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