Day 3:
May 31
Hey! It's Kate and Ellie here, telling you about our third day in Costa Rica. We started with a delicious breakfast of fruit, eggs, and toast. Then we headed to the rainforest to harvest the fungus gardens from the leaf cutter ant colonies. We learned about the two different species of leaf cutter ants that we observed the Atta and Acromyrmex. We then washed up and got ready for lunch. Lunch was cheesy rice with heart of palm, fajita steak, plantain chips, and salad. We got into our bus for an hour drive to to the zip-lines. We had a total of 8 zip-lines that we got to do after a short steep hike up a mountain. While zip-lining we saw toucans, howler monkeys, and a three toed sloth.We drove back to town to visit the brand new butterfly center and learned about the butterfly life cycle and Silver's research experiment on caterpillars. We stopped by the local's store  to get ice cream. We walked back to get dinner which consisted of pork chops, zucchini, and salad. After dinner, we had our nightly science session. First we got our fungus gardens and moved them to a bigger container and put them in the lab. Next, we counted the bacterial colonies in the petri dishes that we made yesterday, and found the statistics based on our data. Lastly, we watched 2 videos about leaf-cutter ants.
-Costa Chicas +Zach signing off

Day 2
It's May 30th, and this blog is written by Zach, Rayne, and AK. In the boy's cabin, we woke up way ahead of time. Breakfast starts at 7:30 and we woke up at 6 because of the dogs and the time change. All the food here is really good and all the meals include rice and beans. This morning we went on a short hike and then got to taste test a variety of different chocolates. They were all dark, and it wasn't sweet like normal chocolate. It was not sweet, and some of us liked it/didn't. After we went on another small hike to the village. It was really cool to see where the town was and go into shops. There was a convenient store, and all of us bought food/drinks there. For two candy bars, two drinks, and two popsicles it was only $3.00. It was really cool to see the way they handle money and their currency. After we came back and ate lunch. We then started doing research. We got our project groups and had an introduction to the project. We took some data and then went to dinner. So far a successful day, and we are all doing great.

                               

Day 1
Today, May 29th 2018, our Lexington Catholic group arrived safely in Costa Rica after a quick stop in Houston. The seven of us, Emily, Kate, Liz, Ellie, A.K., Rayne, and Zach (accompanied by Mrs. Smith) all met up with the other students and then boarded our buses to eat lunch. Lunch was delicious, We had vegetables, rice, beans, chicken, salad, and plantains. It was amazing for our 1st meal. 

Pic: Emily

       We then drove two hours to our final destination, Finca La Anita. Dinner there was great as well. We had fish, potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. And for dessert, we had a piece of cake. Then it rained really hard and we all got soaked on the way back to our cabins. 

Pic: AK

Pic: Rayne

Pic: AK

-Costa Rica Chicas + Zach