Weekend in Rio Celeste

This weekend, the Women in STEM travelled to Rio Celeste in Bijagua rn experience more of Costa Rica through various excursions. Our first excursion involved tubing down Rio Celeste! Heavy rain the night before lead to strong currents and exciting tubing! However, it also prevented us from seeing the nutrient and mineral reaction that often turns the water a bright blue.

For our time here we stayed at the beautiful Heliconias that had a trail with three hanging bridges. The girls were able to explore the forest and biodiversity right outside of our hotel via these bridges!

On Saturday, Jess and Vane lead a night hike on these sky bridges to show us the different animals that come out at night. The girls spotted numerous species of frogs and insects.

On Sunday morning, the WIS had two guest speakers come to the hotel and talk about their careers and rescue efforts in Costa Rica. Dara Arguella taught us about the Asociación Mecup Cacaotica which is a foundation that harvests cacao. Our second speaker, Ms.Sc. Esther Pomareda, is a resident biologist at Fundación Hagnauer, an organization that rescues, rehabilitates, and releases animals in Costa Rica. The girls had the opportunity to ask questions about their roles in the STEM field and about the specific animals that are being rescued!

As we travelled back to campus on Sunday, we were very lucky to spot a sloth! Our bus drive pulled over and gave us the opportunity to see the sloth in the tree. We took pictures, used binoculars, and observed the sloth as it sat in the tree.