October is one of the rainiest months in this part of Costa Rica, and usually relatively slow in terms of visitors to the reserve. But for the most part we continue to have beautiful sunny mornings, and visitors still come and enjoy the natural, lush beauty of Cloudbridge. We are so thankful to be receiving some volunteers and interns once more, and invite you to join us, if you have any interest!
October 12th is generally recognized as an important date, as it commemorates the «discovery» of America. In Costa Rica, October 12th is a date in which Cultural Diversity is celebrated, with special honor for the cultures that were already here when the Europeans arrived, bringing with them diseases for which Native Americans had no immunity. The above mural was painted by Sebastián Berrios, a Chilean artist based here in Rivas at the Montaña Verde Environmental Association. Cloudbridge is happy to have some of Sebastian´s products for sale in our welcome center!
As we mentioned in last month´s blog, our director participated with a climate change presentation in the 24 hours of reality event on the 10th and 11th of October. By all accounts, this event was quite the success, with 2370 presentations recorded in 91 countries around the world. Climate change is one of the most important topics of our time, and the importance of communication and education about this subject cannot be overestimated. We have been very pleased with the feedback from this presentation, which was in Spanish. For this reason, on November 15th we will be giving another climate change presentation on Facebook live, this time in English. We hope you will join us!
For all of the birders out there, we are sure that October 17th was a big day for you, October Big Day organized by Ebird to be precise. One 4 person group that spent the day at Cloudbridge shared their list with us: they saw 106 species of birds just in that one day, in addition to other animals.
geoffroyi) looks so comfortable on his branch!
Volunteers at Cloudbridge
Though the last few months have been quiet, in October we were pleased to receive our first two post-pandemic volunteers. Please reach out to us if you would like to come and do research internship or volunteer with us. We are accepting applications!
Hola, mi nombre es Santiago Sánchez Zúñiga, soy estudiante del C.T.P.A.I.R.A y estoy en la especialidad de turismo Ecológico
Estoy realizando práctica profesional aquí en la Reserva Natural Cloudbridge, un lugar que ofrece experiencias especiales gracias a la gran biodiversidad que posee. Hello, my name is Santiago Sánchez Zúñiga, I am a student of the Isaías Retana Environmental High School in the specialty of Ecological Tourism. I am performing my professional practicum here at Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, a place that offers special experiences thanks to its great biodiversity.
Hola yo soy Jefferson Eduardo Ceciliano Hidalgo, estudiante del colegio técnico profesional ambientalista isaías retana Arias de la especialidad de turismo ecológico, y estoy realizando la práctica en la reserva Cloudbridge, el cual es un lugar hermoso y con una gran biodiversidad y también que se encuentran personas muy amigables y «pura vida» . Elegí este lugar para realizar mi práctica ya que amo la naturaleza y también con muchas ganas de protegerla, también gracias a todas las personas que trabajan en este lugar que me llenan de conocimiento. Hello I am Jefferson Eduardo Ceciliano Hidalgo, student of the Isaías Retana Environmental High School in the specialty of Ecological Tourism, and I am performing my practicum at Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, which is a beautiful place with great biodiversity and where you can find very friendly and «pura vida» people. I chose this place because I love nature and wish to protect it. Thank you to all of the people who work here and help me to learn.
Suggested Reading
- Waorani activist and leader Nemonte Nenquimo has a message to the western world that has never been so timely: «the Earth does not expect you to save her, she expects you to respect her.»
- In the month in which Columbus «discovered» America, it is worth revisiting this interesting article about what how life on the American continent may have been before 1492
- The SwissRe insurance group has released a disturbing report on the proximity of ecosystem collapse in many countries around the world.
- Complex systems such as the Earth´s climate have feedback loops and tipping points that we are fast approaching, with potentially catastrophic results. This is part of why news regarding methane emissions in the arctic, and the rise of deepwater ocean temperatures contribute to the sense of urgency for climate action now.
- This lovely article about fungi and their incredible importance is worth a look.
- And as we always like to end on a positive note, this video about regenerative farming is incredibly inspiring, and a good indicator of what is possible even under extreme conditions, with a simple change of attitude.