This weekend, we ventured to the Carribean side of Costa Rica- Puerto Viejo, with our two Tico friends (Rafael and Ricardo) whom we met during the Clinical Needs Finding and Medical Innovation Bootcamps. We learned from our lesson last weekend that not all parts of Costa Rica has Uber, so we were prepared this weekend and had Rafael’s mom and aunt drive us to and from Limon Province (we paid them of course!).
On Saturday, we started our day by waking up at 4am to make the four hour trip across the country. We were very lucky that there weren’t any accidents or terrible weather so we were able to arrive within 3 hours. In the morning, we visited the Jaguar Rescue Center, where all the animals in the facility had been rescued from abandonment or genetic conditions that severely lowered their survival abilities in the wild. Despite the name, there was actually never a jaguar in the facility. The name came from the first animal that was rescued in 2008, who people thought was a jaguar. Most of the animals, if possible, are released back into the wild, unless they are too humanized or could pose potential dangers to humans once released. We met a common murre (Dado), who was very high maintenance (as his breed requires fresh seawater sardines). His release attempts had been unsuccessful because he was unfortunately too humanized; he kept returning injured to the same location after each release. Eventually, it was decided by the facility owner that it is best for Dado to stay at the facility. Our tour guide Louis was very knowledgeable about all the animals’ back story which made the tour a very enjoyable experience.
Since we are on the Caribbean side, we had to get the Caribbean rice and beans with chicken. This would be the fourth one Rei and I have tried since arriving in Costa Rica. All of them were amazing and each version had its own advantages compared to the others. We ended the day by strolling the nearby beach, playing some card games, and a few drinks.
On Sunday, we woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise, went back for two more hours of sleep before our room flooded from our neighbours showering, and then went on the Talamanca Chocolate tour. We saw all the “old ladies” (which is what the owner called the cocoa plants), understood their history and recent challenges, then made our own chocolate. We were able to taste the chocolate at different stages of the process. The flavor changes drastically as it went from the initial seeds form, to post grinding, post fermentation, and post freezing. We even got to bring some back as souvenirs! For lunch, we obviously had to get Caribbean rice and beans with chicken from another restaurant before heading back to Escazu.
In terms of my project, I started CADing my prototype (with increased degrees of freedom and stability) after talking to Dr. Bogantes and confirming that it would be clinically feasible and beneficial, as well as Casey and Dr. Wettergreen on the engineering aspects. This was the first time ever I’ve done CAD and I have to say- it was a very enjoyable experience! In one of our lunch downtimes, I also chatted with Connor and Rei (who have more experience in CAD) and got some great feedback for further improvements. I will continue to work on finalizing my CAD drawing as well as making a low fidelity physical prototype this week. We will also be having two cadaver lab evenings so stay tuned for more updates this time next week!