Costa Rica Beaches and Marines

I the week from 19 to 26 of May 2011 we the kids of 6 grades make a trip to Costa Rica and we go to a very special place.  Bahia Junquillal, is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and is awarded with a blue flag.

  Blue flags are very special prizes. Not many countries have blue flags. Blue flags are prizes given to a beach that is almost perfectly clean. There are 3000 blue flags all around the world. They are very special and they are very important for modern day ecology programs. Of those about 3000 or more 72 are from Costa Rica and we go to one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica. This beach has a transparent color and you can see the sand from above of the water.

In this beaches there were abundant animals this were like crabs, birds, and many different kinds of monkeys and many other species that we didn't saw. Bahia Junquillal is one of the most visited natural and ecologic beaches in the whole region of Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the most ecologic awarded countries in the actual and past world.

Costa Rica is a country that is almost all surrounded by water because it lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. There where we went was located in the Pacific Ocean. Costa Rica is a country where they take care of there environment. The money we used weapons and things to the army they us it to preserve natural reserves and clean the beaches.

Also in Costa Rica the people help more than here to preserve the environment and the natural reserves. You can prove this by watching the proportions of the amount of natural parks in Colombia and the amount in proportion of national parks in Colombia. Think this Colombia is 20 times bigger than Costa Rica and it have 10 natural reserves and natural parks. And Colombia that is 20 times bigger only have 32 so think if you have in 1/20 of Colombia 10 national parks that's a lot. The conclusion is basically that Costa Rica have 10 parks per each 1/20 part of Colombia. A lot! But Costa Rica has not only blue flag beaches there is a second award given by this organization the blue flag marine. This flag is awaeds the marines that are clean and have special coral riffs, animals and marine plants Costa Rica also have 11 flags of those.

In the beach there were allot of diverse animals like crabs and monkeys.

That is how the Costa Rica blue flags and marines are.

Flora and Fauna - Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a very nice country to visit. This country has very interesting places to visit and to have fun, as Guanacaste. Costa Rica has a lot of biodiversity, it have more than 1,000 orchid species in "Monteverde" (territory in the center of the country). Actually this region has the greatest variety of orchids in the world. This is only one kind of the 10,000 species of plants that Costa Rica has. With only 0.03% of the global surface, Costa Rica has the 5% of the biodiversity the world. This percentage is awesome for the country because is a developing country that has not only very large cities and small towns, but have space to develop the forests near big cities. The vegetation varies with the altitude of the ground. In addition, there are more than 2,000 species of butterflies, 220 reptiles, 1,600 species of fish, 750 in fresh water and 850 is salty water. In Costa Rica there are more than 200 species of mammals, around 850 species of birds, almost 200 types of amphibians and 220 species of reptiles in inhabited lands. The common animals in Costa Rica are: the puma, jaguar, deer, monkeys, coyote, armadillos and several species of birds like quetzal. The most uncommon animals that we saw were: Aguuti, white nosed coati, mantle howler monkey, keel billet toucan, squirrel cuckoo, great kiskadee, gray necked wood rail, and white throated magpie-jay. We saw and heard howler monkeys that were jumping from one tree to another, when we were returning to the second camp, that day we tried to visit the volcano but we can't. We were really amazed with Dychkowski's photos. They were really noisy, and we were shocked because we had never heard anything alike. We smelled the disgusting monkey wastes that were left there. Also we saw an Aguuti eating near a tree in the first camp; we saw it in the morning while we were brushing our teeth. We felt really excited because we had ever seen an animal so close to us. We discuss and we conclude that these experiences are one of the most excited things it had happen to us.

BY :

-JUAN ANTONIO FRACCIONE

-DANIEL LOZANO

-SERGIO LONDOÑO

Freshwater and math calculations

• Between 19 -26 of March 2011 we visit Costa Rica. Our homework of math was to calculate the height of the waterfall "La Cangreja." On the trip to the waterfall we walk up and down until we arrive to the amazing waterfall "La Cangreja." The trip to the waterfall was 5.1 km long but it wasn't so hard because most of the land was plain. The lunch was on a tree and then we continue walking. When we arrived some people went directly to the water but some other stood out and measure. A person standing on a rock and someone took a photo and then we measure how many times the person will fit on the waterfall, and then we multiply that number by the high of the person. The person that we measure was El Flaco that measure 1.79 he fit on the waterfall about 11.79 times. In that way we discovered that the waterfall "La Cangreja" is about 21.12 meters high. We visit other little waterfalls like one that the water was very cold and potable.

 

• The hot springs that we saw was formed because of volcanic activity near them. The trip to the hot springs was across a dry forest in which there were many kinds of trees. One of the trees was called "Indio Desnudo." It was called like that because the first the color of the trunk of the tree is like the color of the skin and the trunks skin begins to fall it seems to be naked like the natives. The trip was easy because it was plain. When we were near the thermals we begin to smell like rotten eggs and the OpEPOS told us that we were near. It smells like rotten eggs because of the sulfur dioxide that hot springs near volcanoes produce. The water was hot because of the magma chamber that is close to water which causes water to heat up. When Mr. D got on the water Olga and some OpEPOS began to put minerals that were inside the thermals, because the minerals help the skin to be younger.

Write by: Antonia Pallini, Mariana Duran, and Erik Potdevin

 

 

 

Volcanoes of Costa Rica!!!

                                                                   

Last week we went to Costa Rica in a trip with our school "Los Nogales".  In this trip we were supposed to make different trips to natural places in the province of Guanacaste. In one of this trips we were supposed to walk through the volcano of "El Rincon de la Vieja", and from this volcano we were supposed to see the "Arenal" volcano.  Both, volcano "Rincon de la Vieja" and volcano "Arenal" are active volcanoes from the seven active ones. Both volcanoes are located in north western Costa Rica in the Province of Guanacaste.

 

"Rincon de la Vieja" means in English "the corner of the old lady" stands 1,916 meters above the sea level. The name of the volcano comes from a tribe that believed that an old witch lived in the top of the volcano and when she was mad she would send smoke. Its first and largest eruption was in 1765. One of its evidences is that it lies within a large caldera. The last eruption occurred in 1998.  Actually the volcano has nine craters and the main one is 500 meters of width and 100 meters of depth. We saw different types of forests. The first one was dry forest. It had big and tall trees .The next one was humid forest. It had hot and humid weather but it was colder than it was in the dry forest. It had very small trees. The last one was fog forest. It was full, covered with fog and the weather had changed a lot but more cold. Every time we got up the weather was colder and the trees were smaller and smaller. These three types of forests were seen through all the hike almost to the top of the volcano. We felt very strange in this hike because when you took one step the surroundings were different so it was a little bit confusing for us but that was one of the best hikes we had in COSTA RICA!!!

By: Ana Rueda, Martin Carbonell, and Lorena Rivera.

 

Tropical Dry Forests

In Costa Rica we traveled through many types of forests and we were able to identify some of them, like the dry forests. Dry forests are located in tropical and subtropical latitudes, have a dry and warm climate and seasonal droughts.

Perfect example of dry forest in dry season.

    In dry forests the annual precipitation is enough to allow the growth of trees but the long drought seasons because the trees to develop especial characteristics that help them survive in the hard periods. For example, deciduous trees lose their leaves to store more water and survive; some types of trees that use this strategy are Teak trees and mountain ebony. Because this strategy is very useful deciduous trees are the ones mostly found in dry forests. Other types of trees commonly found in the dry forests are evergreen trees. These trees have roots so long that can reach underground water and so can have water at all times without needing to lose their leaves. The last types of trees are the bushes. These small trees survive thanks to the protection of other trees from the sun in dry seasons. And in rainy seasons when the large trees are still recovering sunlight reaches them and gives them nutrients that help them grow.

Dry forest going to secondary succession. 

    When all Nogales was walking through a dry forest, we all noticed that it was all gray and brown and that the trees and other plants were dead. Later, we were said that the forest was once burned because people that were forbidden to hunt burned it as revenge. The forest was going through succession. Which kind of succession? Secondary succession because the forest is re-growing on land.

The dry forests on Guanacaste (national park where students stay on Costa Rica) are inhabited by lots of animals. Several animals are beautiful, and others are dangerous. There are 136 species of birds in which 16 are considered rare, threatened, or in extinction danger. Various birds in the dry forest of are the toucan, the yellow-napped parrot, and the white-tipped dove.

There are some dangerous animals at Guanacaste, but no one should worry. Animals like pumas, jaguars, and ocelots live in this place. As everyone knows, this animals are carnivores and they had attacked people in some cases, but they don't attack humans often. They are nocturnal and they ambush their prey. To ambush means to be sneaky and silent at the time of hunting, they don't let their prey see them before they hunt it. Because they ambush, they will never attack such a big group of people together so they will never attack the people of Los Nogales. Other carnivores are the fox and the ferret. They won't hurt people.

    Other interesting animals are the monkeys. There are lots of these mammals at Guanacaste like the white faced monkey and the howling monkey. Every morning, at the first camp, all Nogales awakened with the howling of howling monkeys. The sound was like "u u, u u, u u" and all the people felt anger and uncomforted when this specie awakened us in the morning with a kind of annoying sound. We could never see them but I, Laura Boada, imagine them as big, hairy monkeys with oval shaped mouths, howling and jumping from tree to tree and branch to branch in the mornings.

In the transition from humid forest to dry forest, as all the people went back to the camp after a tired day, we heard something. We heard the sound of tree branches moving so we looked up and we saw a herd of white faced monkeys. I, Mateo Vargas Osorio, felt excited because I had never seen such a big number of monkeys at the same time. They had a white face, and part of their trunk was also white, the rest of their body was all black and they had black eyes. The monkeys jumped from branch to branch making them move. There was a female monkey that was carrying her baby, it was amazing. Everyone was silent, anyone wanted to scare the monkeys and make them jump and climb away. That day I learned that the other half of the forest is above us.



I saw something like this but bigger.



Some animals in the dry forests are the tapir and the ant bear. When I, Olga Lucia Vives, was on the beach I recognized that there was a dry forest some meters away. For example, the bathrooms were located in that little forest. When I was washing my food dishes (nearby the forest) I saw a strange animal in front of me. It was small and made no sound, but it was scary at the beginning, but then I calmed down I saw the animal again. This time, I saw the animal as unique and beautiful. As I looked it carefully, I realized that the characteristics of that animal were similar to the ones of a tapir, but it wasn't a tapir because it was smaller.

On the little tropical dry forest, I also saw a giant iguana. It was impressing! That iguana was twice the size than a normal one. When the people saw the iguana, some of them were scared, but others, like me, were impressed and left the iguana alone, because it was starting to get scared. I felt amazed. The iguana was big and green, and had a big, fat face. Its body was large and finished in a long green tail. The iguana made no sound and walked slowly.

Rodents that inhabit the dry forests are the mice and the squirrels. Some mice called "ratónes de sechura" in Spanish are special mice that are adapted to extreme heat, so the heat of the dry forest is not a challenge for them. We were not able to see them, but saw another rodent that is the squirrel. At the same time as we all saw the herd of white faced monkeys, there were squirrels jumping and walking on the trees. They were small and brown. We all felt excited because we saw monkeys, but at the same time we saw beautiful, fast, and silent squirrels.

    There are a lot of insects in the tropical dry forests of Guanacaste. Mosquitoes, scorpions, and bees are some of the many insects that live in these forests. These animals (except the mosquitoes) won't bite anyone if they don't bother them or their home. Mosquitoes bit to get your blood. To avoid them, you should use a lot of repellent.

    The dry forests that we experienced were beautiful and unique…enjoy them!

 

Olga Lucia Vives, Mateo Vargas Osorio, Laura Boada Robayo

    

Costa Rica: Mangroves

Pura Vida                         
 

Mangroves are different kinds of trees and bushes from normal height that grow in salt water in the tropical and subtropical areas. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from briny water, through pure seawater, to water concentrated by evaporation to over two times the salinity of ocean seawater.
Mangroves are similar to amphibians because they live in water and in land. When visiting the mangroves we learned that there were little plants that have bugs as their defense mechanism and whenever they are touched the bugs come out in defense.

Mangroves form the most complex ecosystems on the planet. Birds rest on the canopy, shellfish attach themselves to the roots, and snakes and crocodiles go there to hunt. They provide food to some animals, shelter to crabs and other animals, and a nectar source for honeybees and bats.

There are about 70 different types of mangroves. They change from little shrubs to 200 meter high timber trees. It is thought that the mangroves originated in Southeast Asia. Most mangroves usually live within 30 degrees of the equator but some have adapted to different temperatures. Mangroves have ultra filtration systems that help keep the salt water out and a complex root system that helps them survive.
Mangroves protect coastal areas from erosion, storms and Tsunamis.

 

 

Personal experience:
What we saw?
We saw lots of little bugs, crabs, birds, and toads. The birds we saw were blue and white, and they screamed like the monkeys. The crabs were red and black. Some crabs were big and others were very small. The small ones were usually white with black stripes on them. The big ones had huge claws and it hurt a lot when they pinched. We also saw the trees mentioned before that had bugs as their defense mechanism. These trees did not only have bugs but they had really long spines that could go through a shoe! We also saw little toads jumping around the mangroves.
What we smelled?
    The mangroves smelled like humidity. They smelled tropical, similar to the humid forest. They smelled similar to how hair smells after being soaked into salt water and then dried up.
What we heard?
    At the mangroves we heard monkeys, birds and the waves. The monkeys were constantly screaming above us but they weren't as easy to see as to hear. We could see the trees moving because of the monkeys jumping on them but we didn't see them. The birds flew above us and they sat on the trees watching us and chirping. We could see them flying over us and we saw that they were blue and white. We heard the waves go from a crashing sound to a calm sound once they entered the water under the mangroves.
Where we saw it?
    We saw all these animals in the Junquillal beach in the Guanacaste Park in Costa Rica. We took a short hike to the mangroves and there Vivi, an OpEPA helper, taught us about mangroves, monkeys and more.
When we saw it?
    We saw the mangroves on March 25 2011. We went at around 12 in the morning and we stayed there until 12:20. Although it wasn't a long time period we expanded our knowledge about mangroves and some animals.
Mariana Salazar, Gabriela Valderrama, Paola Boccalon.

Costa Rica: Paramos

      During March 19th to 26th we went on a trip to Costa Rica, Guanacaste. During this hiking trip we learned about many ecosystems, such as: Paramos. The 23th we woke up early in the morning for going to the Rincon De la Vieja´s Volcano. In the trail we pass through semi-humid, humid forest, semi-paramo and paramo.

        When we arrived to the paramo we saw many characteristics that describe it. The paramos are very cold; they have a lot of fog, cold breezes and wind. They are bleak and wet.  The paramos develop in regions above 3,000 meters above the sea level. Temperatures can get from below zero to 30°C, this extreme changes can happen in one day. Because of the temperatures, plants and animals need to adapt and make special modifications to survive in these harsh conditions. This cold winds affect plants and trees in many ways. For example, as we go up, we saw that the trees were smaller, because the wind makes them not capable to grow higher, but the leaves have hair and are thicker, this help the tree protect and store more water and nutrients.         There are not many animals, only the ones that can adapt to those harsh conditions. The most common animals are: insects, spiders, rabbits, coyotes, birds, and some reptiles.

As we were walking through the paramo, we noticed that we had to put on our jackets cause every time we had more cold temperatures and strong winds. Also because of this same reason, we really couldn't go to the volcano. Steep, trees were small, insects little bushes trees no habia frutos. fog

Paramo's features makes more difficult to sustain life it also creates a new ecosystem and environment for some plants and animals. Even though it was very cold, I rather prefer cold than hot, and even though we had to change very fast temperatures it was fun going up and down the volcano and discovering some new ecosystems.

Tropical Rainforest

 

 In our trip to Costa Rica, we traveled through many ecosystems. One of them was the tropical rainforest. We walked through it for three days: the second, third, and fourth. In these days we went to the second camp from the first one, to the waterfall "La Cangreja", and to the volcano. We traveled in the forest floor, the last layer of trees in this type of forest. This layer is almost completely shaded because less than 1% of the light that strikes the top of the forest penetrates to the forest. The top soil is very thin and it has a thick layer of dry leaves. Few bushes, herbs and trees were the vegetation. In the second day, we saw lots of ants, small animals such as insects. We traveled through a thin road, surrounded by large trees of the first and second layer. The third day, before beginning the trip, and when we were returning to the camp we saw many animals. Before beginning we saw many White-throated Magpie Jays (Urracas). They are big, beautiful birds, with blue and white feathers. We saw more or less four birds passing from one tree to another. And when the trip was ending, we saw many white faced monkeys and spider monkeys that were swinging in the branches of the trees in the upper canopy, the second layer of trees. We were very happy because it was the first time we saw a monkey in its habitat. We also saw some tapirs running in the forest floor. They were small and brown mammals. Finally we saw some vultures, black and ugly birds while we were finishing the trip. We heard many cicadas, big insects that live only one day after they go out from the exoskeleton. The forest smelled like the forests from Rio Claro. The fourth day, in the trip to the volcano, we passed through three ecosystems. First we passed through a wet forest, then we passed through a tropical rain forest and then we passed through a semi paramo. In the tropical rainforest there were medium size trees and palms. There were many small plants that were only long leaves with a small stem. We saw small mammals such as kinkajous, small brown animals similar to raccoons. In that part of the forest there was a bigger shadow than in the parts of the previous days because there were only the third and fourth layers. Every day, when we woke up, we heard howler monkeys, although we didn´t see them.

 

Isabela Ortiz, Eduardo José Pachón, Antonia Echeverría    

Pura Vida 2011



Perigee Moon, March 19th, 2011

For a week in March over 70 sixth graders from Colegio Los Nogales visited the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. This blog serves to recount their journey and to inform parents and future students of the variety of ecosystems and experiences that they shared.

Costa Rica…Pura Vida!