Virtual Levin

Today is Saturday and I am the only student from our group in Monteverde. The others decided to travel to the Volcano Arenal. It rained all night and cleared up this morning. When I walked to the Monteverde Institute the sun was bright, the view was clear and I was hot by the time I got to the studio. Now, about an hour later, the mist is rolling in as I watch it from my desk on the second floor of the studio and I am wishing I had brought a sweater. For the most part it is quiet here, the bugs do their little buzzing thing, and you can hear birds chirping and screaming in the trees and there is some thunder in the distance. There is, however, a little industrial noise pollution but that is the price we have to pay for being within a 5 second walk from the Monteverde Cheese Factory where they have awesome cheese and even better ice cream.

My goal is to get a lot of the background research done for our project by the end of the weekend. As I mentioned before I am working with Heather, a landscape architect in our program, on a trail way that will be used as a sidewalk for pedestrian use, most of all to be used by school children from Santa Elena as they walk to the Los Llanos elementary school. On June 7th, we conducted a preliminary windshield survey, (windshield because the rain would just not let up and we waited all morning and most of the afternoon for it to stop). In a meeting we were told that the total trail would be 4 km in size, but we clocked it and it is only 1.6 km long. While we would like to keep it all one side of the right away along the road, it may not be possible due to fence lines. At the same time we don’t want children to have to cross the road to use the trail if at all possible. So we will end up proposing two trail ways as well as looking at land use to see if those fence lines are on private property or commercial. If on commercial property I suspect we would have a better chance of getting the fence line moved a few feet, but who knows here.

We will be planting native and non-native tropical plants along the trail way in sections. The non-native tropical plants will be utilized because the community wants some flowering plants that are pretty, not all of the native plants are pretty but they serve a purpose to the insects and birds here. So the community has compromised 50/50. Today, I am researching the plants that we can use and writing on them so I can insert that section into my report. I am writing, and Heather will be sketching and designing (and I will learn as I go). It is difficult to find good images of the plants on the internet, so I am hoping by getting the research done this weekend, I can go photo the plants and flowers that we will use in their natural environment. Heather and I have a meeting on Monday with Willow Zuchowski, one of the authors of An Introduction to Cloud Forest Trees, Moteverde, Costa Rica, and I hear she has an extensive garden so I hope to photo the plants there with her assistance.

Non-native cypress trees will be cut down and I suspect that we will leave the roots intact for soil stability. The cypress lumber will be used to produce benches (made and carved by local artists) that will be put along the trail way so students and pedestrians can rest or take in the view. There is one section of the road with a beautiful overlook, we were told it was approximately 300 meters long but we have not clocked it yet. We hope to put some benches there as well as some plantings.

Another group of students, mainly architects, are working on another project involving a playground for kids right near the government housing project for single moms. They have some major issues there that they were discussing after viewing their site. At the end of the site is a major cliff, a potential hazard for children. In addition, boulders that were placed at the edge and have fallen over due to soil instability. To make matters worse, there is a large pool of water where the playground is supposed to be built, but it is full of grey water. Before the architects can design the playground, they first have to figure out how to save the houses from going over the cliff, then deal with grey water issues. This is definitely going to be a difficult project for them.

Yesterday was a very interesting day but a sad one. We started our morning off with Spanish classes at 8 am then at 10 am we were allowed to leave class for a “cultural immersion moment.” We all went to Bar Amigos, one of two bars in Santa Elena so we could watch Costa Rica play Germany in the World Cup Games. It was definitely interesting, the locals wore their jerseys and those who didn’t seemed to wear red or white shirts. A few of the students went out the night before and bought jerseys. The bar had a big screen tv set up and it was packed when we got there at 10. They were also selling beers, which was a surprise. It was great! But Costa Rica lost, 4 – 2. Next week is another game, this time I hear it is at 7 am. Too early!

That’s all for now. I am off to get ice cream before the rains come and I have work to do.