Claudia Bibiano hammering away during the restoration of the observation tower.
My search for a study abroad program initially began with no location in mind, but after searching through dozens of programs and countries, I landed on Costa Rica, and the same luck brought me to the Keköldi Reserve.
My experience in Costa Rica was a truly unforgettable one, as was my experience in Kèköldi thanks to the amazing people at the Scientific Center, their generosity, and their welcoming energy that made us instantly feel at home.
The program was a 6 week long one, with the first half being spent at the UN University for Peace, attending daily lectures and discussions on the various human security issues within our Problems Without Passports framework, and the second half a field-study assignment where we would split into several groups and be sent out to different project sites, with the hopes of applying our newfound knowledge to what we may encounter at our respective sites.
A 5 o’clock Sunday morning pickup and a 6 hour drive would leave us at the foot of the jungle, just off the side of the road, where we would embark on an hour long hike through the Keköldi reservation. We were instantly greeted by Sebastian Hernandez, the Founder and Director of the Scientific Center, who led us through the reserve to where the Scientific Center, our home for the next 3 weeks, lies, and it instantly became just that, our home.
Over the following weeks, we assisted the Scientific Center in their various daily tasks, helping to advance their efforts in a few of the projects that they have in progress. One such project was the building of a trail to a nearby waterfall, which stands 45 meters high and about a 45 minute hike from the center. The waterfall not only serves as a great attraction on its own, but will soon be a site for rappelling, and therefore a trail is necessary to make it more accessible. We also helped to renovate the observation tower, just a 15 minute walk from the center, and one of the 3 best locations in the world to view hawks during their 8 month migratory season. Our last work activity was frog counting, which not only allowed us to participate in the center’s research in monitoring the frog species and climate change, but also gave us the opportunity to discover many of the incredible species that live in the Keköldi jungle.
In addition to the work tasks we did, we had some great hikes through the Kèköldi trails, spent some amazing afternoons in the waterfall, and made some incredible memories on the observation tower, with view of Puerto Viejo to one side, and Panama to the other, and the beautiful sounds of the jungle all around us. My experience in Costa Rica was a truly unforgettable one, as was my experience in Kèköldi thanks to the amazing people at the Scientific Center, their generosity, and their welcoming energy that made us instantly feel at home.
Centro Científico Kéköldi 