Had the chance to go up in 'the towers' this morning. They've built these tall aluminum structures in the middle of the jungle to study the canopy.
Most of the time in the jungle, anything higher than 20m is lost to the eye.
It's just a wall of green vines and giant leaves.
It was a whole new ballgame going up top.
There was one unfortunate aspect about the whole experience...we had to wake up at 4:45am to go. Ugh.
One of the great things about working with amphibians and reptiles... and not birds, is that you can get up at 10am and still have plenty of daylight to find your animals.
I can't complain too much thou...err... I shouldn't complain too much.
It was a real treat to get to go up there!
It's about 40m up some real janky stairs to get to a bridge section to connect to another tower, or you can keep going up another 10m up and get to the top.
Heights have never bothered me much. But once you get up there and realize the only thing keeping you alive is an erector-set made out of recycled beer cans... you start being real thankful for solid ground beneath your feet.
The view from up top was just incredible.
We saw parrots, toucans, and all sorts of other pretty tropical birds.
You better believe that the most beautiful birds....
....sound...
....terrible!
You'd think such colorful animals would have a nice song.
No way.
Any time you hear a terrible screech (like a car-accident involving drowning cats and finger nails on the chalk board), there is normally some beautiful bird behind the awful noise.
Terrible bird noises aside, it was hard to believe how far you could see and how amazing everything looked.
And my mother-in-law gave me a fancy camera that takes panorama shots!
(Yes. That means you now have to deal with about 8 billion panorama shots from here on out)
Not a lot is known about the canopy of the jungle.
What lives there, the temperatures. rainfall, or the unique animals. Most of the time it's just too hard to get up there, much less haul equipment for measuring anything.
Places like these towers are really important so we can start to get an idea of what life is like up here.
Turns out, there are plants and animals that never touch the forest floor. They never really move much out of the canopy. They are born, live, and die at the tops of the tallest trees in the jungle!
I thought the jungle looked like a green wall from the bottom. Up top it's just green, green, green as far as the eye can see.
Quite a difference from my home in California where the hills turn golden brown in May and June...
I think it would be easier to not miss home if I were from New Jersey or something. It's hard to not miss home when you're from San Luis Obispo...we live in paradise!
Between the birds and trees I was in hog-heaven!
I haven't been able to use my fancy binoculars as much as I had hoped. Most of the time you can't see farther than 10m in the jungle.
Probably the best Christmas gift ever (thank you wife!)
It was nice to put them to good use.
Eventually we were able to cross the bridge to get another view of the jungle canopy.
We had a gift waiting for us too. For the first time in a while...
Happy monkeys! They didn't try to throw poop at us! Just when i think I'm getting over 'em, they act all cute and suck me back in.
Alouatta Palliata (Howler Monkey) Still not as adorable as a sloth. But 'that'll do monkey, that'll do'.
It was awesome to get up and see a whole new side of the jungle.
This section of the jungle is primary forest, it's amazing to think that these trees have been growing, living, dieing, and re-growing for thousands of years.
About 3 million years ago, Costa Rica was underwater. Tectonic plates and erupting volcanoes eventually made the area we know today. This area was actually the first land bridge between North and South America.
Coupled with one of the warmest currents in the Pacific, Costa Rica became a hodge podge of North and South America.
Because of this you find a huge diversity of animals and plants. You could spend a lifetime and still nto see all there is to see.
I was real lucky to go up today and see a whole new side of the jungle, especially since it's a side that most people never know about or get to see.
Part of me is going to really miss this place. Another piece of me knows it will always be a part of me now.
I'm not going to lie... my wife comes down in less than a week and I couldn't be more excited
Sorry jungle, you're cool and all... but I wanna see her again!
Step one though: get ready for the final student symposium on Wednesday. Boom!
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