Costa Rica 2018
In my last year of uni I had to do a 3 month internship. Naturally I wanted to do this outside of Belgium, knowing I would want to use my degree internationally after graduation.
It took a lot of hard work and dedication to get the required grades to be able to go on an international internship.When I got the green light I chose Costa Rica for it's lush wildlife, obviously wanting to work with wildlife. I was correct in thinking this would be a great place to do so.
So I applied for an internship at a wildlife rescue centre on the Pacific Coast deep in the jungle and so Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR) became my home away from home for almost 3 months.
As I also wanted to see as much of Costa Rica as possible but couldn't during my actual internship (working 6 days a week), I gave myself a week before and after of vacation to see a bit of the country.
Feb 4th, San José & Caribbean Coast
And so I left cold, wintry Belgium behind for the beautiful dry season in Costa Rica at the beginning of February.
After a miss understating at the airport (apparently you need an ESTA-visa even if you're not officially entering the US and just staying in the airport for 3 hours) I arrived in the city of San José.
I had heard and read that the city isn't much special. That most people only spend a day or two at most. So I didn't have my hopes high for the city. But I was pleasantly surprised!
As per usual I did the free walking tour on my first morning, which was really good as usual. Even though San José doesn't really differ to any other big, capital city, I still enjoyed spending the day walking through the numerous parks, learning about the history of the city and country by extent.
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| Costa Rican National museum |
San José is nestled in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, tucked in between 3 volcanoes the temperatures are fairly constant throughout the year with a mean of 22°C.
As Costa Rica is tropical is does come with wet and dry seasons, which obviously makes it a less desirable destination some months of the year.
Fun fact!: San José receives almost 2m of rain every year!
After a fun day, meeting new people, learning new things and getting a hair cut in Spanish I headed back to my hostel to figure out a rough plan for the following week. I wanted to hike one of the nearest volcanoes, but discovered too late that there's only one bus going out there daily and it departed about half an hour before I woke up. So that plan was off the table. Instead, I decided I wanted to see the Caribbean coast as I would be working on the Pacific coast so I would be able to explore that side on my days off.
Eventually it took me an entire day to get to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a laid back little town with mostly dirt roads in the south eastern corner of the country. A full days worth of waiting, because the bus I wanted to take at 10 was booked full and the next one wasn't until 12 followed by a 4 hour trip that ended up in an almost 7 hour sweaty uncomfortable bus ride.
Safe to say I was happy to wake up in paradise the following morning. I was promised paradise and paradise is what I got.
I spend the next 3 days, walking along beaches and slices of tropical rainforest, looking out for monkeys and other wildlife, swimming in the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea and drinking out of coconuts. As well as meeting new people, learning Spanish and stuffing my face with Gallo pinto (a national dish consisting of rice and beans eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner).
In my determination to see as much as possible of the Caribbean coast while I was there, I quite impulsively booked a domestic flight from Tortuguero to Quepos (northern east coast to central west coast). This would save me a full days worth of busses in the best case. Tortuguero is a world renown national park for its turtle breeding and beautiful mangroves. The likewise named town is only accessible by boat and after some research I found a good priced boat that would take me from Límon (which is an hour north of Puerto Viejo by bus) all the way up to Tortuguero.
It would've been perfect, an awesome boat ride up the coast and a full day to discover the national park then an easy flight out to my internship.
Allas, things don't always go as you want them to. In my case they don't usually when I start planning stuff haha. hence why I don't really plan a lot of things.
Anyway, less than 24hours after booking everything (flight, boat and hostel) I got an email my flight got cancelled. Apparently the company I booked through (NatureAir), one of the two only companies who fly domestic in Costa Rica, didn't have a licence to fly anymore. This because of a recent crash that killed an American family and the pilot. So in a way I was glad I didn't have to take that flight and possibly crash but still, it left me kind of stumped with my "brilliant plan".
Either way I wanted to see and go to Tortuguero, so I took the boat up. It was an awesome trip. Public transport and tourist trip all in one!
Hence we saw crocodiles, sloths, monkeys, raccoons and a lot of different birds and other aquatic animals.
Once arrived in Tortuguero, checked into the hostel and walked around the little town, I found a comfortable hammock to figure out what to do and how to get to the other side of the country.
After a lot of research, a chocolaty snack, a phone call home, many conversations with the hostel mom and a mental breakdown, I found a way around my problems.
First of all I managed to start the process of claiming back my money through the company. And secondly I found a way to cross the country all be it that I had to sacrifice my full day in Tortuguero.
So the next day after a mere afternoon in the beautiful Tortuguero I woke up at 4:30 to get the very first boat out of the island at 4:45 am. A taxi, bus, a walk across San José, another bus and taxi later I arrived at the KSTR headquarters, a good 10k into the jungle from the nearest town, Quepos.
And all of a sudden I was home for the next 10 weeks.
Feb 10th, Kids Saving the Rainforest & Pacific coast
The weeks to follow I worked as a vet tech in the wildlife rescue centre clinic, alongside the two vets, rehab intern and another vet tech volunteer. With one day off a week to explore the region most adventures took place far in the jungle in the rescue centre.
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| morning foodpreps |
Every morning and every afternoon first things up was doing the food prep for all the animals in our care at the clinic and in rehab. Fresh fruit and veggies were cut up to fit every animals needs and wishes.
The rest of the mornings usually consisted of treatments. These treatments could be anything from the basic administering painkillers, antibiotics or extra vitamins, changing bandages, cleaning wounds to surgeries such as removing an eye or amputating a leg.
After everyone had their food and medication/treatments done we took to cleaning and enriching the enclosures, always making sure we and the clinic was ready for emergencies/rescues that came in at all hours of the day.
Following are some snaps of daily life at work
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| holding Colin, the Squirrel monkey, still for his acupuncture treatment |
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| Lavalamp in bootcamp during my nightly behavioural observations |
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| Scarlitto the Kinkajou munching away on a piece of banana as Kinkajous do (upside-down) |
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| Moncho dunking his head in his daily vitamin treatment |
Some days weren't much special, just the usual food prep, treatments and cleaning. Other days we would have birds dropping from the skies it seemed. Big, ugly and bold ones like Gonzo to little, pretty and feathery ones like Tiny. All rescues are rehabilitated and released where possible.
Little Moncho had been held captive as a pet for his entire little life, he got so imprinted on people it was decided that it would not be safe for him to be released into the wild, simply because he would not now what to do in the wild. Lavalamp, however, was one of the many rescues we were able to fully heal, rehabilitate and release after getting electrocuted.
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| Patty and Grubby chilling during their playtime in bootcamp |
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| Gonzo, the baby Toucan during one of his many feedings |
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| Shrek the Tamarin looking angry at me because I usual was the one to catch him to treat his amputation wound |
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| Tiny, the little parakeet with a broken leg |
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| Holding an orphaned coati for his medical-check |
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| team clinic & rehab for the win ✊💙 |
On my days off however, I took to exploring the beautiful Pacific coast. Drinking coffee and having big brekkies with ocean/jungle views, surfing and sea kayaking with friends from work, exploring the famous Manuel Antonio National park or taking the bus to hike to beautiful waterfalls down the coast.
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| treat yo self brekkies with views to die for |
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| Nauyaca waterfalls, best way to refresh after a 5k hike |
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| wanderlustig in Manuel Antonio nat. park |
April 21st, Playa Santa Teresa
For my last week in paradise I decided to not travel around but to treat myself to a weeks worth of surfing, pristine beaches and yoga. I did this because I still had a lot of work for my dissertation for uni. So I made the deal with myself that I would spend a couple of hours a day analysing and writing for that so that I could chill for the rest of the day.
My bachelors dissertation got titled: The human influence on injured wildlife in Costa Rica: a 5 year study. In short I analysed all the animals that passed through the rescue centre, looking at why they came in and what happened to them. It was extremely interesting but extremely time consuming to gather, analyse and process all the data. But well worth it in the end.
So my last week consisted quite literally of writing, surfing at various locations, exploring the region, yoga and eating. which looked a bit like this .....
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| A wild Coati foraging in the Cabo Blanco nat.park |
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| Playa Cabo Blanca, well deserved beach after a good 2 hour hike |
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| Playa Santa Teresa surf |
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| Playa Hermosa surf sesh, with some hostel friends |
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| Playa Santa Teresa |
From this beach I took two busses, a ferry another bus, spent a night at the San José airport and two flights back to Belgium, back home.
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| my last Costa Rican sunset on the ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya |
And thus I skipped most of the winter, arriving back home in spring to find a new place to live, get a job and work hard to finalise my dissertation and pass my last couple of exams.
xoxo Liz
