2019 Costa Rica International Research Experience

A group of us woke up around 5 am to get to the lookout tower to see the sunrise. We also helped Lucas with getting drone footage which was really fun. After our morning adventure, Jacob and I touched up our presentation and ran through it a few times this morning. Around 1pm, we finally presented our project to the other group and our findings. Our project was looking at forest that was categorized as primary forest, secondary forest, and abandoned pasture. We wanted to see how the habitat and the water quality differed from each other in this categories. We found that abandoned pasture had more diverse community of macro invertebrates which would suggest that it had a better water quality than the other two but the primary forest had better habitat and in the riparian zone and in the stream when a habitat evaluation was done. After all that practice this morning, our presentation didn’t go as planned but we got through it. Now it’s all down hill from here.

Today we put the final touches on our poster by inputting our graphs and wording. The Panama visitors also gave a demonstration on how they make the string to make their bags. At the end of the day a few of us shared some of our culture with the panama visitors and they did the same. Kayonnie from Yakima explain her tattoos and how some represents her dad, mom and brothers and how they protect her. Nicole and Deb from a Wisconsin tribe presented Lucia from panama with tradition ear rings from their tribe. Paula from a northern tribe in California showed the panama visitors a video of a traditional dance. Brea from the fort hall tribe in Idaho explained how to play stick games.

Me, my partner Jacob and our mentor Deb started to analyze our data that we collected out in the field. We also started to put together our presentation poster. I didn’t really get to do much today because I was sick but I put some effort in haha

Today we drove into town to have lunch, and we ate at a pizza joint. It felt good to eat something else besides rice and beans. The Bepsi tasted really good. A group of use also walked around town and we ended up at a coffee shop that served crepes and milkshakes. We spent the afternoon in town and by the time we got back to the center I wasn’t feeling up to doing anything so I slept the rest of the afternoon

The day started off my finding a walking stick on our trail which was an amazing start of the day. We reached our final sampling site and it was right in front of a small water fall. It was a pretty spot, but for some reason, the flies really liked my Jean haha. After we finished collecting data, we attempted to make it to another waterfall site but was not successful. We took our lunch on a trail and during our lunch, a few monkeys were in a tree above us. After lunch we decided to head back to the research grounds and we ran into a spider that was as long as my fingers. One of the most scariest spiders I have ever seen. We were almost back and we ran into the native people here, and they caught a huge butterfly. We were also accompanied by the film crew(Lucas). I would have to say this was the best day here!

Today was an easier hike out to our collection site. Probably cause we knew what we were getting into. We sampled in abandon pasture which may have been like 10-15 years ago. In our Macroinvertebrate sample we saw crabs, mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisfly larva. So our habitat we riparian zone we were able to see plants that were good indicators that there was some tree removal in the past because they are to first to grow when the sunlight is able to reach the ground. Along the hike to our site, we saw some wild bananas and we opened one up and it smelled like cucumbers.

Before we left for our first day of field research, the group got blessed by a chief from a panama reservation. After the blessing, we went on a 5.14 mile hike into our first sampling hike. We did two kinds of samples. Like from my previous blog I mention we are doing two kinds of sampling that we look at the BMIs and habitat assessment. We also went and tried to look for a waterfall but with no success. During the hike out to the area, I kept telling myself “I’m in Costa Rica” and that’s what put my situation in perspective and I enjoyed my day even more.

Today we got a tour of the research center. I got a bunch of pictures of plants and a few of birds and other animals.  I would if never thought that a species of a pineapple grew in the area. After the tour of the research center, we went on a hike down a trail to the Java river. It was a long hike but it was worth it because of diversity of trees and plants that I would have never seen. My group then got together and figured out our hypothesis’s and a plan on how to answer our hypothesis’s. We figured we would do a BMI sampling and habitat assessment sampling in one stream with three different habitats.

We started off the day by driving to the research center and had a few stops along the way. The first stop, we looked at the high elevation biome (paramo). It was very windy and cold. We then stopped to get some lunch, and I had an hard time ordering but managed to communicating by saying “no” most of the time haha. I also tried tongue which is not my favorite. After lunch we had a few rest room breaks in between the trip to the research center. I got to say it was a long day but I enjoyed the ride and scenery.

Today was a good day compared to yesterday. Yesterday was so long. Anyways today I got to met the mentors and fellow students. My mentor is Deb, and Jacob is also in the same group as me. Deb explained what types of data we would be collecting and it sounds like a stream habitat assessment. I am excited to get back into the stream and conduct surveys, but I am not excited about the snakes. The food here at the hotel is really good. Paula is pretty hilarious because of how she joked with the waiter all the time. I can’t wait for the rest of the Costa Rica experience.