NJ Seeds of Change Costa Rica Research 2017

Day 6    Rincón de la Vieja Volcano which means Corners of the Old Woman We started the day with breakfast, eggs, rice & beans, fresh fruit, homemade marmalade & toast. Our great drivers Eddie & Christian took us to the National Park Rincón de la Vieja. We hiked from the wet forest to the dry forest.  We swam in a waterfall and in hot springs. The hot springs smelled like sulfur! Pablo packed lunches for us. We were starving when we got back to the old cattle ranch house at the entrance to the National Park.  Seth serenaded us. Lex liked torturing Mrs. Girtain with her music but fell asleep.

Day five started bright and early with breakfast at 7, and the first of two groups heading out to horseback ride at 7:30 and the second group leaving at 8:45. After Bukky braided everyone's hair we were ready to hit the trails. The started down a long line of eucalyptus trees. The bark had green and orange stripes and looked like it was painted and peeling like a paper birch tree peels. Lex and Lolo both rode the same mule. The mule moved better for Lolo than for Lexi. Lex and her mule were so far behind that she wondered if the ride would ever end.  We saw blue morpho butterflies, wild hogs and picked fresh grapefruit for one of the groups to use for their research. Karlee, Jesse, Wendy and Lucas, from Texas, read a journal article about ants avoiding grapefruit. They want to see if leaf cutter ants will also avoid grapefruit, especially the leaves and rind to see if they can come up with a low cost way to keep leaf cutter ants from eating the Cacao leaves (plant who...

The last 2 days the Yoga Studio looked like this... solo Mrs. Wallace with the crickets. 6AM YOGA today The theme of the day was SCIENCE, closely followed by RAIN. Students brain stormed their hypotheses, questions and research plans. Listen to the RAIN....

Today we started off the day with a wonderful walk through the plantation viewing the different ant colonies. We were shown the differences between the two types of ants and shown the larvae and pupa. We then took a long walk to two cacao fields were we found our colonies that we would obtain our samples of the fungus from. After we made our collections we came back for a quick lunch where they served amazing plantain chips along with a "cheesy Costa Rican Goodness" (Rosoto, cheese and heart of palm) and beef with peppers and a super sweet iced tea. After that we took a short break before we went zip lining.  To go zip lining we had to take a half an hour ride before we strapped up and began our hike which totally toned our calves into steel. We went on a total of 11 different lines through the rain forest which led to a random noose. Overall we had a great time and the people there were very nice. The last zip line was extremely long and full of spectacular views. Cl...

We began Thurdsay morning, day 2 venturing through the Costa Rican rain forest, discovering winding rivers and rocky trails that were difficult to navigate (for Bukky). Shortly after we all joined in the main cabin to enjoy a chocolaty treat. Pablo let us try the chocolate in all of its 8 stages, our favorite being step 7, conching. We were able to taste the chocolate with fresh basil, mint, sea salt, chili, and green peppercorn. The most enjoyed combination for our group was the chocolate and sea salt. We all then proceeded to Pablo and Anna's house to help the community and converse with the towns people. Ana led us to the village where we were able to help the president of the village, along with his son Albert clear pathways in the center of the park because of the moss and severely overgrown weeds and grass. Garrett found a worm and decided to have a delightful snack, then shared with Gustavo from the village of Colonia Libertad. After hard labor we decided to relax with a fri...

We began our travels, with a delightful wake up, at 1:15 in the morning on July 26th. The transportation bus to the airport was very nice and we were generously supplied Mountain Dew at 2:00 in the morning (Thank you Bukky said Boo' key). We got to the airport and none other than Bukky forgot her green card:). Lolo sacrificed herself to stay with Bukky as she waited for her green card, which resulted in them getting to the ranch we are staying at 7 hours late. Lana and Wendy received a charming (creepy) gift from the man with a shower cap on the plane. In the hour layover we had in Houston, Garrett met up with us. Our group joined a smaller group from Austin, Texas who also had a deep passion for ants. They were very friendly and their one supervisor bravely wrestled an anaconda to the death. JK. Haha he won. We then began the last part of our expedition, which involved a 90 min car ride. 10 minutes in we stopped for lunch, which was a classic meat and rice. From the words of ...