Reflection from Jimmy

Today was a sunny day, and the usual, hot burning sun hung on top of the clear and pollution-free sky. As a regular day at the research center, we woke up at 6:15, and then I took a shower. We went to the Lab House and learned about some great cats that are living in this area. The volunteer there made a great deal of how a cat called jaguar is endangered. We entered the forest and started the Camera Trap hunting trip. We were supposed to find four Camera Traps, which take either videos or pictures of moving things in front of it, and to do that we hiked for a long time in the forest. When coming to the checking process of the disks that we pulled out of the Camera Traps, we found something surprising. Guess what, we found a Dotted Leopard (Jaguar)! According to the station workers, they haven’t found any Jaguars in the area for 2 years. FOR 2 YEARS! I think we deserved to be recorded into the history of this research station.

That was probably one of the most exciting mornings I have ever had in Costa Rica so far, but then we had the worst afternoon I had spent here. To be short, we just hiked to the beach and crossed a river on the way. When we got to the beach, the leading guy showed us a chessboard like thing and we came back. We found all of our shoes were covered with wet sand after we came back, and I wondered why he couldn’t just show us that weird board at the base.

I had learned a lot during this trip so far. I learned to appreciate all the nice things I have back in my house when I visited the countryside. I also learned that diligence can change even big things even like poverty because I think people are kind of lazy. I learned the environment around us is so fragile, and it should be protected during the study at the research center.