Day 10: Horizontes Research Station

This morning we departed the research station with Freddy, our guide, to head into the dry forest. As we took a 1.5 hour hike through the forest, he stopped along the way to show us plants, trees, palms, and even a snake. He was ready to answer any question that we had and was a wonderful guide. We stopped at a waterfall at the end to have breakfast before getting a ride back to the station. Some of the photos below are from our hike.

When we returned to the research station, some of us decided to climb up a tower to take in some of the views:

We had some time to relax and hang out before lunch. After lunch we had a presentation from one of the leaders at the Horizontes Research Station so that we could better understand what it is that they do at this station. It was cool to see all that they have done at the station and to get a better understanding of what happens throughout the year at the station.

After the presentation, we all got ready to head to the beach for a little hang out time. It rained on the way to the beach and a little as we set up, however the weather changed and we had a wonderful afternoon enjoying the beach to ourselves. The Horizontes Research Station staff came out to cook a barbecue dinner for us on the beach and we ate, swam, hung out, and watched the sun set. 

Everyone is back at Horizontes now showering and getting cleaned up. We have had an amazing trip and are truly thankful to all of you who helped make the trip possible.

We will have breakfast at 8am tomorrow and depart for the airport at 9am. We will all miss Costa Rica!

Best,

Devon & Bob

Day 9: Departing La Anita and Traveling to Horizontes Research Station

This morning we had our last breakfast at La Anita Rainforest Ranch and said our goodbyes to the owners, Pablo and Ana. After packing up the vans and heading out, our first stop was in Colonia Libertad to visit a group of women and their bead shop. We learned about how they started out with farming vegetables to sell in attempt to improve the local economy and have now moved on to selling jewelry in a shop they built themselves. They are also in the process of building a butterfly exhibit to attract tourists and be able to educate people about the morpho butterfly. We have seen several of these butterflies on our hikes and they are truly spectacular. Below is a picture of one of them.

After we did some shopping at the jewelry shop, we continued on our travels. We took a quick trip to a local supermarket in Guayabo to stock up on some snacks for the ride to the coast. We traveled from the rainforest to the dry forest where we were greeting with a downpour. We unloaded our bags and everyone got settled in their rooms.

Luckily, the rain slowed and stopped about an hour after we arrived so we were able to explore the not so dry forest for a bit in the afternoon. Students broke up into their research groups once again to look at a new type of ant: pseudomyrmex ants. They live symbiotically with acacia trees. The students took 15-20 minutes to study the ants and the trees to try to understand the relationship between them. We then returned to the classroom at the research station and the groups reported out on what they had seen. Beth Hunt (St. George's Class of 1983) from Seeds of Change joined us last night and led us through the discussion this afternoon.

We had dinner as a group at the research station and students are now gathering supplies to head to the beach for our night of turtle surveying. The name of the beach is Cabuyal. They will work in groups to walk the beach and look for turtle tracks with hopes of finding a turtle that has come to shore to lay eggs.

Tomorrow morning we will do a guided hike through the dry forest starting at 7am. Our plan is to have breakfast by a waterfall before returning back to the station. After lunch there will be some time to explore the beach and have a little down time before our departure Friday morning.

- Devon & Bob

Day 8: Final Presentation Day!

Today was our last full day on La Anita Ranch, where we spent the entire day in the classroom, starting at 9:00, with intermittent breaks, finalizing a number of things for the culmination of our science work on the ranch. We collected our final data for our experiments, finalized our presentations and ran through and practicing them with our head scientist, Pinto. This experience and feedback was particularly pertinent as Pinto gave us a unique insight and perspective into the process that scientists use to present the results of their experiments, having gone through this process many times himself. We learned more about the meticulous process of refinement putting together a presentation. This included a lengthy acknowledgment and refinement section. When all of our refinement was finished, we headed to the ranch for a quick coffee break and then back into the classroom to start our respective presentations.  

Here are pictures of each of the groups while they were presenting:

 -The Ant Busters

 -Spencer's Fencers

 -Pseudo-cephalotes

-The Bush Monsters

After completing our final presentations, we took a bittersweet photo with Pinto and his niece, as well as lab assistant, Isabella, shortly prior to their departure to San Paolo. We greatly appreciate their help and insight during our research, and will miss them during our final days in Costa Rica!

-Lana and Zach

Day 7: Experiment work in the morning, a trip to the hot springs in the afternoon

This morning students worked in their research groups to continue their projects and work on their final presentations that will be tomorrow. Everybody has made steady progress and the groups seem to be working well. The science portion of the day ended at 11:30am so that everyone could get ready for an adventure to some hot springs at Sensoria.

On our way through the jungle to Sensoria, we stopped by a river to have a picnic lunch on the side of the road. After, we continued to our destination.

There were wooden platforms at various hot springs so that we could all get in to enjoy the water. The walk through the rainforest was beautiful and we saw a variety of trees, ferns, palms, and animals. 

We saw this member of the raccoon family back at the entrance to Sensoria. It is called a white nosed coati. The Sensoria staff showed us a slideshow of pictures and videos from their motion cameras out in the rainforest so that we could see some of the animals that live in the rainforest near them.

After, we headed back to La Anita in time for another delicious dinner. Everyone took advantage of the optional evening science time to make final measurements and continue working on their presentations. They will have some time tomorrow morning to finish up the presentations before a practice round in the early afternoon and final presentations before dinner. 

-Devon & Bob (the students were a little too busy working on presentations to blog tonight!)

Day 6: Horseback Riding up a Volcano Ridge, Working on Experiments, and a Lesson in Cooking

Sunday 11, 2017

After the usual 7:30 breakfast, we were driven to our first activity, a horseback ride through the rainforest. Unlike many of the rides I had done when I was younger, we had full control of the horse and did not have someone guiding them. The trip placed us upon a ridge along a volcano we saw much more of scenic Costa Rica. Upon our arrival back to Finca la Anita we were served burgers and potato chips. After many Costa Rican meals, it was a pleasant reminder of home.

After lunch, we were back to our ant experiments. We all bustled around, collecting materials, checking on our colonies, and asking Señor Pinto questions. We were all so busy, we must have looked like a colony of our own. After 3 hours of work, we went back to our cabins to freshen up a bit, and then it was off to Café Campesino for dinner. 

After arriving, we rolled up our sleeves, washed our hands, and got to work. Señora Aracelly, the owner, split us into groups to make colorful salads, tortillas, and homemade cheese, to supplement the Carribean chicken and rice and beans she had already made for us (all of which was amazing, especially the cheese). While some of us tried to cool off after eating poblano peppers, Aracelly's daughter challenged the rest of us with some riddles. After pictures, hugs, and goodbyes, we made our way back to Finca la Anita, accompanied by Dr. Bombay, the farm dog who had decided to escort us to the Café. The delicious meal and games were the perfect end our day.

- Clayton and Anna

Day 5: An Early Morning Hike, Zip Line Tour of the Canopy, and Afternoon/Evening Research

6/10/17

This morning the group woke up early in the morning to go on a hike through the rainforest. When 5:50 came around, the cabin got dressed super quickly and met the faculty for the hike. We walked for forty minutes away from the ranch and were amazed by the beauty of the surrounding area. Right before we turned around, we were able to see an almost 360 degree view of the mountains. We got back, and ate a breakfast of eggs, rice, beans, tortillas, pineapples, and watermelon. 

At 8:30, we got into the vans that drove us forty minutes away to a canopy tour. After hiking a little bit with our gear, we reached the zip lines. Starting off easy, we built our way up to the 11th zip line which started off high up in the mountain on top of a tree and ended in the bottom of a valley. 

On the tour, we were surprised by a family of monkeys who were climbing all over with ease.  We became startled when they surrounded us but then enjoyed watching them throughout our experience. On the way back, we tried guava chips, which tasted like potato chips and french fries combined, and they were delicious.

When we got back to Finca La Anita, we had a fish and rice lunch, accompanied by salad and a really good mango juice. Then we had a few hours of free time before the science work began at 2. 

Today we started putting together our experiments in our groups. By the end of the day, everyone is expected to be done setting up their experiments and begin collecting our data tomorrow. 

For one project, a group is testing climate change on an ant colony. They split up the colony into 5 containers to test different climates including one control to simulate what the ants are used to.

For another project, group is testing whether escovopsis from different colonies/species affects their respective fungus gardens differently.

Another group is testing whether they can control ants using the distress signals they often send out.

The last group is testing the affect of different ph on ant colonies' survival.

Tomorrow the groups will continue collecting data on their experiments and the group will go horseback riding in the morning!

- Liliana and Michael

Day 4: A Day of Science

Day four began with more science right after breakfast. In order to continue practicing the scientific method another question was given to us by Pinto: Where can Escovopsis be found in the Atta leaf cutter colonies. We were then given time to come up with a hypothesis and use predictions to design an experiment. When each group had decided on a procedure they took a trip up to the cooled lab where the leaf cutter colonies were kept. Each group then carried out their procedure.

My group the Pseudo-cephalotes tested 3 different locations in the leaf cutter colonies: the fungal garden, the waste dump, and the leaves that were entering the colony. This was then placed on culture media and are now incubating in the "super fancy fungal incubator" i.e. tupperware box. We will collect the data at a later date when the Escovopsis has had time to grow.

Before the coffee break, each person within their group presented a question and subsequent hypothesis, then these were whittled down to one or two questions per group.  Each group prepared these hypotheses into presentation

Coffee Break Mid-Afternoon:

A toucan during our coffee break:

Evening Presentations After Dinner:

Typically when presenting scientific research, the presenter is the foremost authority in the room.  This situation was flipped on its head today; presenting to Adrian Pinto was daunting, and he relentlessly offered feedback on every minor detail at the conclusion of each presentation.  This information will be invaluable going forward as we prepare for our final presentation.

Today is a much more difficult day to blog about due to the strictly scientific nature of our activities. It is safe to say that all of us are enervated from a long day of productivity determining the path of our research for the next few days here at Finca La Anita.  

- Caroline Billyard and Wyatt Fogg