I returned to the camp tonight after spending three days on the frontier of northern Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua. My host for the trip was Marcus Rojas, the agriculture professor who led the Costa Rica delegation to Carroll County last summer, and his friend Miguel Guzaman, who manages a 4,000 hectare ranch. The trip to the ranch took us across the San Carlos coastal plain, an agricultural area that was cleared of forest only about 60 years ago, and now supports large dairy farms, banana and sugar cane plantations, and many smaller farms that grow yucca and many other fruits and vegetables. Traveling north the towns became smaller and smaller, and the roads became much more primitive. The last town was Chaparon, where we began navigating roads that were passable only by four-wheel drive vehicle.

We stayed at Miguel's cabin nestled between two large hills covered by secondary rain forest, and surrounded by land that was deforested and converted to agriculture 40 years ago, then reforested about 10 years ago. The land here is rolling; the soil is very poor, clayey and subject to erosion. The roads are especially bad; the few people who live here travel by horseback. Miguel's cabin had no electricity and relied on water piped from the rain forest.

During a hike up one of the hills, we saw monkeys, parrots, two species of frogs, a large type of ant that has a dangerous sting, and bats that roost under palm leaves and fly out when you brush against them. The most remarkable tree in this forest is called Amendro, which has a beautiful, hard wood prized for interior walls of houses. We measured one tree, known as the "grandfather tree" that was 178 ft. tall, 27 ft. in circumference, and 120 ft. crown spread.