Yoga in Paradise

One of the most wonderful parts of this trip for me has been teaching yoga to students in such a beautiful setting. We will post a few more photos of this soon, but do know that some of your daughters (sorry, no sons!) will come home teaching you a little about downward dog, tree pose, and the famous mountain pose. It was a joy to spend time sharing this wonderful way to start the day with your kids.

Cultural Adventures

Yesterday we did many exciting things. In the morning, everyone got up at 5:30 to go on a bird hike through the rainforest. We went on a hanging bridge, which was fun, but also very scary. Then we came back and checked our traps that were up overnight for bat guano. We gathered the seeds and brought them back to the lab to identify them. At 2:00, everyone went white-water rafting. We went on many different types of rapids. It was very fun. We took a break and had a huge splash fight. It started as a little joke, then it became girls verses boys, and then it became an every-man-for-himself fight. Everyone got soaked. Then at night, we had a culture night. We learned to cook and dance the salsa. We had so much fun dancing.

Pura Vida!
~Monica, Geena, Emily

Rafting, Dancing and Cooking, Oh My!

Yesterday we all went on a cultural night where we learned how to dance the Salsa and the Marengue. We also learned how to cook special dough-like balls that were full of cheese and drowned in grease from the deep fryer. Mr. Musselman and Ray found out the greasy part the messy way!

Another activity that we participated in yesterday was white-water rafting. There were 5 groups, each on different boats with 4 kids, 1 teacher and 1 rafting instructor. We got to experience the Sarapiqui River up close and the rapids within them. The earthquake that happened a few months ago, however, and the normally bluish water had turned a sediment brownish color. Also, many trees and boulders were pushed down into the river and riverbank as a result of the quake, and the water level was affected as well. But that did not take away from the fun experience as we paddled through the rapids. Everyone had fun and lots of great memories were made on the river.

Jack

(More rafting images to come on Flickr soon!)

Water, water everywhere...is it safe to drink?

Yesterday in the afternoon we got to go down to the river, which I don’t know how to spell. First, we did some physical tests on the water. After observing it we said it looked good. During this process we were distracted by a lot of frogs including one poison dart frog.

Second, we did some chemical tests on the river to see if it was safe to go rafting in. We tested the temperature, pH, Nitrate, Carbon Dioxide, Oxygen, and Hydrogen Sulfides. After testing these six things our data concluded that the water was safe to swim in chemically.

Finally, we did a biological test by catching bugs. When we caught as many bugs as we could we used a scientific equation to calculate if the river was good biologically. It fell into the category saying the river was good but not great. Time for white-water rafting!

Connor

Rainforest Adventure

We had to get up really early yesterday, at about 5 o’clock. We spent the morning in the gardens of the rainforest lodge, but it was a real blast when we finally got out into the real rainforest. We took a long hike where we got to see incredibly dense green forests, but the highlight of the hike was the bridge.

It started raining the moment we reached a long, green bridge that cut through the forest. The rickety bridge seemed to go on forever and was 75 feet up. Twice, we emerged from the forest and were over large, flowing rivers. It was pretty nerve-racking, but an amazing experience.

Ray

Day 2, Part 2: Sarapiqui

La Condesa and Sarapiqui in Pictures

Bats in Costa Rica

Today we had a very busy day. Along with all the other things we focused the majority of our time on BATS!!!!! First we learned about the background of bats and how to identify the different species. We also learned how people have a pre-conceived ideas about bats and think that they are icky but they are totally COOL! After our orientation we set up feces collectors to tell how the bats spread the seeds that they eat. We had dinner and afterwards we went back and put up mist net to try to catch a bat to learn about them. Then we switched groups and got another orientation. After we learned all of these things we saw real bats and got to touch them. We got to touch the wings. It was such a thin leathery membrane. Violet and I were afraid we were going to break it. These bats were definitely the highlight of our day!!!
-Meghan and Violet-

Pictures to come soon, but it's almost 10, we've been up since 7 and we have a 5AM wakeup to see what the feces collectors have for us to find! Students are trying to determine whether or not bats are responsible for spreading the seeds of the fruits they eat to clearings in and around the Sarapiqui rainforest and river. The students have hypothesized that these seeds would grow into fruit plants and become the first stage in a succession of a developing rainforest. Tomorrow can't come sooner!
-Mr. Musselman-