Hello all my lovely friends!

Life has been pretty great this week, starting with a two night stay at a gorgeous little farm-stay called Terra Viva, situated in Monteverde. Because this study abroad program operates as a “bubble”, we have to quarantine and get tested before returning to the main campus so we stayed there as we awaited our test results. I had no idea what to expect when our instructors told us that we were quarantining at a farm, except for many cows and beautiful scenery which Terra Viva easily lived up to! One of my favorite things about staying there was the food and the atmosphere around the kitchen. We all ate at a large table, laughing over hot food and good conversation. One thing that I didn’t expect in Costa Rica was that juice is served at every meal, but I always appreciate a cool drink after a hot day.

At Terra Viva, we hiked several trails (one in the rain), and even got to feed baby cows out of a bottle! I wish I had taken pictures of the experience because it was so silly and hectic, since the babies would head-butt each other to get as much time with the bottle as possible. They were also incredibly drooly and I definitely needed to wash my arm after feeding them since it was so spitty.

Accidentally getting stuck behind cows during their milking time at Terra Viva 

Once we got our negative test results, we hopped in the van and went back to campus. I was feeling a little overwhelmed, as I normally do coming back from trips, mostly because there were so many new college students coming for the month on CIEE’s College Away Program that they’ve been running during COVID. We met the seven new students and hit it off right away (obviously because everyone is so nice!) and then quickly started up our classes.

On Saturday, we went to the Cloud Forest Biological Reserve for our Humans in the Tropics class in order to learn more about ecotourism. In a typical year, the reserve hosts around 70,000 – 80,000 visitors who come from within and outside of Costa Rica to see the biodiversity of the cloud forest. One special animal that lives there is the Resplendent Quetzal, a large green bird with a red breast that can often be very hard to see. The male quetzal has a super long tail and a mohawk-like crest, while the female has duller (but still beautiful) plumage in order to avoid predation. They typically build their nests in decaying trees, and are socially monogamous which means both parents do parental care for their chicks. We were walking up a trail when suddenly we came across a group of people with large scopes focused on a dead log in the middle of a tree fall gap. We held our breaths in anticipation, waiting for them to tell us what they’d seen and… sure enough! It was a pair of quetzals! Having learned so much about them in elementary school, it was truly an awe-inspiring experience to see a pair of them in real life! We also saw a three-wattled bellbird, which is a crazy sounding animal that lives in Central America. Check out our species reports tab on the blog to learn more about it!

L to R: Sylvie, Me, Alejandra, Isabelle, and Branko (professor) at Cloud Forest lookout point

Very blurry picture (oops) of quetzal mates! The male is on the left with the red breast.

Next week we start our independent research projects (more on that later), which is a little daunting but so exciting. I’ll be sure to update about how data collection goes, don’t you worry my dear friends.

Till next week! Pura Vida!

Beth 🙂