It’s no surprise to most people who know me that I was a bit apprehensive about this study abroad trip. After being incredibly excited when I found out the trip was happening, it all became slightly overwhelming when the reality set in: I was going to a foreign country for three weeks directly after the end of finals, and I was not prepared at all. Even after completing the long travel day to get to La Selva (which is consistently the part of traveling I dread the most), I was still concerned about my time here. It probably didn’t help that within 30 minutes of arriving, there were puma and bullet ant sightings, leaving me wondering if I was going to make it out of here alive.
However, the next morning dawned bright and warm, and as I walked to breakfast, I couldn’t help but feel more optimistic about the beautiful sights and sounds around me. During our first guided hike, the forest felt so alive—we saw so many incredible plants and animals, including sloths, a toucan, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and an iguana (or a Costa Rican dinosaur as our tour guide liked to call it). Throughout my environmental science and biology classes in school, I have learned about the complex relationships between organisms which make up the thriving ecosystems seen around the world. However, seeing these relationships in person was another experience entirely!
It is incredibly rewarding to get to learn from tour guides who are so knowledgeable and comfortable with the rain forest. The way they are able to spot an animal from 50 meters away is insanely impressive! One thing they said that really stuck out to me is the importance of listening for animals, not just trying to look for them. Ever since, I have tried to be more mindful of walking silently and listening for sounds in the forest, rather than talking. I honestly feel like this behavior change has led to more opportunities to notice the incredible animals of the rain forest. I feel really proud when I myself find an animal, rather than someone pointing it out to me. Once on a hike, Nick and I spotted two capuchin monkeys hanging out in the tree and just stopped what we were doing to watch them for several minutes. Eventually, to our dismay, we realized that we needed to keep moving otherwise we would miss dinner.
Another thing that is so cool about being surrounded by nature is that every second is different, with different animals making a variety of sounds. For example, after the night hike, one of the other groups came up to my group sitting in the cafeteria and asked us if we saw the boa constrictor on the bridge. We were so surprised because when we had crossed the bridge five minutes prior, there wasn’t a snake in sight! We all rushed back to the bridge in an attempt to see the boa constrictor, but it wasn’t on the ground where they had just seen it. All of a sudden, someone spotted it further down on the cable of the bridge, and we all watched it slither onto a branch on its journey back into the forest. It is so interesting to me how much can change in such a short amount of time!
Every day at the end of my journal entry, I have been writing down the coolest thing I saw that day. The entries range from the Belize Barrier Reef on my flight down to a Blue Morpho butterfly. However, the most amazing thing I have experienced so far actually happened on our night hike, which is funny to me because I was very nervous about it. At one point, our tour guide picked up a piece of rotting wood and told us to hold it in our hands and turn off all of our flashlights. When we did, we were left in the pitch black of the forest, but not for long. Suddenly, the wood in our hands began to glow a light blue color. My jaw dropped as he told us about the bioluminescent fungi growing on this piece of rotting wood. Apparently, this type of bioluminescence is fairly common in marine ecosystems, but not on land. I felt incredibly lucky to be able to experience this with the other members of my group and I will definitely be telling my friends and family back home about it!
Most of our time here at La Selva has been spent working on our research project, which has been a daunting yet rewarding task. For our project, Nick and I are examining the relationship between canopy coverage and the biodiversity of butterflies by observing the Warszewiczia coccinea plant in three different settings and counting the number of different species we spot at these locations. It has been challenging to create a research proposal and begin collecting data in such a short time frame, but I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to conduct an observational study in Costa Rica, where I am able to see things that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet.
As expected from a study abroad trip, we are always broadening our experiences, whether that be listening to a lecture about primate research, watching a sloth sleep in a tree, or sprinting past the tarantula that lingers near the door to our room. I love that no matter where I am or what I am doing on this trip, I am always experiencing something new—and so is everyone else! I find myself looking forward to mealtimes because we all come together and share the incredible things we’ve seen. In just six short days, we’ve created a sense of community that would have taken months to develop in Bloomington, if at all. I am really excited to see what adventures the rest of this trip brings!
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