Kalamazoo College Professor of Biology Paul Sotherland led an 8 day alumni trip to Costa Rica in November of 2015. The trip sold out quickly.

Tour Highlights Included:

• Discovering the rainforest surrounding the Arenal Volcano from a unique perspective on the Arenal Hanging Bridges tour
• Taking a floating safari through the tropical rainforest to visit the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge
• Hiking the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest and viewing this area’s amazing biodiversity
• Experiencing turtles nesting at night, one of the most incredible phenomena of Mother Nature
• Taking a tropical sunset cruise

A message about the trip from Paul Sotherland in 2015:

Alumni and Friends,

I am interested primarily in the ecological physiology of vertebrate eggs. Much of my attention for the past 40 years has been on factors affecting developmental trajectories of birds, turtles, and alligators while they develop in their eggs. For several field seasons at Playa Grande, Costa Rica, I focused on trying to understand how leatherback turtle embryos develop while in nests buried nearly one meter below the surface of the sand. So…come with me to Costa Rica, where we will explore cloud forests near an active volcano and beaches on the Pacific coast. ¡Pura vida!

– Paul Sotherland