Orientation and Would You Rather?

Yesterday began with our orientation at the OTS offices. The OTS offices are a beautiful building located on the campus of the Universidad de Costa Rica. During the orientation, we were finally introduced to all of the staff as well as the President and CEO of OTS. Additionally, we learned about what is expected of us course-wise and some general safety tips both for in the field and the city (safety first, kiddos). We also managed to finally get our hands on some of the equipment that we’ll be using throughout the semester. We ended up having to go through the boxes that we’ll be taking with us to ensure that everything was there. Each box was assigned to two people to keep track of. My box ended up being the most full, so it took a bit of time, but it really wasn’t that bad. It was also just fun to see the different types of equipment that we’ll be dealing with throughout the semester. Also awkward when I couldn't identify a compass that folds up (whoops), so I definitely have a long way to go on that front. 

Following the orientation, we returned to our hotel and decided to do a bit of shopping. It was my first experience in a Costa Rican grocery store, but everything was pretty much the same. The store itself was a little small, but it had all your basic amenities. Also, there was an entire section just devoted to Tang. 

You thought I was kidding.

Also, everything is a LOT cheaper down here than in the states. The dollar is pretty strong here, and the conversion rate is around 500 colones to the dollar.

Following that, we ended up walking to a local park (maybe almost getting run over, because pedestrians don't have right of way, whoops). The park itself was really beautiful and well kept. Hopefully we'll be able to return and walk around more during the home stays in San Pedro (just 20 min or so from San Jose). 

Today we spent most of the day in the van, travelling to Las Cruces. Unfortunately, there was also some strife in this part of the journey as well. In addition to it being a 7-8 hour car ride (Las Cruces is practically almost on the border of Panama), we ran into a few vehicle troubles in which one of the tires on the van busted out. It didn’t completely blow out, but it was bad enough that we had to pull over in the next town and change it at a tire store. Then, we had to make an additional stop to replace the spare tire just in case. After that, the car ride was pretty uneventful. Towards the more rural areas, we resorted to asking a lot of "Would you rather...?" questions to pass the time, as cows and pastures can really only be so interesting. 

However, we did take the highway that was more by the coast, so in addition to seeing more parts of the rainforest, we also saw the Pacific Ocean in all of its glory. It was also really interesting to see the drastic contrast between a lot of the country economic wise- most of the citizens appear rather poor, but there are a few houses that are clearly catered to American investors. After seeing more of the country today, it was more obvious that Costa Rica clearly is very reliant on its tourism industry. Therefore, it’s understandable that currently the country has the highest unemployment rate that it has ever had, especially because it too took a hit when the American economy downturned.

We eventually got to Las Cruces, which already appears to be a beautiful site that is owned by OTS. In addition to the protected forests that surround the area, the site also hosts a Botanical Garden. We didn’t get a chance to explore the forests much, but the garden was already pretty impressive. Currently, the garden hosts plants from over 180 places, around 3000 species of plants, and is the host to the 2^nd largest collection of palms in the world. Luckily, we did get to explore the garden a bit, and were able to see a fantastic sunset from a lookout point. 

Unfortunately, we got to the site rather late, so I’m hoping to have a bit more time to explore tomorrow. But, hopefully we'll see some more wildlife when we go out on our hike into the forested section of the park. We already saw a cute creature wandering around the gardens called an Agouti, which are basically a cross between a guinea pig and a squirrel with spindly legs:

Here's to seeing even more cute animals!