Hola Costa Rica🌴
Our first week in Costa Rica has been absolutely unforgettable. We stayed at a hotel in San Juanillo, where we completed the first part of our course about tropical ecology. Every day brought something new to learn, explore, and experience. One of the main focuses of the week was learning how to study forest structure. We collected data in the field by measuring tree circumference and estimating tree density, and then learned how to analyze our data using R. We also conducted a capture-mark-recapture study on hermit crabs. My groupmates and I carefully marked the individuals with nail polish and recollected them a few days later to estimate population size. It was fascinating to see how ecological research and fieldwork described in textbooks actually work in real life. Costa Rica is incredibly hot and humid. By the end of every field session, we were completely soaked in sweat, and the insects definitely kept us company. At first, the climate was challenging to ...
