"We Are Always Running for the Thrill of It"

The band

Wow. 17 days left in the program, not that anyone is counting. Thankfully, I get to spend a little more time in Costa Rica after the program ends. Some of my friends and I are traveling to Tamarindo for a week where I'll hopefully get some scuba diving in. I don't want to even begin to think about leaving Costa Rica. So much has happened since my last post. Where has the time gone? Since April 7th, I've been living with my home stay family, which has been a blast! My dad works at the local cheese factory, and my mom is a house mom. Boy, is she a mean cook! She definitely cooks better than the food we have at the station. I also have two brothers and a sister, who are all around my age. My brothers are even in a band, and play drums and bass. I lucked out in staying with a host family that shares a passion for music as much as I do. They even named their puppy "Tambor" (Spanish for 'drum'). American music is huge here. I've heard them cover songs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, to The Killers, to Sublime. American pop culture in general here is huge. TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Two and a Half Men, and various cartoons have all made it. Some of them have Spanish subtitles, while others are actually dubbed in Spanish.

My parents and older brother

Younger brother and me

The five juveniles

Hagrid

Academically, we have an independent project to carry out during our home stays, coupled with lectures at the station every Friday. Back at the beginning of April, my friend Jillian and I intended to do our project on the same type of lizard, the green spiny lizard. My project's focus was on determining if temperature affected foraging time. As we were catching them, we decided to name them after characters in Harry Potter (which, by the way, was probably the greatest thing to ever happen to our generation). Here's the thing. After a little too much time under the sun, her lizards died, and she decided to switch projects. Incidentally enough, her lizards were named after characters that died in the books (Albus, Hedwig, Cedric, Dobby). I didn't expose my lizards to direct sunlight. The lizards that I caught and named (Dean, McGonagall, Sprout, Hagrid, Malfoy, Dudley, Goyle) all survived. Coincidence??? Ultimately, despite not killing any lizards, I wasn't able to catch enough of them (they're extremely fast!) after two weeks, so I had to release them and switch projects. I am now working with plants which I had purposely tried to avoid in the first place. Coincidence number two?? When I'm not at the station working on my project, I try to spend as much time with my host family as possible to really embrace the Costa Rican culture, especially since home stays end on Monday.

Hagrid, McGonagall and Sprout
(the females aren't as pretty as the males)

Hagrid on release day

A few weekends ago, three of the girls in the program celebrated their 21st birthday, so a bunch of us went zip lining to celebrate! It was a new experience for me. There were 14 cables in all, with one of them being a rappel down a tree and another being a "Superman" line. For this one, the harness strapped around our back, and we soared through the canopy much like Superman. If you've ever wanted to fly, do a Superman zip line. It's the next best thing. Finally, the last part of our zip lining adventure was the Tarzan swing. My favorite part, hands down. We were 120 feet above the ground, in a clearing, in the forest. After getting strapped in, we jumped and swung back and forth for a while. Not gonna lie, the first second after jumping, I questioned my decision of going bungee jumping at some point while in Costa Rica. But that was only for the first second. The Tarzan swing only strengthened my desire to bungee jump. The last few weeks we have here will be filled with final exams, essays, and oral presentations, but we'll see what happens. 

Before the plunge

During the plunge

After the plunge

Fish Are Friends, Not Food

Panama!!

Right around the time everyone in Madison was finishing up pre- Spring Break exams, we were on our way to Panama, specifically the Bocas Del Toro Islands, our "Spring Break" destination. I feel like my whole experience abroad has been just one huge Spring Break, simply for being in this tropical haven and studying here. The day we left Parismina for Panama was a good day to be stuck on a bus for seven hours-- it rained the majority of the time. Along the way, we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on some much needed snacks, and we stopped at a house to check out some huge rhinoceros beetles. 

Me at the border

Getting through customs at the border was a breeze, and like the tourist that I am, I had to take a picture. After customs, we drove another hour and had to take a 40 minute boat ride to the archipelago. The rainclouds from Costa Rica followed us to Panama, making our boat ride a little bit wetter much to our dismay. Our gloomy moods changed when we pulled up to the island. It was simply beautiful. Shallow, crystal clear blue water all around, wooden huts with grass roofs, coconut and palm trees... everything you see in magazines, and we were there for four nights. 

I knew that the islands would be my favorite part of the field trip, despite not having done much of anything yet. We stayed in little beachfront houses with a communal sand volleyball net in the middle. Since biting sand fleas and mosquitoes were dreadful once again, we had to sleep with bug nets, but it wasn't a big deal. We were on a gorgeous island. In Panama. Our houses even had a sign of probably the most atrocious Spanish-English translation I've ever seen, which was pretty funny.

The worst translation ever

With a new location came new flora and fauna. The next morning (and WHOLE morning), we learned about the new life here on a hike. It was incredibly hot. Everyone was drenched in their own sweat. On our hike, I was finally able to capture a pic of howler monkeys on our way into the forest. In the forest, we found a few different poison dart frogs, one of which I held. Looks like I can cross "touching a poisonous animal" off my nonexistent bucket list. The frog didn't have enough poison to harm me, provided I didn't touch my eyes after or do something else stupid like that. 


My friend Jeff and I snorkeled in the reefs offshore during our free time after lunch. Then we took a boat to another island to observe nesting boobies (yes, the bird), frigate birds and red-billed tropicbirds. It was a neat experience to see them flying really close to the boats looking for squid and shrimp in the ocean to feed their chicks.  

Brown boobies

Spotted eagle ray

View from the boat-up restaurant

Our second night on the island concluded with a lecture on marine ecosystems because our third day was spent snorkeling the entire day. As much as I love snorkeling, it sure does tire you out. We were on the water from 8am -5pm visiting five different reefs around the islands. We saw a bunch of sergeant majors, stoplight parrotfish, and Christmas tree worms that retracted back into their tube when touched. Probably the coolest things we saw were spotted eagle rays, and even a sleeping nurse shark! Lunch was pretty cool-- we pulled up to a seaside restaurant with a buffet. 

The last day of our Panamanian vacation, we had the option of going snorkeling again, or going to town on the other side of the island. The majority of the group went to town, but I snorkeled. Who knows when I'll be able to snorkel in the warm waters of the Tropics again. Rain set us back an hour, but we had nothin' but sun the rest of the snorkeling trip. 

When the snorkeling group got to town, we had time to eat, shop, and had another opportunity to use the internet. After our time here, we visited two bat caves. Now, I don't consider myself a claustrophobic, but I really didn't like walking through the caves. Neither did my friend Genevieve. Our hearts started to race, and I began to sweat as we ventured deeper into the caves. The walls quickly narrowed, and we had to duck, climb over, you name it, around stalagmites and stalactites. 

Entrance to one of the caves

Dodging stalactites and wading through poopy water

What is more, all of this was done in a thigh-deep (at least for me since I'm tall) mixture of bat poop and water. Sick. I just felt so dirty. One of the caves even had hundreds of bats carpeting the ceiling. My friends and teachers laughed at me because I used an umbrella and my diving gloves in the caves, but ultimately, I was the one without a poop-covered head. That's a win in my book. I respect the fact that the caves have religious significance to the locals, but I just don't get it. It took me about 45 minutes of swimming in the ocean and then a 20 minute cold shower before I finally felt clean again once we returned to our houses. 

Our professors

That night, we had a talent show! Since there wasn't a piano, I sat and watched. After some of my friends did their special talent, be it belly dancing, playing guitar, or singing, the staff acted out stupid or funny situations involving us since our time in Costa Rica. It basically turned into a roast. It was awesome. They even made a couple "Top 10" lists meant to make fun of us. I was quoted numerous times. Throughout the show, on of our teachers had minute-to-win-it challenges for us based off the TV show. To close the show, the last challenge was only for the five guys. Imagine our faces when we each were given a speedo. Yeah. We had to sport only a speedo in front of the 17 girls and our instructors and dump a cup full of ice into it for a minute. Never before have we felt so visually violated. We were all able to last the whole minute and were rewarded with beer for our valiant efforts. 

We knew the time would come when we would have to leave the wonderful island, and when that time came, we did not want to leave. After taking some last minute photos and saying goodbye to the locals, we were back in a boat to the mainland to catch our coach bus back to Costa Rica. Instead of going back to Monteverde, we stayed in San Jose for the night, at Hotel Balmoral, where it all began. Being a larger city in Costa Rica, it boasted numerous American restaurants, of which Branden and I took advantage of in an instant. I'm not saying the food in Costa Rica is bad (it's actually delicious!), but sometimes you just crave McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut with all that greasy goodness, especially if you've gone weeks without them. Branden and I concluded the night after our American food pig-out by sipping on some drinks in the casinos.

Some more awesome pics from our time in Panama

"Is the Water Safe to Drink?"

It is April 2nd and we just got back from our second long field trip. In 18 days, we've traveled the Caribbean Coast and even made our way into Panama! I'm almost positive I won't return to the States after having gone on the field trip. We've hiked over 20 miles on foot, stayed in some of the most beautiful field stations/ areas I've ever witnessed, and saw a completely different variety of flora and fauna from our first field trip. Trees with sexual overtones, red-eyed tree frogs (!!!!), poison dart frogs, venomous snakes, bats, birds, butterflies, sloths, howler monkeys, you name it. But, just like before, this is only a snapshot of our two-week adventure. Read on for the complete picture. I can assure you the sights and stories will not be disappointing. From the beginning, here we go!

3/15: Day 1
After two weeks of intense schooling, we finally left for our second field trip today! This time, we'll be traveling the entire Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica with a five day stop in Panama to observe marine diversity. In the span of three days before our trip, we had two midterms, a 15-minute Spanish oral presentation to give, and an essay and quiz to complete. My roommate Brandon and I literally did not sleep last night so we could complete it all. Probably wasn't one of our smartest decisions, as we hiked 10 miles through the Children's Eternal Rainforest today with a 20-some pound hiking backpack full of clothes and gear. This was no easy task, as we had to ascend insanely steep hills and descend ones of similar slope. One time, I actually ended up falling forward as I descended a hill resulting in me getting a couple battle wounds. No pain, no gain I guess. Mud is extremely slippery. I also ended up taking an unintentional swim as I tried to rock-hop across a river. Epic fail on my part. My backpack and I alike got drenched. At least my backpack had a rain cover. We got to Eladio's Refugee in Peñas Blancas at about 2:30, a little under five hours of walking. It normally takes an average of eight hours to make it here- we booked it even with our backpacks on.


Talk about primitive living. This little "nothing but walls" cabin in the middle of nowhere is without electricity, hot water (meaning cold showers), and toilets on the edge of breakdown. Dinners are by candlelight (Eladio is a fantastic cook), and visits to the bathroom and showers are by headlamp. All 22 of us are divided into two rooms with bunk beds and mattresses that I don't even want to know where have been/ what's been in them. Mosquitoes and horseflies are TERRIBLE here, so we sleep with bug nets. And we're here for five nights. I don't think I can be more excited. I think staying here will show me what I take for granted back home and make me grow as a person as I adjust to life with very little "luxuries."And now, it's 6:30 and I'm going to bed for some much needed sleep.

3/16: Day 2

I'll leave the interpretation up to you...

12 hours of sleep felt great! I was ready to do today's activity, which consisted of a bunch of orientation hikes and filling out species reports. It rained all day today, but being in the understory of the forest kept us mostly dry. Who woulda thought Mother Nature could be so sexual? One of the plants we studied had roots that looked like certain male appendages. Apparently, they provide structural stability to the palm tree. Another plant we learned about was nicknamed the Orgy Plant. One species of beetle climbs into the base of the flower, has an orgy, while at the same time pollinating the plant with the pollen from another. Interesting. We had the majority of the afternoon to ourselves after we recorded a few more species reports.

3/17: Day 3

First sighting of red-eyed tree frogs!

After a hearty breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and rice, we began Fungal Diversity Day. Lecture came first, and then we set off into the woods on a competitive scavenger hunt to see who could bring back the most diverse collection of fungi before lunch. Prizes were fungi-related and given to the top three groups. Last place got anti-fungal cream, second place (my group) got cheese, and of course, first place got beer. After lunch, we put our acting skills to the test, as each group was given a specific fungus and had to act out its reproductive cycle. That didn't take too long, as we had the majority of the afternoon free. Instead of going on another hike, I rested up for the night hike after dinner. Back on the first field trip when we saw the whales, that was my favorite part so far. Now, this night hike is my favorite part. We were able to see the notorious red-eyed tree frog! This is quite possibly my favorite animal. 15 years ago, they were believed to be extinct from the area, but as of recently, they're coming back. We also saw some other species of frogs, and a really neat helmeted iguana.

Helmeted iguana 

3/18: Day 4

Epic mud fight

In the morning, we did another field experiment, only this time, we all compiled the data because we each have to write up an individual lab report. Collecting data was even harder with the relentless rain, because when it rained, it poured. The bright side: an abundance of mud pits! Some of my friends and I had a mud war with our professors. When we were all drenched with mud, we showered in the river. So refreshing! Nothing was scheduled after lunch, so we lounged around the cabin. At night, we set up bat traps  and caught a bunch of different species of bats.

3/19: Day 5

Black-faced solitaire

We began today catching birds, much like they way we caught bats with mist nets. We did species reports on each of the different birds we caught. I spent the whole morning in the forest trying to come up with a topic for my independent project once we're back in Monteverde. As of now, I'd like to work with some type of lizard or frog. Our trip to another waterfall was delayed because one of the girls got lost in the forest and the TA's had to leave to find her. To get to the waterfall, we had to cross a big river (on foot!) and fight the current by walking up another one. Luckily, there were large boulders for us to rock-hop on. Although the water was freezing cold, the sun made its appearance for our last day at the cabin. Everyone went to bed early in preparation for our 10 mile hike to Pocosol tomorrow.

3/20: Day 6
I find myself continuing to ask stupid questions. As I was about to fill up my Camelback, I asked everyone if the water was safe to drink. It's not like it was used to make our juice the past five days. I really need to break that habit. I should know by now that water in Costa Rica is safe to drink. Anyways,

More of a resort than a field station

the hike to Pocosol was extremely more difficult than our hike to Eladio's, even though they were the same length. The terrain was much more varied. It would go from flat to downhill to uphill repeatedly. One hill took us a little under an hour to climb up. It was so steep, and we had our backpacks to carry. I felt a sense of accomplishment once I reached the top, despite having another 1.5 hours of hiking left. After all was said and done, we finally made it to Pocosol in about five hours. The field station is incredible! Too bad we're only here for two nights. After some much needed R&R, we had a lecture on the wonderful world of birds for Bird Diversity Day tomorrow.

3/21: Day 7

Oropendula nests

For a place who's name means "little sun" in Spanish, it's ironic that our stay in Pocosol was very sunny. The majority of today was spent birdwatching, beginning at 6 am. No need for an alarm clock when Montezumas oropendulas are around. A population of the birds had hanging nests from a tree right outside the station. Our lecture after dinner was focused on statistics in the sciences. To better understand the applications, we had a hands-on (or should I say "drinks-on") activity to help us. The activity: taste-testing 10 types of rum. Our professors know us too well. We wanted to see if a regression existed between our ability to detect higher quality rum (more expensive). We ranked the rums from favorite to least favorite and then compiled the data. After our taste-test, we had the rest of the night to chill. Between taking a three-hour nap earlier, and going to bed now at 11, I'm beginning to think that I was born a sloth. Either that or my spirit animal must be a sloth since I sleep all the time.

Mom and baby peccary

3/22: Day 8
In the words of Ice Cube, "Today was a good day," especially for seeing wildlife. We left Pocosol at 8 am in cattle trucks en route to La Selva, a world famous biological station/ nature preserve. This 4,000 acre preserve sees over 3,000 students and 300 scientists per year, either for tours or for research. After lunch there, we went on a three hour guided hike on one of the numerous trails. Even though the peccaries (think of a hairy pig) in the area are wild, they aren't afraid of humans. They've just grown accustomed to us and even let us get close to them. On the trail, we saw poison dart frogs, a sloth, and even a highly venomous eyelash pit viper. We also saw howler monkeys but they were too far away for a good pic. My imitation of their call was so realistic that they even responded to me! We head some free time in the afternoon to do some much needed laundry and take a HOT shower, the first opportunity we had to do so in seven days. But, getting dirty without anyone caring is half the fun on these field trips. Another opportunity we had was internet. Thank God. While going days and weeks without outside communication and Facebook is awesome, checking up on all your missed emails is a pain, especially when you get 180 of them. On the bright side, I found out I'm going to be a TA for a course next semester (Zoo 430)!! I Skyped my parents to check in on them and tell them the great news. After dinner, we had a lecture on amphibians before going on another night hike. First, we saw another sloth, only this one had a baby with her, and they were low enough in the tree for a picture!


Then we saw a snake that we originally thought was a coral snake, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Upon closer inspection, it ended up being a false coral snake. Finally, we saw some more red-eyed tree frogs! Fact: this is the most widely photographed species among tropical frogs. It's easy to see why- it's beautiful.






3/23: Day 9
We began the day with a lecture on reptiles before spending the rest of the morning doing species reports. One of the species we did, the cocoa (chocolate) tree was one of the remaining ones at La Selva. Years ago, this place used to be a large scale chocolate farm before it became a biological preserve. Awesome. After lunch, we had a lecture on tree fall gaps in a tree fall gap for our Tropical Community Ecology class. Then it was off to another field station in Tirimbina for three nights. We had a filling dinner of chicken, rice, and beans before finishing the night off with a lecture on sustainable forestry to prepare us for tomorrow in the field.

3/24: Day 10
The whole day was dedicated to traveling to different farms learning about sustainable forestry. The first place we visited was a 30 hectare (Ha) farm where we learned about some of the many forestry laws in Costa Rica. Trees with less than a 60 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) can't be cut, and trees 15 m from a creak or 100 m from a spring can't be cut, no matter the DBH. In talking about sustainable forestry, we also learned that wood certified as sustainable is the same price as non-certified wood, which may lead one to wonder what's the point in using methods to harvest trees sustainably. The second place we visited was a 83 Ha tree plantation and pineapple farm. In order to receive environmental compensation for the trees,  the plantation must be established with 800 trees/Ha in one year. Thats a lot of trees. Although farmers get $600/year/Ha for their trees, it's quite expensive to maintain a plantation, and less profitable. Again, what's the point?
        Tonight, Branden and I went on a night hike by ourselves. In addition to finding a tiny glass frog (so named because of its transparent body), we flirted with "death." Next to a giant spider web, we saw a colony of bullet ants. Now, these aren't your average sized"ants go marching one by one steal your picnic food" ants. These are ants on steroids, with powerful mandibles. Bullet ant. They are regarded as having the worst insect bite in the world. People here would rather get stung by a scorpion than get bit by one of these. We thought it would be a good idea to try and help the spider eat by throwing the ants in its web with a stick, but both of us almost got bit in the process. Next time, we'll just let nature run its course.

Hog-nosed pit viper

3/25: Day 11 

Honduran white bat

The whole morning, we took a trail in the woods to do species reports on our way to the other side of Tirimbina. Most of the reports were on plants, but we managed to catch a few butterflies and see a hog-nosed pit viper, another highly venomous snake.  A biologist gave us a lecture on bats after lunch, and we went to the field to try and find the elusive Honduran white bat. It's a rare species to find, as it eats only two types of fig fruit, and roosts in only one species of plant. It was great that we were able to find some. We cooled off in the river for a little bit before returning to the station for another bat lecture.

3/26: Day 12

We left Tirimbina a little bit later than normal, at 11 am. Lunch was in town again, and then it was time for four hours of travel. I got a lot of studying done on the bus before sleeping. A short boat ride took us to our final destination, Parismina. We got there at 4, and after settling into our rooms, we had a pool party! The pool is awesome- it has a swim up bar! It's hard to believe I'm in school now. After dinner, we had a lecture on sea turtles to prepare us for tonight's activity: searching for nesting leatherback sea turtles on the beach! Our search was guided, and since light disturbs the turtles, we walked the beach in complete darkness. It was hard to do so at first, as I tripped on numerous pieces of driftwood and sand dunes. It took a while for my eyes to adjust. After walking what seemed like miles, we finally found not one, but two nesting mothers! I wasn't able to get a good picture of how massive these turtles are because of the no- light policy. Just being there was good enough for me. Most of the world's seven species of sea turtles are endangered because of poachers killing them for their meat and eggs, but the leatherback is critically endangered. In addition to poachers, pollution is a serious problem, namely plastic bags. It too closely resembles jellyfish, their main prey. In an effort to try and conserve this magnificent species, the villagers are working on a project that relocates the eggs to a secret part of the beach to try and thwart poachers.

3/27: Day 13

Green heron

The morning was quite nice and lazy. We slowly strolled down the river in boats to birdwatch for wading birds. At the end of the river, we took a short hike to do a few species reports in the woods. Mosquitoes. Were. Awful. I swear you could play connect-the-dot on my legs and outline the Mona Lisa. That's how bad they were. The trail emptied onto another beach and I got my first daylight glimpse of the ocean in weeks! Can't wait to rekindle my relationship with the ocean tomorrow in Panama. We did a few more species reports on the area's beach vegetation before heading back for lunch. Post-lunch, we swam and napped under the sun before one of the villagers involved with the turtle project gave a talk. Post-dinner, we watched a movie on sea turtle conservation, and now, a bunch of us are going to bed early for 7+ hours of traveling to Panama tomorrow. So excited.

And this ends our travels in Costa Rica! Panama was too fantastic that it deserves a completely new post.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

When we first arrived at the biological station two weeks ago, I was shocked. Everyone was shocked. If you've ever seen the Real World and the excitement that the people have to move into the new house, we shared that experience. Situated at the top of a mountain trail at 1500m, a giant wooden house awaited us. Instead of a skyline of buildings, we had trees, and lots of them. Numerous trails surrounded the station, just waiting for us to observe and unveil the secrets of the rainforest. Inside the station was a large dining table where we'd have our meals. We were all surprised to find out that not only does the cooking staff make our meals, but they also make our beds every few days with new sheets, AND they do our laundry (for free of course). No complaints there. Is this real life?? Venturing on into our new home, every floor was hardwood. So pretty, yet at the same time, dangerous, when walking around in socks. I've slipped numerous times. The station also has a classroom, library, 2 chemistry labs, and an office. There's a nice view of the rainforest no matter what part of the station you're in. When we arrived, we also took an orientation hike, from 1500m to 1800m, a three hour venture all uphill.
        And then, our "vacation" promptly ended with the start of class. For now, we have four classes, soon to be 5 when we start our independent research projects at the beginning of April. Class is from 8am- 6pm, everyday. It was tough these past few weeks in terms of homework, since everything was assigned all at once and due at the same time. Typically we have two lectures in the morning, and one in the afternoon before Spanish at 3. Our Spanish Immersion School is a lovely little place at the base of the trail to the bio station. It's about a 15 minute walk downhill. Besides being a Spanish school, it has a bunch of amenities for us to use, namely a gym, and JACUZZI! Who woulda thought?

Makin' bacon

For one of our classes, Humans in the Tropics, we spend every Wednesday with a lecture on an overarching theme of human-related activity in the Tropics, and supplement that with visits to different places around Monteverde. An essay and quiz are due a few days after. The first topic we talked about was livestock use. We talked about beef, pork, and chicken production and how they catalyze environmental degradation with the production of greenhouse gases and animal waste. We supplemented our knowledge with visits to various farms. One of the farms we stopped at was...overwhelming. It was also a bit controversial. On our tour of the farm, we first took a look at the pigs. They were many of them, grunting and snorting loudly in cages with little space for movement. Their reality: being fattened up before slaughter. This sparked tears in my group. A separate facility had the sows, which were suckling their piglets. If only they knew their fate... Now, being the carnivore that I am, I've always known where meat comes from, but never before have I seen where it comes from, with my own eyes. Everything I saw seemed to validate everything I've either read or learned about the meat industry, from Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, to Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's eye-opening to read about something based on the author's own observations and then experience the same thing for yourself. To quote Pollan, "To visit a modern Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) is to enter a world that for all its technological sophistication is still designed on seventeenth-century Cartesian principles: Animals are treated as machines-- "production units"-- incapable of feeling pain." Many people view this treatment of animals in the meat industry as morally wrong and thus advocate vegetarianism. Our essay was to defend why we eat meat or why we don't. While my main goal in writing this isn't to fuel the never-ending debate on if it's ok to eat meat, it is to be a little bit more insightful into the matter, coming from a relatable person as a college student. Even after visiting the farm, I will continue to eat meat and not feel guilty about my choice of food.

Different flavors of coffee

Eugenio

This Wednesday, the theme was crops, mainly coffee. In lecture, we learned what fair trade was, its setbacks, and supplemented this with visits to different coffee farms. The first farm we visited was a 4 Ha family farm of over 50 years, owned by a man named Eugenio. A non-fair trade farmer (in Costa Rica, many people are anti-fair trade, saying that it doesn't impact small farmers enough, and that it's an unproductive business model), Eugenio showed us around his farm. He grows bananas, coffee, and corn, among other crops. What is more, he also grows sugarcane, from which he makes a molasses-like sugar! The contraption used has a grinder on a wooden post with a revolving beam on top (as best seen in the video). Usually, oxen revolve the beam, but this time, we were the guinea pigs.

Orange-kneed tarantula

Thursday, as part of Insect Diversity Day, we went to another butterfly garden! This garden was a lot bigger than the first, with four exhibits. At the beginning of the tour, we were introduced to a variety of different insects. Walking sticks, gold scarab beetles, cockroaches, and scorpions that glowed under blacklight. And there were spiders. BIG tarantulas. I'm normally not a huge fan of insects in general, but tarantulas are (were) a definite no-go for me. I bit my tongue and held a tarantula. It wasn't that bad-- they just have a bad rap. Coming from a pretty fearless person, I guess there's something about going abroad that makes you leave all your "fears" back home and try something new. But hey, everyone has their own vice. Right?