It takes 21 days to make an action a habit. Just 21 days to engrain something into your mind. After 21 days you won’t have to actively think about performing a certain action. It will become passive action, an absent minded action. After 21 days, it will become a natural part of your daily routine.

As our time in Refugio Bartola comes to a close, after 21 days ironically, I have experienced how actions that seemed so abnormal to me on day one have become a part of my daily routine. As a reflection of my time spent in the rainforest, I have decided to focus on 21 things that have become a habit. 21 things that are now engrained in my memory. 21 things I will never forget.

1. Tethering a dragonfly in less than 30 seconds.
2. Being content with putting on slightly damp clothes every day.
3. Knowing how to get my sunken boot out of mud that comes up to my knee.
4. Avoiding bullet ants at any cost. Or any bugs larger than my pinky finger for that matter.
5. Knowing how to get numerous termites off my backpack after I absentmindedly put it on a huge termite trail.
6. Having no phone or internet access and loving every second of it.
7. When losing my footing fighting the split-second response to grab the nearest tree next to me since they usually have very long, sharp spines on their bark.
8. Having the stamina to hike almost 6 miles every day, in addition to realizing it’s alright to just sit down in the mud when the trails gets too hard to maneuver.
9. Learning how to identify and catch strawberry frogs.
10. Using numbers and colors of trail markers to know exactly where I am.
11. Knowing how to maneuver up very steep slopes only using the vines in the mud as grips for my feet.
12. Following a troop of monkeys, regardless of where they take me.
13. Recruiting three girls to remove large insects, including a five-inch long praying mantids from our room.
14. Being able to identify the animal by its eye-shine.
15. Having to revise my classification of small, medium, and large spiders. Black widows at home are tiny compared to the spiders I have seen here.
16. Watching my step on muddy trails to avoid stepping on turtles.
17. Avoiding hummingbirds and bats that come really close to crashing into my face at full speed.
18. Knowing what trees to stand under when it starts pouring buckets during our experiments.
19. Clearing spider webs from trails without having the spider swing into my face or on my clothes.
20. Avoid spraying DEET too close to my mouth since it turns my lips numb.
21. Not screaming when something starts crawling in my hair. Or in my shirt, pants, and boots.

So there we have it. 21 things I will never forget. Habits I hopefully will be able to use again sometime soon.

Our time here has gone by much too quickly. Now that we only have about one week left, everyone has realized that it is crunch time when it comes to completing our projects. For our conservation biology course, Callan and I have decided to conduct a project which assesses the water quality of streams below human impact sites and above these sites. Due to recent dredging in Nicaragua, we decided that we want to focus on the effects human can have on water quality and species abundance when they directly impact a water source. Coming up with a project idea was rather simple because we have similar interests. However, deciding what methods to use and what kind of analysis to record became a little more difficult. We didn’t realize how tricky it would be to conduct an experiment which incorporates all of the factors we were interested in testing, but allows us to test each of these factors in a feasible way. In addition, I don’t think our bodies were prepared for waking up every morning at 5:30am and working all day in 96% humidity. However, after a few days of locating streams and finalizing our methods, we have been able to collect all of the data we need for our analysis, especially with the kind guidance of Dr. Debra Shier.

In our study, we have decided to focus on ten different pools: five below the sites of human impact, and five above the sites of human impact. Of the five pools below the human impact, three of the pools are located downstream from a generator, which is used to supply electricity to the Rancho, while two pools are located downstream from a pipe, which leads from the kitchen into a stream. With the help of Dr. Greg Grether mapping all of the streams using GPS coordinates, we have discovered that the stream that is affected by the generator and the stream that lies below the kitchen are not connected. Therefore these sites can be treated as independent. The five pools above the human impact sites have been chosen randomly.

Our data consists of taking water samples to analyze, recording the dimensions and characteristics of each pool, and recording species abundance in the pools we are extracting samples from. Our water analysis focuses on the amount of dissolved oxygen pH, and the presence of bacteria. For our species abundance tests, we are focusing on animal species directly affected by the pollution of water such as different species of fish, water striders, and damselflies, just to name a few. During our species abundance analysis, we have seen a large variation in the presence of species depending on the location of the pools. We have also confirmed the presence of bacteria in pools affected by human impact. Hopefully once we have completely analyzed our data, we will find statistically significant results. These results will allow us to contribute to the goal of developing a conservation strategy that involves depleting human impact on rainforest streams.

P.S. Hi Papa! Tell Mama that I have been making lists every night of animals I saw and things that have happened to me, so she will get a detailed description when I am back home. Counting down the days until I can tell you about all of my adventures! (Also, happy belated birthday). Sending all my love!

I would describe this whole experience as different. Different from the normal school experience. Different from our normal daily routine. Different from anything we, or maybe just I, expected.

Before we left for Refugio Bartola, we spent some of our class time talking about the history of Nicaragua: its geography, its biodiversity, its socio-economic standing. However I didn’t think I was going to really realize we were in a different country until we entered the rainforest. In retrospect, that was a very naïve thought of me to have.

When we got off the plane, our next plan of action was to take a four-hour bus ride, followed by a two-hour boat ride to the reserve. On the bus ride I was intrigued by all of the different colored houses bordering the side of the road. Red, yellow, aqua, teal, baby blue. Chickens and stray dogs were walking along the street, their owners nowhere to be found. The first time the economic-standing of some of Nicaragua’s citizens really became apparent to me was when we drove by a dirt field, where the skeletons of the houses were made out of large branches, and the walls and ceilings were just black trash bags. Occasionally, one of the “walls” was missing and for a split second, you were able to see a family sitting inside the house, different from anything I have seen before.

Every morning since we have arrived at the reserve, my alarm clock has been replaced by the echo of howler monkey cries coming from the forest. At night, my roommates and I have a creature living in the corner of our room, which will periodically make three, distinct, screeching noises. Our ceiling is not connected to the walls, therefore every night we have to make sure that our mosquito net is completely tucked under our mattresses, making sure bugs are not able to bother us while we are sleeping.

However, I have also hiked the most beautiful trails and seen the most beautiful animals. Lizards shining five different colors in the sunlight. Little strawberry frogs making the loudest noise imaginable from such a small animal. Spiders that look as though they were designed for the sole purpose of a sci-fi movie. Butterflies of all shapes and sizes. And I have canoed down the Bartola River at night, after having turned off our headlights, and only using moonlight as a navigation source, while looking for the eye-shine of caiman.

Different. But in the most fantastic, eye-opening way possible.