Tuesday 12/10/19 Tour Day

Day 3 Costa Rica 


This is me!
I figured it was time to introduce myself, since today we spent some time doing this with the Indigenous group from Panama. My name is Paula Aubrey and I come from the village of Turep on the Yurok Reservation. I was raised mainly by my grandmother and grew up on the reservation. I recently graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in Nutrition. I plan to go to graduate school to pursue a masters in Public Health Nutrition. I have a strong interest in traditional foods and sharing that with indigenous peoples. Today was a day filled with A LOT of exercise. I started my day at 4:30 am and worked out before the sunrise. Around 7:30 we began our tour of the property and it was very informational. It was surprising to see so many different plants from around the world all in one place. I took so many pictures! 
Photo of Scott, Deb, Ian, Nicole, Aldwin, and Lucas on top of the lookout tower.

We hiked down to the Rio Java after the first tour of the property near the main part of the campus. This hike included so many things that I cannot even express how amazing they were. Plants, bugs, ants, trees, and things that look like trees but are not. I am obviously not a plant person but I do love all of the diversity here. As stated before, I am very thankful for those who allow for this program to be possible. This picture was by far my favorite picture of the day because you can see from each and every one of those faces the amount of joy they have. Not only the surroundings are beautiful but those who are participating in this research and coordinating the research have great intentions and it shows. I do not have a picture of the group of Indigenous tribal people (3) from Panama, but they too share a special place in this program being possible. After dinner, we all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves to everyone. It was translated by Scott to the Indigenous guests from Panama and they as well got to tell us more about themselves. This experience impacted my heart so heavy because never in my life have I been able to communicate with Indigenous People from another country. I started tearing up when one of the men told us how thankful he was to be here in this place and to be sharing this experience with us. I learned so much in one day, and it showed me that the possibilities in life are endless....as endless as the view from this lookout point.

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