Today was our last day in Costa Rica. We started off this morning traveling from Puerto Viejo to San Jose on a long 4 hour bus ride. On our way to Puerto Viejo Alex pointed out the banana plantations and told us to notice the blue bags hanging on the trees. These blue bags covered the bananas to keep animals and bugs away but these blue bags also have chemicals inside them to help the bananas not go bad and ripe as they are being transported to the states and Europe. Alex also informed us as before child labor laws were installed in Costa Rica, young boys around age 13 had a job to move the bananas to the boxes where they would get ready to be exported. Today this job is done by mules. It was neat to be able to drive by all these banana plantations and learn about/ see the banana we eat in the states.
Another interesting fact I learned from Alex on the bus ride was that there really isn't much of a difference between organic and non organic. She told us that if the fruit is organic, they that just means there are no pesticides. Therefore, the organic bananas are covered in plastic. After Alex told us this she brought up a very important point.... Organic bananas that are better for you or worse for the environment?

Carolyn Nowak
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(no subject)

We have been in La Selva for the past few days in the middle of the rainforest which is huge. Last night a few kids on this course, and i went on a night hike with professor Wasko. I got to see some things i never seen in my life before. For example, i saw a snake that was camoflouged into the ground, a few frogs, a cayman in the swamp, and got bitten by army ants. As well as today, i went on a long hike an saw a few humming birds, and cacada's. Tomorrow is a new adventure to the beach, and i can't wait for snorkeling. Michelle Drayer

So today we got to take a day off and do our own thing, and let me say how nice it was! The past week we've been getting up at 6:30 and it was nice to finally sleep in. With my free day I got up went to breakfast and just laid low. Yesterday was so much fun, we went to Alex's house and it was amazing. We went on a hike of her forest and got to see all of the hard work they have put into re growing the forests on her property. I have experienced a lot on this trip that has changed my perspective on a lot that I will certainly take back with me to the United States.
-Melinda Metzger


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Day 7

Time is just flying by in Costa Rica our trip is quickly coming to end. As of right now we are staying at place called Estacion Biological La Selva Which is pretty cool its one of the top research places in Costa Rica. We have been at La Selva for three days now which is pretty nice not having to pack up our luggage every morning. Last night we went on a nature night hike which was pretty sweet. We saw tones of species of frogs, hundreds of bugs, owls and even a cayman (which looks like a crocodile like creature just smaller). Today was our first and only day off. I was hoping to sleep in to day to make up for all the early mornings we had. But I still managed to wake up at 5am. Later on in the day a couple of us went on a hike in search of a cable cart bridge unfortunately we never found it. :( Though we ended up walking about 5500 meters. So on the plus side we got to burned off a lot of energy. Tomorrow we had off to the beach. It seems everyone's little excited to put out feet up and soak up some vitamin d. Emily Martoglio

Today was a pretty exciting day. We went to Selvatura which is kind of like an adventure park. At the park we did zip lining which was pretty exciting. The course was well worth the price it took over an hour and up hill walking but was well worth it. After the zip line was done and over with we went to the hummingbird garden and saw at least 50 of hummingbirds in one spot. It was pretty awesome. I have never seen so many hummingbirds in one spot. After the garden we proceeded to canopy walk. Which, like everything else, was pretty awesome. We were pretty high up so we could see parts of the canopy that we could not see on the forest floor. Along one of the walk ways we saw howler monkeys in the tree tops. It was pretty cool that they travel in packs. After we finished that we went to the bat jungle which was interesting. Then after that we went to listen to a speaker talk about bellbird conservation and about this project she is working on. Overall it was a pretty productive day.

   -Nina Germain

It was an amazing day walking through the lowland forest at La Selva. Today we came across an

 Agouti it is a red brownish animal that resembles a guinea pig. The best part of the jungle hike 

was the monkeys. We ran into a rare occurrence of three different species of monkeys all in the 

same area. The names of the monkeys were the Mantled Howler Monkey the Spider Monkey and 

the White Faced Capuchin. Today was a day filled with interesting monkeys.

Nicholas Oliver

(no subject)

So it's only day three in Costa Rica and I am already in love with amazing
country. The first day we arrived was pretty brutal. With not getting any sleep
the day before and no sleep on the plan I was pretty tired. Passing out at nine
o'clock was amazing, I can't remember the last time I went to bed that early. We
also met our tour guild the day we arrived named Alex. She's extremely friendly
and full of energy, who always seems to have fun  stories to tell.   I am
looking forward to hear more stories from her.  Yesterday was a pretty low key
day spending most of the day on the road. Though today totally made up for all
the driving we did yesterday. After walking all over a national park seeing
volcano hot springs( which spelled horrible) and nice  picnic lunch. We all
treated our self in cooling off in a nice river. Felt so refreshing  after being
covered in mud and sweat all day. After our hike we boarded back up on our bus
and headed to our third hotel. This is so far my favorite hotel we are all in
one room in bunk beds making me feel like I'm in summer camp.
Emily Martolio

(no subject)

What a fun filled day! Zip lining in the hills on monteverde over the beautiful canopy tops of the cloudy forest was not only fun, but learning about all the plants in the trees was interesting. I saw my very first monkey today above me when we were touring the forest. However, we also got to learn about bats and got to see a display of them as well. Also, we sneeked into a humming bird garden, and found out their not harmless and if they bump into you, it will hurt them more than you will be hurt. I cant wait to travel to the rainforest tomorrow. Michelle drayer

(no subject)

What a interesting and adventerous trip so far! We went hiking at rincon de la vieja. We saw leaf cutter ants which carried leaves below us on the ground. The hike included boiling mud pots which consists of hot steam rising in front of us in the middle of the forest we were in. The hike also included a nice walk to a fresh water- waterfall which we got to swim in as well. I can't wait to go zip linig tomorrow and to la salva on friday to go and experience an actual rain forest! Can't wait to explore all the different snakes. Michelle drayer

 

Day One

Well, we made it safely... as always, getting here makes for a loooooong day... in my case, that meant leaving home at 1am, getting to the airport at 4, dealing with a baggage debacle for a while, getting our eventual flight at 7:30, and finally landing around 11 (CR time).  There's a reason we usually don't plan many "activities" for the first day. 

Everybody did get their first intro to Costa Rican food though, which is always a highlight.  This one will be short, as as the moment we're packing up to head off to our first "site", in Guanacaste up in the Pacific northwest of the country.  You may actually not hear from us about it for a day or two... rumor has it that internet there is down at the moment.  That's one of the catches of working in parts of the world where sometimes an opossum chewing on the line can knock out power to a significant part of the country.  See you soon...

- Dennis