The little vegetation that is left in the wetland at Palo Verde is being punished by cattle. The patch on the left is primarily water hyacinth, some of which is actually living (although cattle do a good job of taking care of that). On the right… nothing but sparce patches of some spiny plant.
When I arrived at my current field site today, I started chopping a branch with my machete and found this larva with a gigantic head, presumibly housing huge muscles for chomping through bark/wood. My guess is a beetle larva.
While at the station in San Ramon, we decided to hike the 12 km down the mountian to buy some beer at Soda Los Lagos, a small restuarant at the bottom. On the way down, I took some pictures of ornamental plants being grown in the foreground, with mountainous rainforest in the background…. kind of sad but cool at the same time. The other picture shows Erin and Mike reaching Los Lagos with a team time of 2:23… which won me 2 free beers.
More cascades from Rio San Lorencito. We pseudo-repelled down the larger waterfall. 
An interesting bug that appears to camoflauge as a lichen.
This is a veiw of the laguna from La Roca, another small mountain overlooking the flood plain of Rio Tempisque. Those dark areas may look like water, but they are just dark, dry soil. There is no water and my research plan is now in the midst of changing…
I was stung yesterday by this scorpion (Centruroides margaritatus) that had decided to hide in a sink.
While playing soccer with the folks here in Palo Verde, I got a blister that covers almost the entire ball of my foot. I made the thumbnail of a picture I took of the wound small, so if you find it disgusting it’s more difficult to see. I cut off some of the skin that had begun tearing off, but the rest is still intact. There’s currently no soreness after two days but it hurt quite a bit just after finishing our game.
Stream anoles (Norops oxylophus) were scattered throughout the Río San Lorencito. Every chance I got, I caught them and examined their bright dewlap. They are a relatively large anole and were able to dive underwater, but more often would simple swim across the surface. Those that did make it underwater would be covered in a blue-ish shine where air bubbles were adhered to their scales.