Aero: Brianna Cardina – Costa Rica 2016 – Biodiversity
Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project
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Costa Rica was a very beautiful place. It was very hot there, every day at least 80 – 90 degrees, no lower. When we went, it was the dry season so we didn’t have to worry about humidity. Also, there were so many plants that I’ve never seen in my life.
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Brianna Cardina
Many times, we adventured outside of the city to go visit a volcanic summit or trek through a forest. During those, our tour guide would usually speak English and tell us about the history of the surrounding foliage. At one point on one of our hikes, the tour guide gave us a small flower petal that we were told was edible. We all ate it, and it tasted like apples! We got to see many other plants that actually made produce. We saw many coffee bean bushes, banana trees, coconut trees, and various other fruit yielding plants. I think it’s fascinating to be in a place where there is so much diversity in the environment.
There was diversity with bugs, too. It’s not common to see a cockroach in upstate New York, but we found one in Costa Rica… In our host family’s home! Also, as we went on a hiking trail, our tour guide stopped at a tree with a bunch of small termites and said that they were edible. I didn’t eat one, but some other students did, and they said it tasted like peanuts. Lastly, there were a lot of bugs but mostly at the resort we went to. Overall we got a lot of bug bites and didn’t know where half of them came from. I didn’t mind them, though. Because whenever it got buggy, you’d see geckos crawling around – usually on the ceilings! They were very adorable, and were one of my favorite parts of Costa Rica.
Another great part of the environment was the animals. I loved being able to see a parrot in person. A few times, we’ve actually sighted them near restaurants and rest-stops. It was also great to see even more at the local zoo. Zooave (the local zoo) was a great place because it takes care of sick or injured animals until they’re well enough to live on their own. And, because there were many peacocks just roaming free. I loved the whole thing.
Brianna Cardina
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016
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