Friday, June 8, 2018

Hey blog, it's AK, Rayne, and Zach. This is our final blog of the Costa Rica 2018 trip! The past couple days at Horizontes have been hectic. Our first day at Horizontes was very exhausting. We did a little intro on the turtles we would be looking for that night, and we also looked at the Pseudomyrmex ant. That night after dinner we headed to the beach and set up camp. Although we didn't find any turtles, we had a great time hanging out with each other. On Thursday morning we had the opportunity to sleep in and recuperate from our long night. That afternoon we went to the beach and played in the waves. Even though it started off raining, it eventually cleared up and we all had a great time! The trip was absolutely amazing, but we are all covered in bug bites and ready to be home.

  

Day 9
June 6th
Hey, guys, it's Kate and Ellie here, today was a relaxing day. Today we woke up and packed up. We left Finca la Anita after a delicious final breakfast. We drove 5 minutes before stopping for one last time at the Pulperia and at the local ladies jewelry shop. After that, we drove for one and a half more hours to the supermarket to shop for some snacks to last us the next couple days. After the supermarket, we drove to our final destination of Horizontes. We met a Toucan named Louis that lives next to our dorms and Zach was very happy about it. We did a simple science investigation on Pseudomyramax ants living in acacia trees. We also learned about sea turtles for our turtle sweep tonight on the beach. After our learning, we had time to explore the land so we climbed to the top of the tower to see the view and take pictures. We also play soccer with the locals who are really good. Now we are off to do our turtle sweep, and hopefully, we will find a turtle or two.
-Costa Chicas + Zach signing off!

Hello blog, it's AK, Rayne, and Zach. Today we finished our final presentations of our experiments and we presented them to the group. It's been stressful, but we made it. Me (Zach) and AK overcame some challenges with "tough to work with" group members. *cough* Cole *cough*. Once we finished our presentations we had a great lunch and then we got ready for our final hike. It was a rough one (lots of mud and sliding). We had to cross through rivers and our boots were filled with water. We did make it to the waterfall and we got to swim. For some reason, it's really hard to stand in the water but only for Zach. He fell multiple times. The waterfall was worth the muddy climb. The day ended with a delicious dinner and a shower.
       

Day 7
June 4th

Hey blog, it's Liz and Emily. Today we worked on our experiments in the morning through the afternoon, and in the middle had another coffee break. Along with our coffee we had little cakes with the costa rican version of nutella spead in the middle. And for lunch, we had burgers. Except for Liz, who got Finca la Anitas verry first veggie burger. I would like to add that it was made out of a pumpkin, and it was amazing. We also went to a cooking class this afternoon where we made salad, plantains, cheese, veggies, chicken, and tortillas. There were different groups set up to cook the beans and rice, salad, and tortillas. Finally, when we were done we all ate and it was sooo good. We'll all need to attempt to cook what we remember. Good night!
-Costa Chicas + Zach

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Salad

Reminder
Parents and friends, don't forget about our project presentations occurring on June 9th at Lexington Catholic High School's High Marks Center at 5pm. Hope to see everyone there!

Day 6
June 3rd

Hey, guys. It's Kate and Ellie, today we had to get up super early to have breakfast at 6 am. After our early breakfast, which was delicious, we got into Eddy and Felix's vans to go to the national park in Costa Rica called Rincon de la Vieja. We saw lots of neat and interesting animals and insects, we saw a snake, butterflies, beetles, stick bugs, leaf-cutter ants, and a peanut head bug, and many more. At the national park, we went for a nice long hike to go to the geothermal hot springs and a waterfall. We were able to swim in the warm hot springs and the refreshing waterfall. At the hot springs, Eddy found us a highly coveted an exfoliating mud scrub that we used on our hands and leg. After hiking, we enjoyed a picnic lunch consisting of sandwiches, potato chips, and our favorite Costa Rican cookies Chiky's. Once we arrived back to Finca La Anita, we cleaned up and got right to work on our science projects. Each group created their experiment and had a list of goals to accomplish for the day. Next, we had a delicious dinner and most groups stayed in the classroom to finish their daily goals. Lastly, we had a funeral for Mrs. Keysha, one of the Atta queens who died in Elizabeth's group. Costa Chicas and Zach signing off.

 

 
 

Day 5
June 2nd

Today is June 2, and this is Rayne, AK, and Zach blogging. This morning we all went horseback riding! We road western style through a trail and had a blast! The horses were very patient and calm. After this, we had a lot of rest time. Over the past few days, we have been waking up early and our days are full of both mental and physical activities, so it was nice to have some time to relax. During the afternoon we started to go more detailed into our individual projects. We really started to plan our own projects and have begun the process of setting our experiments up. Picking and following through with our project has been really difficult, but we are all doing good! As always, the food here is absolutely amazing!! We are really looking forward to tomorrow's hike through the national park in Costa Rica!


                                    

Day 4
Hello, its Liz and Emily here, ready to tell everyone back home about our day. We woke up this morning and then had breakfast, which was delicious. We had waffle-bowls with syrup, fruit, yogurt, coconut juice, etc. We are starting to have a morning routine here in our cabin, so it's starting to feel very home-y. Today was a science day, so we focused on our experiments all day. We formulated our experiments and decided on our hypothesis. Lunch was amazing as well. We had rice and refried beans which we dipped plantain chips in. We also had a coffee break with some banana bread. We also made a trip to the same local store yesterday where we bough popsicles and chocolate bars. We also took pictures and had so much fun. Afterwards, we presented our proposal presentation for our project. For dinner there were cookie dough balls with sprinkles of cacao nibs.

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