last day in costa rica!

So i know I have been super slacking at blogging lately. i'm sorry!!! I have just been really busy with wrapping up the field season and preparing to go home.

since I have blogged I have finished going out into the field, i have done a bunch of data cleaning, the PHD student helped me with my analysis for my project (I could have never done it on my own), and i am now packing to leave!

Today I leave Santa Rosa! I am going to stay at a hotel for my last night because my plane leaves at 7am tomorrow. I can't believe that 5 months has passed by already. Tomorrow I will get to see my family and my house and my dog Neko! I need to finish the paper for my final research project, look for work (anybody have a job they want to give me?) and prepare for my sweetheart to visit me (the best part)!

I still need to put up some photos for you to see, but i think that my blogging will be coming to an end really soon - well, at least until the next time I travel. I can't imagine that my blogs from calgary would be very exciting or original to read anyway hehe. "omg it snowed today. i hate this city! blah blah"

So this experience has overall been a great one. I am so glad I did this. I learned so much while I was here and I made some cool friends. The PHD student even said that if I don't get into vet school (fingers crossed) he would be happy to have me come back for his next monkey season. who knows what will happen!

So to finish off this little post, here is a list for you.

Things I will miss about Santa Rosa:

• being able to watch the monkeys and keep up with what is going on in their sweet little lives. Its cool to know about all the latest monkey drama, and I love watching the little babies learn and grow.


• I like being surrounded by amazingly smart people. Everybody here is way smarter than me and i can learn so much from them! Its really different from my old life - most people at my old job are barely even literate (yeah, i said it!)


• I love being in the middle of nature. The forest is always changing - each month I see new plants, new animals, and things just look different. There is always something amazing to discover


• The people who live and work here in the park. I have gotten to know some really cool peeps over the last few months. Costa Ricans are good people

Things I can't wait to leave in Santa Rosa:

• the bug bites. After 5 months, i am still covered


• being wet all the time. either I am sweaty because of the heat and humidity, or I am drenched because of the rain. I am looking forward to a nice calgary summer


• cockroaches! since the rains came, there has been a roach explosion! They crawl all over everything. Last night in my bedroom, I killed TWELVE of them. I know roaches are just another insect, but they make everything seem even dirtier. I hate it.


• the long days. i don't know if i ever mentioned my work schedule so here it is: 2 days of work, followed by 1 day off. Work days consist of waking up at 4am, walking for 30-45 minutes, following monkeys from sunrise to sunset, walking for 30-45 minutes, shower, eat, sleep, repeat. After 5 months of this, a standard 8 hour work day is gonna be a snap!

I think that's it for now. I will blog more from my hotel if I can.
Thanks for reading, friends! It has really been a pleasure sharing this blog with all of you.
xoxox
Dayna

CHOMP

check out the chompers on this huge beetle!

playa samara

ok. so here are my photos from my vacation to samara. There aren't very many - mostly just ones of my hotel and the beach during a storm. Hope you like em. It really was beautiful there.

LV is mean

So yesterday I was hangin out with LV. They decided to go through Quebrada Duende - a really rocky stream that is in a deep valley. I was stepping on the rocks while trying to keep up with them when one of the rocks rolled out from under my foot. I fell down, scraping my entire arm along a tree and hitting my head. My fall ended up scaring the monkeys who were on the ground right beside me when I fell. They all jumped into the trees and started threatening me while I was still dazed and laying in the dirt.

I was sad. I said to them "You guys don't be so mean! I am hurt!!" but they didn't care. They made their mean faces and shook branches at me to let me know not to do that again. No sympathy I tell you.

My arm still stings. Check out the huge scrape.



oh- and I didn't get that many photos of Playa Samara but I promise I will post them soon.
<3 <3

Happy Birthday Neko

Today is my dog's 5th birthday. I miss her like crazy. Only 17 more sleeps till I see her.
Happy Birthday Neko. I love you.

howler

so yesterday when I came out of my hotel room in the morning, I was shocked to find a young howler monkey right in front of me. it was literally at my doorstep. When he saw me, he went down the stairs, and sat on top of the hotel owner's head! I was fascinated cause I have never seen a howler that close up before... but I was also a little saddened cause it really isn't good for monkeys to be so close to people cause tourists often behave stupidly and can put them in danger.

She explained to me about this howler (whose name is Chicho) - his mom was raised by the previous owners of the hotel. The little monkey family is still wild, but they will come down from the trees and hang out with the hotel owners. As she told me this, I had so many conflicting emotions. I wanted to tell her that primates shouldn't be raised as pets, but at the exact same time, I wanted that little howler to come and sit on my shoulders.

I think I am probably a terrible primatologist. I love learning about primates, but i find myself wanting to reach out and touch them all the time. this is bad. I also am always petting the stray animals I find on the street - even when they are gross. I want to take them all in and clean them up, feed them, neuter/spay them, get rid of their parasites, and send them on their way. Someday, when I am a vet I would like to do this.

Last night i was eating at this little open-air restaurant when it started to rain. A crazy downpour. This skinny stray dog kept trying to sit under the roof to get out of the rain but the waitresses kept shooing him away. When they weren't looking, he came and sat by my feet. I petted him and gave him the leftover crusts of my pizza. he was sooo happy to have somebody pet him. He sat his head on my knee and nudged my hand each time I stopped rubbing his ears. I paid the bill and left and he followed me the whole way back to my hotel. The poor little guy just wanted somebody to love him. It broke my heart.

I wish i could fix all the broken and unloved animals. anyway, here is a video of the howlers by my hotel. Cute little gremlins huh?

ow

interesting developments.
so remember how I got burned by the burn vine a little while ago? well today i woke up with a bunch of patches of skin that look and feel exactly like that. The thing is, i haven't come in contact with any plants (or anything i can think of) at all.

A friend of mine said that he knows somebody who developed a rash like this from tainted food? perhaps my delicious sushi dinner wasn't so delicious after all. I noticed the burning feeling on my chest just a little while after I ate last night.
hopefully more spots don't develop.

this is dumb. im already scabby enough with the bug bites. I don't need burns on my face, neck, and chest to go with them.
im having TWO drinks tonight AND desert to make myself feel better.

im going to go take photos, look in the shops, and find someplace to eat. i'll blog more later.
xoxo
Day

Vacation post #2

So I made it to Playa Samara without any problems. The reason is because Ronnie, our driver, convinced me to let him drive me the whole way there instead of just to the bus station. He needed the money, and I didn't feel like dealing with the confusion of changing busses in spanish. He gave me a deal and I got to enjoy the 3 hour drive in the comfort of his nice clean Toyota Corolla. :)

So this place is great. The beach is beautiful, there are lots of friendly people, english is pretty common, and the place that i'm staying is great! I chose a little bed and breakfast just a little ways off the beach. There are 7 rooms in a kind of jungle swiss chalet type of building. The building is surrounded by a beautiful garden, an open area with tables and chairs to eat the free delicious breakfasts, a relaxing area with hammocks and chairs, and a nice blue swimming pool! There's free internet, and the owners have 2 awesome giant dogs that lie around all day long. The price is good too. I have taken a bunch of photos and will make a slideshow for you soon.

Last night, I went exploring for a little while and tried to find a place to eat dinner. It is the off-season right now, so a lot of the places were closed. I ended up finding an empty restaurant right on the beach. The staff treated me really nice cause I was their only customer all night. I chose a table that was right on the edge of the sand. I could hear the surf crashing on the shore as i relaxed in the refreshing evening breeze. I had some really interesting sushi for dinner - a "samara special roll" which had tuna, green onions, and avocado - all deep fried so that the roll had a crispy shell. I also had a "special spicy tuna roll" which was a tuna roll wrapped in thin strips of cucumber and came with a special spicy sauce. I also had a couple of drinks to celebrate my vacation - i wanted a mojito but they didn't make them there...so i settled for gin and cranberry... my old favorite. here and here are 2 photos of my nice dinner.

I will write more about this place (howler monkeys) later today and I will get some pictures uploaded as well. Right now I am forcing myself to work on my literature review for a little while (yes, i know. homework on vacation SUCKS!). If I do well, then I will go to the beach.

wishing my sweetie was here,
Dayna

vacation post #1

So I decided to start this vacation off right!

While I wait for Ronnie to come and take me to the bus station, I made a delicious breakfast bagel with egg, cheese, turkey, avocado, tomato, and a bit of mayo! And a yummy costa rican coffee to go with it. The bagels are thanks to my sweetheart who brought me 2 dozen when he came to visit. ( <3 )

i kick ass at breakfast!
nom nom nom

final holiday

So today is the start of my last holiday. I know what you're thinking... "didn't you just go on a holiday?". The answer is yes, but the PHD student bumped this one up because we leave at the end of the month. I have decided to go to Playa Samara - a nice little beach town down the peninsula. I really just want to relax with my sweetheart, but since he has gone home (sniff) I plan to just relax in the sun, lie by the pool/on the beach, work on some school stuff I need to complete, and enjoy being away from the noisy dorms (i'll write a little more about the new peeps that are here while I vacay).

Anyway, I need to get up so I can go catch the bus and make my way to Samara! i have already decided where to stay and I will blog lots while I am there. I PROMISE!

xoxox
Day

oso m hormiguero

So the other day I was walking to the monkeys and I found this bird researcher on the side of the road. I said hi and he pointed out that there was a really cool anteater in the bushes. We watched it for a second and ooh'd and ahh'd at how it nommed ants from off a tree.

Then, i remembered my camera! I was able to get 12 seconds of footage before it walked into the bushes. Check it out. Now I just need to see a sea turtle, and a puma. Then my list will be complete i think!

oso m hormiguero means "anteater" in spanish.

Monkey drama!

So MAJOR dramz in monkeyland! I have been working with the Guanacaste group (the harry potter group) for the past few days and crazy things have been happening.

Some background info: Guanacaste is led by Babaganouj - the most badass monkey in the jungle. He's big, and he's tough, and he is a good protector. He is always scouting for danger and ready to fight any other monkeys who threaten his family. I love him. Back in the day, BabaG used to be the alpha for LV (the food group). Guanacaste is a better group (more females) and apparently about 6 years ago, BabaG decided to take over Guanacaste and kick out the alpha in charge at the time. Marmite - another male in LV came along with him.

Well last month, BabaG disappeared. We weren't sure what had happened to him - but we assumed that he probably got into a fight and died from his wounds (its a rough life for an adult male capuchin). He had had a previous injury and wasn't using his left arm at the time that he disappeared - we assumed the worst after there were no signs of him for weeks. In the meantime, Marmite had assumed the alpha role and spent much of his days at the centre of the group - bonding with the females by acting like a dick - aka threatining us researchers.

When a new male takes over a capuchin group it is very common for him to kill any babies he finds. The theory behind this behaviour is that by killing any babies that aren't his, the new male will free up the females so he can mate with them sooner - and by doing this he increases his own reproductive success. There are quite a few babies in Guanacaste right now - Seamus, Selkie, and Hufflepuff are all young monkeys who are at risk, and Mrs Weasley is about to have a baby any day now. Sadly, Luna was pregnant the last time we saw her - but yesterday when we saw her she was no longer pregnant and her baby was not on her back (dead). Marmite is most likely the culprit.

Anyway, 2 days ago - the PHD student was searching for the monkeys and he found Marmite all by himself. He was injured and had puncture wounds on each of his thighs. Then yesterday when I was with Guanacaste, I tried to see if a new male had come in and given Marmite the boot - but it appeared that they didn't have a big male with them at all (which is a reason they had so much trouble finding a sleep tree last night - there was nobody to lead them). This morning I was searching for the monkeys again and guess who I found - BabaG!!!! I was sooo happy to see him! Sadly, he looked like he got messed up. He isn't using his back left leg, and he has a gigantic wound on his hip that looks old - but still painful. He was all by himself today but I imagine that he is the one who kicked out Marmite. Soon he will make his triumphant return. Hopefully he will be back before Mrs. Weasley has her baby because it is at risk without his protection.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens. I am totally cheering for BabaG.

the end.

bleh

Today was a terrible monkey day. Boo.

• the monkeys traveled all day long and I didn't get to sit down for more than 5 minutes all day.


• We were expecting to find new babies today but it looks like Luna's baby died. She is no longer pregnant and her baby was not on her back. poor little baby


• at the end of the day, i had 4 bees fly into my hair - one after another. I squished them and pulled them out - along with a whole bunch of my hair. Losing hair makes me feel stressy. :(


• the monkeys stayed in the middle of nowhere until about 10 minutes to sundown. Then they started running at top speed through the forest in no particular direction. Usually they are all in their sleep tree by 6pm. Today, they were still in the middle of nowhere at 6:20 - and it was so dark outside by that time that I lost them. now I don't know where to go to find them tomorrow morning.


• to top it all off, after I lost the monkeys - I had to walk through really crappy forest for a while until I got back to the trails. In complete darkness. I ended up bumping into a few acacia trees - a species which is home to really aggressive and bitey ants. I got bit on my shoulder a few times.


• when I finally got home - an hour later than usual, i sat down to eat my (now cold) dinner and found a giant junebug in my potatoes. lost my appetite.

I hope tomorrow goes better.
Day

monkeyschool

So I don't usually do this, but I think its time to toot my own horn a little.

Today I checked the university website to see if my grades were up - and they were. It turns out I kicked ass in almost every class. This year has been the best I have ever done academically in my life and I feel pretty proud of myself.
I think this GPA is even good enough for vet school - so my hopes are very high that I get accepted.

Anyway, click here to see how i did. Go me!

that's right, i rule.
hehe
Dayna

randoms

ok. so just a couple of randoms before I go to sleep.

• there are new people here! Another PHD student and her 2 field assistants arrived yesterday. They all seem pretty nice so far but i've been working so much I haven't had time to chat with them a lot yet. Its nice to have new peeps. It is even nicer that they didn't ask me to start sharing a room with the other field assistant! I was worried about that a lot (i need my space) when I found out that new people were arriving.


• the rains seem to have cleared up for now. This is nice because a: i can now do laundry again and not have to worry about clothes not drying and smelling all mildewy, b: the humidity has dropped again. Unfortunately, we got enough rain to cause an insect explosion. There are now junebugs everywhere! These big stupid beetles fly around and either buzz in your ear, land on your clothes, or bonk you in the forehead while you are minding your own business. They are annoying. Even worse - there are nasty fast cockroaches everywhere. They crawl all over our dishes and it really bugs me. Slow giant roaches are tolerable, but the little fast plentiful ones gross me out.


• Now that my sweetheart has gone home, it feels like an important piece of my heart is missing. This combined with the repeated long days and the millions of bugs is getting to me a bit. I am SO ready to finish up this field season and return to Canada. I even bumped up my return flight a few days to June 1 (thanks mom!!). I can't wait. Less than a month to go.

that's it!
xox
Day

rat balls

So yeah. 3 blogs in 1 night. I am trying to make up for missing so many blogs lately. Also, there have been tonns of animals/creepy crawlies around lately so I have lots to write about. (coming soon - frogs, pretty bugs, and skulls!)

Anyway - last night the other field assistant let out a little scream when she was going to her room after dinner. I came over and saw what was causing the fuss. A big ugly rat type thing sitting in front of her door (fyi - we put duct tape along the bottoms of our doors to keep the bugs from coming in). I immediately ran to get my camera and got in 2 good photos before it ran under the fridge.

Isn't this thing ugly?! And look at the size of its balls! Obscene!
Ooh - that reminds me. I recently got a photo of the best balls in the jungle. The huge shiny howler balls. I need to post those soon too. Or perhaps I should save up all my ball photos and just do an animal-nut photo slideshow. Yeah. that's what i'll do. it'll be epic.

hehe balls.

giant stick

Today I was watching Velveeta while she was foraging for insects and I noticed this HUGE stick bug right in front of her. The bug sat very still and she didn't even notice it. After she moved away, I picked it up and took a video of it. Then, I thought for a second about putting it in a place where a monkey could see it (and eat it) but then I decided that it deserves to live since it was literally right in front of a monkey and escaped detection. nice work stick bug!

whip scorpion on mah pants

So this morning, I was in the forest with the monkeys and the mosquitos were getting bad. I put down my bad to get my bug spray - and check out what I found sitting on my leg!

A tail-less whip scorpion. I quickly got out my camera and took some pics and then swatted at it to get it offa me. It tried to run down my leg into my polina, but i flicked it to the ground. Then I stomped on it for trying to go in my pants and being all fast and creepy.

Tailless whip scorpions are UGLY! but they are totally harmless.

xox
Day

new baby!

CHUTNEY HAD HER BABY AND I FOUND IT TODAY!!!!!

Isn't it cute?!? Now I have to figure out if it is a boy or a girl and think of a good name. (LV is the foods/sauces group but some of the names I wanted (wasabi) have already been taken).

Interesting fact: Baby capuchins are all grey when they are first born. It takes a couple of weeks for their white faces to grow in.

how to ruin the internet

So the internet has been down for the last 5 days and that is (one of the reasons) why I haven't been able to post. The reason it was down was my fault. oops.

here's the story. So while I have been in Santa Rosa, I have gotten into the habit of downloading movies off of torrent sites. Everybody here does it. I like watching movies on my nights off. However, Paramount Pictures decided to crack down and spaz out a little. Apparently they weren't too happy that I downloaded the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" which came out in theatres a little while ago. They ended up writing a letter to the internet service provider (ISP) here demanding that they do something about the illegal downloads. The ISP wrote the Santa Rosa people a letter informing them that somebody at the park was downloading illegal movies and shut off the net till the Santa Rosa people sent a response. The Santa Rosa people sent everybody at the park a little message about how it is bad to download movies...and the PHD student told us at the dorms. I fessed up that I was the one who stole How to Train Your Dragon and promised that I wouldn't do it again. Nobody was mad, i wasn't in trouble (cause again, EVERYBODY does it).

This all happened right before the weekend. So the ISP didn't get the "we're sorry, we won't download movies anymore" letter until monday morning. Anyway, the nets are back up and running, and I have made a few blog posts to catch up for lost time.

Anyway, I would probably die without internet so i am not going to download any more movies.

Random thought: imagine if it was porn that caused all the fuss? I don't download porn, but if I did - that sure would be embarassing!

glad to be back.
xoxox
Dayna

P.S. my sweetheart left today. i was a crying snotting mess at the airport and i already miss him like crazy.

policia

So I have always had a bit of a lead foot. I can't help it. I drive fast. Its just the way I am and I can't possibly change at this point.
While we were on vacation, the sweetheart and I were zipping along in our rental car on the way to Santa Rosa. The speed limit signs are painted on the road here - which is something I find a little weird. I also find them difficult to notice. Anyway, I was doing about 100kph in an 80kph zone and we got stopped by the police. The cop didn't speak much english at all but asked where we were going and to see my passport and driver's licence. I told him that we were headed to the park, and handed over the documents. Then he went across the street and had a conversation with the other cop doing the radar gun. I overheard "Canada" a couple times in their conversation, but didn't catch the rest. When he came back, I thought for sure that he would give me a ticket... after all, i'm a touristey looking white person. Instead, he just told me that the speed limit was 80, and told me to drive slower. I can't believe my amazing luck.

My sweetheart said that if it was him at the wheel, we would have gotten a ticket for sure; he's a guy, he's an american, and he isn't nearly as good at making sad little puppy dog eyes as I am. Good thing I was at the wheel!

anyway, I drive a nice slow 95kph for the rest of the drive to the park (kidding!)

vroom vroom vroom
Day

praystation

Every time we drive from Santa Rosa to Liberia, we pass this strange structure that I have always been curious about. So, while my sweetheart and I were on vacation, we stopped stopped the car and and checked it out. So it turns out that this little building is some sort of roadside pray-station. At least that's what I think. There's a little tiny mary statue inside. I know that central america is uber christian, but this thing is literally in the middle of nowhere! I don't get it! Are people so eager to praise jeebus that they need to stop the car on the side of the highway? I would think that maybe something important happened in this spot - except there is no writing or signage anywhere. Its just so random!

Well, we didn't pray but I did take some photos which turned out kinda neat.

dumbest product ever

ok. so i was shopping at the grocery store the other day and I saw a product that made me lol.
CARROT TAN! hahaha

isn't it a bad thing when you tan so much that you look orange? I mean, who would actually want to buy and use this product? The people at the grocery store must have thought I was insane cause I was taking pictures and laughing to myself.

Also, Carrot tan costs the equivalent of about 12 american dollars. That's one expensive orange tan!