Teach Earth 2025 Team - Costa Rica

Our second-to-last morning in the land of Pura Vida began as the others had—with warm mugs of tea, coffee, or mushroom coffee (JoAnn’s favorite 😊), shared laughter, and the quiet joy of being together on this unforgettable Earthwatch expedition. Today we returned to Finca Bella Tica for one final morning of fieldwork, where flowers buzzed with pollinator activity. While some of us continued collecting bees, Evie, Frannie, Sergio, and a few others made an exciting discovery: a ground nest. Right on schedule, around 10:00 AM—just as Evie had predicted—the bees began to emerge. As they observed the nest, the rest of us filmed a short, impromptu video to capture the spirit of the morning—thanks to Danilsa, Errol, and Cesar for the inspiration! After fieldwork at Bella Tica, we stopped by the Bee Outreach Center and Ivannia Natural Products. Diana A., Errol, and Diana D. couldn’t resist grabbing a few more goodies—warm mango and passion fruit jam fresh from the kitchen, and some fragrant ...

Day Five in the Land of Buzz and Beans By JoAnn Harvey (with the help of chatgpt) I woke in my bunk with a stretch and a sigh, Thinking, “Oh what a trip! How the days zoomed by!” Four days of adventure, of laughs and of bees, Of dirt on our pants and hiking through trees. They said Day Five would be calm and quite slow, But then— the coffee door opened —and whoa! With mugs full of joy and the morning sun bright, Our chatter was cheerful, our spirits were light. Frannie let out a cheer with a shout, “Another day, another sleigh!” we all sang out. Sergio’s squad (with Diana and crew) Found many bees—green, tiny, and blue! Diana D. caught one with sparkle and style, An orchid bee buzzing in her jar for a while. Some swung their nets, some used their jars, Some chased the bees down jungle boulevards! Pop culture talk was flying like pollen through air, And Sergio laughed, “You folks sure are aware… Of movies and actors and celebrity tales!” He smiled while collecting some bee-collecting pa...

Wednesday, Day 4 began with Lauren waking up to the sound of a coati in the hallway of her dorm having breakfast with the honey mixtures. After rescuing Diana 2 and stealing back the mixtures and storing them in her room, she made her way to her own breakfast.  Outside of the mess hall, Lea was the first one, practically beating down the door for her Costa Rican coffee.  The group gathered for our daily morning fuel, which gave us the energy to venture to Lower San Luis.   (Video attached) We separated into our sites and started our bee killing mission. Under the hot sun of the lowlands, JoAnn caught her first orchard bee! Chris focused on taking more pictures for his collection and Diana 1 sat longing for Cookie.    Derek was busy doing his part to promote agroforestry and conserve the biodiversity of Costa Rica and basically save the world.   As the day progressed and heated up we moved on to our second site where Susan begged to join our group.  At...

Day 3 started as usual, with Errol practicing his Spanish and sweetly addressing everyone and some amazing desayuna tipico. Everyone filled up on delicious fruit and eggs, aside from Diana A whom has never met a papaya she's liked - not for lack of trying.  Although it had only been a few days, we conversed as old friends sharing stories of our lives back home and our initial impressions attempting to net tiny bees. The sky was quite dark, filled with clouds and wind from rain the night before. As we drove down into town to reach our bee plots for the day, the clouds cleared giving way to a beautiful rainbow over the valley. The weather continued to improve rising from chilly tropical temps to nice warm t-shirt weather.  We all waived goodbye to our driver Alex and separated out into our plot teams following the lead of either Frannie, Evie, or Sergio.  The three plots each team surveyed produced a diverse array of bees, as well as wildlife in general. It is incredible ju...

Bee Monitoring, Agroforestry, and Understanding Biodiversity in Costa Rica by Lea Buena Day two began with an optional early-morning walk to the Hummingbird Café, just a short distance from our lodging inside the Monteverde Biological Reserve. A few of us were hoping to grab coffee, but the café wasn’t open yet. We lingered near the feeders, watching the handful of hummingbirds that drifted in. With no food set out, they were sparse, but even so, the flashes of iridescent green and violet in the soft light still felt magical. We stood patiently—snapping plenty of photos before beginning our own routines. After breakfast, we packed up for our first full research day. With snake gaiters strapped on, we paused for a quick group photo. Alex drove us to the site, where we met Sergio, one of our local partners. Our team was divided into three smaller groups led by Franny, Evie, and Sergio. I joined Evie’s group with Susan, Joann, and Chris. We spent the morning visiting two bee-monitoring ...