Week 5: Santa Rosa National Park

For our last week, we left the small town of San Juanillo and went north to Santa Rosa National Park. Nature wise, this was my favorite place. Within an hour of arriving we saw an anteater and several families of capuchin monkeys. We stayed at the park's field station which was one of the best in the country but was still in the middle of the forest with the accompanied snakes, cicadas, and scorpions near your bed at night. My plastic container, previously meant for snacks, soon became a communal tool for trapping and relocating insects out of the room. 

Photo credit: Quinn Maynard                                        Photo credit: Sergio Padilla

Unlike many of our national parks in the US, Costa Rica's national parks are made to make animals comfortable, not people. It is illegal to handle any animal without a permit. This includes removing a wasp nest from outside your door. No tree branches can be cut nor plants altered without permission. Killing or injuring anything alive in the entire country can lead to being fined or even served jail time, depending on the scale of the crime. 

On a morning birding walk, I saw a white tailed deer crossing the dirt road with a car coming toward it. I shouted out, thinking the car might hurt the deer, but it was thankfully nowhere close to hitting it. The group leader, a local to Costa Rica, assured me that deers being killed by cars is "not a thing." He says the most frequent he has heard of such a thing happening is maybe once a year in certain parts of a country. It's not because the roads are less paved or people drive more carefully (which is what I thought). Deers do not attempt to cross big highways or roads because there are wildlife crossings dug underneath the highway for wildlife to cross. In national parks, you cannot physically go past a certain speed due to how the roads are structured and the consequences of injuring an animal. The only road kill I saw in my time in Costa Rica was land crabs and two baby iguanas. 

I learned over time that conservation is one of the things that unites the people of this country. People across political parties and different backgrounds and ideas value the wildlife and biodiversity of Costa Rica. If someone is hunting illegally or harming an animal, the people around them will involve the police or put a stop to it themselves. This type of behavior is absolutely not tolerable. While we were abroad, the president of Costa Rica got in big trouble for downplaying a complaint about illegal logging in one part of the country, saying that only 23 trees were cut. People across the country and political sides were livid and the statement was all over the news. 

Conservation and biodiversity is valued in large part because of ecotourism. Tourism is one of Costa Rica's main economies and locals benefit greatly from people paying to visit to see their country's incredible organisms and experiences. There is still a problem with poaching and other long-term issues, but overall the country did a hard pivot from where they were a hundred years ago. I am very grateful to all the conservationists and policies and dedicated people who made it so that I can continue their line of work and help support the Olive Ridley and Green Sea turtle population, stay at a gorgeous national park, and be so immersed in Costa Rica's nature and culture.

I still have not fully processed how much I have learned and changed in these five weeks. I have more confidence in myself and a clearer goal in life. I truly want everyone who wants to to have the opportunity to have this same experience, and I will never take it for granted. 

A baby white tailed dear. Photo credit: Quinn Maynard

Lookout from Santa Rosa National Park. Photo credit: Quinn Maynard