Day 12 - Costa Rica

For our recreation day we traveled 2.5 hours to Manuel Antonio and visited the city's national park. There were many more tourists, but it was a beautiful place to spend the day. We started with a hike up a trail that was on a mountain. It was just under a mile long, but so very steep and I was dripping sweat by the end. The photo above was taken from the top and showed just how big and amazing the Pacific Ocean is. Once we hiked back down, we headed to the beach for a day of fun in the sun (hopefully I come back more tan than burnt). We saw sloths and monkeys all throughout the park and got to swim in the ocean all day, which was my first time in the pacific! 

On the way in we pulled over at Tarcoles River to see the crocodiles

Manuel Antonio National Park

We caught the end of the sunset on our way home. Check out those rays!

This is officially my last blog for my trip. Stay tuned on Facebook for a complete picture album! I am so eternally grateful to have had this opportunity to study in the field I love all the way in Central America. I hope the people of these countries can continue to get the medical support they need and deserve. Maybe I'll be back again one day. Thanks for reading and supporting me along the way, I really would not be here if it weren't for all of the amazing family and friends in my life!

PURA VIDA

Day 11 - Costa Rica

Pura vida! - a term which means pretty much everything. From hello to goodbye to what's up to awesome, amazing, out of this world and so on. Today was our last day of clinic. We saw 39 patients in 2 days. The best part was, we saw so many new diagnoses that were different from Nicaragua. Including a few cases of lice, myasthenia gravis, early onset puberty, very large cavities in a 2 year old, mechanical back pain versus neurological back pain, pterigion, and a few different types of rashes. It was bittersweet to finally end our days of clinic. But a wonderful feeling nonetheless because we were able to help a total of 157 people within the 2 weeks we were here, which is incredible. I am so fortunate and grateful to the people of Nicaragua and Costa Rica for allowing me to continue my medical education through their lives and just for the opportunity to hear their stories. 

Another cool thing we did today was have a group meeting afterward and discuss things we learned throughout the last few days, which was great because as we are split up into different triage groups, we don't always get to see every case. I am also thankful for the doctors and translators we were able to work with for being so patient and understanding with my little Spanish speaking skills and for taking the time to explain in great detail about each diagnosis and treatment plan. I sure am going to miss these countries!

Team leader Pouchi

Translators Sophia and Juliana (Neskins* was not shown, but was also a great help in translating)

Dr. Andrea Vargas

Dr. Alejandro 

*Neskins (I'm probably not spelling that right) is almost completely blind, so he relies on anyone around him to direct him to where he needs to go. He is so smart and sweet, it's hard to see him struggle because of his vision. But he is extremely independent and takes everything in stride

We ended the night with dinner at the new city mall, which was HUGE. And we got to see a random circus in the middle of the plaza. Plus, there was a Nutella crepe station. So it was a good night!

Tomorrow we head to Manuel Antonio National Park for a recreation day.

Day 10 - Costa Rica

Another great day of house visits and clinic, this time in Costa Rica. We only saw about 12 patients today, which is a big difference from Nicaragua. There are so many people who need help in Nicaragua, I think we were more focused on treating patients efficiently. Here in Costa Rica, we are conducting complete examinations as opposed to tailoring them to just their current issues. It's really interesting to see the differences between the two sets of doctors and their diagnostic practices. Due to the terrain, the houses here are on multilevels and sort of disheveled in nature. The houses also use flush toilets as opposed to latrines like we saw in Nicaragua, and there is much less wood burning for food preparation in Costa Rica. We conducted our house visits in the community of Caro Quintero, which is named after a very popular Mexican drug lord. The story goes, Caro Quintero fell in love with an underage girl and they both ran way to Costa Rica from Mexico to avoid the FBI and her parents. So they moved into this big mansion, which is no directly behind the airport. After they were caught, the people divided the mansion up to fit 10 different families and it is still split up to this day, serving as homes to many many families. 

These houses below are a part of the collection of his houses that are connected by what used to be a circular drive

More houses deeper within the community 

(Featuring Summer's head ⬆️)

Almost every house uses these metal panels as a form of roof both here and in Nicaragua 

Lunch break

Clinic 

We are also accompanied by 3 translators and 2 doctors, who are all very helpful, and our new team leader Pouchi! She had a surprise for us when we got back to the hotel...another dance class! This one was a lot easier than the first one because it was slowed way down to a beginners level. And I will say, Rachel and I are fantastic salsa dancers! For dinner we went to this place call TacoBar where you can create your own meal with an unlimited salad bar. It truly takes on the open concept idea architecturally and is open to the elements, so they offer blankets if it gets too cold. We went to eat with the other ISL group that is staying at the hotel with us. They are a smaller group of 5 and come from all over the US at different universities. It was nice to meet some new people interested in the same things!

Tomorrow brings another full day of clinic. 

Day 9 - Costa Rica

Bienvenida to Costa Rica! 

After a long bus ride to cross the boarder, we finally made it to Costa Rica. Only 8 hours apart, the two big cities (San Jose and Granada) are two separate worlds. Costa Rica is similar to the States at first glance... Yes there is a Starbucks. But I have a feeling tomorrow during the home visits, things will look a little differently. When we arrived, we went to eat at a small restaurant called Spoon and my bill was 2,995. Don't panic mom and dad, the conversion rate is about 535 Colones to 1 US dollar whereas Nicaragua was 27 Córdobas to 1 US dollar. Another big difference is we are able to walk around more here, when we couldn't do that in Nicaragua due to both safety and distance issues. Next we went to our hotel which is actually a convent for nuns (I'm trying very hard to stop swearing), but it doubles as a housing unit specifically for medical groups like us. We enjoyed a fresh cooked dinner from Sister Melba and Sister Maria Elana. 

I don't have too many pictures from today because it was mostly travel. Another bright and early day for tomorrow!

Our new home

The streets of Alajuela (a close city outside of San Jose but everyone knows they're basically the same)

Lunch at Spoon

Dinner 

^ That white glass of what looks like milk above, is not milk. It's a fruity drink from the juices of the fruit Guanabana

Cinnamon vanilla pineapple fruit flan

Day 8 - Nicaragua

View of the city of Granada and volcano Mambacho

Today was the last day in Nicaragua and it sure was a memorable one. We did a canopy tour through a jungle in Granada, Nicaragua by zip lining! There was a total 6 or 7 lines that went up to 300 meters. You could zip down regular, as a crazy monkey (which was completely upside down and was AWESOME), or with an instructor as super chica. It was so much fun and the instructors got a ton of pictures of us all, but they are on the camera so I will post them once I return to the States.

Next we went on a tour of some of the 365 islands on Lake Nicaragua by boat. It's really amazing how many there are and how many people live on them as individuals. Some of the islands are inhabited by animals only, especially monkeys! We were able to feed a couple monkeys; one came onto our boat and her name was Lucy. 

Next we went to a chocolate factory/museum/hotel and got to see how they make Nicaraguan chocolate from te cacao plant, which is different from the cocoa plant. It was very bitter, but still good.

There was also a chocolate spa where you could be covered in chocolate for up to 60 minutes. Not sure if that's good or bad...

View of the city of Granada from the top of the hotel 

Next we went to the craft markets in Masaya where we could buy any souvineers you could possibly think of. It was absolutely huge and had so many things to pick from! The coolest part, is that everything (for the most part) is handmade by the people of Nicaragua.

We said our heartfelt goodbyes to our bus driver and team leaders and there was a lot of tears. These people have become a part of our little Adrian College family and and we will miss them dearly.  But the entire day was DIAKACHIMBA! Which basically means really cool or f****** awesome, but we're not supposed to tell anyone that.

Off to Costa Rica tomorrow morning at 3:45am!