Costa Rica is amazing. really, simply amazing. i don't even know what else to say about it. we just got to monteverde, where we spend the bulk of our time in the program, after two weeks of camping! we first drove from san jose to sierpe, where we spent the night and played a (sort of) pick up soccer game. then we boated down the rio de sierpe, learning about mangroves, some water plants, and boa constrictors along the way. after lunch we got back in the boats and boated down the river and into the pacific ocean where we saw dolphins! we camped in corcovado national park for a week. it was easily the most amazing place i have ever been. the most green forest expanded back miles and miles from the sand of the beach and we camped right on the brim of the sand. every night i fell asleep to the sound of crashing waves and buzzing cicadas. every day we hiked and swam and hung out-- upon arrival to the camp our professor told us that we would be having free time daily from 4-6, and during this time we were not allowed to nap or study. but we had to play and explore all of the beauty and nature and incredible biology of the area we were at. and on our daily hikes we would stop at different plant and animal species we saw and learn about them. we have learned almost 100 species now, and we have an exam in a week and a half and we have to know every scientific name, class, family, order... reproduction, region. a lot of stuff, it's a little overwhelming, but i almost don't even care. while we were in corcovado we saw sooo many cool things. I wish that i could remember every single one but, here's what i do remember: dolphins, whales, fish, sharks, turtles, lizards (many kinds), BUGS! (SOOO many kinds), bats, ant eaters, howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, boa constrictors, crocodiles (we actually accidentally swam with the crocodile in the ocean! for a long time..), pelicans, caimans. and really so many more. we did a small research project one day that involved catching lizards all morning which was really fun. after that field trip we boated back to sierpe and got on the bus. We stopped part way up the pacific coast for that night. My friend Isa and I ran down the beach during the sunset to find a place we could rent surf boards but everywhere was closed! so we were asking everyone if they knew where we could get a surfboard and no one spoke english.. and for some reason didn't understand our spanish..? then we ran into a guy and asked him, but his response was "ladies night! aqui!" apparnetly he wanted us to come to ladies night. and then we found a security guard who was finally able to understand our spanish and pointed us to another man, who just happened to be the owner of the surf shop. so we rented surf boards and got back to the hotel just in time for dinner. after dinner we went to ladies night, and then slept for about 4 hours and woke up at 5 am to surf! it was so much fun. i had never surfed before and it was definitely hard but so amazing. Maybe not the best beach for beginning? we were at playa hermosa which is where the world surf tournament was a couple years ago (i think..) and it had a pretty bad riptide/undertoe, but we survived (somehow). Isa is actually a really good surfer, she's been surfing for like 5 years, so it's good she was there to direct me. then we ate breakfast and got back on the bus to head to Santa Rosa national park. this was a much drier forest and was so different from corcovado. it was sunny and hot but dry, and there wasn't a close beach.. but it was still really cool. we saw so many monkeys! and learned about many more species. one day we hiked to the beach (26 k round trip! plus about 4 miles on the beach) where we saw sea turtles! one of them was laying eggs. it was really amazing. and we also saw a live sand dollar and a really big crab. the hike back sucked though, about 8 miles uphill! but, so worth it. another day we drove up to a volcano and hiked around there. I hiked up to a waterfall with some of my friends. it was soooo pretty. but on the way up we passed a woman who asked us for a phone or something because her friend had fallen and she was trying to get help. she was really shaken up and didn't seem to know how seriously her friend was hurt. so then we were all wondering what was going on and we booked it up the mountain, but right near the top we saw three more people coming down. as it turned out, her friend had fallen off a cliff/waterfall and died. it was such a strange experience, being so close to something like that happening. you never think that you're going to go on vacation and never come home. and when the other friend told us that she didn't make it we were all really shocked. we kept on hiking and saw that there was a cliff edge with a small amount of water going over the edge. but the trail went off the other way. so we (very cautiously) continued on the trail and got to the waterfall, half expecting to see a dead body in the water. but we quickly realized it would be pretty hard to injure yourself there. we were all still pretty shaken up but we still enjoyed the water a bit. Then when we headed back down we couldn't deny the curiosity and had to look and where she had fallen. It was a big cliff (like way over 50 ft.) that was pretty much just rock. there was a small stream of water going down... i don't even know how to describe this. but the body was in the water at the bottom. it was so unreal that it wasn't even really hard to look at. and then the whole way down we couldn't stop thinking about it. we would try so hard to change the topic but just kept coming back to what had happened. we realized that if we hadn't dawdled on the way up we could have been there when it happened, or even passed them and not realized the trail went the other way and one of us could have slipped. or we could have been even later and not known something had happened and peered over the edge of the cliff to see a dead body floating in the pool at the bottom. I wish that none of it had happened at all, but it totally makes you stop for a minute and think about life. it's so fragile. but anyway... it was kind of a rough part of the day, and it's hard to know how to take those things. you can't dwell on it. it's absolutely horrible that it happened, but what can we do? really i feel like i had to make a decision not to be too caught up by it, but to think about my life for a minute and realize what it's worth. realize that you need to tell the people you love that you love them. I couldn't walk away being scared of life, but realizing that time is limited. life is finite and you have to live it fully.
that was yesterday, and then today we basically packed up camp and drove all day to monteverde! it is beautiful here. we're at a biological station at the top of a mountain basically. i'm reaallllly excited to explore the town over the next couple of days!
You should check out photos on facebook.. because it's too hard to put them on here, and the internet is kind of questionable and slow with stuff like that.
hopefully i'll have a chance to write again soon.
