Costa Rica International Research Experience 2018

Today we set out to the field right away to collect data in the mid reach area of the Java River. We had one of the Ngobli woman with us. Her name is Victoria. I was glad we brought her. She is very knowledgeable on the plant species. She should us some medicinal plants as well as edible plants. We located our sites of interest and collected our data. We definitely are much faster. We looped back around on the water trail and checked out a beautiful waterfall. We had a fun day. 

Today we got up in the morning to prepare for a very long bus drive. Up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00 and we left by 7:30. Big Blue Bus with an even crazier driver. It took us a long time to get out of the crazy city. But eventually we made it to the country where we started to see the landscape. We seen sugar cane fields, pineapple fields, coffee fields. These things were all new to me, as you could imagine. You could see how the land was cleared for these mono-culture fields and the negative effects to the land as we drove. Our first stop was a bathroom break and the store was a candy snack shack with a restaurant. Come to find out these are very common along the Pan American Highway. The Pan-American Highway stretches across the Americas, and we was on it in Costa Rica. Our next destination was  Mount Chirripó. The tallest mountain in Costa Rica, at 12,228 ft. A very rare habitat. As we climbed the mountain we could clearly see the habitat changing. The Trees were beginning to shri...

This morning we have been reassigned mentors, we will now be working with Alex's team. Alex has been my professor at HU for the past 3 years, so I knew we were going to be hiking a lot and pushing our limits to do a very professional project. Alex and Jaden (another young lady) were working on assessing riperian corridors within the watershed. So we decided to combine the two. We decided to focus on the Java River, looking at both the water quality and the riperian corridors. The Java River is the main river that the some creeks drop into. Over the length of the river there are different succesional forest areas that are primary forest, selectively logged, secondary forest, and abandoned pastures. We will be looking at headwaters to the mouth. We are comparing each of these areas along the Java River to identify if anthropogenic (human causes factors) are affecting the watershed. We adventured out into the forest to start to start accessing points within the watershed. We started o...

Today we woke up to more rice and beans. My appetite is coming back and the acceptance that I need food to survive has hit. It actually is really delicious. This morning we got a tour of the station. Rodolpho lead the way, he has been at the station for about 30 years. Most of his knowledge is through observation and curiosity. He was very informative about the history of the station. The Wilson's a European couple from Florida owned the station prior to. They operated an ornamental garden with ornaments from around the world. Needless to say there are a lot of non-native plant species around the station. Some of these species have escaped the station and are now invasive. Such as a very beautiful red or orangish in color shampoo ginger. Next, we were introduced to the rainforest and walked down to the Java River. It definitely was a good hike. We was also introduced to a strangler tree that was strangling another strangler tree. The most interesting thing about this tree is that...

Our first day in Costa Rica, Monet, Kim and I landed late last night and stayed at the Hampton Hotel. We almost missed breakfast. Kim and I went down to eat breakfast, I really didn't know what to expect. It was a complimentary breakfast, like we have in the "states". As I walked in the room the set up looked familiar. I seen a waffle maker, some hot food and cold cereal. The closer I got to the food I started to see some unfamiliar things that were not breakfast items. Beans and rice, some sliced bananas with some sort of sauce, I looked at Kim, and she said, that this is their main food they eat here. So I dished out, wanting to try something new. I also dished some mush out as a back up plan. We took our food to the room, just in case I had to spit anything out, I didn't want offend the locals. As I tried it out, my stomach and my mind wasn't ready to eat unfamiliar foods. The food didn't taste bad, but my stomach was leery, so I nibbled and went with the m...