A Unique Birthday in Costa Rica
- Anya Conlon, Occidental College '17
- Mar 31, 2016
- 2 min read
I celebrated my 21st birthday while our group was staying at the Las Alturas field station in Costa Rica with the Tropical Diseases, Environmental Change, and Human Health semester program. Of the 12 participants in the program, I am fortunate (and surprised) to say that I am the one and only person who will celebrate a birthday here in Costa Rica. Since I knew that would be spending my birthday abroad, I assumed that it would be different. It turned out to be completely unexpected and completely unique in the very best way.
The Las Alturas field station is perched on the top of a hill in the cloud forest surrounded on three sides by beautiful pasture and on the fourth by a national forest. There is no wifi and limited hours of electricity each day. On the morning of my birthday ,we woke up at 5:45am. The agenda for the day was to start out by visiting an organic dairy farm to watch the morning milking. After watching one of the farmers show us how it was done, we all got to take a turn
milking.
Milking cows at Las Alturas
It was definitely more challenging then he made it look, but we all succeeded. We all got to try the milk too, so I think I may be one of very few people I know who can say that their first drink as a twenty-one year old was hot, foamy, raw cow’s milk!
The latter part of the day involved a tour of an organic community vegetable garden, looking specifically at what plants were used for medicinal purposes. This was followed by a look at the coffee processing that took place in the town.
At dinner, the group surprised me with a huge dulce de leche cake with a red-eyed tree frog on it and, afterwards, I went out with a few friends to a hotel restaurant within walking distance. We all wore our field pants and headlamps, which must have looked completely ridiculous but at the same time felt completely appropriate.
When I talked to my twin sister the next day, who had celebrated our birthday in a far different and more traditional manner on the other side of the globe, I couldn’t help but think about how unique my day had been. Who else can say that they got to milk a cow, drink the milk, and later head out in their headlamp and field pants for their 21st birthday? I know I will always look back on this birthday with amusement, a smile, and sincere gratitude for the people who helped to make it special.
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