¡Hola a todos! We finally made it to the last week in Costa Rica. In this final blog post, I will be writing about my final two weekends as well as any final updates on my work at Establishment Labs.

Highlights:

• Playa Conchal
• Pizza at Brasilito
• Successfully finishing my internship
• Good deals at the crafts market

Lowlights:

• Being on a bus for almost 8 hours
• Saying good bye to Costa Rica

Guanacaste Trip

For those of you who read my blog post from last week, you know that we had cancelled our trip to Guanacaste this weekend because of a COVID exposure. However, after we had taken care of the COVID related issues, on Saturday night Katy, Jhalak, and I decided once again to go to Guanacaste. We would be staying in Brasilito for a night so we could have two days at Brasilito and Conchal beach. Although online it said the bus to Brasilito would take 3.5 hours, it actually took 5.5 hours instead. Brasilito was a small rural town, with lots of stray dogs and small souvenir shops around the beach. We first ate lunch at Soda Brasilito, then checked in at Hotel Brasilito, and then spent the rest of the afternoon at Playa Conchal and stayed until sunset. Playa Conchal was as pretty as we had heard; the shells/sand were pleasing to look at and the water was crystal clear. The beach at sunset was absolutely beautiful, and the sunset itself was incredible too. At night we ate dinner at Gracia La Vid, where I ate one of the best pizzas I’ve had in my life. The next day we decided to go again to Conchal in the morning. The beach was a lot less crowded, and the water looked much prettier than the day before probably because the Sun was right overhead. I also bought a souvenir from a lady selling trinkets near the beach. The bus ride back home was brutal, most likely due to the holiday. It took almost 8 whole hours to get back! With that being said, we all had a great time taking in the sights and sun bathing over this weekend. 

Establishment Labs

This final week at establishment labs was relatively uneventful as we were just wrapping up our insertion sleeve project. Our 3D printed parts had finished printing, however, we had to scope our a different material to use, as the resin parts were too rigid. I was able to use Fusion 360 to model out some molds so we could create our parts out of silicon instead. We also worked a lot on the documentation end by making sure that we had uploaded all of work, as well as documenting the tasks we had completed and future work that needed to be completed. On Thursday night, we had dinner with our team at La Alacena, a Spanish restaurant and said our final goodbyes to our coworkers. We chatted over tapas, sangria, and cheese cake. It was a bittersweet moment as the people there were very welcoming and supportive throughout this entire internship.

Overall, being at Establishment Labs was a great experience. I learned a lot about the breast implant manufacturing process and the surgical procedure itself, things that I had completely no knowledge of before this internship. I enjoyed the insertion sleeve project because we got to design a product completely from scratch, which is something I haven’t gotten to do at an internship previously. 

Last Weekend

Our last weekend was spent packing and buying souvenirs. On Saturday I bought some Costa Rican candy, Salsa Lizano, and a Starbucks Costa Rica mug to take home. On Sunday we revisited the San Jose crafts market. I bargained and bought some nice souvenirs such as an Imperial shot glass, hand painted feathers, and a keychain. I felt much more comfortable being in the market than the first time we went, where I felt completely overwhelmed and intimidated. We spent the rest of the afternoon and night at Lolita, where we had sangria, pizza, and gelato to celebrate our final day. 

Currently, I am typing this from home. The flight back to Houston was smooth, and I had no issues with security or customs. Although I had a fun time in Costa Rica, there are definitely things from home that I missed like my mom’s home-cooked food. It was full ups and also downs but overall I got so many enriching new experiences out of this trip. I definitely have a better understanding of Costa Rican culture. I am grateful for being able to experience the “real” Costa Rica, instead of just from a tourist-on-vacation perspective. From an engineering standpoint, I’ll definitely think about this trip and what I saw when designing things from a global perspective. Costa Rica was truly an extremely valuable life experience for me, and I’ll look back on this trip fondly in the future.