Day 2 July 16th

Day two in Costa Rica!

CAW CAW. . . The tropical birds awoke us with their majestic calls.

Started the day out right! We ate about 4 courses of homemade chocolate, two cups of hot chocolate, and the bitter Cacao Bean. However, the Cacao Fruit that surrounds it when ripe is rather citrusy. We had an amazing tour experience, and learned a lot about where we are staying, with Pablo leading. This included seeing the chocolate making process, learned of the business philosophy, and trekked through a forest of Cacao and Plantain trees. The picture at the top shows us on our way to the village where we stopped at the Pulparia and for homemade ice cream out of a bag! For lunch Ninja Pablo skillfully 'captured' and 'gutted' the Heart of Palm for our salad.

Luckily, the science started this afternoon with Dr. Adrian Pinto. We got our groups and formed awesome squadron names:
The Dream Team  with Teresa, Maia, Carter, and Nathan
Los Gringos with Charley, Isaac, and Emma
The Nerds of the Round Table with Pranav, Alex, Griffin, and Abby
The Ant-ibiotics with Cory, Nick, and Mason

After a small, self directed, experiment about bacteria we headed out into the woods to hunt out the Atta species.  We saw some tree dwellers, and a large leaf-cutter ant nest! Pinto taught us about the way the ants ventilate their nest. Interestingly, they have a tunnel system designed to expel warm air from their waste keeping the nest cool. While digging, Maia and Abby both sacrificed themselves to the solider ants ( :

Meanwhile, Mari was working on her community service project of helping the local school curriculum (K-6) with their English. This included meeting with a peace corp volunteer, Aimee. When asked about the experience Mari said "Life's a party, it is always fun," in other words Mari is enthusiastic in continuing her project.

During down time we occupied ourselves with card games which Teresa dominated, like always.

 . ."It is on!"
To end the day we watched movies about..... Leaf cutter ants!

And now for the bLoOpeRS of the day!

"Look at that Gecko! Look at it scurry!" Teresa

Pranav's favorite number is Avogadro's Number :)

The banana bubbles, and ants. "Can we eat them?"

Mason the Orange Man

Griffin's Australian accent is ACE! ;)

For Mom, love Maia ^^^^^^^

"The Second Amendment... The right to bear arms" Corey with the mortar ( ;

Emma and the 10 billion bugs in her hair.

Emma and Teresa at the mortar...... :)

It has been such a wonderful rainy, and somewhat sunny day wearing our boots.
Can't believe it is only day two! We look forward to more exciting experiences that lay ahead.
Signing off,
Mari, Emma, and Teresa ( :

P.S. Someone has to pick my cucumbers, but leave the carrots and beets alone.... Love Emma to Family.