Day 2

 Hello family and friends! Greetings from Costa Rica! 

We are writing this after a delicious dinner. We had chicken, mash potatoes, mixed veggies along with caramelized plantain sprinkled with cacao nibs. Today we had a tour of the facility and cacao plantation we are staying on. We enjoyed sampling some different types of chocolate and see the process behind going from the plant all the way to the final product. We also had a quick history lesson on the creation of different cacao plants and products. We also went on two short hikes and learned about some of the local flora. After lunch we went over to the new research lab where we reviewed the scientific method and had our first lesson about leaf cutter ants from Dr. Pinto. There we were also split into the research groups that we will be working with for the rest of the trip. In these groups we did our first experiment, in which we swabbed different surfaces to see where bacteria was the most prevalent. This was a great opening activity because it uses a lot of skills that we will be using throughout our field research. 

We are all having a wonderful time and we miss you guys. 


PS - We have very limited service so please communicate through the comments on this blog. We will be posting every night so keep posted.


                                                                    View from the new lab!


Chocolate tasting!

                                                            Raw cacao we tasted on our tour.

                                                           View from our hike this morning.

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