Unimaginable

The summer before my senior year I became obsessed with the tropics and their rainforests. Seeing pictures of the tropics would spark vague memories of my time in Panama as a child. During my senior year, I would pass the time reading books about the tropics. I did not care what I read about, as long as it had to do with the tropics. That year I read nearly 20 books about anything from the indigenous peoples of the rainforest, to the animals, plants or the tropical rainforests themselves. The tropics and the images that were portrayed enveloped me in those books that I read. I was certain that the tropical rainforests was where I belonged.

Last semester, two years since I first became interested in the tropical rainforests, I heard about a trip to Costa Rica through Mission College. I had dreamed of a chance like this one. I definitely was not going to pass up the opportunity to go to the tropics. So, I enrolled and come April 1st I was in Costa Rica. The days prior to leaving for Costa Rica, I faced the possibility of getting to the tropical rainforests and realizing that I hated it there. However, I was absolutely wrong in my realization. This was my first and probably most important lesson that I learned from this trip. I came to see that the beauty and magnificence of tropical rainforests could not be imagined or conveyed through the most vivid writings. Instead, the beauty and awe of tropical rainforests can only be learned through first hand experience. No matter how many books you read or videos that you watch on tropical rainforests, it still does not compare to actually being in the tropics.

Another important lesson that I learned on this trip was the amazing variability in the various ecosystems and how quickly one ecosystem changes to another. This was clearly something that I could not have realized without actually being in Costa Rica. When I learned that we were going to San Luis Biological station in the Tilaran mountains, I assumed we would be in a cloud forest. Since Monteverde is a cloud forest and San Luis appeared to be very close to Monteverde, I figured San Luis must also be a cloud forest. However, when we arrived in San Luis, I thought to myself, ≥This doesnπt look like what I saw in the pictures of Monteverde.≤ I was expecting to see huge tree ferns and sopping wet moss mats covered in epiphytes. Instead there was not a single tree fern, and while there was moss mats with many epiphytes growing on them, they were not sopping wet, in fact they were dry. As it turns out, San Luis contains pre-montane moist forest, which is one step down from a cloud forest. Throughout our travels I noticed countless slight differences in the environment and there was likely many more differences that went unnoticed. One particularly exciting difference was the rather sudden change of secondary forest into primary growth forest. The even canopy which is characteristic of secondary forest would give way to a taller more uneven canopy of primary forest. This was particularly evident in Cabo Blanco when hiking from the tangled secondary forest near the beach up the hill into a more primary looking forest with less vines and taller trees. Understanding this difference helped me picture the extent of deforestation that has gone on in Costa Rica. The secondary forest which has at one time been cut for some purpose such as cattle ranching or farming grows back relatively quickly, but it is still clearly noticeable when compared to primary forest, which has never been cut (at least for a really long time).

One important lesson that Dr. Diana Leiberman pointed out to us is that the pictures and movies that we see about the tropical rainforests are somewhat misleading. Those publications portray tropical rainforests as a place where there are wild and crazy animals everywhere you look. In reality, the animals of the tropical rainforests are usually extremely well hidden. As I walked through the forests in San Luis and San Miguel, I marveled at the idea that many of the animals that I see in the books were probably watching me, yet even though I was searching, I could not see them. In my opinion the fact that all of those magnificent animals are so well hidden makes the task of seeing them all the more challenging and rewarding. After all, in the forests you are not searching for a monkey hidden in his/her zoo enclosure. Rather, you are searching for an animal that was born free, lives free and will hopefully die free without the interference of humans.

I am extremely grateful that I received the chance to go to Costa Rica. Besides gaining tons of knowledge about the forests and nature of Costa Rica, I also learned a lot about the country as a whole. Costa Rica is very different from the United States. To be perfectly honest, I expected a dirtier more unkempt third world country than what I saw. Instead, Costa Rica was beautiful and rather clean, with very nice people and an exciting history and culture. While the forests were by far the most beautiful things I saw in Costa Rica, their capital of San Jose was also very impressive. I feel that while Americans may have more modern appliances and all sorts of creature comforts, The people of Costa Rica seemed to live simple, but happier lives.