Little Cayman Pictures!

Long overdue, I know, and there will be a wrap-up post soon!

Huh

Is it just me, or is weird that (1) snow and cold did not come to the northeast until after all of us FSPers had left the country, and (2) it's supposed to get warm tomorrow, the day we get back, even though it has been cold for so long? I mean, it's 0 degrees in Hanover right now, with a high of 29 for today, but I just looked at the forcast for the rest of the week, and tomorrow is supposed to be 44, and then in the 40s and 50s for the rest of the week! Very strange.

Day 61: Little Cayman

We're leaving on Saturday. However, we're really leaving Friday afternoon, because we're taking a boat over to Cayman Brac so that we don't miss our flight (at 6 am) due to poor weather conditions.

This means that before Friday I need to:

• Finish the Bullet Ant paper from La Selva
• Completely rewrite the Corky Sea Finger paper (ouch)
• Help the TAs edit a paper on Diel Patterns in Fish Behavior
• Finish the Fanworm project and write it up

And . . . all of those papers have to be absolutely finalized. Yikes.

Day 60: Little Cayman

An update has been requested, but this is going to be a short one. I'm really tired (Sea + Salt + Sand + Sun + Swimming = Sleepy), and I think I might be fighting off something, I haven't felt quite right for a couple of days now. It's still fantastic here, though! I jumped on to a project studying fanworms (not as cool as my Beaugregories, but they'll do). Hopefully it will go well, and we'll find some neat trends. The weather is supposed to get pretty rough starting tomorrow, and the wind is already much stronger than it has been. Apparently the front that just dumped a bunch of snow on you guys has made it's way south, and is going to give us a tough time for a while. Hopefully it won't affect our travel back to the States too much, since we're leaving next Saturday. So soon! I love it here, but at the same time I'm starting to feel ready to be home. I've been away from my friends and family for a long time, and I miss people. However, there's still a lot of work that needs to be finished up this week.

And

Another project falls apart. Sigh.

Not going to lie, I'm pretty depressed about it.

Day 58: Little Cayman

My biggest regret of the FSP is that I didn't do a project on the Montezuma Oropendolas at La Selva. I loved them, but I got intimidated at the thought of doing a project by myself. Data collection doesn't sound so bad, but writing an entire paper by myself seemed scary.

However, this is our last project on the FSP, and we have 5 full days devoted to working on it. I've enjoyed some of the projects I've done here on FSP, but I haven't felt extremely passionate about any of them, and only one of them has really felt like "mine." I'm sick of having my name last on every paper because I'm not willing to fight to have it higher.

So I'm plunging ahead and doing a project on Beaugregory juveniles, even though I'm probably going to be by myself. I know it's going to be frustrating, and a lot of work, but I'm hoping it will also be a rewarding experience.

Day 57: Little Cayman

Today was our day off!

This morning we went to the Red-footed Booby pond and watched the boobies and Frigatebirds roost in the trees and fly around. The boobies have fantastically red feet. Then we got ice cream (at 10 in the morning), one scoop of chocolate chili and one scoop of coconut rum for me. Mmmmm homemade ice cream (with maybe possibly real rum, I think, so not only was I eating ice cream before noon, but consuming alcohol as well. Gasp!).

This afternoon some of us went scuba diving. We went off of the beach (instead of off of a boat, like we have the other times). It was fantastic. We swam through a short tunnel, which was a little scary but at the same time amazing and fun, and saw lots of stingrays and two spotted eagle rays and the lovely little fairy basslets, and one of my favorites, the bridled goby. At least, I know they're gobies of some sort, and I think they're the bridled variety. I love love LOVE scuba diving. I hope to be able to do it a lot more.

Sort-of-but-not-really on that topic, I met a young woman here who works on Grand Cayman for an organization called Ambassadors of the Environment, which sounds like a really neat program. She works at the Ritz-Carlton, which hosts the program, and said it's basically teaching kids about the environment and bringing them snorkeling. Here's a quick description from a website about the Ritz-Carlton:

"Ambassador of the Environment by Jean-Michel Cousteau introduces young people to the natural wonders and rich cultural traditions of the Cayman Islands. The islands' ecological resources become a natural classroom and living laboratory in which kids, teenagers and even their parents will learn while having so much fun that they'll never imagine that it's educational.

Each day, the Ambassadors program will be dedicated to a different aspect of Grand Cayman. Active study and eco-excursions will take children on journeys of discovery centered on four areas: Coral Reefs, Mangroves, Wetlands, Woodlands & Wildlife and Caymanian Life & Traditions."

Anyway, there are many such programs in other places (e.g., Hawaii), and she mentioned that they're almost always looking to hire people, and I am graduating in a few months . . .

Day 56: Little Cayman, and other things

Group Picture from Costa Rica

Tomorrow we have . . . a day off. A WHOLE day off, no lectures, no 4 hour hikes, no mandatory anything. The very first (and last) day off of the whole FSP. Wheee.

We turned in our first paper from here today, about the corky sea finger, a soft coral species. It was a pretty good project. Now I'm in the process of trying to pick a topic for the next one, which is also the last one. In 10 days, I'll be heading home. I think it will probably go pretty quickly.

I'm going to be sad to leave here. The marine life is so amazing. There are these adorable fish that are yellow with a blue-purple back (juvenile Beaugregories), who swim up and look at you when you're snorkeling. There are huge lobsters, the biggest I've ever seen in my life (one walked on my fin the other night while I was snorkeling). One of the species of goby is very pale, basically transparent, and hangs out right on top of the sand. I've attempted to befriend a lot of them while snorkeling and scuba diving (only semi-successful so far). There's another species of goby that lives in sponges. They are the "cleaner gobies," and when a large fish such as a grouper or barracuda (or Henri, our dive master) visits the sponge, they rush out and clean, even swimming into the mouth and cleaning around the teeth. There are stingrays, and fish such as Bar Jacks or Queen Triggerfish ride on their backs and eat little critters that they stir up while swimming. There are Fairy Basslets, tiny fish with bright purple heads and bright yellow tails that swim upsidedown under coral overhangs. And there are Blue Tangs and Parrotfish and Moray Eels and a ton of others, and I absolutely love watching them all.

Things That Happen When I Have Too Much Time On My Hands

Story: For some reason, I decided working with three boys on the first project here would be a good idea. They all stayed up until 4 am last night (for some unknown reason), so they napped all morning during paper writing time. During that time, I wrote up the methods, entered our data, and made the fellow in that photo. I should have been organizing my notebook, or preparing the seminar I have to give in a few days, but eh. Mental health breaks are nice.

Day 53: Little Cayman

So . . . it's easy to lose track of time here. So far our days have consisted of snorkeling and scuba diving and getting course credit for it. About a week ago we were just arriving now, after the terribly bumpy boat ride, but it certainly doesn't feel like a week has passed. I've gone on 9(!) dives since then, I've seen sea turtles and sting rays, moray eels and gigantic lobsters, and more fish species than I can count! It's amazing.

I still can't believe I'm in paradise. There's something about walking outside at night, hearing the waves crash against the shore, seeing the stars and moon light on the ocean, that makes me think, "Oh yeah, hey, I'm in the Caribbean. I'm in paradise. And I'm living here for 3 weeks!" It's absolutely amazing here.

Now, I don't have an underwater camera, but luckily for you Zach does.

Me chilling at 40 ft

Watching sea turtles swim is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. Breathtaking.

La Selva

Day 50 - Little Cayman

Day 50?? What? When did that happen?

So far our time on Little Cayman has consisted of snorkeling, scuba diving, lying on the beach . . . and getting course credit for it. Honestly, this is pretty darn amazing.

As much as I want to launch into how amazing the Caymans are, and how I'm literally living on the beach, and how I came almost nose to nose with a sea turtle today, I'm going to attempt to go somewhat chronologically here and finish up Costa Rica first (consider that a taste of things to come!).

LA SELVA
La Selva was amazing. You will love my pictures. You should click the video of the Montezuma Oropendola from a few entries ago if you haven't yet.

I know I've been promising to talk about bullet ants, so here you go. Bullet ants look like freakishly large ants, since they're about 1-1.5 inches long. Apparently their sting feels like being shot, although no one tested that out (intentionally or otherwise). Zach did have one crawling on his back one day, which resulted in lots of yelling and jumping around and me whacking at him with a stick, but no injuries. They are also really, really stupid, which is basically what our project was on. They're a primitive ant species, basically just a step or two away from solitary foragers, and does it ever show. Most of my group did a project on army ants at Corcovado. Army ants work as a team: they will attack, kill, and carry away prey items as large as mice, if there are gaps in the trail ants will lay down to make a bridge, etc. They are amazing to watch. These guys, on the other hand, are very challenged.

Our experiment involved killing an insect (grasshopper, katydid, or praying mantis) and putting it on the ground 10 cm away from the opening to the nest. Then, we would place a bullet ant on the prey (we tried to let them find it on their own, but after watching them walk around it for 2 hours we decided to do it the other way). The bullet ant would then do one of three things: (1) haul the entire prey over its back and drag it back to the nest (and some of them could lift really big prey items), (2) hack off a piece of the prey and bring it back to the nest to recruit more ants, or (3) just go back to the nest to recruit more ants. Things got pretty special when the forager would go back to the nest. Ants would come pouring out and swarm everywhere - up the tree, all over the ground - everywhere, that is, but to the prey item. Eventually one or two would find the prey item, at which time they would begin hacking it into microscopic pieces (any individual ant could carry much larger ones). More ants would join, and they would fight over who got to bring back which piece. Eventually one would wrestle a piece away from the others, and promptly head off in the wrong direction, turn around a few times, and then make it back to the nest.

I think the best trial was when we put down a giant prey. About 100 ants were swarming all over it. They were so excited that some were cutting off parts of leaves and carrying them back to the nest, only to drop them once they arrived since they were not, in fact, a piece of the prey. The second best trial was when this one forager hacked off the grasshopper's head and promptly took off UP the tree, in the complete opposite direction from the nest. He came back down 12 minutes later and entered the nest, at which point everybody rushed out. And couldn't find the grasshopper. They searched for 15 minutes, before Zach and I shook our heads and gave up.

Anyway, bottom line: bullet ants are very inefficient.

SAN JOSE
I've grown to like San Jose. I'm not a huge fan of cities, but since we went back to the same hotel every time it started to feel kind of like home. Also, we stumbled across a fabulous pan-Asian restaurant called Tin Jo. We actually went there twice, once on the last night and once on the time before that. The first time it was a group of 5 of us girls, and we split three different curry dishes, Indian vegetarian curry, Indian chicken curry, and Thai chicken curry with coconut milk. The Thai one was my favorite. The second time we went I had coconut salmon, which was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my life. It was a piece of grilled salmon, sitting on a bed off swiss chard, swimming in a sauce of coconut milk (plus spices, curry and lemongrass maybe?) with pieces of fresh basil floating in it. So amazing, if I'm ever in San Jose, I will go back there and get the same thing.

THE DAY OF TRAVEL
I don't to talk about it. We hit some rough turbulence landing in Miami, and I spent the next two flights (Miami --> Grand Cayman --> Cayman Brac) feeling ill. Then we immediately hopped on a boat and had a very bumpy 1.5 hour drive over to Little Cayman (remember that storm that dumped a bunch of snow on you guys? Well, it found us after all). By the time we got here, I was a lovely shade of green. But not so ill that I couldn't appreciate the fact that the Little Cayman Research Center is ON the BEACH, literally walk out the back door and there you are. And it's beautiful here. And I will write more about it later. Hope things are good back in Vermont, New Hampshire, or wherever you are!

An Apology

Sorry, folks, but I seem to be experiencing a bit of writer's block. I've had free time over the last couple days, but every time I sit to write an entry my mind kind of goes flat. I think I'm a little burned out from, well, everything. It occurred to me during my 3(!) hour break this afternoon that the closest thing we've had to a day off the entire 48 days we've been away were the days we spent travelling from site to site. I'm mentally exhausted. However, hopefully I'll be back in a few days! We're going scuba diving tomorrow. I'm nervous/excited, and hopefully the experience will inspire me to write some more.

List of Costa Rican Animals

Here are all the critters I saw in Costa Rica that I was able to identify. It's such a long list, so exciting!

Birds
Grakles
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
Jacanas
Cattle Egrets
Snowy Egrets
Tricolored Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Kiskadee
Inca Doves
Tropical Kingbird
Roseate Spoonbills
White-throated Magpie Jays
Boat-billed Heron
Wood Storks
Common Bush Tanager
Olive-striped Flycatcher
Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush
Slate-breasted Redstart
Green Hermit Hummingbird
Striped-Tail Hummingbird
Summer Tanager
Scarlet Macaws
Black Vultures
Turkey Vultures
Fiery-billed aracari
Roadside Hawk
Montezuma Oropendola
Crested Guan
Great Curassow
Woodcreeper
Chestnut-mandibled Toucan
Keel-billed Toucan
Collared Aracari

Mammals
Coatis
Raccoons
White-tailed Deer
Variegated Squirrels
White-faced Capuchins
Howler Monkeys
Spider Monkeys
Tapirs
Agoutis
Bats
Three-toed Sloths
Collared Peccaries

Other
Ctenosaurs
Mangrove Crabs
Ghost Crabs
Snails
Clams
Crocodiles
Hermit Crabs
Basilisk Lizard
Anole
Army Ants
Leaf-cutter Ants
Bullet Ants
Katydids
Praying Mantis
Boa Constrictor

Coming Soon

. . . A list of (almost) all the animals I saw in Costa Rica . . .
. . . Stories from the last few days in Costa Rica . . .
. . . Pictures from La Selva . . .
. . . Something about bullet ants . . .
. . . Travel from Costa Rica to Little Cayman (aka The Day of Motion Sickness) . . .
. . . Little Cayman! . . .

But for now, Montezuma Oropendola (the sound isn't quite right, but neat all the same).