Last day in Cuericí

By: Kata

We woke up early to have breakfast at 6:30, we ate beans, cheese, plantains, tortillas, fruit and of course the good Costa Rican coffee. A very good breakfast to start the day.

At 7:15 we set out towards the oak forest, it was a walk of approximately 40 minutes, every minute of the journey is worth it, the forest is simply spectacular.

We chose three trees to climb and split into three groups. But before we split up, we received a small botany tutorial from Julia that helped us more easily identify the plants in the area. Thanks Julia!

Putting ropes on such tall trees is a difficult task, but after several attempts and trying on different trees we finaly made it. Thanks Jeremy and Beto!

After having the ropes set up, we were more than ready to climb a beautiful oak tree of about 30 meters high. This time we improved quite a bit in our roles, took samples more easily and our climbing skills improved quite a bit. Well done team! ✨ Thank you Felipe for encouraging us to reach the highest point, the view was impressive and we saw very interesting plants.

After the climb, a delicious lunch awaited us, it was kindly prepared and packed by the station staff. This time we didn't forget the Lizano sauce, a Costa Rican delicacy.

After a day of work, we returned to the station and fixed the "despiche" (Costa Rican word for referring to disorder) we had with the equipment, we promise to improve on that!

We got our luggage ready for the next day's departure but that didn't leave us without energy to play a friendly game of volleyball. Of course, there were plenty of laughs...

For dinner we were expecting a wonderful trout dish, which was freshly caught from the station, it was delicious.

After dinner we had a nice moment around the fire where we shared our best moments at the station and the things we learned. Note the clothes drying!

After a small class and preparing our research questions and hypotheses, we still had energy for a night of games and music. We had a lot of fun! Thank you so much Cuericí!