Day 2

How you doin' Illinois? Cause we're REALLY hot...majormajor.



Well hopefully you've figured out that this isn't one of the adults typing... andddd you're right! It's Kerry, Katie and Delaney coming to you from COSTA RICA! It's our second day here and so far we've learned a lot of cool stuff and seen a bunch of cooler stuff. We were supposed to get up at the (butt) crack of dawn (6:30) to go to breakfast. Instead our roomates woke us up at 6:00 to sing in the shower. Kerry yelled at them to be quiet and this caused some early morning tension. Also last night, our electricity went off at 2:00AM and the fans turned off and our bunkmates decided this would be prime time for a 20 minute discussion about how hot they were, which somehow led into a questionnaire about their favorite colors. Kerry was EXTREMELY irritated, which explains why she woke up cranky. Breakfast was really great. We had rice and beans, which we are expecting to also have the rest of the week. Kerry turned a tortilla into a pancake so that was some good times. We think the rest of our group had a good breakfast too, but Courtney, Emily and Katie made breakfast burritos with avocado and beans and rice. Mr. Carlson also made a burrito but he added cheese, which he said was good. D-WOOD rocks.

Today was our first day collecting data for the clay caterpillar project. To prepare for our hike in the forest, we wore long pants tucked into our socks, our hiking boots, and long sleeves. We put on SPF ten billion (as Mr. Carlson likes to call it) and 99.25% DEET bug spray to stay bug-free. We also were fitted for palinas, which keep our ankles safe from snakes. They were pretty fashionable, and we looked liked safari babes (including the guys). Early morning hiking was cool and nice, but also extremely humid. We broke up into 3 random groups and went to collect caterpillars in a medium growth forest. After we collected all of the caterpillars, we came back to the only room in this country with fans, and inspected the red, green, and blue caterpillars for bite marks that animals could've left on them. Half of the class actually just napped while the teachers were talking. Ms. I was dozing off as well so we were only following her example.

After this we had lunch...you guessed it! Rice and beans. We ate outside with another tour group who was casually visiting for the day, and then leaving for their hotel. We were extremely jealous. Kerry and Delaney bought a Coke and it was literally the best thing they'd ever drank. After lunch we all came back to the cool air room and played Egyptian Rat Screw (a card game which Courtney is really good at) for 20 minutes until we went back into the field to collect more caterpillar data in the old growth forest. The old growth forest was a considerable distance away from our lodges so we crammed 9 kids at a time into an air conditioned cars and drove the bumpy road over there.

The old growth forest has very tall trees and is much more shaded than the other medium and new growth forests. Because of this, not as much sun reaches through the canopy trees to the floor, and the growth on the bottom is minimal. This makes the forest very cool, but still humid. In our 3 groups we collected the rest of the caterpillars and brought them back to the airy room.
In our Rite in the Rain book we recorded our observations and they are being used in a college research project to determine the effects of the forest and color on the predation of caterpillars. Tomorrow we will be finishing up this data collection and our weather prediction is hot.

Although it is REALLY hot here, we are having a great time and meeting a lot of people and learning a lot about the Costa Rican tropical dry forest ecosystems. "It is an experience of a lifetime" -Kerry Cummings

Adios for now,
Katie Krejsa, Kerry Cummings and Delaney (D$) Atkinson