Our third roommate (there were 2 doubles and one single in most of the hotel rooms) got in after Jane and I went to bed so we silently dressed and slipped out of the room for breakfast. We sat with some friends we met the night before and introduced ourselves to the new people coming in. By that time, we knew that most everyone staying at the hotel was with the Biomimicry group. Breakfast was delicious and I was glad Katarina was there to help identify some fruits. Granadilla is delicious, though it does look like a glob of fish eggs.
Everyone met outside the hotel at 9am for the two shuttles for our group of 22. Well, 23, but one of the gentlemen met us at the domestic terminal.
We all made it through security and we all worked our way through the group meeting and talking with new people. We were a large group for such a small terminal. It was about the size of a gym floor. We were split into two groups for two planes.
This was one of the activities I was nervous about. It was a short flight and we stayed pretty low which afforded us some intimate views of the land and water beneath us.
The bus was next. I get motion sickness and am sensitive to exhaust fumes so I immediately approached an instructor who told me to go ahead and claim a seat on the bus. I was taking all the meds I had brought for this weakness. We were on the bus for one minute (this is not an exaggeration) before we stopped at a park. Costa Rica has Diquís Spheres which date back to 700CE. Unfortunately, I did not hear the whole lesson because there were so many interesting organisms to look at! We saw fungi, a seed pod, a rainbow eucalyptus tree, iguana, and one of my favorites, leaf cutter ants!
We got back on the bus for a short ride to the eco-lodge, La Cusinga. Their driveway was through the rainforest. We were greeted with a traditional fruit drink as we came up the stairs surrounded by lush tropical trees and out to the most amazing view.
We enjoyed our drinks and view and were given our room assignments. My room looked out at this view so I was directly above our meeting area. There were four of us and four men on the other side. We had a few minutes to drop our things then head back down to gather for lunch and our first session. It did not take long to realize this would not be a typical class. We were there to see and learn from nature, so when we saw it, we observed while the instructors explained what we were seeing. In the following clip, you can see howler monkeys in the trees and instructor Karen dropping some knowledge.
We were interrupted many more times as the agenda was given out and our week explained, but it seemed perfectly normal. In this context I suppose it was. We were there to study nature, so when organisms appeared we took the time to learn and appreciate their beauty and their functions.