One Week

Leaving in one week!  

Have almost all of the items that I need, which among other things includes (this is for the entire semester, remember) “5-7″ Tshirts, 2 pairs of pants, a headlamp (no, no pictures of me in this), a Swiss Army knife, snake boots, hiking boots, sneakers, and soccer cleats.  

Here is the schedule of events (we’re bouncing all around the country):
August 25 Arrival in San Jose
August 26 Visit to OTS offices at the University of Costa Rica, San Pedro Orientation
August 28 – September 7 Las Cruces Biological Station
September 8-13 Cuerici Montane oak forest, paramo 
September 14 – October 3 Visit to La Selva Biological Station, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui Tropical lowland wet forest
October 4 – 24 Costa Rica Language Academy, home stays with Costa Rican families
October 25 – November 2 Midterm Break 
November 3 – 8 San Gerardo Biological Station, Monteverde Cloud forest
November 9- 14 Nicaragua Transition between dry and wet forest
November 15 – December 5 Palo Verde, Guanacaste Tropical dry forest, wetlands
December 9 Students return to the U.S.

The Preparation

Costa Rica: August 25th-December 9th

This may be the craziest decision I have ever made.  

Things I hate that I will be encountering (often) upon this adventure: hiking. bugs. exercise.  waking up early. beans and rice.  dirt.  

To give you more of an idea, I (luckily, for I don’t think I received all required doses) tested positive for hepatitis A and B antibodies and thus don’t need those shots.  That leaves me with the following vaccines:

     1. diphtheria        2. typhoid        3. cholera

Apparently rabies and malaria are optional.  Dengue, a tropical disease just outbreaking in Costa Rica, has no vaccines so just cross your fingers

However, there are things I like: monkeys, ocelots, rain, Spanish, volcanos, Costa Rica, Latin America, banana plantations (lucha y resiste!) and the like.  So I’d say the balance is hopefully in my favor.  

I will be posting periodically to prove my survival, and hopefully will have some interesting stories to relate.  Though just to prewarn everyone, there is limited internet access