Ciudad Colon town holiday!
Pura vida!
First day of school with Becca!!!
30th Birthday at school!
30th Birthday Party!
Island vacation on our first break from school!
Independence day weekend!
Becca blown away at how well the other gal can descale a fish! Wow!
Vultures drying their bird-wings!
Well earned bruises! Becca's was from being tossed around by the swift moving currents of the hot springs. Jubsy's was from getting out of the car.
School kids in the town of La Fortuna.
Costa Rican trick to keep kids inside. It's called a gate.
Moving/Cleaning day.
This is our Forestry, Forests, and Poverty class on a field trip to a tree plantation. If I can remember right, the full tree in the background is 5 or 6 years old! They grow 'em fast down here!
Becca and Cristina!
Crossing the dreaded River of Wetness!
Hiking through the plantation.
More plantation.
Becca sneaking a beer in class.
Tree nursery
Professor Jan!
Our class after hiking through a sustainably harvested forest - in a downpour!
Katie and I in Katie's dresses - dancing to "Devil with a Blue Dress".
Bocas del Toro, Panama
Eating in the rain.
The rainy season at UPeace.
Punta Mala, Costa Rica - Saving turtles!
The lone survivor of 22 nests destroyed by flooding.
Hauling sand to be cleaned by the elements.
Crazy sky.
Turtle savers!
Three-toed Sloth!!!
Ida and Graham - on a field trip for our Conservation and Development class.
Our bus got stuck in the mud. Oddly enough, 20 grad students and one 4-wheeler weren't enough to get the bus out.
Myself, Ximena, Graham, and a Tico - celebrating after getting the bus out of the mud.
Becca - listening intently at Mastatal, a sustainable living community, but thinking she was in San Francisco.
Cicada! The most annoying insect in the world! These guys force me to wear earplugs to focus enough for my homework!
Bruce Leon, on the guitar!
Ximena - tired of playing horseshoes and eating vegetarian food.
Country side of Costa Rica. It's ok.
Crazy Graham! On Saturday night, we had a classroom session at the lodge in which we were staying. Since it was Saturday, we decided we should be drinking, and the professor joined us. Graham made a presentation, and Takhmina and I followed by leading a discussion. It was the first discussion I've led while intoxicated. And it was successful!
You know, it's a burden to lug a camera around with me everywhere I go. But once in a while, I capture an image that will make me laugh until the end of time. That's when I know my efforts were all worthwhile! Thank you, Bree.
Cristina - trying to avoid my ever-present photography gaze!
Wes and his daughter at the Palmichal coffee plantation.
These are the skins that used to surround the coffee beans.
Coffee plantation.
Studying by candlelight. Not because it's romantic, but because it's Costa Rica.
Thanksgiving at the University for Peace!
Becca and Ida!
A private Thanksgiving day celebration!
Bek!
Asian day at UPeace - Bek is showing off Kyrgyzstan!
Class on Environmental Impact Assessment.
Class field trip.
Skills for Non Profit Leadership class.
NRSD singing good bye, Miss American Pie.
Becca, putting down some whiskey!
Tropical tree.
An "organic farm" we visited. Doesn't take much to notice the pesticide sprayer.
Evening sky outside my English class.
Ani and Amy at European Night!
Bek and I at European Night
Oscar and Seira
Becca and Tara
Nabil and I
Organic food market
Mr. OJ
More organic farming.
Bus ride to Mt. Chirripo!
Getting off the bus.
Hot springs in the jungle.
Adeline and I, drinking.
Adeline and I, eating.
Alvaro and I, drinking.
Our hiking party at 6am!
Alvaro after 1 km.
Cloud forest.
Half way there.
Becca and I
Our victory rum at the lodge! The lodge was at 11,000 feet, and only 5k from the summit. It was complete with icy-cold showers, a kitchen, free wifi - and two computers with internet incase you didn't bring your laptop to the top of the mountain with you.
Sun rise over a sea of mountain tops!
Our climbing party! Everyone made it!
Summit of Mt Chirripo!
A strangler fig - it wraps around a tree, eventually killing it and using it's body as a frame on which to live.
Monkeys.
Oscar and Veronica at the Old Lady's Corner.
Water Fall at Rincon de la Vieja.
Lunch in the forest.
Oscar and Veronica making their way to some hot springs.
Super hot hot springs - for everyone except Becca.
More monkeys.
As soon as we left the national park, we were in the outskirts of the local landfill. plastic bags everywhere!
This sign says, welcome to the national park, amid miliions of plastic bags! I love nature!
"Soda" is the word for 'little restaurant'. "Home Coking" is a phraseI never managed to translate.
Carara rain forest.
Ximena and I on an ecology class field trip.
Crocodiles in one of the most polluted rivers in Costa Rica! They love that crap!
Graham!
Graham and Ximena measuring a transect for class.
Ometepe - a volcanic island in the middle of a giant lake in Nicaragua. This was our spring break adventure!
Everything is behind a gate.
Funny tourism sign pointing to an insecticide shop.
Alternative energy in the third world! Go wind!
Kids having fun
Some kid out collecting firewood.
Some kids fishing.
We climbed one of the two volcanoes on Ometepe - this was the crater at the top!
Policeman guarding an abandoned hospital in Granada, Nicaragua.
Becca, enjoying her bag of Coca Cola.
A not too uncommon sight - some old, rich, asshole foreigner and a young, pretty local gal.
Old man talk.
Security guard watching the local kids play baseball.
Kids playing baseball.
Amjed, super proud of his Iraqi attire on African/Middle Eastern Night.
Amjed from Iraq, Ziad from Jordan, and Osama and Basem from Egpyt representing the Arab culture at African/Middle Eastern Night.
Our rental car, after making through one of the worst muddy roads I've ever seen. There were a couple times we thought we'd be walking out, but the good ole car made it.
Becca, flashing her ass while hiking to a waterfall.
Tara, surfing at sunset. Tara says this isn't her, but I disagree on account of my superior deductive reasoning abilities.
Mike and I about to go rafting!
San Jose, Costa Rica
Making chocolate from scratch!
Osa Peninsula
Oscar on our Natural Resource Management Field Trip, with beer in hand.
Cashew
Class on the beach.
Everyone wanted a "jumping" picture, but no one had the right timing.
Driving through the rivers after a long day of studying nature.
Oil Palm plantation.
Jenna!
Near the end of a long, long day.
Ucu!
Oscar!
Last day of class!
Costa Rican rain.
The Sustainable Energy Fellowship! This started out just bing a free ticket home, but I actually learned a lot of great stuff, plus I had a great time!
