A tiny and bright inhabitant of the forest

What is that sound?  A persistent buzz, perhaps?  Mechanical?  It’s coming from a particular location, and you hear it there, in that same place, in the daytime. Is it an insect?  A power tool?  Or maybe it’s the sound of one of the rainforest’s tiniest citizens, the Blue Jean Poison Dart Frog.   Scientists call […]
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The Best Insecticide

Surprising invaders greeted us this morning.  From Photo 1 you can see what are known as warrior ants or soldier ants, and they streamed into our office. Their way of life is to move through the rainforest, in columns like the Roman armies. For that reason they are also called legionary ants. You can see them moving […]
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Insight of our guests experiences

“A friendly, peaceful getaway on the jungle’s doorstep” yesterdayReviewed by ericasullivan18 on Trip Advisor As visitors to Costa Rica on a tight schedule, we knew we wanted to focus on one area. I found Luna Nueva first, and it looked like such a great place that I planned our entire trip around it. We rented […]
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Vanilla and its conservation problems

The spice known by the name of vanilla has historically been obtained from various species of orchids. These species belong to the genus Vanilla, and some of the more common are: V. planifolia, V. Cribbiana, V. insignis, V. odorata, and V. pompona. V. planifolia (Photo 1) is the most cultivated species in the world. All of […]
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Translocation of eggs

Hello everyone. This morning when we arrived at the farm while we were reviewing one of the ponds of the property we found a strange foam floating on the water (Photo 1). This is a manner of egg laying by an amphibian Photo 1: Amphibian egg laying, foam reduces predation. The central rectangle is a […]
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Story of a silent war

The Passifloraceae family is a pantropical family of plants. It is represented in all tropical and subtropical climates of the world, with about 530 different species. Within this family there is a genus of about 300 species called Passiflora. They are called passionflower. Today we will talk a little about this genus and its relationship with […]
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Ice on Fire

Ice on Fire, a feature-length documentary from TreeMedia, has been greenlit by HBO.  The production team is traveling from the North Pole to the deserts to mangroves to the rainforest, capturing on film our existential environmental crisis.  The rainforest segment was just filmed at our farm and lodge, and we were thrilled to participate. The […]
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Shutterbugs!

We enjoy every type of biodiversity at our rainforest ecolodge, and we especially enjoyed the recent invasion of Shutterbugus americanus, otherwise known as the professional and enthusiastic amateur photographers from Creve Coeur Camera, www.cccamera.com,  in the United States.   Led by owner and photographer Stephen Weiss and his instructors Scott Rovak and Tom Tussey, pictured below, […]
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Would you like some topsoil with that salad?

Industrial agribusiness uses harsh methods to produce inferior food.  Toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers distort ecosystems, and there’s almost nothing more damaging than applying steel to soil – otherwise known as tilling.  As a result of agribusiness malpractice, the planet loses about 75 billion tons of top soil per year – ten tons per person […]
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An essay from Steven and Tom

Published on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 by Common Dreams Beyond Wetiko Agriculture: Saving Ourselves from the Soil Up The diagnosis is clear. Now what are we going to do about it? by Tom Newmark, Steven Farrell  6 Comments ‘Business interests chasing enormous short-term profits have waged war against the productive topsoil of the planet,’ warn Newmark and […]
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