Another EGL leaves the nest :(

On March 10th Oliver, Alexa, and I deployed a site near Cerro Frío that we had scouted a few days prior. We arrived at the landowner’s house to find she had recently sold the property we were originally interested in, thus began our side quest. The landowner had sold the plot of land to some foreigners but put us in contact with the caretaker, who, in turn, put us in contact with his son. This eventually landed us in a teak field. Teak trees are commonly planted by foreigners as a form of long-term investment here since it requires little oversight. It turns out that the leaves of the teak trees are not ideal for the local ecosystem as the leaves are poisonous, even for ants! The trees at our deployment site were only saplings and we set out to work quickly so we could beat the looming raincloud. While the dry season runs from late December to early April in Costa Rica, there was a storm system over the Pacific Ocean that was dumping rain and wreaking havoc on our plans. After successfully finishing right as it started to sprinkle, we stopped for a juice break before making the long drive home to our hotel in Cóbano.

The other team, consisting of Samer, Luis, and Gabriel, successfully deployed a site near the hotel, only a 30-minute drive south of Cóbano. They then proceeded to recover the site at Rio Montaña, which was left to record for one additional day since one of the electrodes was found disconnected when they returned to the site the day prior (it was likely that a horse or cow tripped on the cable while roaming around the field). This unfortunately entailed another 5-hour roundtrip driving voyage. Thankfully, the data upon recovery were high quality, so the extra effort was worthwhile.

Progress after March 10^th:

March 11^th brought the excitement of our first two deployments on islands in the Gulf of Nicoya, but it also brought with it a cloud of sadness. Today we would have to say goodbye to Luis as he returned to San José to prepare for the start of the new semester at Universidad de Costa Rica.

We had lots to get done so we set out early to catch some boats. Upon our arrival at the port, we were met by the newest member of our team, Dr. Kennet Flores. Kennet is a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a Costa Rican local who grew up on the Nicoya Peninsula. In addition to being a native of the area, Kennet has mapped countless geologic formations across Nicoya Peninsula and helped organize our boat rides to and from the gulf islands of Cedro and Caballo.

In our typical fashion, we took a group photo before bidding a sad goodbye to Luis as he boarded the ferry while we set out for Cedros.

The whole team, minus Luis, will be sticking together so that we could all experience the beauty of the Gulf islands.

After a 10-15 minute boat ride where we spotted some pillow basalts along the island’s beaches, we landed on Cedros, a smaller island with a humble village and a small farm.

The locals were kind enough to allow us to deploy in a cattle field on the island, we passed some cows and a friendly bull which Alexa stopped to greet.

From the shore where we docked, we began our journey carrying our deployment equipment. We trekked up a steep hill, through some pasture, up another steep hill, and finally settled on a location we hoped would be far enough away from the island’s main power line.

This was Kennet’s first deployment with us, so we had to show him the ropes. At this point, our team is like a well-oiled machine, and we made great time, completing the deployment in well under an hour! The walk back was much easier than the way up and soon enough we were back on the boat heading to the port.

We decided to power through and head straight to the next port to install a site on Isla Caballo. The drive was around 45 minutes, but with our hopes high from our breezy first deployment, we figured this would be similar. Upon our arrival at the port, we were met with low tide, which meant the usual pull-in for the boats was nonexistent. There was only a muddy canal. Our dream of a breezy deployment sunk in the mud. Never fear, this was only a bump in the road, now all we had to do was trudge through slippery mud carrying some absurdly heavy equipment. No big deal! We completed the perilous walk and managed to do so with only muddy shoes as collateral damage.

This boat ride was much longer, closer to 30 minutes, but we spent it learning about local geology from Kennet and enjoying some gorgeous views.

Once we arrived, we headed to our site, which was a soccer field for the only school on the island. Lucky for us, this deployment would be left over the weekend, and thus we would not have to deal with noise created by the solar panels on the school, the water pump nearby, or the curiosity of the school children. This deployment went smoothly, and the locals on the island were very welcoming! The two sons of our boat driver helped with the deployment by removing a hoard of ants from our bottle of saltwater.

Once we arrived back at the port, the tide was much higher! This was great news as all we had to do was float up to the loading dock and offload ourselves and the very minimal gear we had left after deploying. We loaded into the cars and embarked on the hour-and-a-half drive back to the hotel.

Recently, exhaustion has gotten the better of our traveling party, and thus we have been skipping the pool in favor of falling asleep around 8 pm.

Progress after March 11^th: