This time of year brings alot of rain to Costa Rica. We still managed to keep busy and take advantage of the sunny mornings before the clouds rolled in.
Students from Claremont College in California are studying at the Firestone Reserve near Dominical. They came up to spend a day at Cloudbridge. We lucked out with good weather and did a hike and they collected water samples for their research.
Linda Moskalyk the resident arborist and artist has been busy helping with the classroom construction, working with volunteers, and painting in her spare time. She hopes to complete a series of cloudforest paintings in acrylic and collage.
Tom and Linda travelled up to the Cano Palma Reserve near Tortuguero to explore a potential partnership for the developement of a high school and college ecology program.
Maintenance on the Cloudbridge trails is ongoing. Henry does a great job of keeping them trimmed and clear for the visitors who come up to hike. He also built a new bench out of salvaged wood along the river trail to rest and view the Catarata Cloudbridge.
Work continues on the cloudbridge classroom, This month the electrical was installed with the help of Tom, Linda, John Titan and three volunteers that were staying at the Casa Mariposa. We also planed and sanded lumber from the storm damaged salvaged wood. It will be used for baseboards and around the windows and doors.
At the end of the month we had a community tree planting day hosted by the Hotel de Montana el Pelicano. Thirty people from the communities of San Gerardo and Canaan participated in this reforestation project. We planted 150 trees with 6 types including pioneer and canopy species.
