Day Five

 At 7:00 this morning, we all awoke and met for breakfast, a delicious combination of rice and beans, juice, and an omelet with bell peppers. The juice for each meal continues to surprise us, and is ever changing. 

After breakfast, we all met on the deck and listened to Pablo explain today's schedule. Instead of morning science we would be traveling to the base of a mountain via tractor and hike up it to a natural waterfall where we could swim. Soon, we were all dressed in appropriate gear and loaded into the tractor wagon, packed like sardines but excited. 

Once we reached the mountain, we unloaded and met Carlos, who would be guiding us on our hike. Then we were off!! The trek was slippery due to recent rain, and harrowing at times, forcing our group to split between the speedy zebras and the slower zebras. The hike resulted in several casualties; in fact, Sage tragically lost his footing in a particularly muddy slope and fell to his untimely death thousands of feet below to be torn apart by swarms of rainforest gigacrabs. He will be missed. 

Despite such inconveniences, the hike was soon over, and we reached a flowing blue pool that led to a waterfall and another pool below. When presented with the option to stay in the calmer pool or attempt the challenging descent towards the waterfall below, the group decided to set off towards the lower pool. Because what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and all that jazz. Unless you are Sage of course. 

With assistance from Pablo, Carlos, and our other chaperones, we made it to the lower pool with only a few bruised behinds and universally sopping socks. The water was crystal clear and very cold, but refreshing and and absolute highlight thus far. 



Some people even found a crab, and then proceeded to inform us of their discovery every five seconds as they paraded their new friend throughout the pool. After a few hours we began the journey back to the tractor, with smiles on our faces, boots full of water, and several new blisters. 

Once we returned to Finca La Anita, around noon, we went straight to lunch, and then returned to our cabins to shower and change. At 2:00, we met in the classroom for afternoon science, and split into our separate groups to continue the research for our experiments. For the next four hours we began our Lab journals, started preliminary tests for our experiments, and studied the fungal growth from previous petri dishes. At last, dinner rolled around, featuring a scrumptious seasoned chicken, salad, yucca root, and kiwi mint juice. Once finished, we returned to our classroom to work more on our experiments. Thoroughly exhausted from an energetic day, the groups dispersed to their separate cabins until tomorrow. To be continued....

Written by Ryan Offermann 



giant rainforest roach




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