Below is the list I condensed. Below it is the full list if you really wanna sift through things that it's obvious to be afraid of and inside jokes for botanists. Put together by a friend on the trip who has done lists for Costa Rica in the past when she visited, as well as in places like Burlington Vermont. Hope you enjoy.

Part way through the trip my nickname became "22" because I made the list. I am directly responsible for or the inspirational victim of 18, 21, 22, 26, 41, 55, 57, 66, 72, 92, 93, 96, and 100 and something I said inspired 86 which became a running joke for numbers 65 and 76.


101 things to be afraid of: Costa Rica 2009
4. scorpions (I picked one up!)
18. falling coconuts (I pointed out to some of the guys that they had pitched their tent right under some heavy coconuts that were dangling about 40 feet in the air, they didn't move their tent...)
20. earthquakes (There was a huge one while we were there that killed a lot of people apparently.)
21. freshly sharpened machete (Mine was the sharpest!)
22. Casey Wolff (I made the list!)
23. chiggers (Everyone but me got bitten...)
24. ticks (I pulled a few off)
26. accidentally revealing secret identity to classmates in moment of weakness (I got a little tipsy and told everyone I was Bisexual and a Furry)
31. Patrick sitting on the food
35. running out of coffee
36. monkey pee
39. pre-coffee Barrington
41. Team Liquid (If you had the runs, you were on this team. Something I got from Jessie who brought back the Team Liquid vs Team Solid joke from her trip to the Dominican)
44. the smell in the guys' room
46. large poisonous spiders (I found a Banana Spider and was talking with it like a puppy or a baby though it could have jumped out and killed me)
47. prickles 48. spines 49. thorns (For a botanist, it is never enough to just say you ran into thorns, or prickles, or spines. There is a difference!)
54. warm beer
57. electric showerheads (All the water was cold. You heated it up for a shower by throwing a big scary kill switch that was with you in the shower so electric heating coils in the shower head would make the water warm. Scary as hell.)
59. rabid coati
63. gnar scars (what you get while body surfing and the waves roll you into the sand and gravel. I pulled a piece of gravel out of my elbow three weeks after getting back to the states)
64. drunken ticos
66. quicksand (I was the ONLY ONE on the trip who ended up falling in quicksand and having to pull themselves out with a stick... Figures)
71. surreptitious addition of ayahuasca to one's morning beverage
72. being gored by a bull (I accidentally ended up in a bull pen while checking out plants.)
74. driving on lava flow
77. day 16 boots
79. collapsing bunk beds
85. lacking funds for $27 exit tax
86. pit cobras (I was saying how a coral snake that we saw was more closely related to cobras than pit vipers and someone said "What's that Casey? It's a pit cobra?" For the rest of the trip there were "Pit-ferns" and "Pit-toads" and "Pit-cycads" and "Pit-everything" to watch out for. I have removed these from the condensed list.)
87. untrustworthy water sources (I drank the water everywhere and stayed Team Solid I don't know what everyone else's problem was.)
88. volcano eruption
92. becoming lost in the city (Happened to me)
93. hypothermia
96. cold Cerro showers (see 93 and 57)
97. formaldehyde in Imperial (Imperial is the beer that I took a liking too)
100. San Jose taxicabs (See 92)
101. returning to Vermont



101 things to be afraid of: Costa Rica 2009
1. poisonous sea snakes
2. poisonous land snakes
3. poisonous tree snakes
4. scorpions
5. malaria
6. dengue fever
7. puma attack
8. San Jose
9. thieves
10. muggers
11. gangs
12. pickpockets
13. hijackers
14. Solanaceous fruits
15. jellyfish
16. Toxoplasma
17. dysentery
18. falling coconuts
19. armed palms
20. earthquakes
21. freshly sharpened machete
22. Casey Wolff
23. chiggers
24. ticks
25. biting gnats
26. accidentally revealing secret identity to classmates in moment of weakness
27. ants
28. bullhorn acacia
29. terrestrial bromeliads
30. terrestrial bro's
31. Patrick sitting on the food
32. shower spiders
33. flooded wallet
34. poisonous frogs
35. running out of coffee
36. monkey pee
37. riptide
38. undertow
39. pre-coffee Barrington
40. Loasa sting
41. Team Liquid
42. dead headlamp
43. becoming lost in the forest
44. the smell in the guys' room
45. heat stroke
46. large poisonous spiders
47. prickles
48. spines
49. thorns
50. losing one's handlens
51. trenchfoot
52. landslide
53. heel spurs
54. warm beer
55. stick in eye
56. Puerto Jimenez
57. electric showerheads
58. steep slimy ravines
59. rabid coati
60. Osa bridges
61. full memory card
62. stingrays
63. gnar scars
64. drunken ticos
65. pit cycads
66. quicksand
67. poop trail
68. late night review session
69. the checklist index
70. overindulgence
71. surreptitious addition of ayahuasca to one's morning beverage
72. being gored by a bull
73. riding in the back of the rental
74. driving on lava flow
75. La Georgina
76. pit ferns
77. day 16 boots
78. Bush Master
79. collapsing bunk beds
80. bad coffee
81. poisonous centipedes
82. UV radiation
83. AFR (Another F-ing Rube (member of the Rubiaceae))
84. customs
85. lacking funds for $27 exit tax
86. pit cobras
87. untrustworthy water sources
88. volcano eruption
89. altitude sickness
90. failing ability to speak/understand Spanish
91. bedbugs
92. becoming lost in the city
93. hypothermia
94. Prosopis thorn in foot
95. Xylosma
96. cold Cerro showers
97. formaldehyde in Imperial
98. Pernettya ingestion leading to possible permanent insanity?
99. falling off a cliff on the Pan-American
100. San Jose taxicabs
101. returning to Vermont