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Published: September 10th 2012
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Where do I begin..
Saturday morning we left the school at 8 AM and headed out for the Biology Reserve. We had to take an alternate route because the earthquake damaged the usual road- which made the drive a little less than an hour. The hike up to the reserve is 11 km long UPHILL. I would say I am in decently good shape and I was drenched in sweat hiking up. The manager of the reserve was supposed to meet us at the bottom to pick up our stuff, but he didn’t show so we had to hike up with all our bags and what not.
When we got there, we were all starving. We ate lunch and then had a little bit of free time. A few of us huddled up in our room and played catch phrase, spoons, and just passed the time chatting. I felt like I was at a summer camp 😊.
Around 2 we headed back out to hike around the reserve. I was constantly paranoid I was going to see a snake. Apparently, most of the snakes are in a mock state of hibernation right
now. This means they have already found prey for the season and are resting while they digest it. The people who run the reserve ‘tag’ the snakes. So, I knew where there was a snake because it would be sitting by a pole. Snakes are the most dangerous and aggressive when they are looking for their prey, not while they have digested it. The snakes in this rainforest are Vipers and can be lethal. So scary!
My paranoia increased when a scorpion was found in the common room of the reserve… Later, another was found in the hall way to the bedrooms! TWO scorpions! When the first one was found, our professor told us that he forgot to remind us to check our beds before sleeping in them incase scorpions had crawled into them.. He was serious… Literally half of our beds had cockroaches in them… At this point I was ready to just come back to my tico house, with good food and where I felt safe.
At 9, we walked down the trail where they have a white sheet with lights shining on it to attract bugs. There were all kinds of
moths, beetles, grasshoppers, etc. Here, our professor told us about all the bad things insects can carry. He told us that we shouldn’t worry about snakes or animals here in Costa Rica- that insects are the things we need to worry about…
I was so scared to sleep. After checking my bed again, I crawled into it and cocooned myself in the blanket. I’m pretty sure I woke up about 100 times to check around myself to make sure nothing was sleeping with me..
Sunday morning we hiked up the river to a waterfall. My boots had a hole in them so my feet were continuously wet. Once again I was kind of scared of the open rain forest. When we got to the waterfall we all stripped down to our swim suits and got in. So worth it. During the hike back down, I was more relaxed.
Instead of hiking the 11 km back out of the reserve, we all climbed into a truck. About half way down the road, the truck got a flat tire. The jack wasn’t working, so Jose, the only boy on our trip, had to
run back to the reserve to get a different one.
When I got back to my house, all I wanted to do was shower and eat… My host dad asked me if I felt the earthquake yesterday, which was a 5 point something… But I definitely did not.
After 40 pages of reading in Spanish, here I am. As I’m writing this, it’s storming like crazy outside (as usual) and my host mom just brought me “Aqua dulce” a hot drink made with milk, water, and sugar cane. She’s so cute.
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