Sunset from standing on the rocks as the tide rose at Playa Esterillo.

La Presa, Rio Tarcoles, y Playa Esterillo

This past week I’ve been:

Dancing in the rain,

Sunbathing on the rocks,

Laughing with stray dogs,

Chasing little crabs,

Running up mountain tops,

Picking trash up off the beach,

And singing under the stars.

I’m falling in love again with each new day!

Tidal pools at Playa Esterillo on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.

Environmental Science is not always learned best in a classroom and luxury hotels are not always the nicest way to travel. Take for example, the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis. Fall term, sophomore year I took Dr. Swan’s Ecology class and had to memorize and be able to interpret a graph with a convex curve; disturbance level was on the “x” axis and biodiversity was on “y” axis. I explained the chart and aced my exam but I never truly understood the concept until yesterday.

Laura from Hawaii stands in front of our tent site in Margarita’s front yard a few meters from the Pacific Ocean.

As you might have read in my last entry, Karen’s host mom Hilda’s brother Beto, has a friend Minor, whose mother Margarita has a place at Playa Esterillos. To get there we walked southwest along the beach until we came upon a house with a boat in front of it. Though I was a little nervious, it was easy to find. Our hosts were lovely, Margarita is an excellent chef—great gallo pinto! And we got to camp out for free!

Starbuck uses a coconut shell to display some cowry shells and a purple barnacle she collected off the Esterillo beach.

Starbuck said that this is the way she always travels; She doesn’t pay lots of money for hotel reservations. She only travels places where she knows someone so that they can give her advice on the best sites. I’ve decided I want to travel as much as possible using social network connections. This is so amazing to stay right on the beach and have hot delicious food! It would have cost so much more to stay in a hotel and we would have had to spend time and money for transportation to the beach and restaurants. Pura vida, baby!

A tiny crab the size of my fingernail.

When I went out to walk into the tidal pools I was astonished by the shear quantity and diversity of life surrounding me. One crab, two crab, red crab, blue crab! There were crabs with spots and crabs with dots. Some wore houses; others ran and hid like mouses. Some the size of a meal; others had claws to small for you to feel. Dr. Suess aside, I couldn’t comprehend at first the magnitude of the diversity? Along with the crabs, there were blowfish and little fish that looked like Nemo. I asked myself, “Self, why are there so many different species in this small area and so few on a giant stretch of beach in Ocean City. Then I saw the tide rising and thought about the disturbance level here. Every day these little tidal pools are reburied and uncovered with the tide.

At Playa Esterillo there were crabs of assorted colors, shapes, and sizes. Some hid under rocks others had homes in the sand.

This constant state of change created a variety of niches for different species to fill. Some crabs evolved to tunnel in the sand others to hid in cracks in rocks and hermits found safety in used shells. Because the environment here is constantly changing there is not one species that does best and dominates, therefore, a greater variety can survive together. Magnificent! Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, thanks Dr. Swan.

Laura hangs out by the mermaid statue above crab land at Playa Esterillo. I just coined the name “crab land” in case you had any doubts.

I loved exploring the land of the crabs. It reminded me of the video game my brother showed me before I left where you roll and giant ball and stuff sticks to it (yeah- I know that was specific J). Where Laura is sitting was underwater about two hours after the shot. In the interim period, I traveled around the rocks exploring nooks and cranies. Sometimes I would hold really still and watch them come out from hiding. I’m glad I don’t have any animal phobias because it was almost scary how many there were. Then as so as I moved they all scurried into hiding. When the water level got too high at sunset (see the top pic), I rejoined my friends. They were more interested in splashing around drinking Imperial than chasing crabs—yeah, I know I’m a dork.

The stray dog who adopted us and followed us everywhere without begging. He even slept outside our tent so we named him Gaurdo.

A sweet stray we name Gaurdo had adopted them. He stayed with us after a dinner of gallo pinto, fresh caught fish (for the non-vegetarians), fried plaintains, and a shredded salad with fresh tamarind and papaya smoothies. Once we had eaten our fill, we spread our sarongs out on the beach so that we could sit on them and sing along to Gina’s guitar.

Guardo playing in the tidal pools at sunrise on Playa Esterillo.

Though I myself am not musically talented, (couldn’t you tell by my photos that I’m a visual thinker?) I have a great appreciate and love for musicians. Live music makes me so happy. We made a circle of people using each others bellies as headrests and looked at the clear sky above. This was the night I saw the most shooting stars in my entire life! Brenna, who is the niece of the base player from the Grateful Dead, taught us “Broke down palace” –I think it’s called. I wish I could remember artist and song names but I just remember the tune.

The lesson I learned from watching Guardo, a classic latino player, stand by us and then jump from group to group, is to relish life and those around you and expect nothing in return.

It was so much fun just harmonizing along. I love Gina’s attitude that anyone can sing. It makes jamming really fun. It reminds me of how my mom says anyone can be an artist you just have to express yourself. Once again the tie back to study abroad – going abroad will make you much more likely to travel hours for just a night on the coast. Do it for the beautiful moments!

My posse and I try and catch a bus. We had to stand on the several hour ride home from Jaco to Atenas so we all ended up sitting in a people pile in the aisle and some tourists took our picture because they thought we looked cute.