After some awesome presentations the night before, breakfast was pushed back until eight o'clock. We all caught up on some well deserved sleep and had some delicious rice and beans with fresh papaya. We said goodbye and thanked Pinto, Juan and Ibrahim. Then we departed from Finca La Anita at around 9:30. It felt good to be done with our research and have presentable information but Finca La Anita will be missed.
Trinity students rode in a big white van from Finca La Anita to a place called Horizontes. The ride was extremely interesting because of all the mountain ranges, different ecosystems and quite a few villages and towns. We got to see a lot of Costa Rica and all that it had to offer. The ride was a little bit bumpy but after about 3 hours we arrived to Horizontes.
Once we arrived at Horizontes we had a quick lunch after settling in to our new rooms. The rooms are a bit different from the ones at Finca La Anita. There are 4-6 students in each room, and the rooms are complete with bunk beds and a small shelf. They are definitely not as nice as Finca La Anita's but were are still very grateful to have somewhere to sleep.
After lunch we headed over to the class room to listen to a presentation by Horizontes director, Vanessa. It was a very interesting and informative presentation about Horizontes' research and conservation efforts. After her presentation Mr. Doleman had a small presentation of his own. He talked about the decline in creativity caused by the school system and consequently the decline of Americans that choose to be scientists or engineers. He then told us about the Acacia tree and psuedomyrmex ants that are completely dependent on each other. We were then sent out into the field to see if we could find out why. We noticed the ants live inside the trees thorns and feed of the tree. In return they defend the tree against predators, in this case it was us! After this we sat back down and listened to a presentation about sea turtles by Dr. Nathan Robinson who is part of the leather back foundation.
After dinner, we were all geared up and ready to go find a sea turtle. We left Horizontes at about 7:30 and arrived at the beach at 8:05. When we got to the beach we split into groups and set up a "base camp" with blankets and towels. One or two groups would walk down the beach while the other groups rested. We would switch about every 30-40 minutes. Unfortunately we did not see any turtles. It was still a great night as the sky was extremely clear and the stars were shining very brightly. It was very nice to just sit on the beach and listen to the waves crash. We left to beach around midnight and we all got to bed as soon as we got back.
By: Jake Sedgwick
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