Tomorrow will be one week since we arrived in Costa Rica! We’ve spent the past week at La Selva Biological Station, and we’ve got about five more days here. It’s been a wonderful experience so far! Upon arriving, there were a few things that hit me, first being the humidity. I’ve been to Japan a few times before which has a similar humidity level in the summers, but it’s a different animal without air conditioning. There are two accessible places with air conditioning at the station, those being the reception and the library/laboratory. It’s a nice place to recuperate after sweating. Outside essentially feels like the tropical room of a greenhouse, but inescapable! I don’t mind it too much–I’ve been loving the tropical climate and the lush and diverse flora & fauna it promotes. The second thing that surprised me was actually the driving! We’ve only experienced it a few times as we’ve primarily stayed at the station, but upon leaving the airport, it was clear how different the driving is from the U.S. Here, it’s a little more chaotic. There are many motorcycles driving along the middle line and just on the edges of the road, and there are quite often people walking along the sides of busy roads. It was impressive how well the bus driver was able to navigate such a large vehicle on such small and busy roads.
Upon arriving at La Selva, it became very clear that having a constant sheen of moisture on my skin was going to be the norm. After eating a delicious meal that was saved for us because of our late arrival, we made our way to our lodgings. It was pretty intense lugging our suitcases all the way and up the stairs to the River Station, but we managed it! After an entire 36 hours with about 4 hours of intermittent sleeping, I was ready to go to bed. I fell asleep very quickly after a shower. The showers are a little cold, but it compliments the humidity and heat of the outside. It was probably the first time where I wasn’t freezing getting out of the shower!
I quickly learned the next day to secure my food. I left a sealable bag of crackers open a microscopic amount in the morning, and found about 20 little ants looking around my backpack for the source of that wonderful smell in the afternoon. Luckily, none of them had made it into the cracker bag, but getting them out of my backpack was an ordeal. I’ve since secured my open food in a ziploc bag away from the floor and haven’t had any more incidents.
The same day, we went on our first hike in the secondary forest! It was so cool to see a tropical forest in person. On almost every tree, there are epiphytic plants growing on them. There are so many layers of nature that make these forests so awesome to be in, from the monkeys in the trees to the critters crawling along the forest floor. It was on this hike that we saw the pink banana, the invasive plant I’m doing my research project on! I didn’t anticipate my research subject, but I’m excited to start researching in a few days and see what we find!
The third day was a pretty relaxed day. After breakfast, I ended up taking a nap to recover since our schedules have been from 6 AM to 10 PM, something I’m not used to! I went on a hike with some friends through the primary forest. It is definitely shadier than the secondary forest, and there were many more large trees. We walked through a path surrounded by ant mounds; I can’t imagine how many ants they hold! Over the past week, almost the entire group has been captivated by leaf cutter ants. They’re cute, carrying their leaves back home to farm fungus to eat! It’s so cool to see the different roles the ants play, like the small ones cleaning the leaf while the bigger one carries it back to base. They also make little trails through the grass and use vines as paths up into the trees, reminiscent of a highway with just how many are on the move.
After the hike through the primary forest, we met with the professors to discuss our research proposals and ate dinner a bit later. We did a round of speed dating with the research ideas to find potential partners for the project. The diversity of the ideas was cool to hear! I had a lot of fun discussing projects one-on-one with people.
The next morning, we hauled ourselves out of bed at around 5 AM to go on a bird hike! I saw a lot of cool birds, but my favorite is probably the green macaw. They’re so beautiful! They remind me of the movie Rio a little bit. I love how colorful the birds are here, it contrasts to the many brown birds we have in Indiana. We have the male cardinal, the bluejays, and a few yellow birds, but nothing compares to the colors here, not to mention the sizes and shapes birds come in! On the hike, we also saw howler monkeys and a sloth. The sloth looked like a basket of leaves hanging from the tree.
I really feel like this trip is making me more comfortable with nature, especially bugs. It kind of forces you to, with the sheer abundance of them all over. It can barely compare to the bugs you see in Indiana. But I’m not complaining!
The highlight of the next day was the night hike. We saw so many bugs, a few frogs, and a tiny snake! My favorite was the famous red-eyed tree frog.
Yesterday, we went to a pineapple farm! That was pretty much the highlight of the week for a few reasons. It was interesting to see where the pineapples we see in stores come from and to find out how they’re grown. The guide even told me how to grow my own from the crown of a store-bought pineapple! We ate pineapples fresh off the plant, along with dried pineapple, fresh pineapple juice, and piña coladas! It was delicious, but at the end I was a little overwhelmed with pineapple and ready to eat dinner back at the cafeteria.
This first week has challenged me but has also brought so many new experiences. I’m grateful for this opportunity and the community of students this program has created. I’m looking forward to the next two weeks here in Costa Rica.
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