After a great deal of hard work, and more than our fair share of “dumb jar” moments, all teams finished recording their sections of the Brick Site. After surfacing, we were treated with a quick boat trip to Cahuita Point to mark the end of site recording. Here we ate coconuts and checked out some … Read more
Today, a small group of us went back to El Lanchon in Puerto Viejo to take measurements of the structure. I finished up photography for the photogrammetry of the top of the barge structure while Wale and Scott ran a baseline along the structure and took measurements of significant features. These included spots of erosion, … Read more
Another beautiful morning for diving in Cahuita! The goals of the field school are progressing well, and at this rate we should complete all our tasks by the time we head back to Greenville, North Carolina! We were back working on the brick site today. The entire crew really worked well and came together as … Read more
Today, our team (Lauren and Scott) continued to map our unit at the Brick Site. After refining our technique over the past few days, we found that we were becoming quite efficient at the task. We were also able to increase our bottom time through slow deliberate breathing in order to conserve air; some of … Read more
On our day off, the team decided to visit the Bri Bri, an indigenous group in the Talamanca Mountains. Before I explain about Bri Bri, perhaps I should start at the beginning. Our day started at 8:30 in the morning when we found ourselves loading into a mini bus with our cheery driver Carlos. Jorge … Read more
Today, a group of us returned to the brick site to continue working on our units. Most of the bricks lie between 20 and 30 meters on the baseline, approximately, so the buddy teams assigned to these two units were required to complete a large amount of detailed drawing. We (Katie and Emily) have been … Read more
Sunday marked the end of the first week of our field school here in Costa Rica. For most of us, getting on the plane a week ago feels like the distant past. A lot has happened since we arrived in this beautiful coastal town. On any given day, we are up at 7am for breakfast. After … Read more
Nine days in and the team continues to roll right along. Work on the Cannon Site was nearly completed today after Hannah, Kelsey, and I donned our SCUBA gear and slipped beneath the surface to complete a few trilateration measurements. Our goal for the morning: map in some of the larger coral heads that dot … Read more
Today we only had two boats available to take us to the wreck sites. The snorkel group, which included Dr. Harris, Dr. Richards, Kelsey, Wale, and I, elected to hike through Cahuita National Park to get to the brick scatter near the Cannon site. This brick scatter was only recently discovered when Dr. Harris and … Read more
Last night, after a very busy day at our sites, Jeremy and I decided to have some cold drinks at Coco’s bar, arguably the most popular in Cahuita. A band group called Kawa was playing and the atmosphere was nice. I noticed a man walk in and asked the bar man for some drinks. After … Read more