Las Cruces
We rolled in so late last night, I could not really tell much about Las Cruces. Day light comes around 5 am here, so I quickly got an idea. It is beautiful! Brett and I grabbed a cup of coffee and did some birdwatching for about an hour before breakfast. My favorite find was a pair of Toucans attacking their reflection in a window. Here is one in a tree just over my head:
Toucan at Las Cruces
Las Cruces is another OTS site, but in the very southern corner of Cost Rica (see Map below). The original property was the Wilson Botanical Garden, and this beautifully manicured garden remains at the heart of the 300+ hectare facility. The true mission of Las Cruces is biological research-particularly in the area of restoration ecology. Las Cruces has acquired hundreds of acres of rainforest fragments and pastures and researchers come from all over the world to study human impacts on rainforest and how to “repair” them.
Our current location
Click here for a flickr slideshow for more images of the biological station. Brett and I toured the ground this morning and took a quick hike in the rainforest.
This afternoon, we took a field trip to a local farm to view shade-grown coffee and small-scale integrated organic farming methods. I would post more pics, but my camera battery died and Brett forgot his USB cable. I was so impressed by his conservation ethic. This farmer grew coffee plants under banana trees and other native trees. This method attracts wildlife (natural predators of pests) and reduces the need for inorganic fertilizers (certain trees enrich the soil). That’s the simple version. It is actually rather well-developed science–the kind taught at EARTH U (see previous blog posts). Brett and I are thinking of having our kids work here for a day helping with the coffee crop. Check out this web site that features this farmer, who belongs to a local growers co-op. Tomorrow we will hike more of the property with a guide, then drive back to San Jose before flying out Thursday.
