Final Day in Costa Rica

On our morning hike with Freddie, and him showing us some cool leaves.

Last group picture of the entire group in-front of the beautiful sunset.

Planting trees in Horizontes.

Crazy picture in front of crashing wave.

Beautiful sunset picture in front of the ocean.

Chloe getting handed a small tree that was later going to be planted in the yard.

Manta Ray washed up on the beach

More pictures of us planting baby trees.

Amazing picture of the shoreline with an awesome sunset.

9th Day in Costa Rica

We departed from Finca la Anita this morning to go to our final destination on the trip. After the bus ride and a stop at the super market, we listened to a couple presentation about the work and research that the people do here. Later we got to conduct our own experiments on the pH levels of soil. We are now going to wrap up our day with a night on the beach looking for sea turtles!

One part of the pH experiments was to weigh the soil sample to make sure they were equal.

Here is one of the groups testing the pH of a soil and water solution.

We extracted the samples in a forest between two chosen trees.

In order to get accurate samples, we measured the distance between the two trees. 

At Horizontes, you can see for miles at the top of a metal tower on the back of the property.

Throughout our whole drive, we had a gorgeous view of the mountains.
-Gracie and Evelyn

8th Day in Costa Rica

Today we sadly had to say goodbye to our amazing mentors and scientific teachers. awww

We also had the chance to cool off after our service projects in a nearby stream.

Thank you to Dr. Pinto, Ibrahim, Alan, Silver, and everyone who made this experience memorable!

For our last day at Finca La Anita, we started with an amazing breakfast soon followed by the final presentations of our projects. The projects ranged from butterfly killing, to cane toad poison, to pH's affect on ants. Everyone's projects were unique and amazing! Good job to everyone! Once that was finished, we ate lunch and headed to the butterfly garden in town to take part in service projects. There, we dug up Piper auritum plants along the road to replant around the butterfly garden. We also dug a giant hole to help with their compost. After that, we went to cool off and unwind in a nearby stream. Now, we prepare to leave and relocate at Horizontes near the beach! There, we will study the soil pH and look for sea turtles at night.
- Madison Miller & Chloe Martin

7th Day in Costa Rica

A good end to an amazing night!

                                                    Just putting in the finishing touches.

                                     Caroline was one of the few people who did this right!

                              And Reed said that there were no Toucans in this part of Costa Rica!

                                    I guess playing with all of us crazy people wore this little guy out!

                                                I think it's just about time for a break here!

         We need to get these measurements right! Don't want to make ant attractant instead of repellent!

Need to check if we're growing the right stuff! We've gotten too far to forget that!

Today was pretty hectic! I'm gonna be honest, I woke up and waltzed down to breakfast thinking that I'd be done with my project before lunch, I was very wrong. Instead we had only barely finished our field tests by 11:00 AM and only barely managed to get our power-point to presentable levels at 4:00! Then just 30 minutes later we were off to make our own dinner, though some people helped more than others. Still despite everything, we survived, no-one burnt themselves and we got a delicious dinner! The desert was amazing as well, I haven't had ice cream like that in ages! Finally I'm back at Finca La Anita, writing this and thinking, today was a good day! -Owen Tinker

6th Day in Costa Rica

Rincon de la Vieja

Sulfur Spring Pool with 90 Degree Water

Chase and Jack being bros 

Awesome waterfall in the Rincon de la Vieja

Listening to Chase's Philosophy

Today was a lot of fun at Rincon de la Vieja, but also a lot of progress to our projects. Ibrahim Zuniga helped us work through our plan on how to finish the project. Stressful is how the end of the day was, but after our group discussion with Ibrahim it was less stressful. We had a better plan, and are ready to present to you all reading this on Thursday, June 6th. The lunch was the best it has been with Ham Sandwiches and Spanish Snacks.

By: Graham Castle 

5th Day in Costa Rica

This is the view from the top of the mountain that we climbed during our horseback riding trip

Many of us were beginners but Pablo gave us the basics before we were assigned to our horses

Before the hike, we could see a rainbow from the deck that we eat breakfast at every morning

We all had lots of fun riding up and down the mountain, despite the fact that some got saddle sores

It felt like you could see for miles once we reached the mountain's summit

The horse back riding path was lined with rainbow eucalyptus trees that looked to be from the set of the play

We stopped for a couple of minutes to admire the view and then continued back down the mountain

         We all woke up extra early in order to make it to the horse ranch before it got too hot. We traveled across several trails, fields, and even a couple creeks. During the beginning of the ride, we even saw a howler monkey in a tree above us. When we got back from the ranch, we had a long break and then got together with a science groups after lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon working on our projects and starting our big finishing projects -A.K.A That science Grind.
-Evelyn & Reed

4th Day in Costa Rica

Today was a full day of science! At the beginning, we started our second lab on growing Escovopsis. For the rest of the day, we worked on brainstorming our main science project in our groups. The schedule was pretty intense, we ate our meals and were working pretty much all the time in between. When we were working on our proposal presentations for our main science project, we got a coffee break with hot chocolate, coffee, and churros! At 7 o'clock in the evening, every group presented their proposal project and we got feedback on them.

Here is me (Gracie) and Brian taking samples of Escovopsis from the fungus gardens.

Dr. Pinto is talking to a group about their project. 

Here is me (Caroline), John, and Jack also taking samples of Escovopsis from their groups fungus garden.

Some groups are starting to begin their Escovopsis lab. 

Here is the group (named Chupachabras) working on their lab. 

This was the first time that we were able to see the volcano mountains since it rained for a couple of days.

Here are students (Graham and Jake) labeling their samples.

See ya! ~ Gracie and Caroline