This weekend is our three day weekend and we don't have to report back to class until Tuesday morning. Ten of us got a tour company to get us a reservation in Arenal which is north on the map, but it is impossible to drive that way because of the Tilaran Mountain Range. So we took a van through some small hills for 1 1/2 hours, then a boat across Lake Arenal for one hour and then a half hour van ride to our hotel. Five of us opted for a nicer accommodation and 5 others opted for a hostel in the town of La Fortuna. Just getting here was kind of an adventure. At first my group in the nicer hotel were kind of perturbed that we were so far from town, until the clouds ... read more

It is Sunday evening and I have had my first officially free day since we all started the program on June 22. Yesterday my group (the Nutrition Group) went with a fellow USF Graduate Student to 2 of the farms that he has been studying for his research. We split up into 2 groups and worked the fields for a while with each of the farmers. Our idea was to speak with farmers to see what motivates them to grow and whether they would be interested in selling their produce to the local farmer's market. We all used machetes and long knives to chop weeds around the plants in the field and were quite tired when we were done. One group had a very talkative farmer while the other had a very quiet farmer. We enjoyed ... read more

From Wednesday until Friday the Field School Group went back and forth between the Poco a Poco (Little by little) Hotel and the Monteverde Institute. We had several introductory classes about the institute as well as anthropology and public health lectures from our instructors. On Friday morning we were grouped into beginning, intermediate and advanced and took our first Spanish Class. Later in the afternoon we met our homestay families and then we all went to their houses for our first night. My family consistes of Marlena and Jose and their 22 year old daughter named Silvia. Jose works as a bus driver and also does some tractor work on the roads and Marlena stays at home and cares for Silvia's 2 year old daughter, Maria Jose. Silvia works in a very nice hotel (much more ... read more

Hi all! It has been 2 days since I've written because yo estoy muy ocupado (I have been very busy)! So, let me try and catch you up!! On Saturday I had an amazing day! I went to the Biological Garden in Puerto Viejo which was a nice sized tropical fruit garden. They had all the tropical fruits I knew and some I had never heard of. I walked about 15 minutes north on the main road north out of town and then another 5 minutes off the main drag to the garden. As I arrived a bus of tourists were loading up and leaving. So that put me as the only patron at the garden, which was a real luxury. The tour was self-guided and the brochures were really informative. I ended up wandering through ... read more

Thursday morning I had slept well until a rooster woke me at 2:30 am. I did go back to sleep and was up and moving by 7am. I rented a bicycle and planned to pedal along the caribbean coast road to the village of Manzanillo. The road was completely dirt up to about 5 years ago. Now there are some nicely paved areas, some areas with potholes and areas where the road totally falls away to gravel. Remember my friend from the bus? She is from this village and must travel this road every day to get her physical therapy or drive over 4 hours to see her specialist. Some of the way followed the coast which has some really nice waves, hence the surfer dudes I mentioned before. There is an area called Salsa Brava ... read more