The morning of Day 3 consisted of finding ant colonies around the farm. We all started out in one group finding ant colonies, big and small, that were previously marked. Dr. Pinto showed us how to carefully dig out both types of ant colonies so that we could head out in groups to do it on our own.
Below is an example of a young, exposed ant colony.
Inside the ant colonies are several tunnels and chambers that contain fungus gardens, as seen below. We dug up this colony and found the central chamber, which houses the queen ant.
After, we split into smaller groups of four and found our own ant colonies. We collected the fungus gardens and three out of the four groups were able to get the queen within their fungus garden collection sample.
After lunch, we went on a tractor ride through the village and then hiked to a waterfall. We were almost unable to go because of the thunder and rain, but the weather quickly passed. At the waterfall, we swam in the pool below, which was a nice relief from the intense humidity. We spent some time relaxing in the water and cooling off. Then we hiked back to the tractor and returned to the farm. The pictures of the mountains were taken on the drive.
Written by: Hutch Myers and Isabelle Kitchel
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