La Selva --> Luna Nueva --> Las Cruces

Our week at La Selva was rather busy. We had a series of lectures on climate change and its effects on global health, as well as a series on shamanic practices involving hallucinogenic plants. It was a very interesting week, to say the least! We also took a field trip to a Dole banana plantation, which was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of shots of La Selva and the banana plantation:

After our week at La Selva, we traveled to the research station, Luna Nueva in San Isidro (right next door to the Soltis Center!), home of the Sacred Seeds Sanctuary - a large collection of traditional medicinal plants. We spent a few days there, while conducting research projects on various medicinal plants. My group focused specifically on the Sarsaparilla plant, which has supposed antirheumatic, antiseptic and antipruritic properties and has been used by indigenous groups to treat psoriasis, chronic rheumatism and rheumatoid arthritis. It was a very interesting project and a great hands-on experience with field research!

After all the research, we had a well deserved day off. A group of us took a bus to La Fortuna for a delicious lunch (we needed a break from rice and beans!) and spent the afternoon shopping. 

And then, the endless traveling began. It took us two days to get from Luna Nueva (way up north, near Nicaragua) all the way down to Las Cruces (way down south, bordering Panama) and an ungodly amount of hours on a cramped bus ... but we made it! There were a lot of delays due to the recent mudslides and many roads were closed, but we finally arrived back at Las Cruces and have settled in here for the remaining 2.5 weeks of the semester (wow, time flies). 

Yesterday, we had our last lecture of the semester!!! Woohoo! That means the next two weeks will be devoted to studying for finals and conducting my final research project. I am really excited to get going on the research ... I will be traveling back to Boruca and living with the Brunka people for 3 days while I conduct my research. I will be investigating the knowledge of wild edible plant species amongst the Brunka people ... it should be fun! I will definitely keep you all updated on the progress of my research. And thats about all for now (it's about time I started studying for finals ... I spent the whole morning reading! oops!) ... adios!