Day Two

Hey everyone,

Day two in Costa Rica!! Today we had our Covid tests.... negative all around! For breakfast we had eggs, rice, beans, pineapple and papaya which was followed by some free time. We all used this to explore the pathways around Finca la Anita where we saw our first leaf cutter ants. Around 9:45 we all gathered for a chocolate tour given by Pablo, our host. We were walked through the process of making a chocolate drink that was originated from the Aztecs. After trying the cacao beans and chocolate provided we were walked through a history of chocolate in the world!! Next, Pablo took us through the cacao farm and showed us the crops. He picked one of the cacao fruits and let us try sucking on the cacao beans before they were fermented.   

After a bit of rain, we ran back to lunch where Pablo gave us a demonstration of harvesting palm. He showed us how to make a delicious salad which we ate along with lunch. At lunch our instructors, Gabriel and Ibrahim, arrived. Then we headed over to the science room to participate in our first science lesson since arriving in Costa Rica! We got divided into our groups and began working on a project to familiarize ourselves with the scientific process. Each group was given a set of petri dishes and swabs to discover where on the farm that microbes were the most abundant. Each group was given time to finish before free time, and most people headed down to a local store. Many students struggled with their Spanish, but we managed to make it out without google translate.

Finally, dinner was at 6:30. We were joined by a family staying at Finca La Anita. 



Afterwards, we headed back to the science room to watch some videos about leafcutter ants to get ready for our fieldwork tomorrow! We had plenty of questions, so we're sure we'll come up with some interesting research projects.


Now, we're headed off to a night hike before going to bed.

See y'all tomorrow!

Natalie Diller, Anne Howard

P.S. mom please water my plants ; )

Comments

  1. Frances Brooks22 June 2021 at 05:57

    Excellent! Glad you all are having a good time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown22 June 2021 at 07:26

    Watered your plants Anne! Glad to see you're having a wonderful time ( : Tell everyone I say hi! Mom is wondering how the chocolate tastes?!? ( ;

    ReplyDelete

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