Day 2: June 17

We started the day at 7:30 am to eat breakfast. Piled on our plates was a delicious platter of fried plantains, rice and beans, and scrambled egg along with Costa Rican coffee. The fried plantains tasted savory yet sweet, a combination that was not expected. The coffee had a tropical aroma that went well with the smokiness of the rice and beans.

After breakfast, we received a lesson about cacao from Pablo, the owner this farm we're living on. We learned about the varieties, origins, history, production and much more about cacao and chocolate. During the lesson we tried raw cacao beans, Montezumo (a drink made of cacao, vanilla, and water), and a variety of dark chocolates. The cacao beans and dark chocolates tasted more organic than what's typical in America and the rest of the world. It was interesting to experience and learn about the differences of a luxury as simple as chocolate. After the lessons we went on a tour to see the cacao trees where we tried cacao fruit, which was comparable to leche.

For lunch we ate a salad made of heart of palm which was freshly cut right outside the cafeteria. Along with the salad we had an entree of beef with a side of vegetables, and rice and beans. The salad stole the show with a great blend of heart of palm, tomato, red bell peppers, onions.

In the afternoon, we hiked a nearby village about a mile away where we helped a friendly native woman named Margarita plant flowers and move rocks for her butterfly garden. The work was tiring but ultimately a rewarding experience. 

After helping Margarita, some of us visited a small but full shop called La Pulparia. We were able to buy a large, cold soda for our dorm mates to share, a reward for a long day of work and learning. You could also buy homemade ice cream from a nearby house. The ice cream could be described as being "italian ice" like.

Link: Google folder for Day 2 pictures

For dinner, we were served pumpkin soup along with an entree of chicken, potatoes, and other vegetables. It was hard to believe that the soup had pumpkin in it, it tasted like a mixture of cheese, basil and tomato. 

After the scrumptious dinner, everyone met in what will be our classroom for the next few days. We met Adrian, a professor from the University of Costa Rica who will be leading us in our experiments. Adrian is a pretty nifty dude, he's a bullet ant EXPERT. He separated us in to the groups we'll be working with throughout our stay. Below you can see us sitting in the classroom. It's roomy with lots of bugs with the atmosphere of a processing plant.

Extra stuff: We saw two wild dogs roaming through the jungle.

Leaf cutter ants crawling across the paths to our cabins. 

We woke up to a humid, wet air filled with the sounds of birds singing and bugs chirping.

Enormous frogs and bugs roam through the farm and the porches like they own the place.

Shout out to all the fathers out there. Have a happy fathers day.

-Quinn Malisow and Carter Acevedo-Lucas