox
Day