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Group shot on the beach! What an awesome day and the perfect capstone for our trip.

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Sand castles on the beach!

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Scenes from our dry forest hike through Horizontes research station, including a picture of our friend Lola la tortuga.

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The Horizontes horse and her just-over-week-old baby foal!

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Day 10- Anna P. and Tina W.

Hey guys, it’s Anna and Tina!

Last night we went to the beach to go turtle spotting. Since it’s the off season, it’s rare to see turtles nesting. At about 11pm, we got a call from one of our groups on the beach who had seen a turtle. We all rushed over to see it nesting. Usually, there are only three types of sea turtles that nest on that beach. At first, we thought it was a green turtle, but we soon discovered that it was a Hawksbill, which are very rare and never before been seen on that beach. We watched the whole process, from when she was digging a hole, laying her eggs, until she covered them up and went back into the ocean. It lasted nearly 3 hours and was really amazing! We drove back at around 2AM.

After sleeping at most 6 hours, we went on a hike through the tropical dry forest. Freddy, our guide, found a turtle, who he named Lola, and we delivered her through the forest safely into her new home. When we returned, we had a few hours of free time, most of which were spent napping, picking mangos, and playing cards before we left to go to the beach. We spent our time jumping over and under huge waves until sunset. It was very fun! When not in the ocean, we spent our time building sandcastles, watching crabs, and eating snacks. When we got back from the beach, we had a wonderful barbecue with some University of Minnesota research students. During dinner, many toasts were made and favorite parts of the trip were shared. After dinner, the U of M research students presented their experiments and findings to us about drought and fertilization in the dry forest. Now, we are all getting ready for bed after a long day at the beach. Love you all, see you super soon! – Anna and Tina

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Day 9- Sydney T. and Lyle M.

How do you do, fellow kids? Welcome back to a brand new episode of Lyle and Sydney’s epic Costa Rican adventure. We started off the day with a radicool breakfast that did a wonderful job sustaining us with valuable nutrients for the remainder of our day. After a sad goodbye to Finca La Anita, we embarked on the odyssey of our lives, a pilgrimage to the supermarket. Remember all the money you sent us here with? Neither do we. Long story short, we cleaned it out. We indulged ourselves in gummy teeth, chiky (a type of cookie), and other exotic extremities. After another exhaustingly long trip down the country roads of Costa Rica, we were just livin’ on a prayer to get to Horizantes. Something we weren’t used to was the heat of the unforgiving dry forest. Following a hearty and delicious lunch, we received an educational, very informative, and very engaging lecture on the plight of the humble and succulent turtles of Costa Rica. We then embarked to look at some thorny trees. Little did we know that we were not alone. Each tree thorn had an eye in the form of small, terrible, beady ants, as if we had not had enough fun with ants!!1! Following that, we had a heated debate about the symbiotic relationship about these trees in which everyone was right (except for your kid.) We each took turns caressing the Horizantes resident foal (born just 8 days ago!) for a photo opportunity while its mother gave us mournful glares and whinnied in jealousy. Then, we all took turns doing the forest a favor and looked for hunters and fires on the impressive tower with the view of a lifetime (maybe week). Wild mangoes fell from trees left and right while furious tarantula hawks buzzed fervently about them. That didn’t stop us from vigorously whacking the tree until it begrudgingly allowed its fruit to be consumed. Finally, we played a rigorous game of futbol (soccer for you uncultured swine). Eddie (one of our drivers) proved to be the man we all need, but not the one we deserve. His fast feet saved our team from swift defeat and culminated in a tie game. Sydney did get hit in the face and only cried a little (I’m fine, mom-Sydney). Dinner was a bean filled taste extravaganza frenzy boogaloo. That brings us to here, where Mr. Heckman is angrily begging we wrap this up so we can embark on our next great adventure, sweeping the turtles. We’ll be on the beach ‘till midnight. Wonder what that’s all about? You’ll have to tune in next time. Your pals, Sydney and Lyle.

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The end of our “Happy Birthday” to Henry Vlietstra, who turned 17 today. Happy birthday, Henry!

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A picture of our group and our amazing mentors. What a beautiful place and what great company. 

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Day 8- Will S., Richard C. and Liam W.

Hey guys, it’s ya boys, uhhhhhhhh, Will, Liam, and Richard.

It was a very eventful day today. Many people started the day early to collect last bits of data or finish their final presentations. After a typically fantastic breakfast, we met with Dr. Pinto to present our findings. He helped us streamline our presentations, and to more formally convey the contents of our research. Each group then gave their 10 to 15 minute final project. Everyone fielded questions from the professional scientists as well as their peers, and the feedback from our mentors was that we did a good job. After presenting, we took a group picture as we went to enjoy a phenomenal lunch. Furthermore, we were all happy to get the research experience past us—it was fun, but also really challenging. After lunch, we had a quick turn around, and headed to a local waterfall. Just before we left, we has to say a heartfelt goodbye to our mentors and friends, Allan Artavia and Dr. Adrian Pinto. After a brief tractor ride, we arrived at the waterfall. Everyone had a blast swimming/being pushed in, among other shenanigans. We then moved down the riverbank with the assistance of a rope to a new location. On the way, we got to meet some new friends, the worker bullet ants. Thankfully, there were no stings, only some close encounters. On the way back, after some photos, we enjoyed an ice cream snack courtesy of Pablo. Once we returned, everyone was grateful to be back on the farm so they could get dry and rest. After our longest period of free time in a while, we had another amazing dinner, which was capped off with a delicious chocolate cake in honor of our Henry’s  17th birthday. We then received a thorough safety talk about scorpions, and how to deal with them when we arrive to the beach tomorrow. Everyone is currently chilling before preparing to pack their suitcases. We are excited for our next adventure but are all feeling sad that we will soon be leaving Finca La Anita.

Goodnight!

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Day 7- Mr. Heckman and Ms. Baker

Hi there, friends and families of Costa Rica students! Mr. Heckman and Ms. Baker here. We’re writing the blog tonight as students wrap up their research projects. Today has been an all science day. We woke up at our normal time- 7:30- and had a delicious costa rican breakfast. Students have been working since with a burger lunch, coffee break and lasagna dinner between. They are very well fed here, and even had some more “american” foods today, just in case they’re missing home. Our only challenge today was the rain. It rained (poured?) intermittently, which made it difficult for the three groups doing field trials to complete them, as leaf cutter ants stop foraging in the rain. As we write this, students are collecting their last bit of data, analyzing their results, and compiling a presentation, which they’ll give to us and the other members of the community tomorrow morning. We’ve been having such a blast with our group, and can’t believe that a week has gone by already- they’re really easy and fun to work with. Tonight is our penultimate night at Finca la Anita; we head for the beach on Monday morning. We will miss this beautiful place, but the lure of the beach is strong. Goodnight. - Ms. Baker and Mr. Heckman

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Scenes from our walk through Rincon de la Vieja national park today!

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Our trusty chaperones riding in a 4-wheeler to the National park!

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Day 6- Bailey D. and Henry V.

After an unfortunate encounter with a bullet ant sting last night (everyone is fine today, no worries!), we woke up bright and early today and ate pancakes (which had chocolate nibs made here at Finca la Anita) before leaving to go hiking in the rainforest. We saw some spider monkeys and white-faced capuchin monkeys. There was also a lot of other wildlife such as: big spiders, caterpillars, red headed woodpecker, and many more. Then, we went in some hot springs that smelled strongly like sulfur, but we got used to it and everyone had a lot of fun. There was even some mud that people used to exfoliate their skin. (As we write this, we just encountered another bullet ant that ended up crawling up Henry’s torso and into his armpit and onto his back. Mr. Heckman screamed while Ms. Baker saved the day and killed the bullet ant.) After the hot springs we kept hiking to a waterfall. The water was significantly colder than the hot springs. We made our way back to the ranger station and had lunch that consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, candy, and assorted juices. We were all starving after our long walk. After we got back everyone had to take showers to clean off all of the sulfur from the hot springs and take naps from waking up so early. Then we continued our experiments that we started yesterday. There was a small amount of drama when Sydney ACCIDENTALLY stole another group’s colony, but all the groups seem to be making a lot of progress. After that everyone went to dinner (yummy pork, yucca and a tres leches cake), and a few groups are back doing a bit more science now. We’re all mostly wanting to go to bed early after our 6 AM wake up.

<3 Goodnight everyone, Bailey and Henry

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The whole group with our amazing host, Aricelly (on the left in the white cap). 

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Rompecabezas with Alejandra.

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Team “Superorganism” conducting a feasibility trial of their experiment. 

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Great views, and cool company.