Flying

January 4th we went zip-lining!

The zip-line was in Arenal, but it was not the same company my mother and I used last time I was in Costa Rica. This one was a lot higher and longer and looked out over Lake Arenal. There was a total of 8 lines, the longest was 2000 feet, the highest was about 700 feet over the forest, and the fastest one was about 55 mph! Yes, I was going so fast my eyes were watering, my mouth was hanging open, and I just kept saying "holy cow holy cow". 

The volcano

Geared up with the roomies

Have I mentioned I have the best roommates ever?

The ride up

The lake

Photo bombing: my new favorite pastime

A little unsure...

And I'm off

Yea....

breaking on the last line

el grupo (again)

It was quite an experience. 
 

Fincas

The first couple days of the the New Year we spent visiting farms in the local community 
 

We saw some little piggies

This farm uses their pigs in multiple ways. Below is an excerpt from a paper I wrote.

"They originally adopted pigs for the use of their manure and meat. The pigs are born on the farm and kept there for a year before sent for processing. When the farm adopted the use of pigs, they discovered rooting as very instinctual to them. Rooting is a natural behavior of pigs where they basically dig their noses in the dirt. They do this to look for worms and insects to eat. They also end up eating some dirt as well which contains important nutrients vital to their health. By allowing the pigs to root, the farm removed the need to inject them with antibiotics. The farm uses the pigs’ rooting as a tilling process when clearing a patch of land for a new use.  
When this farm wants to clear an area of land, the first thing they do is install a temporary fence around the area and release the pigs into it. They just root around in the area looking for their next meal. The pigs take little time in comparison to humans to till an area still covered in brush. After the pigs are done the workers will come in with other tools to clear large brush and any trees needing to be removed."

we tasted some cacao seeds

 

 At the next farm we saw a green house that's part of a co-op growing sweet peppers on this farmer's land

 

harvested yucca

juiced sugarcane

saw the farmer's oxen

his cute-as-can-be granddaughter

who wanted to take pictures of us with her mother's phone because everyone was taking pictures of her

and we saw some toucans having a snack

 At another farm we made tortillas

el grupo 

Water, Beans, and New Years Eve

December 30th - December 31st

In these two days we have:

 hiked to a waterfall

 saw a tinny frog (the size of my thumbnail) 

hiked to a farm in the surrounding community (yes that is the driveway at the center)

to plant beans

a LOT of beans

in between coffee plants

with sticks the farmer cut off a tree right in front of us and sharpened with his machete...

  I got blisters on my hands and my arms were sore the next day
but it was a great service learning project!

that night we went into town for a Costa Rican New Years Eve!

fun times with the roomies!

Pura Vida!

Day 1: December 29^th 2012

Before I can accurately describe how this travel day went, I must share with you the events of the previous day. December 28^th. This was my travel day from home (or the Pittsburgh airport to be more accurate) to the Houston airport. I had a return flight scheduled for about 11am the morning of the 28^th. I arrive at the airport, swipe my passport and proceed to discover there is no record in United’s system of T. Walker flying on the 28^th. This was a problem. If I didn’t make it to the Houston airport that night, I wasn’t going to be on the plane leaving for Costa Rica the next morning. I was going to be on that plane! After being directed to a different line and describing my problem to a new person, I was told yet again that there were no available flights from Pittsburgh to Houston that day. And because I had (purposely) missed my original flight from Houston to Pittsburgh two weeks early my entire roundtrip flight had zero value, meaning I didn’t have a ticket and I would be responsible for paying for a new one. At this point, the stress of the possibility of me not making it to Houston (which was very high) and therefore not making it to Costa Rica completely got to me. Have I mentioned that I only had thrEE hours of sleep the night before? (Yes. I was up late working on a project, but I can’t explain what it was because it’s a surprise for my cousin and she might read this…) So with all of this information and being completely alone at the airport, of course my eyes started doing that thing, you know, where a watery salty substance comes out of them? Anyways, the new women I was talking to must have been much more knowledgeable because she searched and searched away to try to find me a flight to Houston. Another part of this horrible string of events was the fact that the check in counter was ridiculously busy that morning. Finally this amazing woman, who is now my hero, found me a flight from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to Houston. I didn’t have to pay for another ticket AND she didn’t charge me for checking my bag (I even asked). Crisis averted! I then had to sit at the Pittsburgh airport for five hours just wanting to take a nap but the darn chair bench things they have there all have handrails, so you can’t lie down! I was however provided with some unexpected entertainment while I waited. When the plane I was going to get on arrived at the gate, there were four county sheriff police cars waiting on the tarmac. They proceeded to cuff and carry a man and a woman off the plane down the stairs outside and into the back of their cars. I have no idea what happened, but the man was very resistant and was kicking the officers and even caused one to slip and fall on the still icy/snowy ground.  

I made it to Cincinnati, sat there for four more hours (did get to watch my Hokies WIN their bowl game in overtime, which was quite a shock considering our season.) and made it to Houston at midnight (but feeling like 1am because of the time change). Just another side note to add to this day; while on the plane to Houston I was able to take a nap because the seat beside me was empty. I had just bought a travel pillow in the airport, the kind with all those little foam beads as filling. When I awoke, part of the seam in this pillow had busted and those darn beads were everywhere! And they were all static-y so you can imagine how hard it was to get them out of my hair. As I was trying to find something to hold the seam closed temporarily I discovered my water bottle had leaked ALL over my backpack. Wonderful. 

Once landed in Houston I had to go to Wal-Mart to buy needle and thread to fix the pillow and I wanted some snacks for in Costa Rica. Finally, I got to a hotel and got only about three hours of sleep (AGAIN!) before I had to wake up to go back to the Houston airport. 

Lake Arenal

Now I can start to describe the 29^th, because you are aware of the hideous day before and the very little sleep that occurred. I got to the airport at 7am, stood in a long line to check-in and check my bag, stood in an even longer line to go through security, followed by walking a very long ways to get to my gate. I got breakfast, and got on the plane to Costa Rica! I cannot describe to you the feeling of relief knowing I had made it on that plane, when less than 24 hours earlier I thought I was stranded in the Pittsburgh airport.

The Center from afar

After landing in Liberia, all 24 of us got on a bus and rode for five plus hours to the Texas A&M Soltis Center. Once arrived and given room arrangements, I ate dinner and went to bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head met the pillow.

 This center is practically a resort. I couldn’t believe how nice it is and the amenities they provide. It is also located in a very rural area. A lot of big differences between here and the SFS center I stayed at during my previous trip to Costa Rica.

Trip Summary

So, I’m back home now and back into the swing of things. My trip finished up very stressful, getting everything done for my report in such a short time was very overwhelming. I’m all done now though and overall had a wonderful experience. I had to write an essay about my experience for the School for Field Studies and I wanted to share it with everyone, so here it is:

I participated in the 2011 spring semester Costa Rica School for Field Studies program. I lived in Costa Rica for three and a half months with 27 other students. I experienced great personal and academic growth from the program. I made new friends and learned about Costa Rica’s environment and the environmental issues they face. The water issues in Costa Rica really caught my attention. I learn how even one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world still has a long way to go to fix all of their environmental problems. This program has helped me decide that I want to focus on sustainable agriculture in developing countries in the future.

The School for Field Studies program in Atenas, Costa Rica focuses on sustainable development. During the program we were taught about natural resource management, environmental economics, and tropical ecology. We took several field trips all over Costa Rica where hikes and field lectures were given. Several of the different types of forests Costa Rica has were visited. We hiked through cloud forests, dry tropical forests, transitional wet to dry forests, and mangrove forests.  The directed research portion of the program spilt up the students in the respective classes. I choose the environmental economic directed research project that focused on the socioeconomics impacts of tourism. A weeklong trip to Panama was taken by the entire group during the program. Participating in center projects helped maintain and develop the field station further. I helped make hydroponic raised beds in the green house, I helped maintain the garden and orchard, and I also helped make a constructed wetland for the student affairs manager’s house. We also participated in community outreach projects. These included recycling programs, painting a new sign for the local orphanage, and a language exchange with local students learning to speak English.

I experienced a great personal growth during my time in the program. I made wonderful and long lasting friendships with the other students in the program. Living in such close quarters with 27 other people was challenging, but I found rewarding aspects as well. Getting to know other people with similar interests as myself made me feel more confident in the career path I chose. I was homeschooled and being able to develop many friendships with people my age was very rewarding. Getting up early in the morning to pick oranges to make orange juice for breakfast made me even more appreciative of what real farmers do on a daily bases to supply us with food. With every ice cold shower I took, I came to understand how important the little things are. I also realized how wasteful America is and that it’s going to take a lot more work than I thought to change the way America thinks about its resources. My personal growth as far as the friendships that were created was one of the best parts of the program for me.

My academic growth was also greatly impacted by the program. During the directed research portion of the program, I gained valuable information on how to conduct a research project and how to properly write a research paper. I learned about tropical ecology which I had never studied before the program. I feel like I learned better and retained more material when a field lecture was given compared to a lecture in the classroom. Overall I feel like I learned more in the classes in this program than in the classes at my home institution. The difference between being shown a plant in the field and in a book amazes me. In the field I was able to see how big a plant was, I was able to touch it and smell it. I retained so much more information when in the field than in the classroom. For the rest of my life I will know what the characteristics of a mangrove forest are. This is because I learned about mangrove forests while sitting in a mangrove forest. Even if my career does not lead me to work directly with mangrove forests, this information is incredibly valuable to me because of the way I learned it. This program opened my eyes to the way I learn things best and that is a very useful and powerful tool I am grateful to have.

                

One of Costa Rica’s environmental problems concerns their use of water. Costa Rica does not have the proper infrastructure to supply water to the entire population. Clean drinking water is a right by law to every Costa Rican. The water that is not properly supplied is not regulated and therefore not paid for. Costa Rica also does not have a proper sewage system. All of the waste water runs into the streets and then the river and eventually to the ocean. Trash also pollutes the water in Costa Rica. Fifty percent of the population and 80 percent of the industry in Costa Rica live in the central valley. All of the waste from the central valley drains into the Tarcoles River Basin. This river is highly polluted and drains directly into the ocean. A large amount of the electricity in Costa Rica is powered by hydroelectric power plants. Hydroelectric plants do not produce the amount of greenhouse gasses as more traditional power plants, like coal-fired power plants. Building hydroelectric plants does have some damaging effects on the environment. It destroys habitat and uses one of our most precious resources for something other than drinking. The water used by agriculture, not to mention agriculture itself, is also damaging to the environment. This program made me aware to the fact that environmental-friendly forward-thinking countries still have pressing environmental issues.

The SFS program influenced my future goals. I now want to have a career with more emphasis on developing countries.  My major at Virginia Tech is agriculture and applied economics with specialization in environmental economics. I now know that I want to pursue a graduate program in sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is important to me because I feel that of all the environmental issues the world is currently facing, agriculture is one of the biggest. Having a sustainable, affordable, and adequate supply of agricultural products is essential to the human population. The SFS Costa Rica program helped me to decide where to specialize my future study and career.

Panama and other things

I know this is long past due, I’ve been a little overwhelmed by everything I have to do and I’ve been very sleep deprived. Four weeks ago we left for our week long trip to Panama. We all loaded on to the bus at four in the morning and proceeded to sit on that bus for the next 18 hours. At times it felt like we were never going to reach Panama City. We visited many places once in Panama. We went to Old Panama and Colón, both of which are ruins that I found pretty cool. We went to the Metropolitan National Forest and got to ride in the canopy crane. We got to see a Harpy Eagle, the national bird of Panama, at a zoo-ish place. We went to the Miraflores Locks. It was very cool to see how the ships pass though the locks of the Canal. We also got to see one portion of where they are expanding the Canal. We watched a video of how they plan on expanding it and how the new locks are suppose to be more sustainable in terms of fresh water use. However, by expanding the Canal they are still increasing their demand for fresh water, so the sustainability of it is questionable.

On our way back to Atenas, we had some problems at the border. At first the Costa Rica entrance person gave the first three students a 40 day visa stamp. This was not good because at that time the program was 44 days and a lot of students are staying after the program. Then they told us we needed to have our trip itinerary so they would know when we were planning on leaving Costa Rica. Before we left for Panama the program coordinator made sure we did not need any of this paperwork. Apparently, a law had been passed saying that when you enter into Costa Rica you need proof of when you are leaving in order to get a visa stamp. So, the majority of the students, I included, had to walk back over to the Panama side and go to an internet café to somehow find and print out our flight itinerary. This took awhile with how many of us there were. Once back inline on the Costa Rica side, there was a different person working at the entrance office. When I got to the window, the man didn’t even ask for my itinerary, he just stamped my passport with the 90 day visa. This showed us that the new ‘law’ they created is completely up for the interpretation of the person working at the booth. How ridiculous! Once everyone had gotten their entrance stamps, we had to unload everything from the bottom of the bus and have our bags checked. I think everyone was overjoyed when our bus finally pulled up at the center and we were able to sleep in real beds.

It was an experience worth doing though, Panama was very different than Costa Rica. One of the things I found most interesting was that in Panama, they use US dollars as their currency. I’m still not sure I fully understand how they have control over their monetary system when they don’t produce their own currency.

The week after we got back from Panama was finals. Not too much to say about that. The week after that was all about preparing for our directed research (DR). It involved many statistic classes. Not too much to say about that either.

Now we are in the middle of our DR field research. This week my DR group is staying near Carara National Park so we can conduct surveys about the park. This park has a very low visitation rate, so when my partner and I are here the day is very slow. (Hence why I am writing this right now.) When my partner and I are at the Tarcoles bridge doing surveys, like we did yesterday, it is very different. We are out in the sun all day along, it is very hot, and the bridge sidewalk is very narrow. It’s really only wide enough for one person. The traffic on this bridge is also very high; there are a lot of big trucks that fly by. It’s not really the safest thing, but the foot traffic there is a lot higher than at the park and you can get a lot more surveys.

Here are some pictures from Panama and some from us making a constructed wetland at the center.