I'm here! in San José

I made it to San José, the capital of Costa Rica, last night at about 9:00 pm. I wish I could've seen the forest as we flew over, but all I saw were the bright city lights in the dark. Two other people from my program were on my flight. We were relieved to find our program coordinator, Kathy, waiting outside. She welcomed us and directed us to a taxi. The taxi zoomed along the narrow streets to our hotel, Hotel Balmoral. I found my room and deposited my heavy bags, then met the rest of the students and trip leaders. We all went out for cervesas (Imperial es la cervesa de Costa Rica, apparently) at the bar across the street. It seems like a great group of people; everyone's very friendly and excited about biology. There are thirty students total; four others from my school and many from Colorado and the Midwest.

Costa Rica is gold-yellow on this map, with Nicaragua to the north and Panama on the south border.

San Jose is near the middle of the country, in the Central Valley. Monteverde is more north.
See map enlarged

This morning was early; a yummy breakfast at 7:30 and orientation at 8:00 am upstairs in a conference room. Alan, the program director, introduced us to the history and culture of Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the most stable countries in Central America; they disbanded their army in 1948 and have government-funded, universal health care. Catholicism is the official religion, and about 87% of the population is of European decent. Costa Ricans, or Ticos, as they call themselves, are in general very friendly and helpful. They appreciate the economic boost from gringo (American) tourists. After his lecture, Alan gave us an assignment: go out into the market place and find a certain fruit or plant part, learn about it, have lunch, explore, then return to the hotel conference room at 2:00 pm. We set out on our mission, I had higo, a fig.

San José is a busy city. Pedestrians crowd the Avenida Central, which is a pedestrian-only street that divides the city north-south. On either side are shops, cafés, trees, street performers, cart stands, people, pigeons, and more people. It was about 80° F and sunny today. A cool breeze kept the humidity in check. I wore a skirt and t-shirt...in February. We split into smaller groups to navigate the narrow passageways of the central market, a large building with many booths selling everything from postcards and other trinkets to herbs and seafood. My out-of-practice Spanish came in handy when asking for higos, which were 200 colones, or about $0.40 American.

We had lunch at the Teatro Nacional, the national theater. This beautiful building opened in 1897. I also saw a great-tailed grackle outside the theater, which I've seen in Malheur, OR.

Not my photo

At 2:00, we settled back into the conference room for a long but interesting lecture on Division Anthophyta, flowering plants. There was some review of flower parts and basic botany, but we had the opportunity to examine some flowers and identify the pistils, carpels, stamens, petals, and sepals ourselves. Moncho, one of our TAs, gave us an overview of fruits. I learned a lot from his lecture; much of what we call vegetables or nuts are actually fruits, and things like blackberries aren't berries but aggregate fruits, while oranges, avocados, and pumpkins are berries. It all depends on what part of the flower develops into what part of the "fruit." We presented our assigned fruits to the class as well. My fig "fruit" is actually composed of lots of tiny flowers folded up into a hollow bulb. The base of the flowers are full of sweet juice, which makes the fig edible.

But wait, I'm sure you're wondering, why would a plant "want" to have its flowers inside a hard bulb? How would they ever get pollinated? Well, there is a very specialized insect called the fig wasp, which has co-evolved with the figs. The fertilized female wasp crawls inside a small hole at the base of the fig. The opening is so small that her wings are ripped off in the process, so she is trapped inside. She rubs against the flowers, pollinating them while she lays her eggs, and then dies. Eventually, the larvae hatch and also inadvertently rub against the flowers, collecting pollen. The male wasp larvae mate with the females inside the figs (yes, their siblings...no, I'm not sure how the wasps have any genetic diversity). The males chew a tunnel to the outside of the fig and then soon die. The mature, fertilized females escape and go on to lay their eggs and spread pollen in another fig. Isn't biology amazing?

After all that learning, the program leaders took us out to a tasty dinner. I had some delicious rice and beans and chicken and fried plantains (bananas). Actually, I didn't really like the plantains, no me gusta bananas. The TAs took us out to drinks afterwards, more cervesa Imperial. Tomorrow is another long day in San José, and then Wednesday we leave for our first camping trip along the Pacific coast. I'm really looking forward to seeing some actual rain forest and wildlife other than pigeons and feral dogs.