Sunday July 23, 2000 

I’m melting with the heat and humidity and am in desperate need of a good bath!!!!  Hmmmn

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Me gustó mucho la experiencia de entrar al bosque primario.  La idea de hacer estudios pilotos de campo resulta productivo para los maestros.  Los métodos para recolectar insectos resultan muy útiles para mi práctica docente.

Ayer observé La Selva desde el punto de vista científico.  Hacer un estudio grupal es buena técnica de enseñanza.  Aprender haciendo es la base de este ejercicio.  En la Arboleda encontré una gran variedad de árboles; la experiencia fue muy exitante.

I really enjoyed the experience of going into a primary forest.  The idea of doing pilot studies in the field is very productive for teachers.  The methods of collecting insects will be very useful for my educational practices in Puerto Rico.

Yesterday I observed La Selva from a scientific point of view.  To do a group study is a good teaching tool.  To learn by doing is the basis of this exercise.  In the Arboretum I saw a great variety of trees.  It was a very exciting experience.

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Field project was great. Always go 50 meters into the forest and live well!!  Go group 3!!! Watch for the 25-meter tape viper. 

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Rain!  Pura Vida la 50 meter group!  Rain!  Buttresses!!! More rain!!!

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50 meters into the rain forest!  No snakes except for the discarded yellow tape-measuring snake.  It was dispatched by Robert and Charles.  Good Day! 

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50 meters into the forest, not as bad as 5 meters into the weeds.  No big deal. Only one bite and not from a snake. Back in the forest it is actually more tame than near the edge.   An annual amount of rain for California fell last night.  Maybe 50 meters in is now a swamp.

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I have deduced the La Selva cafeteria’s mission:  Take some food, remove all flavor, serve, repeat.

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Truly felt like I was in the rainforest last night.  Rained hard and straight down most of the night.  Killed 15 ants and moved one large cockroach from side of my bed.  Photographed peccaries outside classroom.

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En la mañana pudimos ver un mono como a tres pies del suelo.  Vimos monos arañas.  Hay gran diversidad de plantas en varios niveles del bosque.  Pude observar un “collared peccary.”  Fue muy interesante trabajar en el bosque primario midiendo y usando elementos de DBH y colectado muestras de las plantas en el transecto.  Hay gran variedad de plantas a diferentes niveles del bosque primario.

In the morning, we were able to see a monkey about three feet above the ground.  We saw spider monkeys.  There is a great diversity of plants at various levels in the forest.  I saw a collared peccary.  It was very interesting to work in the primary forest, measuring with DBH elements and collecting samples of plants in the transept.  There is a tremendous variety of plants at different levels of the primary forest.

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As always there are so many things that have flooded my senses.  Then there was……THE rain.  More precipitation in one night storm than many parts of the world receive annually.  Certainly more than much of Utah.  Mi botas!  Donde mi botas!!

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I really enjoyed our large group project today.  We work well together.  The presentation eve stuck to the 5 minutes limit!  I hope Charles and Robert get recognized for naming the new species…the tape velocipraptor.

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Studied plants in the forest today.  It was exciting and scary to walk so far in.  We all worried about snakes but kept our eyes open and none were seen.  Saw white-faced monkeys and a peccary today.  It was very hot, but an interesting and educational day.

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We say spider monkeys on the way to our project site.  My team assessed abiotic factors that might indicate edge effect on a primary forest.  Great teamwork!  What a great way to get us into the forest and overcome our fears.  Tom found a wood cockroach on a tree.  It was about 3” long and might have been called pretty if it weren't a cockroach. A walking stick was on my insect collecting hat

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I’ll come up with something

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Woke up this morning, sticky in sweat and all that I can think of is coffee and cookies.