Entry 1: June 25, 2009

Sadly our trip here in Costa Rica is ending soon. Today we took a boat tour in Selva Verde. It rained all last night so the river rose four meters. We were still able to do the tour down the river to see all the various types of animals along the banks. We saw many animals ranging from Mangrove Swallows to Jesus Christ Lizards, to Anhingas to a Crocodile, just to name a few. The crocodile was just resting on the bank of the river. When I saw it I was both excited because I have never seen a crocodile that close before and scared that he/she will come at us. We also saw a family of Mandible Howler Monkeys eating fruits from a tree. It was very interesting watching them eat and play around in the tree.

Later that afternoon a handful of us went horseback riding. It was awesome! After 19 days of hard work including many hikes, research projects, classes and traveling, horseback riding was perfect. We rode our horses through open grasslands, road and rivers/streams. The weather was perfect it was not hot or humid like the previous days, there were a few clouds and a breeze that just topped it all off. The scene of us riding around with our horses through the pastures and forest was very relaxing. The whole time we were riding I kept thinking that we were filming a horse movie with all of us in it from the beginning to the end. My favorite part of the riding was when we had to ride down one of the rivers to get to the other side. My horse was covered in water because the water was so deep, except for his head and I was wet from my knees down. But we laughed the whole way through it and had so much fun. My only regret after horseback riding is that we are leaving here in the morning so I will not be able to ride the horses anymore. I would have really loved to stay here and do more horseback riding, because the experience of it was astounding and one that I will never forget!