Hi All! My name is Emily, and I am a 3rd year Bio major at UCLA. This quarter I am embarking on a new journey: traveling and conducting research through the rainforests of Nicaragua. I feel tremendously lucky to have this opportunity and I want to invite you all to also come on this journey with me! In this blog, you will get it all: posts about my scientific findings, photos of all the animals and plants I encounter, my personal thoughts, any and every random fact I learn, and an inside scoop of what really happens during the trip.
Before I jump on the plane and then go on a 3 hour bus ride followed by a 4 hour ride down the river to finally reach Refugio Bartola, it’ll be a good idea to begin with my goals for this trip.
Growing up in Ecuador, family trips to the Amazon was something I always looked forward to. After many years, I’m finally able to go back into the rainforest! I’ve never been to Nicaragua so one of my personal goals would be to speak to the locals and learn a little more about my surroundings.
On a different note, I am looking forward to exploring as much of Refugio Bartola as possible. I want to walk every trail, paddle down the river, and see as much of the biodiversity this amazing place has to offer. I’m crossing my fingers that I will run into a sloth! I hope I will get the chance to admire this slow-moving animal in action and get a couple of really good pictures. Although this is aiming a little high since there haven’t been many sloth sightings in the recent years, I hope luck will be on my side.
I’ve never traveled with a group of individuals who are just as passionate about the wild as me so as you can imagine, I am ecstatic that 15 other people will be joining me on this journey! This leads me to my next goal: to learn at least 1 thing from each and every single one of my peers and at least return from this trip with 15 new facts. Let me correct myself…at least 19 new facts since I know I will most definitely learn something new from my two professors, Greg and Debra, and my two TA’s, Adrea and Rachel.
I truly hope you enjoy seeing the world the way I see it for these next 10 weeks!