Welcome to...

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We are all waking up really early - around 6am when the sun comes up. After breakfast we loaded up the golf carts with spades, sieves and sampling jars and we were ready to go panning for worms. We ventured out to the mangroves on the other side of the island, where we were relieved to find that the wind was much less intense.

Above: Helena is ready to find some worms in the Bahamian sand

Once we reached the marina we had to get out to the sampling site and what better way than to kayak. Then we had to do some serious digging, put the muddy sand into a bucket and kayak the samples back to the shore. To be fair, Nick did a lot of the hard work!

It was then up to Diva and Helena to sieve through all the mud, this may sound easy but when you’re looking for tiny creatures you have to be very precise and it can take quite a while.

We found a few large creatures, such as sea cucumbers and a giant anemone, but the really exciting stuff is only visible under the microscope. Helena was really excited as she thinks she has found a new species of the marine worm Ophryotrocha under the microscope! Obviously we can't tell for sure until we get back to the Museum but it's great to think that it might be so.

Above: Could this be a new species of the marine worm Ophryotrocha?

One of the other highlights of the day was that Gill got to see Cassiopeia jellyfish for the first time in the wild!

Above: Cassiopeia made Gill’s day!

After lunch (which was rice and beans!) we spent a good part of the day testing REX before we send him into the deep later in the week. Adrian and Leigh set up a mission control in a repurposed bathroom on the beach and we sat and watched REX manoeuvre through the shallow sea grass beds.

Above: Yes, Adrian is sitting on a toilet!

Here is when REX met a lionfish…

On Thu 8 Mar (which is tomorrow for me as I write this) we'll be linking live to the Attenborough Studio so do join us if you can!

Last night we had lentils instead of beans and I almost cried with joy. They were amazing and had small pieces of pork nestling in the juice. Yum...

A bit of yeti red-eye going on there!
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I have been given a nickname by Daniel, our Costa Rican collaborator. He is known as Santa - to be fair, that is his actual name (he’s Daniel Santa Maria) - and I am now known as ‘Yeti’ - due to my large boots.

Daniel amused himself no end with jokes about collecting Yeti footprints for the Museum. My Spanish is too poor to be clever in the response so I’m accepting my fate: I am the mythical giant of the Himalayas with huge boots.

In the night we were woken by an earthquake - it felt quite gentle (we were sleeping on the floor) but this report shows it was actually quite strong!

I was sleeping so deeply that my main emotion was one of annoyance at being awoken rather than fear. Still, an experience none the less!

We got up early, had a second bash at the lentils and set off for our collecting site for the day – Cerro Tararia. The walk was incredible, a lot of scrambling up and down.

This place is amazing, a rocky outcrop with views that stretch for miles.

We are 2,730 metres above sea level and our coordinates today are N 09 08 52.0 W 082 58 02.7 (click to see on a map).

The sound is a little obscured at times in the film above due to the wind (sorry about that), but you can make out Alex saying that Panama isn't far from where we are, and the border is visible on the map linked above.

The views from the top are stunning.

Species of the day is a member of the genus Schultesia. Daniel is not sure whether it is a new species or not but he has never before seen a Schultesia with purple flowers as they are normally white.

Alex and Neil were discussing what it could be pollinated by and decided it was probably bats. The flower’s pistil and stamen are quite a long way apart from each other and it has a long tubular corolla, so a bat’s long tongue would be the perfect tool!

We are just debating whether to sleep on the rock or walk back to the camp. Sleeping out here would be incredible. I’ll let you know if we did or not tomorrow!

Today we rose early! By 7.00 we had left base camp and were beginning the 6-8 hour trek [I sit here smug, we did it in just over 6] to the hut that is to be our home for the next week and a bit. Breakfast was rice and beans (a theme is emerging!).

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The first half of the trek was uphill (i.e. absolutely knackering) but the views from the occasional break in the canopy were breathtaking and kept us pushing on.

We are working alongside Costa Rican botanists, one of whom is Daniel. He has an incredible knowledge of the local environment and found this plant, Satyria warszewiczii on our trek.

The flower’s corolla (a corolla is when all of the flower’s petals have fused into a tube) is edible and tastes a little bit like bitter lemon or blueberries (or vinegar depending on who you ask!):

After 4 hours we reached the continental divide, the point at which Costa Rica splits between Atlantic and Pacific forest. Water that falls either side of this divide ends up in either the Pacific or Atlantic ocean. Alex had a unique way of explaining this:

The forest changed dramatically once we were on the Atlantic side - on the Pacific side our path had been dry and dusty but once we crossed over, the forest was damper, darker, cooler and wetter. This is because the prevailing wind blows from the West.

The wind picks up moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea and carries it to the western Atlantic slopes of the forest before dumping it there. Therefore, because less water reaches the Pacific side, it’s much drier.

The rain increased as we got closer to our hut. We arrived damp and tired but very excited about the days ahead.

The camp is made from naturally fallen trees from the forest and the roof is corrugated iron - the sound of the rain drumming above me as I sit inside with a coffee is wonderful!

I’ll post some more pictures of the camp tomorrow - the battery in my camera has run out of juice and our generator is not yet up and running.

However, we found some really nice things on the way, this is a beetle grub:

And this beautiful moth:

I'll have to see if the Museum's enotmologists know what species they are...

Tomorrow we start collecting and the hard work begins but Holger has already had success after popping down to a nearby stream and finding two species of lichen never recorded in Costa Rica before.

Tonight, more beans and rice and early to bed.

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Remember we'll be live-linking from Costa Rica to the Museum's Attenborough Studio at 12:30 and 14:30 on Saturday 11, Sunday 16 and Saturday 18 February so, if you are in London, come along to see how we are getting on!

The Attenborough Studio is located in the Darwin Centre in the Museum's Orange Zone.