Week 1: Pura Vida!

There is already so much to say about my time in Costa Rica with just one week of being here. 

On our first day of arriving, we were picked up by one of our leaders, who is also a UCSD alumni. We were brought to a hotel about 20 minutes from the airport, Hotel La Rivieria in Liberia, where we would spend our first night. I had prepared for Costa Rica to be hot and humid, but the humidity was definitely still an adjustment, especially compared to San Diego's climate. The humidity definitely hit me hard while we were waiting to be picked up from the airport, however I have already started to get used to it within this first week. 

Once we were settled in, the whole class got to enjoy a delicious meal at a local restaurant a short walk away, as shown below. My favorite part of the meal was definitely the fried plantains, but it was all delicious! This was also a great time to officially meet all of the students I would study and live with for the next five weeks. 

                                               

After a little bit of shopping the next morning in town, we drove about three hours to our first stop, San Juanillo. When we first arrived we got assigned to a host family that we are staying with for the next week. My host mom is absolutely incredible, and although she does not speak English, we have been able to communicate through a translator app. I was also lucky to be placed with a roommate who is fluent in Spanish, so she has been graciously helping me as well. I have definitely been learning lots of Spanish here quickly! One of my favorite moments so far with my host mom was making tortillas with her. Nothing could top the tortillas she makes, and it was a super fun experience!

Since arriving, we have also been able to see many unique animals, including many different species of butterflies and other bugs, birds, crabs, and reptiles. There was even a crab in our bathroom at one point! There are also many dogs roaming around the town at all times, and one even followed our class on a hike to the beach.

We have also been able to start completing fieldwork for our class. On the first day, we got to go into the forest and measure tree density. While in the forest we were able to see so many more unique organisms. Costa Rica has incredible biodiversity, especially regarding insects! We could also hear the howler monkeys in the forest, although I have been unable to see them so far. We also did mark-and-recapture experiments on hermit crabs on Playa San Juanillo. The beach here has an incredible amount of hermit crabs, and our group caught over one thousand hermit crabs alone. I am excited to continue doing more and more research! We will be leaving San Juanillo soon, making our way over to Ostional for two weeks. Although I will miss my host family here, we will get to come back towards the end of our trip, which I greatly look forward to.

Overall, my time so far in Costa Rica has been an incredible and unique experience. From the different food, organisms, and weather it has been a very rewarding and new experience so far. I am excited for more!