Day 9 comes to an end

Hello! This is the Bris. (Falk and Naumchik).
Before leaving for our turtle excursion last night we learned about the leatherback sea turtles that migrate to Costa Rica to lay their eggs. We learned all about their migration patterns, how many eggs they lay, how big they are, and that they are an endangered species. The turtle expert, Bebe, told us how they have been tagging the turtles to monitor their patterns. They also monitor the condition of the oceans in relation to how they affect the turtles. The el niño (warm water) and la nina (cold water) phenomenas cycle through every few years, and the nina conditions are best for the turtles. Once we had our turtle intro we jumped in the bus and drove to the beach. It was pitch black by the time we got there at 8, and we all quickly ditched our shoes and splashed around in the water. Once the turtle experts came we got down to business. We had to be really quiet so we wouldn't scare the turtles, and could only use red flashlights because regular ones are too bright. Right away, we spotted a turtle trail and followed it to find a female Olive Ridley ready to lay her eggs. We encountered a special circumstance: this turtles back flippers were compromised by a run in with a boat. So it was difficult for her to dig a hole for her eggs. Instead of bringing the sand out of the hole she could only push it around, so Bebe got on her stomach and helped scoop the sand out for the turtle. Once the hole was complete, the female went into a trance to give birth. She ended up laying 133 eggs, which is an amazing amount for her species. After she layed her eggs we collected them and relocated them to a safer position (away from crab holes.) In the new hole we put a special thermometer, allowing us to monitor the eggs through out the gestation period. After the hole was covered up and nest marked our eyelids were drooping and fatigue was upon us, it was time to go home.

There will be blood

Hoooollllaaaa!
It's Bri, Bri, and Ian. Today has been so eventful. Well to start off, both bri's got up late. And then there was a serpente sangre (blood snake) on the walking path. It was okay though, Pablo was at the ready with his machete. Then we ventured all over the farm grounds and we saw a bunch of foreign fruits and vegetables. Namely the king's scepter. Then we voyaged into the "real" rainforest where we encountered snake number two which was later found out to be a juvenille brown vine snake! It looked like a vine! I was so coooool!We also happened upon a walking tree, unforutnately it was not utilizing it's amazing locomotive abilities. Then we finally got to the ant portion of our tropical adventure. We collaborated with Dr. Adrian Pinto on our first lesson and expirement. We cultured bacteria that we found on all sorts of random things! Then a few of us played soccer with the locals and others went and looked for proper ant colonies with Adrian. Overall it was a good and very productive day! We miss everyone back home and will be eagerly awaiting your blog comments! Commenting instructions can be found in a eariler post by Ms. Norton or in one of the many emails sent by Ms. Joel.