Interesting Discoveries Are Always Being Made

Fourteen days have passed since the MHIRT group and I arrived at San Pedro, San Jose Costa Rica. This second week has been filled with ups and downs.

I started to miss my mother's spicy food. Don't get me wrong I really do enjoy the different taco dishes but oh my! How much am I missing some jalapeños, Chile California, Chile Poblano, and etc. Sadly, they don't really sell those type of chiles over here. On Tuesday, Eric (one of the INISA mentors) took us to the Coronado River to collect water samples from different altitudes of the river. This first trip was to mark possible spots where we could collect water in the future. Just doing this was a whole adventure. I was glad that I took my hiking boots, cargo pants and a long sleeve shirt because we literally became like Indiana Jones. Jumping from tree to tree, avoiding mud that could suck down my feet and trying not to fall into the river of the tropical forest was such an adventure.

We were able to localize 2 out of the 3 required places to collect water samples in the future. On the way, we ran into a lot of cattle, horses, bugs, an armadillo, a snake and a gooey mustard yellow mass on the floor made from iron oxide (typically found in water basins or aquifers). The following days consisted mainly of running tests to find out if the water was contaminated with fecal coliforms and enterococci. I used the technique, Most Probable Number with serial dilutions which requires concentration because this pipetting technique must be good as well as keeping track of the tubes that have had the water sample added.  Those little tubes gave me a really bad headache because I had to constantly put on and off the cap, which was really frustrating at some point after doing over 50 tubes. Currently, I am working on my techniques to be more efficient and have more time to study information about the experiments itself.

Over the weekend the MHIRT group went to the Doka Coffee tour, an animal reserve and to La Paz Waterfalls. I can’t even express how amazing it was. So many colors, animals, plants, flowers, smells, views…  I can keep going on forever. The Doka tour was very interesting, rich with Tico history and traditions. The animal reserve was one of my favorite parts because I got to interact very closely with Morpho butterflies (typically blue) and watch one of them hatch from the cocoon. La Paz waterfalls were amazing and so beautiful. I was astonished with the amount of biodiversity found in one single place.

Something interesting that happened was that we became friends with an Australian girl named Elissa, an American girl named Elise, and a Japanese woman named Koset. We were able to communicate very well with Elissa and Elise, but a very strong language barrier with Koset did not allow for a fruitful conversation. On Sunday, Paulette (my roommate) and I went with our homestay family to the farmers market from the Zapote District in San Jose, Costa Rica. I didn’t even know where to look! So many new and different fruits and vegetables. I had never heard of ayote, manzanita de agua, vainitas, yucca, pejibayes, cas, granadilla, sapote, mamon chino, carambola and so many more… I am really loving Costa Rica!