Don, his wife Becky, and their granddaughter Briana recently returned from spending almost three weeks at a field station in a rain forest in Nicaragua, along with UCLA faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduates.  Our location was way off the beaten track, even for ”eco-tourists”, and could only be reached by a three-hour boat trip on Rio San Juan.  No hot water or space heating or cooling, running water most but not all of the time, no electricity in our rooms, no windows, and no Internet.  Sort of like a near-zero energy building. Don's presentation will include photos that give some sense of why we went, what it took to get there, the field station itself, activities at the station, and getting back to LA.  But most of the presentation will focus on what it was like to be in the rain forest: trails, trees, streams, rivers, flowers, fungi, and all manner of "critters" from tiny poison dart frogs to snakes and caimans to several species of monkeys and a wild cat.  It was a great adventure, and perhaps you will also get a sense of why Don, Becky and Briana would, given the opportunity, go back in an instant.