I have always dreamed about going to the rainforest. When I was little I always saw pictures of the bright dart frogs, the colorful beaked toucans, and the slithery snakes. It has been incredible being able to see them in person. I remember in high school I took AP environmental science and learned a lot about the world. It has been amazing seeing habitat fragmentation, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and nature. But how did I get here? In high school I took a class that changed my life forever, AP environmental science (or APES for short). My teacher ignited my interest in planetary health. He make each person feel involved and included. This caused me to do some research of my own when looking into topics such as invasive species and carbon sinks. I knew I wanted to do a study abroad trip but which one? As soon as soon as I started reading about Costa Rica that this was the one for me.
The flights: This was a tough part for me because it felt like I had just gotten home and then I was off for another three weeks. I woke up early and my dad drove me to the airport. It was nice getting to spend just a few more minutes with him. As I arrived to the check in I immediately noticed the long line. I was not scared because I had arrived with plenty of time. But here is where disaster struck, the kiosks were not accepting my card. I tried for about 30 minutes at all of them but eventually had to give up and go wait for an attendant. This is where I started getting scared, the line was long and I didn’t have a lot of time before my flight. Luckily I was able to get my bag checked very quickly when I got to the front and then I raced towards security. Security went by very fast and I sped walked to my gate. Then I saw that I still had 15 minutes until boarding and I was relieved. After the first flight landed I got off and found my next flight. Luckily it was right next to my last one and it had three minutes until boarding. Getting onto that flight was easy but the facial recognition software was cool. Upon landing I had to go through custom which wasn’t great but it was super quick. Then I met up with everyone at the meeting location and we got on the bus to go to La Selva.
La Selva: When I first saw my room I was terrified. It did not have air conditioning and the weather is very hot and humid. We had screen windows which let in hot air. Luckily we had a fan that helped keep us cool. The first few night were rough because of the heat and humidity but i think I am used to it now. My favorite part so far has been seeing all the cool animals. My personal favorites have been the bright frogs but the leafcutter ants are also super cool. The first morning we were her we took a hike and saw multiple sloths which was amazing. I had been worried that it would be super hard to see everything because of the dense forest and camouflage. In my free time I began trying to explore a little more of La Selva. I found the library which is nice and recently discovered they have ice cream we can buy. So far I have had a great time seeing all the animals and being in nature.
Animals: We have seen a lot of cool animals on the different hikes. I have seen sloths, monkey, snakes, toucans, and many other things. I think it is super cool to think about how each of them have evolved to have different advantages and what helps them here. For example the howler monkey makes noises in order to distance itself from other groups while also letting other groups know that it is their territory. I have also enjoyed watching the golden orb spider because I remember learning about it when I was younger by watching Wild Kratts. It is amazing to see the things I only saw in books and in tv in real life.
Research Project: I knew I wanted to do something with insects. I had been watching the leafcutter and looking up how they work which caused me to choose something related to that. When we did the project speed-dating I found one other person who wanted to work with insects so that was perfect. We decided we wanted to focus on pesticide affect on part of the rainforest but we ran into a few problems. The formaldehyde levels are low at all of our locations so we need to pick a different variable to focus on. The hike between locations is super cool because it has a bridge over a stream of water with rocks. A lot of the views from the bridges look like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. I am hoping we are able to collect more data in order to find a correlation between the variables.
It has been super fun meeting new people on the trip. I met one other person on my flight and the others during the hikes. I have loved hiking and playing cards with people which makes me super excited for the rest of the trip. I think that exploring the other places is going to be a blast. I am most excited for the waterfall place because it sounds amazing and I cant wait to go swimming. My favorite things so far have been the people and the views. I’m so excited for the rest of this trip.
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