Adventures in Costa Rica - Coffee Research Part 2

after nearly nine months of planning and coordination, i arrived in costa rica to begin the second phase of field work for my doctoral dissertation. every time i arrive in this country, something inside me releases. you can’t help but slide down in your seat a little further, smile a little easier, relax a bit more. i had a car pick me up from the airport in san jose since i was carrying all my bags of equipment (which probably is a main contributor to the relaxing rather than trying to navigate the bus system). we listened to american 80s rock music that i hadn’t heard in ages – like nights in white satin (i just realized now as writing that it is not “knights in white satin” – i had a completely different storyline in my head for that song), when the going gets tough the touch gets going, all night. the driver didn’t speak english, but he whistled great harmonies to most of the songs for our 2 drive through the mountains from san jose to turriabla.

my research here will be the same concept as in india – assessing mammal biodiversity in coffee farms and surrounding areas, but with much bigger sites and a lot fewer of them. there will be 242 small mammal traps per site and only 3 sites, but each of them are 500 m by 500m…that means hiking about 5 miles a day. i thought that there were between 400 and 500 traps here ready for me to use. i knew there was a chance that we wouldn’t have all 500 here, so i had my field assistants, who are arriving a couple of days after me, stash 20 traps each in case i needed them to bring them. we need 484 traps (to be exact) because we need enough for 2 sites – 1 set in use in the field, the other to be cleaned and ready for the next site - but there are only 305 here. fortunately, i was able to find internet access and send an email to my assistants to bring their traps, but that still leaves us short by about 100 traps. i’ll have to figure that one out somehow.

the living conditions for this research are quite nice. we have rented a house on the campus of a local university that we will be working with. i was under the impression that it was all set up and i could move in immediately, but there were some issues with me technically being a student, but not a student at their university. the campus has separate housing for students, faculty, and visiting researchers. the house can only be rented to visiting researchers not students. luckily, i was able to meet with the powers that be and convince them that my status while here is that of a “visiting researcher” and not a “student.” thankfully, they let me move in!

the house is rustic, but spacious. it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, office, screened in porch, and kitchen. it is layout will be nice since my field assistants and i will be working together 6 days a week and living together; we will probably want some alone time. the house has filtered water and warm showers, which beats bucket baths in india. the only issue, the kitchen does not have a refrigerator. i am not sure what do about that one. that means no dairy, no juice, and no making extra food for the next day. in india, i was told that you can boil everything 3 times and then it is spoiled. peanut butter is generally a good non-refrigeration option for sustenance and protein, but we bait the traps every day with a mixture of peanut butter, seeds, and fruit. after a while, peanut butter starts to remind you of mice and rats and just isn’t as appetizing anymore.

my three undergraduate field assistants arrive tomorrow morning. i am excited to witness their reactions and impressions of this beautiful country and have some company in this big house!