Catching Up

Greetings from La Selva! We arrived here on Thursday afternoon to OTS’ biggest and best-known research station. It’s located in the tropical lowlands on Caribbean side of the country, so the climate is veritable rainforest – warm and sticky. We have seen a fair amount of wildlife, even just after a couple days of being here. Poison frogs, peccary, ants, lizards, bird and monkeys. We had a really fun, up close and personal experience with a family of howler monkeys yesterday. We haven’t spotted any fer-de-lances yet, but there’s hope for the days and week(s) to come.

In terms of classes, we are back into learning again after a much needed fall break. Our subjects for this week have included snakebites and public health, an overview of the immune system, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, water treatment, a visit to one of Costa Rica’s private hospitals and helminthes like intestinal worms and stuff. We also got a chance to sit in with a microbiology lab class at the Universidad de Costa Rica. They were looking at fecal samples under the microscope that were collected from kids in La Casona, the indigenous territory near San Vito. In the past, this population has recorded high incidence of parasites, mostly because this population, especially the women and children, doesn’t wear shoes around the village. So under the microscope, we were able to see eggs of various worms and protozoa. Pretty cool, and we got to know some Costa Rican students in the process, which was also very fun.

And now for a rundown of fall break:

We arrived in San Jose on Saturday afternoon. To kill some time in the afternoon, we went to the mall and stocked up on string to feed our class-wide bracelet-making obsession. Highlight #1: We ate lunch in the food court at the mall, and the U-20 world cup quarterfinal was on TV. The food court was packed with people, and all of the sudden, we were bringing our trays of food to find a table, and the entire place erupts in cheers. Costa Rica just scored. I proceeded to profess my love for Costa Rica and their enthusiasm for their soccer teams. On Saturday night, we went out to Castro’s and had a great night of dancing.

On Sunday, Victoria and I took a bus to La Fortuna to see Volcán Arenal. We made this trip on only two hours of sleep from the night before and (probably as a result), this adventure was filled with its fair share of mishaps. We had a hostel bed without sheets, 10 minutes to eat a free buffet dinner (seriously, the torture!), encounters with interesting characters at the very touristy hot springs, painfully slow and stuffy bus rides, and a couple hours of panic when I thought I lost my camera at the hot springs (in my sleepless stupor, I had just left it on the bed at the hostel). It was a very quick trip. We spent all of 18 hours actually in La Fortuna and around Arenal, but we considered all the rush and mishaps worth it because we went to see the volcano at night and got to see lava run down the volcano’s slope! This was obviously Highlight #2. It was very cool – kind of like watching fireworks, which lots of oohs and aahs. I wasn’t even able to try my hand at long-exposure shots with my camera, because at this point I though it was lost. I did all I could to try to forget about it and enjoy the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime show that was in front of me.

We returned to San Jose on Monday afternoon and spent the night in a hostel in the city. In the morning, four of us caught a bus to Playa Sámara on the Pacific Coast of the Nicoya Peninsula. The beach was beautiful and relatively quiet. We played in the waves, and in retrospect regretted not buying surf lessons. Victoria and I went on an excursion kayaking. A guide took us in kayaks out to an island just off the coast. There we enjoyed some fruit that our guide brought with us. We played with hermit crabs, played in the waves some more and spotted a sea turtle in the water! It was a very enjoyable experience. In the early evening came Highlight #3: joining in on a game of soccer on the beach with all the local guys. I was the only girl playing, and eventually I started picking up some of the important soccer vocabulary in Spanish so that the guys would pass me the ball. It was so much fun to play, and I actually held my own among all the Ticos. Later when we went out for dinner, one of the guys that was playing was waiting our table and complimented my playing. From Sámara, we also watched the US vs. CR world cup qualifying match. Costa Rica lead for the entire game, scoring two great goals, and in the 91st minute, the US scored a really fluky goal off a corner kick to tie, foiling Costa Rica’s hopes for an automatic qualification into the World Cup. In that moment, I think all four of us felt ashamed to be Americans, because we were all rooting for Costa Rica to win.

We spent the rest of the week in San Jose. We spent some time exploring the city, shopping in the artisan markets and dancing. We reunited with our host families on Saturday and returned to class on Monday, ready to take on the last few weeks of the course.

And now we're here in La Selva!