8:46 pm

4/23/15

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

 

We are in our cabin at Don Juan's. Today, we had the first part of our tour of the farm! We started out by trying hot chile peppers, and even by putting my tongue to it, it burned! Next we picked mustard leaves for lunch, and ate the most nutrious plant in the world, and some mini-basil that helped relieve the spice. Then, we saw bats who sleep on the underside of banana leaves. They eat 1,000 metric tons of mosquitoes per day, and they are vampire bats (which are harmless). We tried starfruit which was surprisingly sour! We also ate the slime surrounding the seeds inside the cocoa bean. They tasted like sweet slime. We had to spit them out, because the seeds are poisonous. We drank delicious pineapple and mystery ingredient fruit juice, and saw cotton seeds. The fruit was green, and inside, the tiny seeds were encased with a wet, sticky fibre not like clothing at all. We fed cows named Leche and Chocolate, pet pigs, and played with puppies. At Arenál, we learned that a pyroclastic flow wiped out the area in 1968, and the aa lava flow we walked on was from 1992. The bromeliads actually trap insects to use for nutrition, and as epiphytes, they don't harm the tree at all. We also saw an eyelash pit viper which can eat hummingbirds! 

 

8:24 am

4/25/15

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Yesterday, we started by finishing our tour of Don Juan's. We learned about turmeric. They aresmall and have a dark skin and orange inside. We also learned about Cassava. In South America, it is called Mannioch because a little boy named Manny promised his starving family food, and when he died, the Cassava plant grew. Mannioch means "Spirit of Manny." Cassava is a staple in many Latin American countries. Next, we went ziplining! We found a colony of leafcutter ants, marching up and down trees. They laid the leaves in the path, and the other half of the ants brought them to the nest like an assembly linie. Then, we went to Río Fortuna Waterfall, then Eco Termales Hot Springs before we returned to Don Juan's. At our night circle, we talked about how sustainability isn't just nature; howe we have an enormous role in it too. Things like the waterfalls, the zipline, the hot springs, etc. are all working in harmony with nature. Also, how staying at sustainable hotels who treat their waste, don't just dump their soapy water, and use local, organic food. We found some toads and went to bed!

 

4:53 pm

4/25/15

La Selva, Costa Rica

We started today with a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Don Juan's to La Selva. On the way there, we saw howler monkeys in trees. At Tirimbina, we conducted a biodiversity activity. We made 1 meter, 2 meter, 3 meter, and so on up to 8 meter plots, then took samples and quantaties. In the end, we found 26 species. Then we graphed the number of species per plot on a graph, and calculated the loss of plants if certain areas were destroyed. On our way back, we crossed the suspension bridge over the river, and saw a two toes sloth with its baby! They were up in the fork of tree branches, with the baby peering over the side! They were too far away to properly observe, and the three-toed sloth was curled into a ball. 

 

11:20pm

4/25/15

La Selva, Costa Rica

Tonight, we went on a night hike! Colin caught a toad and it barfed on him, then we made our way across the suspension bridge. We saw many bugs, most of them brightly colored. The Poison Dart Frog, or Red Jeans Frog, was about 1/2 an inch. We also saw 2 small frogs and caterpillars mating. The coolest thing we saw was the Ferdlance, the most poisonous and deadly snake in North America! They can strike unsuspecting hummingbirds, the fastest bird. The on Squirty spotted was a newborn, about 1 1/2 feet long with a yellow tail and a brown body. We saw many bugs, brightly colored and mostly on leafs. Most of them also had long antennae for feeling their surroundings in place of eyesight.

 

6:33pm

4/26/15

Tres Equis, Costa Rica

This morning, we woke up early to go birdwatching. We saw different toucans, like the teal-billed toucan, the mot-mot, the hermit hummingbird, the red-throated ant tanager, and more.

 

8:05pm

4/27/15

Tres Equis, Costa Rica

Tonight is our 2nd night in Tres Equis! Yesterday, we ate lunch with Group 2 by the Church, and then introduced ourselves to our homestay families! Jackie is our homestay Mom, Kari(na) is 10, and Adrián is 2. The kids are so fun and nice, and Jackie is so friendly and understanding. For our night circle we talked about Fincas. Fincas are small farms or plantations, where crops are grown by local owners and families. However a problem is becoming more and more concerning, where people sell their Fincas for something that seems like a good price, but they could have made more money if they sold their Finca later. While everyone used to have a Finca, today, some people who used to own Fincas work on them instead. Fincas are a part of their culture, like Fresy's Finca we went to today. 

 

7:53pm

4/28/15

Tres Equis, Costa Rica

Today is our last day in Tres Equis :(. For most of the day, we helped build the school in El Sol. We started by sanding off the swings so they could be painted with anti-corrosive paint. Next, we painted the bathrooms white so they could be pained over, painted a wire fence in the wall, and painted a mural. The school was in really bad shape beore, and not many people wanted to send their kids (attendence for the whole school was 7). However, if the school was in better shape, more people would send their kids there and the government would fund it more. So, although we are only fixing it up for 7 kids as of today, in the future, there will be more. 

 

9:05pm

4/29/15

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Today, we ate our last meal with our homestay family :(. We packed and said goodbye in front of Don Rafa's house, then headed to the Pacuare River. We rafted down the beautiful river through Class 1/4 rapids, stopping for lunch at halfway (14 kilometers). You could hear the river and all the tropical birds and sounds from the valley. In the beginning, we were nervous going through class 1 rapids, but by the end, we were tearing down Class 4. Sometimes, we would get stuck and have to jump and tip our raft to continue down the river. I was a leader in the front of the boat for the first half, aand at one point, we floated down a long stretch of peaceful, calm river surrounded by rock walls and lush tres. It was beautiful! After our rafting expedition ended, we began our drive to the Caribbean Coast. That night, we talked about how important it is to keep rivers and nature clean. If people, hotels, and companies aren't responsible, they could ruin an ecosystem. Nobody wants to spend a day rafting and swimming in a dirty river, and then we will never know the fun and beauty we are missing. The pacuare River lodge, for example, is so self-sustained and environmentally responsible they use human feces as cooking fuel! Leaving a green footprint and being good to the environment is so important and often overlooked.