2025 Blog
Monday, June 23, 2025 (Facundo)
I woke up around 9am, finished my last minute packing as mom got to my apartment. I went to take the trash out and did some last minute searching. I think we are all good! Get in the truck, check in for my flight and arrive at the airport. We parked and walked together to the international gate. Took a pic with mom, said our goodbyes and as I passed through the gate as the tram arrived! I turned and waved “love you! See you soon!”
Got through security after they threw away my mosquito spray :( big L. I sat a restaurant and got a Cuban sandwich and a tea. Finished my last quiz for Intro to Philosophy and enjoyed a delicious sandwich! Got up and waited at my gate. Got an hour to kill. I did my final, got a 12/15… okay but not great btw. Oh well can't complain. I realize that no one is at the gate and we should be boarding in like 45 minutes, weird. I checked the gates list and it changed to another gate! Luckily it's close so i just walked over and am still 45 min early. Time to board! Take my seat and Professor Himmelgreen and Professor Romero-Daza pass by!! Omg hello it's great to see you! What a relief tbh, I always get that anxiety of not thinking you're in the right place despite all the redundancies.
Opened up the Jurassic Park book and started reading. I've always been a fan of the movies so I'm excited to read it and so far, i'm loving this book. We land in Panama City around 6pm their time. I make small talk with my neighbor which was nice! All in spanish too. I don't feel to bad about my spanish so i'm hoping it'll only get better as we go!
Waited for the professors to leave the plane and we walked to our next gate. We waited in line and this TALL guy walks past. Like literally 7 feet tall. The profs and I realized that we have different flights to San Jose??? Luckily it's the next gate over but we won't be on the same plane to CR.
Took a short nap, kept reading until we landed. I was questioned a bit at immigration but all things considered were good! I waited outside by a restaurant that I saw the other at in the group chat but several hours had passed and no one was there. I got a little worried but a lady walks over and introduced herself as Luisa! The profs arrive 20 mins later, and we wait for Pablo and the Chico kids, Kacy and Alan. We introduce ourselves and make our way to the hotel! It’s late so I crash with Kacy and Alan for the night.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025 (Elyssa) - Exploring San José and its Universities
Today we woke up bright and early at Hotel Aranjuez to have breakfast at 7 am. For an American used to hotel continental breakfasts when traveling, this was a veritable feast with fresh juices, fried plantains, sausage, eggs, pastries, gallo pinto, pancakes, and more - all delicious of course.
After breakfast, we loaded into the van and went to tour two universities in the city: Universidad Nacional (UNA) y Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). At UNA, we got to tour an educational subsurface biojardinera meeting with operators and maintenance workers. The tour was in Spanish so Pablo and Nancy had to do a lot of work translating for us, but I was still able to catch a good bit of what the UNA workers were saying. After a while, the sun really started beating down on us, but it was still super interesting to get to see each step of the biojardinera from the intake to the sludge chamber and sedimentation tank, the vegetated section, and eventually, the output. This wetland included four different gardens to study the effectiveness of different plants on their filtration capacity; one didn’t even have plants for a while but was still effective. Others had ornamental and palm plants. This biojardinera was very interesting because it treats water from the veterinary school so it poses interesting challenges in addition to just gray or black water such as medical waste and animal products. We were lucky enough to get to see some of the facility’s horses and cows as well!
After UNA, we traveled to UCR. We first had lunch in the cafeteria - for me, more delicious arroz con pollo, salad, and fruit juice. We met with various professors after lunch to tour their laboratories and listen to several educational presentations. We learned more about how biojardineras function, how circular economics and sustainable design are being implemented in Costa Rica, as well as various water, health, and sanitation topics. I really admired how involved the students at UCR seemed to be in research and really enjoyed seeing them at work in the labs and giving presentations.
We returned back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before we went to Café Mundo for dinner. We had a long table full of students, professors and their families, and we even got our talented bus driver to join us as well. I had fettuccine alfredo with ham and mushrooms, tiramisu, and limonada (which is not the same as lemonade!). We got back to the hotel after this and relaxed until the next day.
I think the most challenging part of the day was getting used to the weather! One of the other students said he “dressed for the weather, not the bugs”, and I think I did the opposite and dressed for the bugs not the weather! Learning how to dress will take a little bit of getting used to but I’m sure we’ll learn quickly! Tomorrow we will travel to Monteverde and meet our host families. I am a little nervous but equally excited!
This photo is from the biojardinera at UNA. It shows two of the gardens - the one on the left uses ornamental plants and the one on the right uses a lot of palms. In this picture, you can see some damage on the leaves of the palms. This can indicate issues with the water level and the roots. Plant health is a great indicator of biojardinera function!
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 (Alan) – Leaving San José, Heading to Monteverde
Today was our last morning in San José at Hotel Aranjuez. We had breakfast at the hotel before heading out around 8:30 AM on a bus with the entire IRES 2025 crew.
During the ride, some of the group were practicing their Spanish—Facundo and I helped out whenever anyone needed clarification on words or phrases. It was fun seeing everyone try to improve and communicate more confidently.
Something that caught my attention was how most of the cars here are manual, which isn’t something you see as often back home. But what really stood out were the amazing views on the way to Monteverde. The elevation here is around 1,200 meters, and in some areas, it climbs up to 1,500.
After arriving at the Monteverde Institute, Nacho, Luisa, and Karen gave us a tour of the campus and shared important information about our homestay families. It was a great introduction to what our next few weeks will look like.
After the tour, we finally met our homestay families! It was exciting (and a little nerve-wracking) to meet the people we’ll be living with, but everyone was welcoming and kind.
One interesting thing I noticed today was the weather—while not exactly a challenge, it’s surprising how much it rains in the afternoons compared to the bright and sunny mornings. Also, the sun starts to set pretty early here. By 5 PM, it’s already going down, and by 6 PM, it’s completely dark.
Here’s a photo of the view from today—it really captures the beauty of the landscape we’re getting to experience.
Thursday, June 26, 2025 (Kacy)
Today was a great day, today was the first day for collecting water samples and data. We started at the biogarden at the institute with all of our equipment, figuring out all that we would need for testing at all the other sites. We then piled into the car, all squished together to make our way to the biogarden at Katy's house where we got partially lost with all the forks in the road, but we made it and were able to test the water. We also saw the composting toilet at el Bajo del Tigre reserve and then the biogarden at Hotel Pinos, all different styles and different reasons. The rest of the day was pouring rain and we had to postpone the last two sites until later, which was the most fun personally as we went to the Monteverde Brewery and saw the first biogarden that filters grey and black water, with even more added nutrients from brewing, attracting many more insects. Everyone sat down for a drink afterwards and had a great time. The most interesting thing today was seeing all the other bio-gardens in action for the first time, things I had seen in diagrams or photos so much but never had experienced the real thing, such as the sound of the water trickling out of the pipes as it rained on our backs. What was challenging was figuring out how to efficiently test the water quality at each site and document all the data whilst fighting the rain, but we all figured out our roles and were able to mostly do it quickly. Today was the most fun day yet and I can't wait for more just like it!
Friday, June 27, 2025 (Brayden)
Today was a relatively chill day compared to the previous week. We met at the institution at 9:00 with the goal of going over interviewing techniques, practicing, and learning about anthropology. After reviewing the interview sheet, our group split into 3 teams to practice interviewing about Biojardineras. These interviews went pretty good and a lot of improvements were made on the interview sheet. After these improvements and an amazing lunch, Facundo, Kacy, and I went for a walk in the reserve and checked out some of the properties and bugs, with a picture of the spider web from behind the Monteverde Institute below.
After this chill time, we met in the glass classroom to learn about and practice pile sorting, which was a really interesting interviewing technique I had never seen. This will be useful in collecting additional information on Biojardineras and the public's opinion on them. Then, the rest of the day was free. Our group hung around and organized the lab as well and enjoyed some ice cream, which Jackson couldn't have porque tiene huevos (he’s allergic to eggs). And after a restful afternoon and dinner with the host family, the group checked out Bar Amigos.
Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 39, 2025 (Jackson)
Today begins the Freakin Costa Rican Weekend! Our group divided and conquered on Saturday and as one group explored the butterfly garden and waterfall hike, another did a tour of the local grey water exposure. Brayden, Jackson, and Alan ate ceviche that one of Brayden’s neighbors was selling out of their garage. The guys didn't even get the slightest stomach ache! Later, we went on a guided night walk through the children’s eternal forest. Here, we saw tarantulas, scorpions, ants, toucans, kinkajous, and motmots. Alan almost massacred an innocent tarantula but with grace he was saved.
Sunday was a big day for our group, Alan, Kacy, Jackson, and Brayden all went Bungee jumping! It was very exciting and each of our team members said a variety of funny sayings as they jumped, including “Que lo Que mi gente!” and “Sorry mom” or just “AHHHHHHHHHHH.” Without question, this team of researchers are having great fun on their days off. Afterwards, tacos were eaten and laughs were shared in downtown Santa Elena. Most of us went back to nap and prepared for the evening to come. That’s because this night was the USA vs. Costa Rica Soccer (futbol) match. Everyone from our group watched in excitement at a local pizza restaurant as the game ended in an overtime penalty shootout. With USA as the victor, Jackson and Brayden silently celebrated as the others sat in somber. The night ended with some time spent at the Alisson restaurant and Inn before everyone headed to bed.