Traveling back to Costa Rica was exciting. Escaping the blistering cold to a warm tropical place was definitely warranted. We were greeted to the beautiful country by a two hour wait at the airport just to go through customs. Then began the long trip to the beach to hang out until the weekend ended.
Once in San Jose, we began our work by giving a small presentation on our work so far. Jon and I gave a brief talk about our research and progress on the program. It was a good way to update our Costa Rican mentors about our troubles in this project. After this presentation, we began talking about going into the field from Tuesday to Thursday. Jon and I traveled with Oscar, Vadim, Gato, and Joan to perform some gravity gradient measurements, install the last seismic station, and to service two stations. Overall, it was a successful trip because we had made our home base in Puerto Viejo. This surfing town with beautiful beaches was the perfect way to unwind after a long day of work. Upon arriving back to San Jose for Friday, we caught up with our mentor, Oscar, one last time. We also started using our program to apply corrections to our data. After one last inventory check and our final good bye, we had to head out to the beach to spend our last weekend together in Costa Rica. It was a bitter sweet moment but in the end, the break from work was much deserved.
In retrospect, my time in Costa Rica was a very rewarding experience. I learned so much about myself and saw the world from a different perspective. Being able to interact with the mentors and the friends we have made from Costa Rica on most days throughout the summer or this quick winter trip was very meaningful. Without their support, I doubt that this research project would have run smoothly at all.
