2019 Costa Rica International Research Experience

Day 13 Costa Rica La playa de Dominical  Today was travel day we left the station around 8 am. We had the pleasure of having lunch in a town called Domincal. It was so beautiful here. The little town had a lot of shops with many gifts for sale. We also go to go to the beach. This was the first time I have been to the beach in a while. My reservation is right by the beach so this was such a relief to be able to see the ocean again. I missed it. I currently live in Idaho so I am far from home (California). I had so much fun at the beach and it reminded me of how blessed I am to have a reservation in such a beautiful location. Although, Costa Rica is much warmer! I got a tan within thirty minutes of being in the sun (or more like a sun burn). Today was a great day. While I am sad to have to go home, I am so thankful to have been able to experience so many great things in two short weeks. I hope to return to Costa Rica in the future as well as Panama. Some back road in Dominic...

Day 11 Costa Rica Hand carved frogs  Today our indigenous friends from Panama left; Lazaro, Armando and Lucia. It was sad to see them go. I learned so much from them during the short time we have been here. After breakfast, I received two gifts from Lazaro. First was the frogs above. I was surprised to be given this carving because it was one of the ones I looked at a few nights ago. The immense detail and time spent to create such an amazing piece of artwork its outstanding. I really liked this particular carving because it was the only one that was not painted which allowed for the many carve marks to be shown. In return, I gifted Lazaro a necklace made from Juniper berries. I also gave Lucia a bracelet made from porcupine quills. I hope one day I will be able to see all of those I met in Costa Rica again. They all made a big impact on the person I desire to be in the future. They showed me what true strength and resiliency is.  I now have a new found goal to be able...

Day 10 Costa Rica Handmade from palm leaf fibers  I purchased this bag from Lucia the other day and it has put in some good work. I can fit almost everything in it including my water bottle. I chose this bag because the design is similar to one in my tribe. It is the sturgeon back design. It reminded me of home and how much my culture means to me. When I seen this bag it drew me in and I knew it was the perfect one.  Lucia, Leslie and Aldwin learning how to make thread. Today we learned how the processing of the plant fibers into thread. It was a long process and took a lot of time. Lucia showed us how to do it. The first step was to combine them together and you had to use your toes! Here they were combining small portions together using their hands to roll/twist them together. Once the whole bundle was processed the first step was complete. Then we had to further roll them together and this time you used your thigh to roll it on. It was very time consuming. Luc...

Day 9 Costa Rica Sign at the Greenhouse Entrance Today we had the privilege of getting a medicinal plant tour with Armando and Celestino in the greenhouse. Juan, a Phd student from Costa Rica was a big help in translating from Spanish to English. Armando spoke to Celestino in Ngobe tribal language and then Celestino restated it to Juan in Spanish. It was amazing to see these three work together in order to be able to teach us about the medicinal plants and their uses. Armando and Celestino Armando and Celestino took us on quite the medicinal plant tour. It was amazing watching Armando as he walked through the greenhouse. I learned so much within a short amount of time. I had to record the entire session because there was no way I was going to be able to remember everything that was said. This experience was probably one of my favorites because Armando was so eager to share his knowledge. My favorite plant I learned about was for asthma. This plant was spiky on the stem a...

Day 8 Costa Rica Crepe from San Vito Today we got the chance to check out San Vito. Our first stop was the pizza at the Pizzeria Liliana. I got the Tropical Pizza size small and ate the whole thing. It was delicious! Pineapple does belong on pizza! I added jalapeños to the existing ham and pineapple. After walking around for a while and checking out some of the shops as well as grocery stores, many of us met at the crepe place. I don't remember what it was called but the ladies there were super nice and one of them understood English pretty well. I got strawberries, banana and Nutella. It was super good. I was surprised that they had crepes and they were super thin and perfectly made. I should have got another one just to try it. This place is definitely worth it if you are ever in San Vito. The crepe place was right across the street from the pizza place.  Kayonnie and I getting drenched!  Out of no where, it started pouring! A jacket is definitely necessary to...

Day 7 Costa Rica Learning ImageJ Today Corbin taught me how to use the ImageJ software. It was a little difficult at first but after few hours of doing it, I got the hang of it. We have 45 images of leaves to process with the software. Basically we are getting the total surface area of the leaf as well as the healthy surface area. By doing so we can get a percent of diseased area of each leaf. This software is pretty awesome, but there are some nuances with it also. Some of the leaves were hard to do because the lighting as well as the software sometimes would pick up the background as part of the leaf. Overall, I am enjoying learning this method of determining how much of the leaf is diseased versus just guessing. This is more accurate. Lazaro preparing the tattoo material.  After lunch we all got temporary tattoos from Lazaro the leader/chief of the Embera tribe of Panama. He used a fruit from a specific palm tree. To get the fruit you have to climb the tree. Lazaro b...