BeeGees

Louie Brothers

Stepping off the plane into the San Jose airport at 6 in the morning, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Costa Rica. My Spanish had never been tested before in a foreign country and I was determined to use it. I stepped up to the man at the counter with a bright smile despite my lack of sleep with a cheerful “Hola!” I received a terse “paspaporte” and a swift stamp. Almost a week later and I can say I’ve been able to have far more scintillating conversations with the locals: at Monteverde where we took guided tours from some hilarious and informative locals, at a restaurant where we watched a bit of futbol, and even at a discoteca last night in Carara. We’ve been on 4-5 hikes so far, each one starting bright and early and lasting several hours. I could not even come close to describing the beauty had I not been snapping pictures every 5 minutes. Around every turn is a new encounter that blows your mind. The flora and fauna are so much more diverse and colorful than in the States. We arrived at Carara National Park 4 days ago and have been basically camping with the bare essentials in a standalone building where we can’t trust the water, but it’s been a blast. I’m uploading my pictures to Facebook (cliché but meh) in addition to the ones here, so take a look if you’re reading this (that means you Tara! XO). Yesterday we went ziplining in Jaco, which will probably the highlight of the trip for me, as it combined a ridiculous amount of adrenaline with heart-stopping views of the coast. I even managed to tie my camera to my waist and take a video during zipline #5 which was almost 1000 yards according to our guide. Everybody was tentative on the first zipline but by the tenth we were spinning 720s and busting out inverted airs 1500 feet in the air. The only thing that can top that now is our surfing lessons. Hopefully I can summon my snowboarding and wakeboarding experience and manage to catch a wave. For the next week at Carara, we’ve split up into 4 teams: Biogeography, Botany, Birds, and Environmental Education. My group, Biogeography (aka the BeeGees) is in the process of deciding what our final project will be. Most likely it will involve making a new map of the trails since we have a Yuma GPS that tracks wherever we walk using as many satellites as it can pick up. We can also take pictures with it and it will pinpoint the place on the trail that we took them. We also will probably do some trail maintenance and hopefully repair part of one bridge that is covered with 2x6s. I’m looking forward to having some modern conveniences but I also love the time spent here. Amor a mi familia y mi novia lindisima, les extraño mucho!