Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes

We just got back from yet another wonderful weekend trip.
Nine classmates and I had a field trip to Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes for my Tropical Ecology course. The property is in a secluded portion of San Ramon county and backs up to Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.
The drive from the town of San Ramón to the station took about an hour and a half and the last 6km were travelled on unpaved, rough and muddy roads. Upon arriving on Saturday I could hardly handle how amazing the setting was! The station is nestled into the middle of the jungle and is just several hundred feet from a rushing river.

The weather was drizzly our entire visit, but it made the experiences all that much more fun - hiking, taking data samples, walking up streams, trekking to a waterfall, night hiking in search of frogs... We sloshed everywhere in big rainboots!

Here is one of the pretty little frogs we found on our hike. It is a different variety of the Red Eyed Frog we saw on our La Fortuna trip.

One of the highlights of my trip was swimming at the base of a raging waterfall, in my clothes. We were not informed that there would be a chance to swim until we arrived and none of us had packed our suits. BUT, that didn't stop us. We all stripped down and swam anyways! Wouldn't you? You only live once! And besides, we were in the middle of the jungle starring at a waterfall with a gloriously beautiful swimming hole at its base. =D

Another fun part of our trip was building a fort, yes a fort, between the beds of the station bunk house. Haha! We built it with all the sheets and blankets from our beds and ALL of us 10 students (plus our teacher at one point, HAHAHA!) hung out inside for like two hours. I can't even tell you what all we talked about, but let me just assure you, several seriously good laughs were had. =) Lol!

Smiles,
Hannah