It’s our third day and we are getting into a rhythm. It thankfully didn’t storm last night so we got a full night’s sleep. Breakfast consisted of the same food as yesterday morning, except we had papaya and omelets instead of pineapple and yogurt. In the rain-free morning, which is a rare occurrence in the rainforest, we went to dig up our leaf cutter ant colonies. We rode in an open trailer behind a large tractor. The ride was quite bumpy with lots of potholes and gravel creating the feel of a carnival ride.
Allan ( a scientist from University of Costa Rica) did the first demonstration of how to dig up a fungus garden. Unfortunately the nest was right next to a fire ant nest. As Allan started to dig up the conjoined nests, the enraged fire ants came swarming out, up his boots and started biting him. A single or a few fire ant bites are only minor annoyances but hundreds of inflamed ants biting you becomes more than a small irritation. Allan decided that the nest was best left alone for a while so he found a much easier nest to excavate.
Each group went their separate ways to try their luck with digging out fungi and most importantly the queen. When you think of digging with shovels, the word “delicate” does not come to mind, however when digging up a leaf cutter nest you have to carefully dig as to not cave in the tunnels or chambers because then the fungi is ruined. Once you see the grey fungi, you must sterilize the spoon which means pouring alcohol on it and setting it aflame. Then you have to carefully scoop out the fungus, which has the consistency of cotton candy, into the plastic container. Lastly, you must try to get out the queen of the nest because she is the nest’s best chance of survival. Three out of four groups were successful retrieving the queen. Then we loaded up and headed back to Finca La Anita for lunch.
Lunch was heart-of-palm casserole which reminded us of homemade macaroni and cheese, salad and plantain chips which tasted like potato chips. After lunch was the zip-line canopy tour. We drove half an hour to the canopy tours. We got harnessed up and with our ten pound weight- our carabiners- hanging from our side, we struggled up the mountain- a real mountain not the Minnesota hills. The trails were narrow, steep and slippery which added to the difficulty of the task so we had to be cautious about where we placed our feet. We made it to the first platform and zoomed down two consecutive lines using the gloves provided as brakes by pulling down on the cable. Because we were a large group, we had a fair amount of waiting between each zip line. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed us to take in the scenery and observe the wildlife around us. We saw lots of different plants and insects and some of us even saw a monkey. We were so high up that we had a gorgeous view of the horizon and the landscape.
One of the last zip lines was short and not very fast, some of us opted to glide upside down with our feet up and our hand dangling below us. This gave us another perspective when seeing the canopy.
After we left the canopy tours we stopped at a soon-to-be butterfly garden. Allen and Silver, who are also helping us with our leaf cutter ant study, are partnering with the local Women’s Club and University of Costa Rica (UCR) to breed and study butterflies. They are primarily studying the butterflies defense mechanisms against pathogens to see if they might have something we could use for antibiotics. We got to tour their laboratory where they kept their eggs, caterpillars and pupa and a screened in butterfly habitat where they are growing all of the butterflies favorite food. After the tour we headed back for dinner.
Dinner was pork with sweet sauce, yucca, that tastes like a potato, carrots, zucchini and flan (a traditional Costa Rican dessert). After dinner we worked a bit more on our bacteria growth and prepared for tomorrow. We love you and miss you, see you soon.
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