¡Hola a todos! This is my first blog post while abroad in Costa Rica for my Master’s of Bioengineering in Global Medical Innovation (GMI) at Rice. I’ll be using this blog to keep track of my experiences and thoughts while on this exciting trip. I thought it would be fun to include some highlights and lowlights at the beginning of every blog post, following with brief summaries of key moments/events leading up to the post being written.

Highlights

• Getting exposure to a completely new culture
• Fresh fruit juice/smoothies in Costa Rica
• Quality bonding with my cohort
• Being able to see a sloth very VERY up close

Lowlights

• Trying to remember Spanish that I learned four years ago in high school
• Having to wake up at 5-6am every morning
• The stress experienced when deciding what to eat off of a menu completely in Spanish
• Accidently swallowing a bug that flew into my mouth

Arrival

Our cohort flew into Costa Rica Friday (5/27) evening and took a shuttle to Escalante, the neighborhood in San José that we are staying in. We ate dinner at Saúl Bistro, where I ordered my first Costa Rican fruit smoothie which consisted of pineapple, coconut, and orange. The smoothie was mind-blowingly good and it definitely lived up to the hype. After dinner we walked back to our hotel, Hotel 1492. What surprised me about this hotel was that the top of the windows were open air with no screens, meaning that insects could easily fly or crawl into the room. There was also no AC in the hotel, however, this turned out to be less of a big deal because the nights here are quite cool (high 60s – low 70s) due to the rain. Sleeping that night was a little uncomfortable since it was a big adjustment from what I was used to. With that being said, being at this hotel has really made me check my own privileges and has been a humbling experience. 

Farmer’s Market

On Saturday morning, our cohort walked to the farmer’s market with Dr. Wettergreen’s family. On the way there we stopped by a crafts market that had many small shops selling a plethora of different goods. I ended up not buying anything there because I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things that were being sold. From the colorful street art to the rocky sidewalks, exploring the city was definitely an exciting experience. There was also a Chinatown in San José which was especially interesting to see. The farmer’s market was bustling with activity with many shops selling fruits and vegetables I have never seen before. Some of my colleagues bought coconuts from the market to drink and eat from. The walk to the market was around 30 minutes and by the time we got back to the hotel, we were all exhausted from experiencing the hot Costa Rican sun for the first time. 

Jaco Beach

On Saturday our cohort woke up bright and early to go to Jaco beach. To get there, we took a 2 hour public bus ride. Once we got to Jaco, we ate a traditional Costa Rican breakfast consisting of gallo pinto, eggs, plantains, and Turrialba cheese. It felt surreal sitting at the outdoor restaurant with the beach and palm trees in view, and thinking about how just two days ago I was in Houston. The views around the beach were very beautiful and the water was the perfect temperature, however, the sand itself was quite pebbly and the sun was brutally strong. The heat made the sand almost too hot to walk on barefoot. Once we had our fun on the beach we cooled off at a Subway and took another bus ride home. In the evening our cohort was able to meet and bond with the undergraduate students, who were all fresh faces despite me having been a Rice undergrad myself. As a side note, although it had been explained how English is widely used in Costa Rica, at this point I had made the realization that I couldn’t rely on English as much as I thought I could in this country. Without Vanessa, Katy, and Kaira in our cohort, it would’ve made communicating with the Costa Ricans much less efficient.

San Jose Nature Tour

On Monday some of our cohort decided to go on a walking nature tour of San José. This tour took place on the University of Costa Rica’s campus. On the tour with us was an American woman from Wisconsin and a couple from Mexico. I was especially impressed with our tour guide Yendry, who was able to seamlessly speak between English and Spanish. On the tour we were able to witness long trails of leaf-cutter ants who were carrying pieces of leaves that were twice the size of them on their backs. We also saw carpenter bees, which are the size of cicadas but are harmless to humans. We also ate the fruit from the monstera deliciosa plant, it tasted like a mix of jackfruit and bananas. By far the biggest highlight of the tour were the sloths. At first our cohort was skeptical about being able to see a sloth in San José. However, we were eventually able to witness a sloth climb down from a tree right in front of us to take a bathroom break, something that sloths only do once a week. I was quite honestly mesmerized by the sloths and it made for a very special experience for our cohort.

This wraps up my action-filled weekend. I look forward to writing about the medical innovation bootcamp in my next blog, where GMI students will be working with Costa Rican students as well as Rice undergraduates to take a deep dive into the biodesign process.