Hola!
Checking in again from San Jose, Costa Rica. Since I last wrote to you, I have worked in two different medical environments. I spent my 3rd week at Hospital San Rafael in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Alajuela is around 45 minutes from San Jose and much hotter than San Jose. I had the opportunity to work with Doctora Diaz. She is an ED physician. We saw all the patients that came into the ED with respiratory symptoms. Our patients ranged from children with asthma attacks to adults requiring intubation for pneumonia and septic shock. Due to chronic overcrowding in the hospital, many of the patients were housed in the ED. On my first day, one of our patients had spent 7 days in ED intubated, on pressers, waiting for transfer to another hospital with access to a dialysis machine. I really enjoyed working with the patients in acute distress and helping to stabilize them. I practiced my Spanish a lot, but realized my limits when I accidentally did my exam on the wrong patient. Doctora Diaz and I laughed about it and I completed my exam on the correct patient. I still have a long way to go until I reach fluency.
On the last weekend of my program, I had the opportunity to visit La Chimba. It is a wonderful hiking area just outside San Jose. I was joined by Dani, a local sociology student. I was thankful for the company as we hiked through miles of coffee plantations.
On my 4th and final week in Costa Rica, I worked with Doctora Espinoza. Dra Espinoza is a General Practitioner. She works in the Primary Care Clinic in Asseri. Doctora Espinoza taught me a lot about diabetes control, hypertension control, and I even got to see a few cute babies (rare for me since I am going into Internal Medicine). I spent my last day saying goodbye to all of the wonderful people I met in San Jose. I went to the grocery store and bought my host mom some flowers and a card. I also bought a card for my wonderful driver Luis who became a good friend during the trip. I will miss them all and hope to visit again soon!
After my formal program in San Jose concluded, I had the opportunity to travel around Costa Rica with one of my best friends. She flew in from Washington D.C. and we were off. Per Luis’ recommendation we took a shared van to all of our destinations. We spent the first 3 days in Manuel Antonio National Park and the final 3 days in Monteverde Cloud Forest. We arrived in Manuel Antonio in the heat of the day (around 100 degrees Fahrenheit). Our AirBnB wasn’t available yet so we hunkered down in a local restaurant and tried every fruit juice in our attempt to keep our body temperature normal. After we checked into our AirBnB, we booked our tickets for Manuel Antonio the next day. We had a wonderful time in the National Park. We saw two separate three toed sloths, land crabs, white faced monkeys, an Agoti, and even swam in the Pacific Ocean. Our self-guided tour took us up mountains and down to beaches. If you are ever in Costa Rica I highly recommend a visit to this beautiful place. We spent the next day kayaking through the Mangroves of Quepos, an amazingly resilient environment. After 3 days in Manuel Antonio we were on our way to Monteverde. I was so excited. I had visited before with my family and loved it. I was so glad to go back. This time, my friend and I were staying in tree houses.
We arrived in Monteverde at night and used our flashlights to find our tree house. The beautiful house was essentially a glass box surrounded by the jungle. On our first day, we completed a tour of the Trapiche Family Plantation. They grow coffee, cacao and sugar cane. The best part of the tour was the free samples that were nothing short of delicioso. I may have bought far too much coffee after the tour… At night we did a night walk at the Aguti preserve. We saw our first two toed sloth, two tarantulas, armadillos, and my favorite …frogs. I loved visiting the forest at night. The next day we hiked all the way to the Monteverde Reserve. After getting a refreshing Maracuya (Passion Fruit) drink, we hiked our way to the Continental Divide which overlooks Monteverde. This cloud forest is nothing short of spectacular and full of beautiful birds and butterflies.
On the last day of our trip we booked a tour of the El Tigre Waterfalls. We drove deep into the mountains and went on a 4 hour hike to see 4 massive waterfalls. It was a wonderful way to end a trip with a fantastic friend surrounded by nature.
So here I am sitting in the San Jose Airport waiting for my flight to come home. I am so thankful for this wonderful opportunity. I’ve loved learning about Costa Rica, improving my Spanish, and traveling through the jungle. It truly has been the best way to finish medical school.
My experience in GHAC over the past 4 years has been eye opening and educational. I learned so much about myself during my trip to Mozambique and now during my trip to Costa Rica. I am proud of myself for taking risks, immersing myself in different cultures, attempting to learn new languages, and making new friends all over the world.
Thank you to everyone that made these 4 years possible. Ciao Ciao for now!
