Zip-Lining

Second years working on their projects

Fungus, Horses and Smelly Dogs, oh my!

As we are writing this, Stanton is chasing a dog off the porch because it smells worse than the horses we rode today. He was probably put off by the fact that it had a taste of horse poop as an afternoon snack. Brynn and Caroline are sitting on the porch shivering because it cools off here at night. Anyway, here is a recap of Day 4.

Today, it rained a lot. “A lot” is probably an understatement to describe the amount of rainfall. Jake, Tyler, Sam, Camille, Annie and Brynn woke up early to return to the colony, but were not able to find the fungus garden. Breakfast was delicious as always. After breakfast we met with Dr. Pinto and cultivated fungus from the gardens we extracted from the previous day. We also collected leaves to feed the colonies in the lab. The research groups started brainstorming and began writing their individual research questions. Most groups are devising experiments to keep the leaf cutter ants from destroying cash crops. During lunch it rained once again. We were beginning to see a pattern. After lunch we got a quick horseback riding lesson from Pablo before we left on a trail ride. We rode to the location of their future research facility. Caroline got her wish and saw a toucan! Overall, the trip was full of trotting, grass eating and mud. In fact, Sarah's horse insisted on carrying a mouth-full of grass for the duration of the trip without actually eating it. Once we returned to Finca, we spent an hour of free time recovering from our sore legs and preparing for more science fun! A group of us went into town for treats at the general store. Afterwards, we returned to the lab and made presentation boards for our experiments. After sending some group members to search for trees to use for our experiments, we had dinner. During our meal, it started down-pouring; so much that we could hardly hear each other speak. Later, all the research groups, including second years, presented their experiments to each other. We shared our ideas and got feedback from our peers and teachers. Now that we are all done stressing over our presentations, we can all get a good night's sleep in preparation for more adventures tomorrow!

Love from Costa Rica,

~Brynn and Caroline  

Jake searching for fungus garden  

In the river after a long hike and lots of science.

 Caroline collecting the fungus garden, I hope she got the queen.

 Queen and fungus garden collected by the students.

Drew working on collecting a fungus garden and queen.

Students learning how to collect the fungus garden.

Night Hike find.

Lunch at Finca la Anita

Lots of walking!

We woke up this morning to the sound of light rain and a feeling of excitement for the day! Before we started out the day, we ate a wonderful breakfast consisting of fresh fruit, beans & rice, eggs with ham, and juice. After, we began the day with the science portion with Dr. Adrian Pinto. He showed us how to cultivate an ant colony and gather the chamber and fungus without collapsing it. Then he allowed us to attempt to dig our own colony. One group was able to dig one and another group wasn't able to find the fungus and will continue their digging bright and early tomorrow morning at 7 before the rest of the group wakes up for breakfast.

After a delicious lunch, our group pilled into a small trailer pulled by a tractor for a nice muddy hike to the river. The tractor ride consisted of lots of flying branches, bugs, smiles and laughter. We rode as far as the tractor could pull us, we got out and started our slippery, down-hill nature hike with a guide. About half way to the river, it started to pour rain. The trails were extremely slippery, enough so that Jake and Drew surfed down the mud. Arriving to the river, Tyler was the last to arrive because he an announcement that, “I have escaped from death once again!”. In other words, he stepped on a deadly poisonous snake in which Pablo saved the day and killed it with his machete. After a much needed swim in the river, we started our long hike up-hill, back to the tractor. We finished our hike with a fun and muddy ride back home.

After arriving back at the ranch we had approximately one hour to clean up and take some well needed showers. Before dinner we took another hike through the forest. This was a night hike specifically dedicated to finding night creatures in the forest. Our greatest discovery was a toad tree (and Annie's furry creature of whom she was terribly afraid of and turned out to be a rock).

We ended the day with observations of last nights petri dish experiment. It was interesting to learn about our various discoveries on microbes around the environment. Pictures can't even describe the beauty of this country and our amazing adventures as a group. We have really almost become a family.

Annie and Camille

Group walk in the river.

Home for the next 8 days.

Left to right: Drew, DJ, Tyler, Sam, Logan eating lunch at the first stop in Costa Rica.

Checking out the Farm, walking through the rain forest.