Costa Rica is the most ecologically minded country in the world, preserving 1/3 of its land for wilderness. The size of the US state of West Virginia, Costa Rica’s environment is incredibly diverse — it has rainforests, cloud forests, tropical beaches, dry uplands, and many, many volcanoes. Going on nature tours and hiking, I was […]
Costa Rica Wildlife Read More »
Here are some photographs of the coral reefs of the Cahuita National Park in Costa Rica, founded in 1970. Here, 5,600 acres of protected waters preserve 123 types of fish, 35 types of coral, along with a multitude of mollusks, crustaceans, and algae. In fact, the coral reef here is only one out of two
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The National Park of Cahuita on the Carribean side of Costa Rica was created in 1970, and is part of the extensive system of wildlife protection which is the hallmark of that country. It includes 2,700 acres of tropical rainforest abutting a coral reef) containing an enormous range of biodiversity. You can see the vegetation
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The ruins of Guayaba, located in the Center of Costa Rica near the Turrialba Volcano, are the country’s most ancient. Those who dwelt here between 1000 BCE and 1400 CE stood at an epicenter of power in the region, and commanded excellent engineering skills which allowed them to construct underground aqueducts, wide imposing roads, and
This is me at Aquiares Coffee Estate, Costa Rica’s largest and oldest coffee plantation, where farmers and specialists have been growing coffee since 1880. As my tour guide Manuel explained, the product that so many people enjoy daily (and perhaps multiple times daily!) only comes to fruition after much time and effort.The Aquiares Coffee Estate
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Turrialba Volcano is the second-highest in Costa Rica, and as you can see, it is still active. At 10,958 feet/3,340 meters, one can see the Carribean from its peak on a clear day. Turrialba was known to the indigenous Huetar people, who may have given the volcano its name from their language (Turiri Aba, meaning
The Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park is a small jewel of a wilderness restoration area found on the southwest border of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Before its foundation in 1975, locals called it the “Old Refuge,” and enjoyed the 305 acres for its hiking, fishing (the Rio Grande is adjacent), and bird-watching. Passionate advocates for
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Along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia is a fascinating rock formation called “Dragon’s Tooth”. It sits atop of a mountain by the same name, and is one of the three “Crown Jewels” of the state beloved by nature-seekers, backpackers, and the like.The photos show first the obvious tooth formation, and second is a rock scramble
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In the midst of the Gila National Forest in New Mexico stands this cross-topped mound. It marks the crypt and burial site of Sergeant James Cooney, and the marker besides the grave tells readers that Cooney was killed by Indians in 1880 as he tried to warn settlers about an upcoming Indian raid. What the
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10,000 years ago is young in geological history. This relatively small number seems counterintuitive when one encounters the vast space of white sands in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico. The dunes here make up the world’s largest gypsum fields: at 275 square miles, they can be seen by astronauts from space.
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Much of south-central Pennsylvania’s landscape is extremely ancient. For instance, a large swath of Cumberland County, where this photo was taken, straddles the Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian Ages, dating from 570 million to 417 million years ago. Limestone was one of the major types of soil generated in these millennia. There was also a mass
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This mother chimpanzee is using stones to crack open a nut, as a child watches and learns. The skill-level needed for this operation is difficult (finding the right anvil-shaped stone, using another proper-sized stone to bang, learning how to position the nut, etc), and it will be until the young chimp is about six before
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Fallingwater is the most iconic home of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for good reason. The building was constructed during the Great Depression, and integrates the natural landscape of running water, stone, and woodlands throughout. Windows and walls beckon to rather than barricade from the outside terraces. Fallingwater was created in the middle of
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Displayed here are the “Amanita Phalloides,” the “Death Cap” mushrooms responsible for 90% of fatalities caused by mushroom poisonings in the world today, and favored by assassins historically. The fungi are said to be delicious, and their toxicity lasts regardless of cooking, freezing, or drying. But the Death Caps’ common looks and tasty flavor belie
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Medieval Europeans lived far more isolated lives than we, and consequently, existed knowing there were vast tracts of lands and cultures to which they had no access. Tales about places necessarily depended on word-of-mouth, supplemented with rare but extremely popular travelogues. And so came to pass stories and legends about an unusual living thing, half-plant
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Malaria has been an extraordinary shaper of history. Dated as far back as 30 million years old, this protoza really took off after the agricultural revolution (not surprising, since it thrives in mosquitos, who love the standing waters that frequently accompany cleared out lands). Some scientists believe Malaria to be the single-biggest killer in human
Malaria and its Shaping of History Read More »
Across the world, prehistoric cultures have marked the landscape with monuments expressed as mounds, circles, and ditches. Anthropologists frequently interpret these structures in light of their astronomical or religious focus, but recent research by Lynne Kelly has argued for a more pragmatic function. It turns out, cultures transitioning from nomadism to full-time agriculture across the
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The rocks shown here lie along the Appalachian Trail close to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania, and are part of one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. Formed over 200 million years ago, the fact that these peaks are relatively small (the highest – in North Carolina – is only just over 6,600 feet) belie
Religious traditions across history have commonly developed rituals around purity and how to properly bury the dead: quite often, these areas overlapped. In the ancient period of the Zoroastrian religion (developing in modern Iran), records of disposing human corpses in a non-polluting way were documented as early as the fifth century BCE. Zoroastrians thought that
After-Death Religious Traditions of the Zoroastrians Read More »
One of my favorite moments in literature comes from the Ancient Roman poet Ovid’s _Metamorphosis_, which weaves together all the myths of the Olympian deities into one narrative. Among the hundreds of tales Ovid relates is the story of the contest between the Goddess Minerva and the young maiden Arachne, whose talents for weaving exquisite
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