COTERC @ CANO PALMA

-Life at a Biological Station-

You come to work for a certain project, but you'll always end up learning more than expected, since we can choose to get involved in other several areas...time permiting. Coterc has people like us monitoring the beaches for turtle nesting and poaching, others doing bird banding, creating large mammal transacts, collecting data and working on multiple projects regarding local reptiles and amphibians, ethnobotany...u name it, if you want to learn, this is the place to be.

I had to learn to maneuver the canoe to be able to cross the canal to go to work every morning and night. Yes, my transportation to work,... a canoe.

You'll have people coming in and out of the station everytime...u gotta be an easy going person, tolerant of others, and cooperative...if you're not...u won't last in a place like this.

Chores are shared here at the station...we all have duties to fulfill in order to keep the place tidy and in order.  We make schedules and take turns sweeping, cleaning toilets and showers, doing dishes, and even cooking (We have to cook for ourselves whenever we have less than 10 people here, otherwise, a cook comes in for larger groups.)

We take temperature, precipitation, canal water depth, humidity, and cloud cover data every day and every evening.

We feed all leftover food to the fish in the canal, and any meat leftovers go to JUANCHO THE CAYMAN! he's like our pet :)

Be quiet around the dorms at any time of the day or night...here at the station, we work very very early or late at night until early morning.  There is always someone sleeping or taking a nap...you need to be considerate.

Ear plugs are a big help when there are a lot of people here....sharing a dormitory with noisy wooden floors, and people passing by all the time (sometimes like horses!) u neeeeeeedddd those!!

Showers- Cold only...but it is so hot and humid here that most of the time, you won't want it any other way.  There is the occassion however, that you do miss a nice hot bath.  The showers are outside (they have doors of course, but no roof) and you can see the rainforest canopy while taking a shower in the day, and you will see the stars at night. You'll get a little shower companion now and then...a cute lizard, a fat toad, our mosquito friends and spiders....so you'll have an audience...don't be shy!!!

As soon as you get out of the shower, you will start sweating again...make a decision, either be clean and take lots of showers during the day,..OR give up like most and stay stinky...everyone gets stinky in this place! :S

Early in the morning, around 4:30am, the howler monkeys will wake you up...if you need your beauty sleep...again...think EARPLUGS.

If you want to see lots and lots of monkeys, the spider monkeys, play in the trees around the station in the early evenings, around 4:30-5pm...sometimes they have their babies on their back too :), is fun to watch them.

We do NOT walk barefoot on the grass, USE THE PATHS...if you don't use the path or put some shoes on...the army ants will be all over your beautiful toes....and believe me, it hurts!!!

You gotta watch where you're walking or you'll walk right into a spider web...there are lots of those in these forests AND around the station.  They love it right outside the toilets too, watch your head!...but don't be scared, they're harmless :)

Hot day? free from work? cross the canal on a kayak, and go for a swim at the pool of Vista al Mar...the hotel accross the street. Bring your $2 each time...they need some money to maintain the pool...it's not a fancy place....but a nice gettaway to relax.

Take some time everyday to admire the nature around you. Look up at the stars, listen to the ocean waves, to birds singing and monkeys howling...watch the trees sway with the wind, and get soaked in the pouring rain now and then,... enjoy the beauty of CANO PALMA.