SURPRISE!

If you'd asked me a month ago, I would have explained that I'd be spending this week seeing what I still hadn't seen in Costa Rica and getting ready to come home. But about two weeks ago, I decided that it was a much better use of my time and proximity to the equator to visit Gabe in Quito, Ecuador. It just so happens that one of my friends from Costa Rica goes to college with one of the girls in Gabe's group, so she helped me work out the details so I could come to Quito as a surprise.
To back up a little, I spent the last weekend of my program on the beach in SW Costa Rica, which is where our professors took us for a final relaxing week. I had a great time in the warm, wavy Pacific and exploring the caves that surround the beaches. It was really nice to spend the weekend with my group and to relax in the hot, humid tropics one last time.

We returned to San Jose on Monday, for one last night in the big city. We visited Mercado Central, where I bought some raw sugar and other essentials before meeting our professors for a farewell dinner. At dinner, we all shared our favorite memories and after dinner, most of my group members and our professor Jorge went out to a club. I normally shy away from dancing, but I got right to it and was the first one on the dance floor. I was at it for about 4 hours, and finally went to sleep after some really sad goodbyes at 1:15.
But not for long! I was up again at 3 to get to the airport for my flight to Quito. I made it here without a hitch and Gabe's friends Mia and Jane met me at the airport. Weirdest thing: as I walked up the gangway from the plane, I was panting like an obese dog and finally realized that the altitude in Quito is over 9000ft! No wonder I couldn't breath!
Once I caught my breath, we hopped in a taxi and headed toward Gabe's internship. We were paying the taxista when I spotted Gabe walking in front of us! We jumped out and pursued him down the street until he turned into his building. Jane went to knock on the door while I hid behind a car, but Gabe looked out the window and saw me. He came running out of the building like it was on fire. It was a pretty exciting moment, but you'll have to take my word for it because there was no time to grab my camera.
Gabe left his internship early and we found a hostel, then met up with some of his friends for a trivia night at an Irish bar. We had a great time, but I was absolutely exhausted. On Wednesday, we wandered around the historic part of the city (with a camera, but no battery) between classes and ran into some beautiful old buildings, plus lots of strange little markets where you can buy more used printer cartridges than you could possibly need. We had dinner with his host family and went to another trivia night as I continued to try to adjust to the lack of oxygen.
On Thursday, we went to a few classes and wandered through Parque Caronlina, which is near Gabe's homestay. That night, we went to see a play in the national theater - La Casa de Bernarda Alba. The play was Federico Garcia Lorca's last work before he was killed by Franco in the Spanish Civil War and is about an overbearing mother and her daughters and the drama that results when love is in the air. I think we managed to follow most of the story, but it's trickier to follow a play when it's in another language. A quick glimpse of the theater following the play:

On Friday, Gabe worked for a few hours in the morning and I took the time to explore the area and, subsequently, to get some exercise. Around midday, we took a bus to Mitad del Mundo, a little town located on the equator! I'd been in Quito (south of the equator) for about 3 days, but I made the leap across the line back to the Northern hemisphere. We looked around the museum about the discovery of the location of the equator and enjoyed being in two hemispheres at once.

After we had thoroughly explored the middle of the earth, we went back to Parque Carolina to try out the paddle boats. Steering was illogical, but we figured it out.

After an hour or so, we went home to change into nicer clothes for Shabbat services! The synagogue was the first real synagogue I've ever been in, and it was amazing! It was a huge, ornate, gorgeous building, once you reached beyond the armed guards and thick walls. Services were fun, though they weren't very familiar. I only recognized one or two tunes and the transliteration was even different. The oneg afterward was incredible though. While everyone was chatting, Gabe insisted on talking with a woman who had mentioned that she lives in India. Believe it or not, she regularly attends a synagogue Gabe visited in India and she remembered a group from Tufts. She and Gabe had attended services together in India! It was an incredible coincidence that had us smiling for the rest of the night.
We woke up early Saturday morning, but not early enough to catch a bus to Mindo, about 3 hours east of Quito. We arrived at the bus stop at 10, but the bus had left at 9, so we reconfigured our plans. We spent some time wandering through an incredible fruit and vegetable market, where we bought our weight in exciting fruit before heading back into Quito Central. This is called rambutan (or mamon chino- Chinese sucker- in Costa Rica).

Back in Quito, we decided to explore the city's only permanent amusement park, which was a great way to spend the day. Unfortunately, Gabe has all those photos, but I can assure you that I was brave enough to go on a real, upside-down roller coaster.
That afternoon, we finally caught the bus to Mindo, a touristy town with lots of adventure activities. We checked into an adorable hostel and went to dinner with a couple we'd met on the bus. We had an early start Sunday morning with a series of 12 ziplines through the canopy! We got to try some really exciting stunts like going upside down and on our stomachs like superman, but I liked being able to go with Gabe and see the incredible view from an upright, seated position.

After ziplining, we took the tarabita, or cable-car, across a huge ravine. The kid here was our guide/driver/person responsible for my life. Once we reached the jungle, we hiked to several beautiful waterfalls and saw lots of bugs along the way. We returned home to Quito Sunday evening and went to bed early, exhausted after our day of adventure.

This morning, we went to class and spent the middle of the day climbing the basilica in Quito. It was a lot of steps, but the view was phenomenal. Quito is skinny E-W, but stretches as far as the eye can see from North to South. It was a beautiful day, and I'm so glad I got an aerial view of Quito and that I could explore the gorgeous basilica.

Now it's time to go home to and make kugel for his Ecuadorian family. After dinner, I think we'll try to see a movie, then I have one more day in Quito before I'm Ancramdale bound (with stops in 5 countries). I've had an incredible week with Gabe, and saying goodbye won't be nearly as bad because of all the family and pets I'll see when I get home!

A Quick Update

This week hasn't been terribly exciting, but I've got some pictures and I'll give a quick update. First, Easter Sunday was a lot of fun. I woke up early and made three trifles for our group and they turned out well. I tried to whip heavy cream, but it turns out that it won't whip well when it's been stored at room temperature. So instead of making whipped cream, I made the mistake Mom always warns me about and made butter. The kitchen ladies were amused, but I couldn't believe a Dairy Princess emeritus could make that mistake.

Lunch was absolutely delicious; we had chicharones (which are basically pork ribs), an amazing zucchini casserole, yucca and lots of juice and trifle. It was a really nice Easter lunch, despite not being with my family.

 

After lunch, we decorated Easter eggs and, later, our professors hid them for us. It was amusing to try to explain the purpose of an Easter egg hunt to people who grew up in a culture that doesn't "do" egg hunts. I found... 0 eggs. But my friend Anya found 4 and a palm tree branch fell on her head. She was fine, and it was the most eventful egg hunt I've seen in a while.

Our poster presentation was Wednesday morning. We presented to the staff at the biological station, local doctors and some local indigenous groups (because some of my group did projects in the indigenous territory). It went well and I was proud of the straight lines in our poster. Here's a photo of my group- Jane, Thomas and Ashley, next to our lovely poster.

We spent Thursday and today, Friday, writing the final paper, which I'm about to submit, and packing! We're hitting the road for our surprise weekend at 7am tomorrow and I can't wait! Here's one last photo from the hike I took to our little waterfall with some friends this morning.

There's a chance my next entry will be written from Los Estados Unidos!! Pura Vida everyone!

Final Project Progress and Semana Santa

I don't have too much exciting news from the past week, but it's certainly been a busy one. Starting on Friday, the day after our finals, my partners (Tom, Jane and Ashley) and I went into the field to begin our research. We spent Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday bouncing along the roads of southwestern Costa Rica and walking many, many miles to interview people about risk factors for gastric cancer. By the end of those five days, we had interviewed 251 people and walked by almost 1000 houses (we were only stopping at every other house and we could only complete an interview if someone over 40 was home). In case you're curious, it appears that salt consumption (with canned food intake serving as a proxy) and having ancestors from a certain province in Costa Rica are the most strongly correlated with gastric cancer prevalence. It was really interesting to see some results from our piles and piles of surveys and hours of work. Though I wore sunscreen every day, I still managed to get odd little patches of sunburn (behind my knees!) and I was pretty tired by the end of our field work. It was also refreshing to take a break from the back of the safari, though Christian (the driver) was a really fun guy to work with. These are my group members, and some others, bouncing along. (I know it's blurry, but trust me, it's an accurate representation of our week). Can you notice the pouring rain outside? That was another highlight. Imagine a little blond gringa showing up at your Costa Rican door in a huge poncho, in the pouring rain, with a clipboard. I'm making quite a reputation for myself here.

On Sunday, our one day off, I volunteered to go help Tom's older sister Maddie (Tom is in the green shirt). She did this study abroad program two years ago and received a Fulbright Scholarship to continue her research here. She is studying the Ngobe community, one of the local indigenous groups. They have pretty unhealthy diets and are almost all obese (at least the women are), but diabetes rates are incredibly low. Maddie has been investigating why that might be and she needed help running a little program that invited people to come answer a questionnaire and have their blood glucose level tested before being served a free breakfast. I administered surveys (I'm a pro!) and took heights and weights and helped serve some pancakes. I also explained what peaches are (in Spanish, of course) to some women who had never seen them. It was a nice, albeit early, morning and I was glad to help Maddie out.
After we finished our field work this week, I've been keeping busy writing my final paper and reading American Psycho and watching Mulan. Yesterday was Good Friday and we went into town to see the Stations of the Cross procession, which was a nice cultural experience and a good break from work and the field station. There was an impressive parade, though I think Jane (also blond) and I got just as many looks.

This morning, I went into town to buy the ingredients for a trifle, which I'm making for everyone and will serve at our Easter lunch tomorrow. I'm also going to decorate some eggs and, if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll go to Mass in the evening. I'll definitely miss being home for Easter because I miss my family and, partially, because there is no Easter candy here. The coming week brings our poster presentation, more paper writing, a surprise weekend trip and the end of our program (Tuesday 5/3!) Then I've got one week to travel around Costa Rica and it's back to the States! I'll be back with an update toward the end of the week.

The Final Stretch!

  Believe it or not, I'll wake up in my bed in Ancramdale four weeks from today! I can not believe how quickly this semester has flown by and, though I'm excited to come home to family and friends and cows and cats, I'm determined to make the best of these last few weeks.
  To catch up from where I left off in La Selva: we spent a few more days there and finished our classes for the whole semester, which left me with a total repertoire of 36 diseases and about 25 plant families ingrained in my head. After leaving La Selva (for the last time!), we took a long trip to Luna Nueva, which is a sustainable farm/lodge near the Arenal volcano in the north-central part of the country. This is the view from Luna Nueva's look-out tower.

  Luna Nueva was absolutely beautiful. We stayed in beautiful rooms and spent one night running from the hot tub to the pool and back. It turns out that hot tubs require cooling off in the pool when you're in the tropics. During our bits of day-time free-time, I tracked down some of the farm's water buffalo, which were a great reminder of the cows at home. Water buffalo don't really look like Holsteins and Ayrshires, but they all have the same mannerisms. We walked up to their fence and one of the buffalo troubled herself to stand, but the others lazily flopped their heads over so they could check us out. During our walk, we also saw some pigs and we heard sheep and goats all week, though they managed to hide in the pasture pretty well.

 

   Besides seeing the animals, we also got a tour of their useful plants gardens. I munched on turmeric for a while, which, apparently, has some temporary effects on teeth. This is my friend Vangie (from Tufts!) and these are our orange teeth. You should see my toothbrush, but my teeth are whitish again. And the bug on my shirt is George II. It's a cicada exoskeleton and we find them all over. Their little feet have these hooks so the exoskeleton can just hang on cloth, so I'm finally foraying into wearing jewelery. The other photo is some of the turmeric and ginger they've harvested from the garden.

 

  Unfortunately, Luna Nueva wasn't all fun and games; the main purpose of our being there was to do a research project about some of the plants grown there. My group was responsible for Chaya, which is a large shrub whose leaves taste and look a lot like spinach. The young leaves are more nutritious and grow more quickly than spinach and Luna Nueva would like to increase their production so they can feed more than the few tourists that visit the lodge each week and actually sell some of the product. We spent a day in the field counting (yes, counting) new and old Chaya leaves, measuring the trunks and the distance between the trees and the sunlight, and counting branches. After some statistics (which I'm learning to love), we showed that of all the variables we considered, the branching pattern has the greatest effect on the biomass of young leaves. It was an interesting project, and we did it all in a day and a half, which was intense.
  On our last day in Luna Nueva, we took a trip to visit the Maleku, the last indigenous group we'll see. There are only about 600 Maleku left and they have been pushed into a very small area without enough land to continue their traditional, subsistence agriculture. Incredibly, they have maintained their language. All the children are required to learn it in school and many families speak it at home. Our host spoke some Maleku for us (about the dangers of global climate change) so we could hear it and I can tell you that it's nothing like anything I've ever heard. We also walked through the forest and saw some of their medicinal plants, many of which we've seen used by other groups (which means they probably work, to some extent) and, finally, tried to shoot bows and arrows. We all had fun competing amongst ourselves and with some Maleku. They were no better than us, which isn't surprising because bows and arrows are only used to entertain the visitors. I was horrible, but don't I look good trying?

  After our trip to the Maleku, we had a three hour trip to San Jose, where we spent the night, and a six hour drive in the morning to (finally) return to Las Cruces, my favorite biological station. Since we arrived in Las Cruces, we haven't done much but study because our finals were today. I hope the exams went ok, though I don't feel great about them; I'm just really glad they're finished. Our next big project launches tomorrow morning at 7:00. Three of my classmates and I are researching gastric cancer in San Vito, the town nearby. Costa Rica has one of the world's highest prevalences of gastric cancer and San Vito is the highest in Costa Rica and nobody is sure why. Over the next two weeks, we're going to talk to over 200 residents and ask about their smoking habits, diets and family history of gastric cancer in an attempt to pinpoint which of those risk factors is the most strongly correlated to gastric cancer rates in San Vito. We hope that our information will help local doctors and the local people prevent, detect and treat more cases, thereby reducing the mortality. This project is certainly going to keep us busy (and tired) and I'm going to get so good at saying "do you smoke?" in Spanish. Next time I post, I'll certainly give an update on our results. In the meantime, it's dinner time and respond-to-emails-I've-ignored-because-of-finals time.

La Selva: The Most Humid Place on Earth*

*this is my guess, but I haven't been everywhere on earth.

 We spent the first week after Spring Break back with our homestay families in San Jose and we had lots of field trips to hospitals and labs and markets. It was a good week and it was nice to see my homestay family and to speak some Spanish. We came to La Selva, the hot, humid field station in the northwest of Costa Rica, on Saturday and we've been busy with classes and field trips all week.

The bridge crossing the river in La Selva. Every day, I walk across the bridge to get to class and see gigantic iguanas and sloths in the trees, plus lots of fish in the water below. I promise to bring my camera along more often.

 Our first trip was to visit a Dole banana plantation. I really enjoyed the trip because I really miss agriculture and because I'm obsessed with anything having to do with production lines. Seeing the bananas floating in the water conveyors to be cut and checked and labeled and packaged was so interesting. And don't worry, the water is recycled. We finished off the tour with a shot of banana liquor, which I actually really enjoyed (unlike most hard alcohol). It tasted a lot like bananas and only started burning once it reached my esophagus.
 On Wednesday, we went into a nearby shanty-town to interview people about their knowledge of Dengue fever and to look for mosquito breeding sites. Dengue is a mosquito-borne virus that causes no symptoms in some, a few days of really painful muscles and fever in some, or a hemorrhagic, life-threatening disease in others. We went door to door and asked people a few questions to gauge their knowledge about Dengue symptoms, transmission and control methods. Once we spoke with them, we asked if we could walk around their yards and gardens to look for bike tires and bricks and other little pools of stagnant water. We found a few nasty little puddles and took samples back to the field station to identify larvae. It was a great (hot, sweaty) day and I really enjoyed speaking Spanish and meeting people and learning more about a disease that has huge repercussions in the tropics.
 The last cool activity of the week was a scavenger hunt for medicinal plants. Our professor went into the jungle and marked some trees that may have fungicidal properties, and marked all the points on GPS units. This morning, we were given the GPS units and sent out to the collect samples. My group got lost (and walked 5km in the boiling heat) and ended up with only one sample, but it was a lot of fun and good exercise.
  That's it for now! I'll be back with more news next week.

Colombia!

I just got back to San Jose after one of the best weeks of my semester and one of the coolest trips I've ever taken.  I finished up midterms in Costa Rica, then spent Monday visiting some museums with a friend and trying to change Costa Rican colones to Colombian pesos because my flight to Cartagena, Colombia was Tuesday evening!  Gabe and I arrived in beautiful, hot Cartagena Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday evening.  We stayed in a little hotel, where the people at the front desk learned who we were and whose roof was outfitted with three Jacuzzis and some hammocks.  We spent two days on the beach, which involved the evil trio of sun, sand and sunscreen, but I really, honestly enjoyed the beach.  The waves were beautiful and the water was warm and it was nice to be able to relax and talk and nap.  My one complaint about the beach was the "entrepreneurs."  We were constantly being bombarded by people who wanted to sell us something (anything).  We were wearing sunglasses, but people would try to sell us sunglasses.  We were eating lunch and people would try to sell us these odd coconut-dessert things.  And though I thought I looked pretty relaxed, women were always trying to give us massages!  At one point, a woman actually grabbed my foot and started rubbing this soapy stuff all over it before I could grab it back and, with the most serious look I could muster, tell her I really didn't need a massage.  She kept saying I was so tense, and I couldn't help but think that may just have been because she grabbed my foot without consent.  But it was a memorable experience and we loved the beach, even with all the attention.

We spent another day visiting a mud volcano- the crater is 28m deep, and full to the brim with lukewarm mud.  We got to float around in the mud for a while, then rinse off in the river.  Once again, there were people trying to give us massages, but we fended them off.  And my skin was so smooth!  We spent that afternoon going on a tour of some mangroves in a little canoe (Gabe and I have both done a lot of canoeing in Latin America).  I promise to get a photo of the mud up here, but Gabe has those.  It was a really great day, and we got to know our tour guide pretty well.  To top of the busy day, we spent that evening riding around the city of Cartagena in a Chiva.  Chivas are open-air buses and, in our case, have live bands playing Rumba music!  We rode around the city for a few hours, with a stop at one of the forts in the city to dance with all the other Chiva-goers and a stop at a night-club, where Gabe tried in vain to teach me to salsa.  I prefer walking.

Finally, we spent a day and a half walking around the old city.  It was so much fun to be in a city with such a rich history.  San Jose, Costa Rica just doesn't have an "old" section and I've forgotten how cool monuments and ruins and history are. Cartagena was a Spanish fort city and we spent a while walking on the "great wall of Colombia" and checking out the forts.

We felt like we were in Europe for much of our walk through the old city.  The streets looked European, our hotel thought it was in Italy and there were a ton of international restaurants.  But then someone would try to sell us a passion fruit (granadilla) or a mango and we remembered where we were.

It was a really great week, not only because Gabe and I were able to spend so much time together, but because we got to see a beautiful, different city.  Now it's back to San Jose for a week, the hot, sticky field station for two weeks, three weeks of a research project, then, unbelievably, the end of the semester.

Panama, Carnaval, Chocoloate and Boats

This week has included Panama, Carnaval, a chocolate factory, and a lot of traveling.  We left Las Cruces (the biological station) on Tuesday morning and headed for Panama.  We crossed the border near the Panamanian town of David, which is in the northwest corner of Panama.  We got to the border and had no trouble getting our “you’re-leaving-Costa-Rica” stamp, but we needed to wait four hours to get the “ok-show-us-your-credit-card-welcome-to-Panama” stamp.  It was a long wait that was not made any more fun by the perpetual smell of urine, the immense numbers of people and the heat.  We finally got to our hotel in David and I ate my weight in arroz con pollo, while my considerably larger professor managed to eat just half of his serving.  It was an important moment because I proved that there is almost no limit to how much I can eat when I’m hungry. 
The next morning, we drove all the way across Panama, from West to East, to visit the Naso Territory.  The Naso are an indigenous people who have, unlike indigenous groups in Costa Rica, never been displaced and still live in their traditional lands.  Also unlike groups in Costa Rica, Panama has not recognized the Naso and their land is not considered an indigenous territory.  A huge hydroelectric dam is planned for their river and we were there to live in the community and hear about the problems faced by indigenous populations in Panama, which are quite different from those in Costa Rica.  We arrived in a tiny town and climbed down a cliff where our dugout canoes were waiting.  These canoes fit about six people and had outboard motors in the back and a guy with a bamboo pole in the front for the areas that were too shallow for the motor’s rudder.  The hour-long ride up the river was really incredible; it was so nice to be on the water and the few sections of rapids and the times I got to help bail out the back of the canoe were memorable to say the least. 
We spent two days living with the Naso in a re-appropriated army camp.  Panama used to have an elite jungle force that trained in the Naso territory, but they abolished their army and the land was turned back over to the Naso, so they use the barracks to house guests like us.  We took “showers” in the river, being careful not to let our shampoo bottles float away and we took a boat trip each day to visit and learn about a different part of the community.
On Saturday, we left the Naso, again by boat but this time with the current, and drove to Bocas del Toro.  Bocas is a very touristy archipelago in the northeast corner of Panama and we were headed there for a day and a half of R and R.  We arrived in a tiny, run-down town and got on (another) boat, this time a slightly more modern marine taxi and took at twenty minute, high speed ride to the main island where we stayed.  We spent that night enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of Carnaval, the Latin American version of Mardi Gras.  All the students and I, plus our TA took a bus to one of the more remote beaches on Sunday.  Starfish beach was a half-hour bus ride and a twenty minute walk from the main street, but the water was crystal clear, the starfish were huge and we even got to see two wild(?) pigs emerge from the forest.  That morning, my friend Allison and I made two loaves of bread’s worth of PB&J, so I ate four and a half sandwiches, played in the water and got bitten by ants.  It was a nice day that ended with dinner and a bar with our professors.  Monday morning began with yet another boat ride back to the mainland and a bus ride to the border.  This time it took us less than fifteen minutes to leave Panama, cross a bridge and enter Costa Rica.  We were shocked and very pleased and continued on our way to visit the Bribri indigenous community in the southeast corner of Costa Rica.  We arrived, realized that the lowlands of the Caribbean are a zillion times more humid than the Pacific mountains we’re used to, and got acclimated to our fifth “home” in seven days.  We spent the afternoon visiting an indigenous cacao farm and a factory run by a group of women to produce and sell chocolate.  We all saw the whole process, from tree (cacao fruit is really sweet and delicious and nothing like chocolate at all) to bean to chocolate.  It was, as you can imagine, really dark chocolate so I was sneezing my fool head off, but I tried it anyway.  It was really interesting to learn about a very matriarchal society and the ways in which women there have taken the lead and created a stable economy from the cacao production.
Today we had a visit to a Bribri ceremonial center in the morning (in boats again), then one last four hour bus ride to La Selva, the other, larger biological station I have not yet seen.  We’ll be at La Selva until Saturday and we’ll write a huge paper and take midterms there, in addition to some jungle exploring.  Then back to San Jose on Saturday to kill a couple days with my host family and Cartegena with Gabe on Tuesday!  These few weeks are certainly busy and so exciting!  I'll post photos soon, but it's just too overwhelming right now.  Talk to you all soon!