Aero: Sarah Warner – Costa Rica 2016 – Biodiversity

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

New York weather can be pretty unpredictable day to day, or even hour to hour.  Being that winter is not one of my favorite things, you can imagine I was pretty happy when we flew out of snow and into sunshine.  Endless sunshine to be exact, the entire time we were in Costa Rica the weather did not change. It was very warm and very sunny.

Sarah Warner

Sarah Warner

Although it did not rain much during our visit, we were told that Costa Rica can get spontaneous rain and then an hour later it may clear up and be sunny again. The area around Alajuela was flat sidewalks and streets, but outside of town there were more mountainous terrain, where we visited volcanoes, which was super cool to see. Another thing I thought was pretty cool was how much Costa Rica valued their vegetation and wildlife.  I know that in the United States we do not make our profit off of wildlife but it would be pretty cool if we had the same mindset on preservation. Driving around and site seeing was just beautiful with all the plants and being able to see exotic animals was amazing. 

There were a million things to do in Costa Rica and even though we were able to do so much, I think it would be pretty awesome to go back and do even more.  One of my favorite activities that we did was horseback riding. The horses were beautiful and while we were riding the view was just as pretty.  We also had this zip line experience called the “superman cable” in which we rode and saw the most amazing view.  I would have ridden it a hundred more times if I could just so I could see everything.  Also, it was neat to see how much is okay in Costa Rica that would definitely not fly in the United States.  For example our whole group rode in the bed of a truck to the place we were going hiking that day. Can you imagine if someone tried that here?

Finally, another aspect of the biodiversity that was interesting was learning about the history of Nicaragua.  When entering, we had to go through a ton of security and we were greeted with an armed group of military men and women.  This is something that I did not even dream I would see when crossing the border.  When we visit Canada for example they do not even make us get out of the car! It was also sad to learn how different the Nicaraguan government is run and how there has been a line of dictators.  So many people complain about the United States but after visiting a place like Nicaragua it really puts things into perspectives for you.

Sarah Warner
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016

Modern Languages @ FLCC: Costa Rica Study Abroad 2016