Thursday, August 9th

(Internet was down last night, here is yesterday's blog)
Today, we woke up and went to breakfast. For breakfast, we had toast, eggs, watermelon, pineapple, and guanoabana. After breakfast, we worked on our science experiments until lunch. Some of us went out to the field to find ant colonies, others took samples and collected data. At lunch, we enjoyed burgers, potato chips, and mango-pineapple juice; compliments to the chefs for the meal that reminded us of home. After lunch, we had a two hour break where some of us walked to the Pulperia for candy and ice-cream.

When we returned to the classroom we talked with Adrian about how we can further our science careers in the future. Then we focused on our experiments and worked hard to finish them. Some of us used microscopes to study bacteria, some gram stained, some collected field examples,  while others wrote their procedure in our lab notebooks. At 3:45, we got a coffee break to hold us over until dinner. There has been rain and storms all day, but we are all staying dry inside the classroom and on the deck. At dinner, we had lasagna and plantain chips. Since the majority of us were still not finished with our experiments and because final presentations are tomorrow, we continued working on our experiments after dinner.

Whole research group!

Wednesday the 8th

Today was an early morning, when we all had to wake up for a breakfast at 6 o'clock. It consisted of pancakes and eggs.

At 6:30, we all piled into the vans for an hour and a half drive to Parque Rincon de la vieja, a national park located near Finca la Anita. We hiked through the rainforest for about an hour. In this time, we saw lots of interesting bugs, including a worm disguised as a root. The thick vines surrounding the trees are nothing like we have at home! The hike lead up to hot springs created by the active volcano near by. We spent about 30 minutes playing in the hot water. We even got to try using volcanic clay as a scrub. On our way back, we stopped at a waterfall for a good photo op. By this time hunger was setting in, so we were all excited to have a picnic to conclude the hike. The ham and cheese sandwiches with mustard, chips, wafers, and Eddie's special fruit drink were very satisfying.

Here we are,  enjoying the hot springs.

Freddie, our guide, showing us one of the many neat pieces of wildlife.

 

When we got back, we got ready for an afternoon of science. Some groups were busy grinding ant parts, observing colonies, and others were growing fungus on petri dishes dishes. We worked for 3 hours.



Finally at 6, we got to enjoy a dinner of seasoned vegetables, potatoes, and pork. For dessert, pound cake with a sweet coating and cacao nibs was served. After dinner, all of the groups used the extra time provided to continue our experiments.

Tuesday the 7th

We began the day by eating eggs, rice and beans, watermelon, and papaya, with a strawberry banana fruit juice to wash it all down. After breakfast, we had a few hours to explore Finca la Anita. We used this time by hiking down the winding path to the "mall," which was really just a store 15 by 4 feet large packed with local treats and an assortment of items including tooth brushes. We purchased lots of candy to enjoy back at our dorm.

Later, we all loaded into the van to go to horseback riding. We rode through a grove of beautiful rainbow eucalyptus trees with trunks that appeared to be tie dyed. Heading deeper into the jungle, we crossed a small river on our horses and continued up a steep incline. When we reached the top, the view of lush green mountains covered in mist was breathtaking. It was funny to watch as the horses messed around, and even get spooked by some cows crossing our path.

If you look closely at the trees you will see stripes of vivid colors.

To conclude our morning, we ate a lunch of fish, assorted veggies, salad, and white rice, with the pungent drink of ginger lemonade. 

Following our break after lunch, we met in the classroom with our groups to begin our experiments! We got to work not only in the classroom, but we also went out into the field to collect gmellina leaves  for our projects. We worked from 2 to 4:45 in our lab notebooks with our groups.

Lauren and Anna holding a colony of ants.

A close up of the queen and the colony.

When the time came to end our science for the afternoon, we once again loaded into vans to go to Aracelly's, a cafe where we got to help a local chef make dinner. We all got a chance to add ingredients to the big bowl over a fire, roll out tortillas, and make salad. We also tried drinks of pure lime juice. After much hard work, we finally got to sit down and enjoy the delicious Costa Rican meal we made. It consisted of chicken, rice and beans, steamed vegetables, with the option of fresh lemonade or pineapple juice. Music was playing in the background, which lead to us all joining the chef dancing in the kitchen. We did the salsa and danced in a big circle. Arcelly's daughter then showed us some brain teasers using tooth picks. Shoutout to Graham for figuring out the problem first. The chef was a sweet woman happy to spend her night dancing and eating with us.

This is us posing with the chef, also known as our new friend.

Plates of ingredients before adding to the sauce.

On our way home, we listened to music to get us awake and ready to do some more science upon our return. All groups who needed to continue their work got the chance to put finishing touches on the first day of performing our experiments.

Finally, the end of the day came. We are exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep to refresh us for tomorrow's adventures.

Monday the 6th

Today's breakfast was eggs, rice and beans, yogurt with granola, pineapple, and watermelon, and toast with marmalade. After that we began science once again at 8:30, and spent the morning in the field looking at colonies. We loaded up a tractor to take us to the first colony, one that was abandoned and is beginning to be overgrown. We then continued on to the mature colony, which was over 5 years old and had about 3-4 million ants. There were also fire ants living in the ant colony, taking advantage of the already excavated ground. Ibrahim and Adrian then dug at the colony so we could see the soldier ants come out to protect the colony.

Adrian digging up the live ant colony

After loading back on to the tractor, we headed out to collect our own colonies. When we arrived we split into our groups to begin digging. Some of us didn't even reach the fungus chamber after 30-40 minutes of digging, but some groups found large colonies. After collection, we headed back to clean the mud off our boots and eat lunch.For lunch was had fried rice, plantain chips, and black beans.

Largest colony found

Using ethanol to sterilize a spoon 

After lunch we had a break, and many of us walked to the little store in the village for ice cream and candy. At 2:00 we reconvened in the classroom and were assigned our new groups for our final projects. We spent the next hour and 45 minutes discussing, debating, and deciding on our topic question, hypothesis, prediction, and experimental design. At 3:45 we had a half hour coffee break with a colorful bread and coffee. After the coffee break we resumed our work, designing our proposal presentations for our projects. At 6 we went to dinner, which was beef, carrots, zucchini, potatoes, and a coconut type of dessert. We then finalized our presentations, getting ready for when we would present them to the group at 7:00.

(Edit: Sorry for the late post, the internet went down last night)

Sunday the 5th

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast at 7:30 again. For breakfast, we had an omelette with NO cheese, papaya (not as good as expected), cantaloupe, toast with orange marmalade, and rice and beans. After breakfast, we headed to the classroom for science at 8:30 and got into our groups from yesterday. We began by observing both Atta and Acromyrmex colonies and developing hypothesis to the question: Where does Ecovopsis exist in the ant colonies? After developing our hypothesis and predictions, we carried out our experiment in the lab by putting samples on Petri dishes of PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) to grow the fungus that we will check on in a few days. We also worked on a couple of readings and activities in our booklets, and then had some free time to play cards before eating lunch.

For lunch we had some sort of rice casserole, plantain chips, and chicken with vegetables. The juice of the meal was a homemade mango juice. After lunch, we loaded up the busses to head into the canopy for zip lining. When we arrived, we all got our harnesses, gloves, and helmets. As a group, we hiked up through the canopy to the first platform. First, they gave us safety instruction, and then we were off down the course. There were twelve different platforms, and on the way we saw a sloth, capuchin monkeys (aka Marcel from Friends). We took several breaks to appreciate the breathtaking view of the mountains and village below. The last platform was much longer than the rest (80 meters), and several of us got stuck at the end.

The Scenic View

We returned from zip lining, and walked ten minutes to the nearby village, where we took a tour of the locally owned butterfly farm. We saw every life stage of the Morpho butterfly, and caterpillars of the Owl butterfly.

Morpho with a broken wing

When we got back from the butterfly farm, we headed straight to dinner. For dinner we ate pork smothered in salsa, salad, broccoli, carrots, and a vegetable called yucca root (like a garlic potato). To drink tonight, we had homemade blackberry juice. For dessert we ate a sweet rice pudding with orange marmalade and cacao nibs. After dinner, we headed back to the classroom to check on the results of our first experiment. We counted the bacteria that we found within our petri dishes, and analyzed the data to see if it was statistically significant. Then we watched a few clips about ants to prepare for our day in the field tomorrow.

Saturday the Fourth

After an early rising, and some coffee, we partook in a magnificent breakfast spread. Some items included, yogurt, toast, rice & beans, scrambled eggs, and fruit. Following our breakfast, and some free time that included walking into town, we were introduced to cacao and its many uses. After indulging on many samples of chocolate treats, we set out on a hike to see how cacao is grown, and what the fruit tastes like raw. Our host then presented how to harvest a heart of palm with exemplary machete skills. We enjoyed a fresh salad made with the hearts and also were served sliced beef with gravy.

Criollo Cacao Bean Chocolate

Bean Growing

Tasting Outer Cacao Bean Covering

Shaving Palm Tree

Making Heart of Palm Salad

In the afternoon, we participated in a practice lab which involved sampling and culturing bacteria. After finishing our cultures, we had a long awaited dinner which consisted of our choice of chicken and salsa, or a soup. Dessert was ice cream with some fried bananas. When dinner was finished, everyone engaged in a lecture that focused on the behaviors of different types of ant species. 

Ibrahim Teaching

Dr. Pinto

Friday the 3rd

After waiting in line for an hour at the airport, we eventually boarded our plane to Atlanta. The second plane was much nicer than the first because of its complimenary entertainment service.  After arrival, we loaded up two vans worth of students and headed out to lunch, where we were served an authentic chicken dish. Following lunch, we embarked upon a two hour, scenic drive, with many potholes. Just after arriving, we went through a quick orientation and checked into our rooms. We were also served a delicious fish dinner, accompanied with a stellar bread pudding. An ice breaker activity was planned after dinner to help us get to know the students from Minnesota. After a 19 hour day, we are all heading to bed and are excited for the activities planned for tomorrow.