I remember when I first found out that I was going to be trekking through the rainforests of Nicaragua for three weeks, three weeks seemed like such a short period of time. I had wished it could be longer. Sure, three weeks is a fairly short amount of time in the grand scheme of my life, but after having lived those 21 days in the rainforest, on a constant cycle of hiking, eating, planning projects and sleeping, I can tell you with confidence that three weeks is an eternity. I’ve mentioned it before, but it was an interesting thing how quickly everyone settled into his or her routines there. It felt like we had always been there and were just carrying out our daily lives as researchers studying in the rainforest. It was hard to feel connected to my life back in the US, because I was living in an environment that was entirely different. The lack of Internet and cell phone connection, the lack of hot water in our showers, the lack of the simple ability to flush toilet paper down the toilet, even the lack of clean clothes (hand washing clothes is doable, but when one moment it is sunny and the next there is torrential downpour of rain, you never know when they’ll dry), all became the norm.

Before arriving at Refugio Bartola, I didn’t entirely know what to expect. It was more stressful than I had anticipated, I think. Everyone was so motivated to do their best that our days consisted of perpetual thinking about and planning our projects. The never stopping got tiring, but made sense because we were in Nicaragua for a set amount of days and we wanted to make the most of those days. Timing was a tricky thing because it took about a week for my partner and myself to get a firm idea of what we wanted to study and how. The next week consisted of trying different methods and having to problem solve when we faced challenges. We spent two whole days collecting data before being helped by our TA to realize there are better variables we could be collecting data on. So those two days were scrapped from our final data collection. The last week was a push by everyone to run more trials and try to wrap up the projects. Then, the weather was unpredictable. There were a few days towards the end, when everyone was in high data collection mode, where it rained so heavily that some people couldn’t go out and collect their data.

Never in any previous class have I had the chance to appreciate how thorough methods must be laid out for a project to work. Every detail matters and you will without a doubt face challenges every time you step out in the field. I’m excited to now analyze our data and write it up in a scientific paper. To get to experience with the entire process is one of the most valuable things I’ve done in college. It’s not just an assignment done briefly in class, but actual scientific research that we’ve invested time in.