CTSTCostaRica2022

 Day 4, We woke up and ate marvelously tasting breakfast. Made so well that the pancakes made us flip just like the pancakes in the fryer. The eggs scrambled our brains, they were so well made, we got them gains. Of course, this was all at 7:30.  At 8:30 we went to the classroom to do fungus research with a fun guy (Dr. Pinto, a biologist from the university of Costa Rica) with fungus until 11:30. During this time, we also looked at an Acromyrmex echinatior. We ate lunch at 12:00, burger, cooked just like a crabby patty. YaaaaAAAAaaAaAAAAAaaAaaaAAAr, me boy!  Sage  was eaten like a google Slider by the angry angus beef patties. The delightful experience was paired with the refreshing feeling of mango juice. It was so refreshing, we froze like ice until 2:00.  Then we went back to class and discussed experiment questions. We thought about experimenting on the the animals of Costa Rica in various ways, like Doofenshmirtz when he looks at Perry the Platypus. Then...

At 7:30, the group ate breakfast and then went to the classroom to prepare for fungus excavation. We then went on a walk down Finca la Anita's main road, keeping an eye out for any mounds that would indicate a young colony. Each group extracted one, and then we took a break (Sage got pulled into the leafcutter (Atta cephalotes) mound, and was, sadly, consumed). We then ate lunch and toured the mariposa building, and after another break, went back to the classroom to look at the bacteria experiment from yesterday. Dinner was consumed, and then the group built houses for the extracted colonies. We created economy today, for the very first time. Loans were made, insurance went poorly, and credit scores were analyzed. Perhaps tomorrow we'll bundle them into mortgage securities. Will has taken a loan at 2% interest, except it's applied hourly and compound. The interest rate also doubles every hour. Sage got eaten by a loan shark, and we turned one coin into six coins with a care...

 At 7:00AM, we went to the deck for covid tests. All negative, luckily! Next we had a nice breakfast, then took the cacao tour.  On the tour, we saw the cacao boiler and learned how the beans are crushed to get their nibs. We were lucky enough to taste some homemade chocolate, and we saw the cacao orchards, and our guide (and owner of the farm on which we are staying) Pablo cut open a cacao pod for us so that we could sample the delicious fruit inside which surrounds the beans. We then followed him back to the dining area where he cut open a palm to reveal the delicious "heart of palm" for us, which we sampled before watching him make a wonderfully aromatic and fresh ceviche. We shared this ceviche for lunch and supplemented it with the staple rice and beans as well as a potent ginger lemonade (a new fruit drink is provided at each meal!) Then we had some downtime, and some of us walked down the road to the convenience store in the village. In the village, we met a friendly s...

Day 1: After a long flight with a fantastic view from the plane window, we had a long van ride to the ranch. Multiple hours of driving later, we got to the ranch and settled into our cabins. Our host Pablo told us about the ranch and its rules. Not long after, we were issued our rubber boots, to protect from the snakes and occasional ticks. Good fish was prepared for our dinner, with a side of salad and tropical juice. Unfortunately, Sage was eaten by a shark. So we all slept soundly. Written by Axel and Sage.