Medicinal Plants and Horseback Riding

Today is our last day in Luna Nueva -- we're leaving for San Jose for a night, and then the trek back to Las Cruces on Monday morning.   It's our final destination and we're there for a full three weeks; maybe this time I'll actually unpack!

Friday was entirely devoted to our mini-projects.  In the course of one day, we collected data on 186 different plants, ran statistical analyses on them, and had an almost-finished paper and a powerpoint presentation ready.  My hamstrings are still suffering from the three hours of squatting to measure plant base diameters.  The whole thing certainly gave new meaning to the word "deadline," and a new appreciation to semester-long projects.

It was very cool to see a project from the very beginning, when we were first given our assignments, to the end of the day, when we had a whole conclusion drawn out from our findings.  Oh, and if you were on the edge of your seats, Quassia amara grows most efficiently in partially obscured light.

While we polished up our presentations and papers on Saturday afternoon, we spent the morning visiting the Maleku indigenous tribe.  This is the smallest indigenous group, with only about 600 people.  They talked to us about their culture, which -- not to belittle their problems -- was a lot like what we've heard before: the government not really acknowledging their land and slowly pushing them to recede.  They do still teach their language in their schools though, and seem to still have a strong connection to their native spirituality.

After browsing their handcrafts, the Maleku man we talked to (I'm terrible at remembering names) took us outside, where we shot some bow and arrows!  I doubt that they use these bow and arrows anymore - it was pretty touristy - but it was fun, and with my mediocre accomplishment as the 5th best arrow-shooter I got one of the prizes they had for us, a Maleku balsa mask.  I guess those years of archery lessons came in handy.

On Sunday, we relaxed in typical OTS style: by waking up even earlier!  Vanji, Jane, Kayla and I went horseback riding, which was great.

We took a shuttle to a stable near Arenal, and took a trail ride around the volcano.  It was beautiful weather, and a very idyllic landscape of green pastures and giant blue mountains all around us.  And we even all came back in one piece, despite the lack of helmets provided.

Tomorrow we're going to Las Cruces to study for final exams and prepare for our final research project.

Hasta luego!
Anya