Costa Rica: It’s more than just the Rain Forest

By: Lana Chumney

Class of 2011, Texas A&M University

During the Christmas break of my first year of vet school, I traveled to Costa Rica for an International Veterinary / Animal Science program. Our group consisted of twelve veterinary students from Texas A&M and the Ohio State University. Proyecto Asis is a wildlife refuge located in Ciudad Quesada. For two weeks we stayed with host families, most of whom spoke only Spanish. While I am not fluent in Spanish, my vocabulary improved substantially even in two weeks of being immersed in the language.

All of the programs besides the Spanish classes were taught in English. The first week we took Spanish classes in the morning and worked in the wildlife center during the afternoon. This included building and painting a new pen for the monkeys. We even saw a sloth across the street from the house of one of our host families! We spent the second week learning about Costa Rica’s livestock industry which included visits to a ranch, dairy, milk processing plant and slaughter facility. At the dairy and ranch, we helped a local veterinarian perform routine herd work including castration, palpation, and vaccination of cattle.

We also helped with a spay and neuter clinic at one of the villages. Over the weekend, we stayed in La Fortuna which is built on a volcano. We were able to see the lava still flowing from the volcano at night even though it’s last eruption was years earlier. While there, we swam in the hot springs, took a horseback ride through the rain forest, went zip-lining and rappelled off the waterfalls. Proyecto Asis is still offering this program to veterinary students and a few schools will even offer credit for the experience. For more information on how you or your school can plan a trip, visit their website at http://www.institutoasis.com.