Hannah, I had crackers and cheese on the Barbie plate because I missed you!! It is strange here without you but so excited about what you are seeing and doing. Did you like the horse ride? It's Tuesday; did Andy go to the Farmer's Market for you? I shared the pickles with a friend today...she loved them!! I love You, Mom

July 30th Pics

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Picasa Pics

Day Four July 30th

Day Four July 30th

Good morning parents of Costa Rican Adventurers-

Although today is clearly Tuesday I will be blogging about Monday as I went to bed before completing my duties. I apologize to all the worried families. We're all still alive I promise.

Yesterday morning we slowly rose, had breakfast, and went straight to education. We began our morning of science with Pablo (the ranch owner) taking us out into the woods, machete ablaze, helping us collect our required materials for our projects. Once we had everything, we immediately began work in the lab constructing our trials for the lab. We had lunch about 12:30 and after went on our horseback riding adventure! We took a wagon pulled by a blue tractor for 40 minutes down an incredibly bumpy road. Mumbai (one of the ranch dogs) followed us all the way there and home. Once we got there we got basic instructions on how to "operate" a horse. Once we were all boarded onto our steeds we road into the sunset. Except not actually because it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. We rode over the river and through the woods....literally. There were many steep hills as we were actually riding up the side of a volcano. We invented the "poor mans" polo while we rode around throwing papayas. After the long wagon ride home we went straight back to our experiments and all of us were able to start our sub-colonies. We also checked our microbe experiments, had dinner, and drifted off to sleep. 

Everyone is well and we're all having a good time. Thank you for tuning in to this mornings posts. Until next time this is Emily Moore and Nikki Degeneffe signing off.

Tillery's Reply to Kelsey

Hi Kelsey, I'm glad you had fun at the concert and camp. I had tons of fun with the horse ride. My horse wanted to bullet away like at horse camp!  I have lots to tell you about.  See you soon and say hi to everybody for me!

Love you,

Tillery 

Natalie's Reply Home

Hi parents. We are testing whether certain plants have an effect on inhibiting fungus growth or repelling  ants from cutting the leaves of crops that we apply it to. The accommodations are great and we just have screens for windows. My horse was pretty good until it tried to buck me and I had to hold on for dear life. But it was fun going up the mountain. We are going on hikes today and I'm pretty excited! I hope jack isn't crying to much

Natalie

More Pics from July 29th

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Picasa photos

Hannah's Note to Home

Dear pa and ma and da and ra
The food here is very very good. The potatoes are pretty much the best and the banana chips. Thanks for going to the cabin with me. Feel free to do that much more often. Bye.
                                                                                   -Hannah

Natalie's Note to Home

Dear Parents and Jack
     Everything is good here and we just came up with our experiment idea yesterday. I am excited to get started with it, and this morning we are going out to get our supplies. I am excited to go horseback riding this afternoon. The time is going by quickly so far! See you soon!

Natalie

Nikki's Note to Home

Dear Home,

I am having so much fun here! The food is incredible and I'm having so much fun seeing all the new insects and sights. I miss you all very much and hope you're having fun! Love you lots!!

Nikki 

P.s. Emily says hey!

Day Three July 29th

Day three July 29th

We started off another great day with an amazing breakfast with more delicious fresh juice  Today we started our activities with an exciting ant hunt.   We all ventured down a muddy hill to see a VERY large leaf cutter ant colony.  The group then continued our hunt with all of our leaf cutter ant hunting gear. We observed the ants and they were really cool! We even let them crawl on our hands and held some of their fungus. The first colony we found, we didn't find the queen. The last mound we went to was a great pick. It had five fungus garden chambers that we extracted. I even scooped a giant chunk of fungus out of the colony! The final chamber contained the queen and she was giant. 

After we brought the ants back, we got into our research groups to work on our science activities and cultured some fungus. We also started our lab design and presented our ideas to the group and Pablo to get some helpful feedback. We will all be telling you about our research adventures and excitement hopefully soon. 

We just had a flavorful dinner and are going to go to class soon to check on our bacteria cultures from yesterday.  I am kind of scared to see the amount of microbes in the lake water we tested...

See you soon!

Tillery 

Looks like fun

Wow,what beautiful countryside and sounds like fantastic food. Sounds like everyone has been kept busy since arriving. Hannah-what are you eating? Can't tell from the picture if it was good or bad, but glad you tried it. We had a great week-end at the lake but we missed you as I am sure you missed being there. Thanks for the updates, they are fantastic to read. Can't wait to hear more. Mom and Dad Charpentier

Some pics

Day 2 July 28th

Day Two July 28th Drew's birthday!!! Good evening outside world! What a day. For Nick and I it began at 5:45... Something about time zone changes and alarm clocks. Breakfast was fantastic. I am beginning to see a trend of great fresh food. I think I can eat the homemade corn tortillas every meal without complaint. After breakfast Pablo took us on a great tour of the farm. I do not think there is a question that he cannot answer. Pablo's wealth of knowledge on the flora and fauna of the area is incredible. After a great lunch, we had an hour or two of free time which "the boys" of the trip spent swimming in a JUNGLE LAKE! Following our quick dip, Pablo showed us around the town which is attached to Finta La Anita. Suffice it to say, Costa Rican homemade coconut ice cream is TAN SABROSO (means tasty for all the non-spanish speakers). Back on the ranch we finally had the long awaited meeting with Dr. Adrien Pinto. HE IS AWESOME. Adrien knows his ants, and has a great sense of humor. It will be a great week under his direction. A great meal promptly followed with a surprise homemade birthday cake and ice cream (courtesey of Ana and the wonderful kitchen staff) to top off a great day. Thanks for the birthday wishes Momma! Hola Padre! (I don't miss you too much yet) ;) -Drew

Wow... only day one and it already sounds wonderful! Can't wait to see photos and hear more about this adventure. Happy Birthday Drew! I hope you are having a wonderful Rainforest Birthday! Thanks Dane for the great description of your day. Enjoy... and happy exploring and researching! Julie Julius

Day One July 27th, We're here!!!!!

Day One  July 27th We arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica at noon, met with Ana, one of our hosts and boarded a bus that would take us to Finca la Anita. About 45 minutes into our drive, we stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road and ate some of the best food I have ever had. There was different choices of chicken, potatoes, fried bananas, and something I had never tried, fried plantains,  all served along with rice and beans. After stuffing our faces with great Costa Rican cuisine we got back on the bus and drove about an hour down a slim rocky road. On the ride we got to take in some of the beautiful Costa Rican scenery, and see some of the friendly locals. When we finally arrived we met Pablo, Ana's husband, and got into our cabins and unpacked. Pablo scheduled a group meeting at 5, an hour after we arrived. In the meantime we met the two dogs Corleone, and Mumbai, and the horse that they torment. At the meeting we were briefed about the safety precautions we will be undertaking to protect ourselves from venomous snakes on the property, and tried some interesting local fruits. Between the meeting and dinner all the boys went looking for frogs  and lizards during the rain. At dinner we had fresh fish, salad, and a tasty local dessert, then promptly went to bed after a long day. -Dane 

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