Jul 21

Hola guys!!!

    Today started off at a time no one should ever wake up, 5:40 am. It was unbearable but totally worth it once you hear what we did! We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage, fresh watermelon and pineapple. Then, me (Alyssa) and Ashley rode in the van with Eddie! We listened to Camille's music, which is questionable at times in its variety. It made the drive fun. Along the drive, we saw at least 30 Blue Morpho butterflies which are vibrant blue and absolutely gorgeous! Pablo, the living legend, according to his vast knowledge has never before seen so many awesome blue butterflies dancing in their graceful way. When we arrived we met our guide, Freddy, and hiked 3 km, seeing impressive vegetation, waterfalls, and insects, until we got to some volcanic hot springs.    Alyssa had a traumatic experience in the river because she has a hole in her boot and got her foot wet. Aaron forgot water shoes and put volcanic mud on himself to exfoliate himself and others also did that too. (Hi mom this is Aaron btw). Ashley, Alyssa, Katie, and Lily all enjoyed rubbing themselves with rocky dirt to smooth out their skin. The hot springs were very beautiful and an exotic color for the rain forest (or dry forest).
    Ashley also had a traumatic experience with some fire ants when she was changing back into her boots (they hurt a lot when they bite). When we hiked back, Freddy explained the difference between the wet and dry forests and that the volcano makes them able to exist next to each other. He also pointed out some Long-tailed Manikin calls and Golden Orb Weavers. We then hiked to a waterfall which was big and beautiful and misty. People took lots of pictures. After we hiked back to the picnic area, we saw the other bus driver holding baby possums which were super cute and soft! Audrey, Meredith's adorable daughter really liked them. We had a delicious picnic of sandwiches, chips, juice, and cookies.
   Back at the ranch, we changed out of our wet, dirty clothes and got ready for an afternoon of science. Ashley and the Dr. Boomba Squad successfully transitioned between experiments and tested our new experiment twice each on two different colonies. Alyssa and Aaron, apart of Atta Boy, got a lot accomplished too! We were very scientific looking with our gloves, dishes, and scientific utensils. The 4 Hormigos learned a lot about pheromones and where ants will follow them today. They are still trying hard. M.O.T.H. mass murdered hundreds of ants for science today!! They are very far in their experimental process.
   We had lasagna for dinner, with salad and plantain chips. The real highlight of the meal was the raspberry ice cream on top of the dark chocolate spread for dessert. Aaron feels that it is important to mention that the best quality of chocolate is slightly red and at least 82% cacao.
   On a completely unrelated note, Fletcher saw a green snake on the hike and Ashley captured a rhino beetle in the classroom. Lots of people got to see the 60+ (total) Blue Morpho's and the agouti in the woods. (It's kind of like a cross between a squirrel, a wombat, and a rabbit). The Four-eyed possums bear mentioning again because they were so adorable.
   Tomorrow is a full day of science (roughly 8 hours) so hopefully we will be well rested. That's why this is wrapping up.

The End
- A team
Aaron, Alyssa, and Ashley

                                                                     Blue Morpho Butterfly

                                                                    A cool spiral plant

Hiking

                                                                  People at the pools

                                                             Everyone at the hot springs

                                                                   Ashley and Camille

                                                                   Weismann brothers

                                                                       Audrey having fun

                                                                      Aaron in sulfur pool

                                                                          Waterfall

                                                                           Both possums

Possum on Christian's shoulder

                                                               Kids crossing river

Attaboy working on their experiments! Nice classroom!

Adios!

Day 5

-Hey, it's Fletcher from Dr. Boomba Squad, and Chris from the 4 Hormigos

Today was a loooong day, after breakfast, we drove over to this horse riding place and got the closest thing to a break in the past 4 days. It took some of the group a while to figure out their horses but once we were used to the horses it was very pleasant. Many of the views out over the volcano were breathtaking, but some of them were inhibited by the fact that the cloud cover stopped us from seeing anything very high up. After that, we had a delicious lunch of some veggie rice and fish. Some people went into town once we were done eating, and Alex decided to get a 3 liter bottle of orange juice. Later on our break ended and we went back to doing science. All of the groups ran into some issues and there was some changing around of the projects that we were doing, but everyone should end up in good shape to finish their experiment. For dinner, we went to a local restaurant and helped in making our own dinner. It was very tasty, and the pride of ownership made it that much tastier. Once we came back, some of us decided to work some more on our projects and some of us went to bed. We're looking forward to what we might see tomorrow!

Moth I caught in the classroom

Horse riding trip

Local restaurant

Here is the way we got divided into our work groups, and their group names and project topics. 

The Four Hormigos

Henry, Lia, Christo, Lily

Topic: trail pheromones

Attaboy

Alex, Colin, Alyssa, Aaron

Topic: colony age and bacterial diversity

M.O.T.H.

Jay, Camille, Charlie

Topic: fungus swap

Dr. Boomba Squad

Fletcher, Ashley, Katie, Alec

Topic: effect of damaging gas vents in colonies

-Chris and Fletcher

Hola-

Just adding a few more pictures to the most recent post by Charlie and Alex.  All is well.

A view of the deck on the classroom/lab building.

below: the classroom

below: stairs to the lab

below: the dining building

below: the dining building

Below: the dining hall

below: the dorms

below: inside the girls' dorm 

Today was a long day of planning. Through the morning we finished informational booklets, in the afternoon we designed experiments, and we began heavy revisions to experimental design in the evening to accommodate for our lack of a hardcore chemistry laboratory. Evidently, science involves more bug bites and fewer test tubes than stock images would suggest. Enjoy that cutesy line.

I keep responding to people either in French, or in English with a Spanish accent, as if that helps the understanding. I don’t claim to understand why my brain’s instincts are the way they are; I can merely observe them. Regardless, it’s slightly humiliating to tote around a six-year-old as your translator. Ce la vie. The other approach is to learn three words, and use them exclusively. It’s shocking how far “Gracias”, “Hola”, and “De nada” will get you, assuming you mix in enough pointing, grunting, and hand waving.

Eddie, my new friend in Costa Rica the tour bus driver who says “hello and pura vida” to all of you, has been trying to teach me Spanish to limited success.

572.044 colones are a USD. Everything in town is cheap, but the gift shops maintain their strict gift shop code of being overpriced, although the Costa Ricans appear to follow the secret pagan codebook less stringently, with only moderate price inflation.

So far we plan to subject ants to long mazes, squash and smear them around, kidnap and rob from them, and kick in their homes. Hopefully they’ll be understanding in the name of science.

Communism/Socialism: “Great Idea. Wrong Species.” - E. O. Wilson

Pura Vida

Charlie y Alex

July 18th, 2017

      Today started off on a rather abrupt note, as I experienced firsthand the luxurious smoothness of snakeskin, except it was on my neck at 3 AM. I happen to have a very high, powerful soprano voice, yet the cabins nearby did not wake up, so only eight of us in total lost some sleep in the incident. It was all dealt with very smoothly, and we went back to sleep after the snake had been properly macheted. The snake itself was a juvenile bird-eater, that is, non-venomous and not harmful.
      After an auspicious morning, we started in on some morning science classes. The night previously, we went over the scientific method that we would be using for our experiments, as well as observing ants and picking Adrian Pinto's brain about every aspect of a leaf-cutter ant's life. With the fresh knowledge from the night before, we went out along the trails at Finca La Anita and saw many different types of colonies. Primitive fungus-growing ants, Atta cephalotes, Atta colombica, and Acromyrmex all live on the property here, and we watched Dr. Adrian and his associate, Ibrahim, excavate colonies. Afterwards, we split up into groups and excavated fungus gardens (complete with queens) for ourselves. The queens are massive compared to her worker daughters, and apparently taste like peanuts. Of course, none of us sampled the queens because we'll need them for experiments later on. Interestingly enough, the ants are somewhat like pitbulls in that they clamp their mandibles and refuse to let go. For this reason, ants from the larger soldier caste can be used as emergency sutures if a victim is skilled enough to close the mandibles around the wound before removing the body, leaving behind a stunning vice-grip to hold a wound closed. Of course, if a button pops off your shirt while hiking, they can fix that too.
      Today's field trip was spectacular - ziplining! Though it took quite a bit of hiking through lush jungle and rickety bridges to reach the platforms, the views were astounding throughout the entire excursion. From the top of the platforms we could see the canopy, fields of grazing cows, and mountain peaks obscured by fog further on. A few gibbons made an appearance after hearing all of us screaming and flying through the trees. They must have thought us to be the overgrown, graceless primate cousins as they swung through the canopy in search of fruit.
       After the exhilarating afternoon outing, we finished the day with some more science. We conducted our first experiment, microbial sampling. The object was to find the most ideal microbial host in Finca La Anita, or at least generalize what a good host must be. Through the coming days, we'll get the results of our experiment. Many groups wanted to sample the farm dogs, Doctor Bombay and Vito Corleone, but they weren't cooperative this evening.
      Today was certainly a day of facing fears, whether they were heights, snakes, or getting bitten by the ants. However, the entire group faced all the challenges with minimal shrieking, and I'd like to think that most of the shrieks were in delight.

   --Camille Jones

Hola from Finca la Anita! It's Katie and Lily here.

(yesterday)

After we landed in Liberia, we traveled by van to a local restaurant in the city, where we had our first meal. We had beef steak, rice and beans, salad, and smoothies. After that we got back in the vans and started the trip to Finca la Anita. Along the way we made several stops, including: picking mangoes on the side of the road, taking pictures of volcanoes, and meeting our driver Eddie's friends. At their house we were given mamons and jacotes, which are types of tropical fruit. Later when we arrived at the compound, we were served a delicious dinner of fish.

(today)

We were woken up by a chorus of bugs and birds. On our way to breakfast we met the dogs that live at Finca la Anita  (they are very adorable and fluffy). Breakfast was rice and beans, plantains, and eggs. There was also toast, yogurt, and fresh watermelon and papaya. After our meal we went on our first hike. We came to a river, which Henry and Christo decided to explore (they got their boots full of water). On this hike we saw our first leaf cutter ants of the trip. When we got back to the main buildings, we began the chocolate tour. We learned a lot about the different types of cacao, and the process of turning cacao into chocolate. As a part of this experience we tasted freshly fermented cacao beans. Along with this, we drank a chocolate beverage with chili powder. Later we got many different flavors of bonbons, including ones with blackberries, raisins, and almonds. We also tried fresh pineapple (!!!) with chocolate sauce. Finca la Anita makes a chocolate spread that is a lot like Nutella, but without hazelnuts.

After the tour we had lunch. It started with heart of palm salad and homemade chips. We watched Pablo (the owner of Finca la Anita) harvest the heart of palm and make the salad. The rest of lunch was beef, potatoes, and rice and beans. Once we finished our meal we headed down to the village for the community service portion of our trip. We helped a group of the locals with landscaping, to aid their future business. We also visited the local shop and bought ice cream.

Dinner tonight was butternut squash soup, chicken, and mixed vegetables. Desert was flan with chocolate nibs on top. After dinner we went to the lab. There, we met the scientists we will be working with on the trip (Adrian Pinto & Ibrahim). We discussed the scientific method, and learned more about the leaf cutter ants. We also formed our lab groups. After a long day we headed off to bed.

Adios!

-Katie and Lily

Hello parents and other loyal supporters!

This is Liz and Meredith just getting out a quick note to let you know we made it to beautiful Finca la Anita safe and sound.  A long but uneventful day of travel.  All the kids are doing great- all such great kids! 

More tomorrow-written by the students!

Liz and Meredith

Here is a pic of a GIANT moth (trust me :) ) landing on Meredith!