Ants & Horses

Howdy, Sarah and Priya here. Today we had the pleasure of hunting for LEAF CUTTER ANTS. You may have heard about them. In the middle of the summer all of us were decked out in pants and long shirts, sweating it out trying to dig them out of their homes. As pleasant as this already sounds, the fun did not end there! While digging out the fungus, soldier ants would be on the attack and the sensation of pins and needles would be felt. Carefully, or as carefully as kids who are scared of ant bites can be, we excavated the foamy, squishy, fungus gardens and placed them into our containers to bring back to the lab. Some of us even had the good fortune (yay us!) of finding the queen.
For some of us, the highlight of the day even came before noon. We happened to find the biggest beetle (the pictures can prove it) ever, aptly named the Hercules beetle (yeah Los Hercules!). We had a lot of fun touching, holding, and eventually throwing it. We had to stop Anthony from smuggling it in his bag. US Customs doesn't really allow exotic insects.
FOOD. Sorry mom, but your cooking isn't as good as some of the stuff we are having here (my taste buds are havin' a fiesta). You would be so proud mom, I finished all my vegetables AND beans. It's like it's a whole new me.
But after that, we got back to work. As in horseback riding. This may not seem like very hard work, but let me tell ya; ma buns are FEELIN' IT. As are my knees. And hips. Our horses ranged from "killers" to "dainty" to "plain old hungry". Even as an experienced horseback rider, riding up and down slippery mountains could be scary at times... Did I mention my horse had no name but was refered to as "killer" (Sarah)? Yeah...mine was just called "Hambre" (means Hunger in Spanish...he constantly had the munchies) The stress was real and I think both of us are pretty amazed we are alive to tell the tale. Some of us had a hard time not riding our ponies back to the US-- another thing US customs would not allow us to take on an airplane.  It was literally like a slip n' slide.
Of course, the breathtaking views made it all worth it. We got to journey all the way up into the "cloud forest" which is the name for where the clouds touch the volcano (yes, we were riding on top of a volcano) and you can't really see in front of you. And by the end everyone was giggling as our horses trotted away into the sunset (as in back to the horse place because they were so sick of carrying us gringos). It was the roughest, yet greatest time on horseback--and for some of us, our first! (Shoutout to Nick and Austin for surviving as total beginners!)
After we returned from our rugged adventure of being Indiana Jones we came back to review some of our previous data collections. We counted our samples and shared our results, talking about how some of our results matched our hypothesis did, and some did not. After some mathy statistics (it was almost like we were back in school) we went to dinner.
FOOD. Did someone say flan? That'll take your tastebuds on the ride of a lifetime. Muy delicioso!
After dinner we watched some cheesy, but very informative, ant movies. The night ends, right now, with Nick locking himself out of his cabin (it was ALL Jackie's fault, apparently) and someone has a frog in their cabin. Ribbit!
Buenas Noches,
Priya Shetty y Sarah Moen

Hello Parents!

Day 2

Woke up this morning to very heavy rain. We had a very good night of sleep compared to waking up at 3 in the morning. Breakfast was great. We had rice and beans, fruit, and scrambled eggs. Immediately afterward; Pablo talked to us about the cacao beans that he uses to make chocolate at the farm. He gave us all fresh hot chocolate which may have just ruined powdered hot chocolate forever. The cacao that he put in was bitter, but the overall taste was amazing. After learning about the chocolate making process, Pablo lead our group into the rainforest on another hike. During the hike, Pablo showed us plants that the leaf cutter ants didn't attack. Also, he showed us plants, like the cacao and citrus tree, that the leaf cutter ants would readily consume. He did this in order to introduce the scientific aspect of the trip. Later in the trip we went to the village outside of the resort and saw where we were. At the village, we got a chance to try empanada (a really tasty chicken stuffed pastry). We also had water apples, saw the soccer field, school, and the small shop that we can go to. After the hike we had lunch which was great, we ate beef, rice, and beans. After lunch we met Dr. Adrian Pinto, the man who discovered that leaf cutter ants use nitrogen fixation in their colonies. Pinto introduced the science (lab work) in the trip. We started with meeting each other and reviewing the scientific method. Afterward we were given our groups. We did an experiment to see how different surfaces would affect the amount of bacteria that would be present in a petri dish. This preliminary experiment would give practice to every group to begin working as research teams. We then watched a video about ants that were affected by a fungus that turned the ants into a zombie-like state. After this we had about two hours of down time. Anthony and I were walking throughout the ranch eventually stumbling onto a queen bullet ant! Nobody was hurt, Adrian was very courteous in preserving the ant in an alcohol. We then ate dinner having chicken, rice, and potatoes. It was delicious. Dessert was a small dough-like ball with rice and cacao mixed in, just a further ruining of food back home. We are really looking forward to our field day tomorrow, where we will get an opportunity to harvest a queen leaf cutter ant and learn more about their colonies.

Goodnight

CJ and Anthony

Hi everyone at home!
We made it!!!
The day started out quite early,as many of you may know. The flight to Atlanta was pretty uneventful, with homework, sleeping, and the complimentary in-flight entertainment (aka movies and games). That flight was about 1 1/2 hours long. We got to Atlanta on time and didn't even have to rush to our next gate. The larger group got lost getting to the tram to switch terminals A to E but we made it with enough time to spare for a bathroom break. No one really liked the flight from Atlanta to Costa Rica. It was cold, still really early in the morning and we had more homework! While on the international flight, we all had to complete customs and immigration papers, which were both very confusing. After finishing the papers, lots of us watched more in-flight entertainment, mainly the movie Divergent. Once the 3 1/2  hour plane ride was finally done, we took a mini tourist bus two hours into the rainforest. It was a really bumpy ride and 45 minutes of dirt road was not a fun end to a day of traveling. Those 45 minutes of road was only 14 kilometers. That's how slow we were. But finally we made it to Finca La Anita!!!! We got our boots and went for a nice 30 minute hike in the forest around the ranch. After our hike we got to meet four new friends on the ranch! An adorable horse who was very nice and three dogs. A black and white dog with three legs we nicknamed Stumpy, another black and white dog with four legs is now Sweetie, and a brown and white dog we named Sandy. We ate dinner with nature (bugs and a giant moth) and it was delicious!! 40% of the fruits and veggies we ate we produced here on the farm. Well, that's all that happened for today!
Hope everyone at home is fine and good!
See you tomorrow!
Jackie & Julia signing off

Welcome!

This is where we will post out entries about our adventures in Costa Rica.  Each night two students will blog about our day and share with you the exciting things we will be doing.  Please share this blog with friends and family so they too can track our journey to the rainforest, hear about the excursions we will be a part of as well as the the science we will do as the bulk of our trip.