Galloping along beaches and making friends with monkeys

The new year is always a time for change and resolutions and it's no different in the jungle! We welcomed two new volunteers and set about developing a new research programme. I researched and set up a new butterfly canopy trap project, to explore different species of butterfly that live at different levels in the forest. We also decided to start trying to identify individual monkeys so we could track the behaviour and development of individual groups. Although we were going to focus on squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys, we started practising on all the groups we saw. We soon became familiar with a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys who liked to hang out in a palm tree near camp. In naming them, we soon got to know Scar-Face, Big-Ears and Friar Tuck! Unfortunately, squirrel monkeys and spider monkeys turned out to be much harder to identify. In the end, we decided the best identification methods would be to identify different groups by group size, male to female ratio and number of juveniles. This is easier for squirrel monkeys however, as spider monkey troops split up and reform over their range.

On Sundays, we get a break from work and surveys and can spend our free time as we choose. One Sunday morning, we went horse riding with a local friend, Miguel. Of course I have walked the forest trails many times and walked down the beach on turtle patrols, but it was a completely different experience horse riding there. We went through the river, and into part of the forest I hadn't been to before, then galloped down the beach to the Piro waterfall. We had a break and Miguel cut us open a coconut each to drink the water, then cut the flesh for us to eat. There is nothing quite as idyllic as horse riding down a tropical beach and stopping for a snack of freshly cut coconut. I have only been horse riding once before in my life, and that time I found that once you got into a rhythm, it was fairly comfortable. In Costa Rica, we tried 'American-style' riding, which involves holding the reins in one hand and swaying with the movement of the horse. Whilst this had the advantage of making me feel like a super-cool cowgirl, my behind did not enjoy it so much! Overall, and despite not being able to sit on our wooden benches at camp, it was an incredible experience.