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!