Presentations, Pickups, and Hot Springs

Hello friends and family,

Today was another wonderful day in Costa Rica filled with presentations, bumpy car rides, hot springs, and more.  We started off this morning with an early breakfast to give us time to finish our experiment presentation. Each group did one practice presentation with Pinto this morning to do any last minute changes that needed to be done.  At 10:30 we had presentations beginning with COSO, then Ant Fam, Equipo Relampago, and lastly Lurking Jaguars. “We graduated!!” 

For our graduation celebration we traveled to Sensoria.  However, we encountered a few bumps in the road (no pun intended).  First issue was we were one car short.  We had 2 pick up trucks for 16+ people.  But have no fear, nothing stops the Vis girls and we figured out a solution.  We decided to put 4 people across the back row of the car and then 2 people in the back of the pick up. An hour into the drive we took a stop to have a picnic lunch and realized that we had forgotten the food. It was now 1 PM and everyone was very hungry and a little upset at first but it ended up being a great experience. We got an emersion into the Costa Rican culture when we decided to stop in a surrounding village.  We got cheese and tuna sandwiches as well as chips from a local shop. After our lunch, we were ready to drive the last 15 miles to Sensoria. 

Upon arriving at Sensoria we took a quick restroom break and headed into the rainforest with our guide Johnny.  On our hike we saw a small extremely poisonous snake, but don’t worry it was sleeping and no one was bitten. We hiked 40 minutes down to the Blue waterfall. This was a spectacular sight, the clear blue waterfall was a great place to swim and take photos.  After about 10 minutes at the waterfall we hiked 40 minutes back to the start and stopped at a very soothing hot spring.  We swam in the hot spring for 30 minutes relaxing and enjoying our graduation.  Upon finishing our hike and swim we had mango juice, coffee, and cookies.  After being refueled with this snack, we got back in our two vans squished in the back of the trucks and headed back to Finca la Anita.  Take it from those to got to stand in the back of the pick-ups it is an experience you will never forget; you got the best view of the volcanos and trees around.  Some of us standing in the back of the trucks were lucky enough to see some toucans.

When we arrived back at Finca la Anita a wonderful dinner was ready for us.  Pico de Gallo, chips, beans, chicken, beef, and cheese; nothing better after a long day of bumpy car rides and hikes in the rainforest. After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms for warm showers and to pack their bags for tomorrows trip to the beach.

Day 8 held lots of excitement and we are excited to see what tomorrow holds.

We miss everyone back at home.

Signing off with lots of love from Costa Rica,

Catherine and Alley J

Posing with Dr Adrian Pinto

Equipo Relampago

Lurkin' Jaguars

COSO

Ant Fam