My time here in Nicaragua has allowed me to confirm at least one of my theories: the life of an ecologist is the life for me. I entered Refugio Bartola with only the slightest hint of what field ecology was. And, most of that was from nature documentaries. Now, I leave with my own perspective on fieldwork and with an even greater passion for life as an ecologist. My experiences here are a mixture of many misfortunes and many insights, but I would not have preferred it any other way. For all of the unpredictable events in nature, along with the rainy days, there are far more amazing discoveries that are made. It is this close dichotomy of the good and bad that makes all these experiences worthwhile. I truly felt that sense of serendipity that so many ecologists have written about in the past. Spontaneous luck was with me throughout my stay, and allowed me to stumble upon so many insights and connections about the tropics. In fact, my stay was so serendipitous that I could probably bottle it up and sell it.

Where do I begin with my series of fortunate events? Two weeks ago I was working with a wasp ant until the kids brought me another one, asking me to put them together. I never would have guessed it would lead to a novel observation. The two ants locked jaws together, and my jaw dropped in amazement. It was only until the last day of fieldwork that the mystery would be solved, when I happened to stumble on an ant carrying another ant, jaws locked. Did I mention this ant can curl up and look like a spider? Imagine my shock when I found an insect with that same black and yellow-stripped abdomen, curled up in a leaf. Except it wasn’t the ant, it was the spider I was predicting would exist! Frolicking in the forest has granted me so many amazing sights, many of which could have easily escaped my gaze. I saw a beautiful Amevia lizard basking in the direct sunlight, allowing it to glisten in the full spectrum of the rainbow. There was a blue serpentine-like mosquito hovering around me, always near but out of my reach. I chased it for half an hour until I finally got it on camera. I found a lizard that looks like the moon, a leaf-like moth that shivers like a leaf in the wind, a spider with her babies slowly descending from her back, and two elusive leaf hoppers standing next to each other and displaying their tails in an elegant yet mysterious way. All of these sights are just a small fragment of the picturesque beauty that exists in nature. Despite all my serendipitous discoveries, I know I have barely scratched the surface of what is out there. This only leaves me more driven to explore nature, and fuels my passion becoming a great behavioral ecologist.