Day 3 started of bright and early with a few of our seniors stoping at the farm to help milk a couple of the cows to supply milk for breakfast.
Right after breakfast, we headed to the river at 8:30 AM and dived in with our nets and rain boots to catch some invertebrates/macro-organisms. After an hour of rummaging through the rocks under the flowing water, and a few screams and tumbles, we headed back to our cabins, mostly with soaked socks. After a quick change of clothes, we went to the lab to study the macro-organisms under microscopes. We identified that we caught 23 different species of macro-organisms, including water pennies, mayflies, caddisflies, and dragonfly larvae. We learned about how these macro-organisms grow to become dragonflies or mosquitoes and how you can identify how polluted a body of water is by the types of macro-organisms you find living in it.
After drying off and completing our invertebrate study, we ate lunch and then headed to the Children's Eternal Rainforest around 1:30pm. There, one of the 32 workers of the private reserve taught us about how the reserve spans about 55 acres and how it came to be when Swedish students in 1987 raised funds to stop deforestation. Camera trap footage showed us some of the rare animal sightings at the reserve, and the speaker shared information about the importance of conservation, and preserving Costa Rica's amazing biodiversity. Before heading out on our hike, we splurged on souvenirs like plushies, chocolates, hats, shirts, and keychains We saw so many different types of plants, like orchids and fig trees. We were lucky to see and hear a Costa Rican bellbird, one of loudest birds on Earth, second to the white bellbird found in the Amazon.
By 5:00 PM, we arrived back on campus and played some volleyball before we were served dinner and cake. We played a 15-player game of imposter (where Mrs. Downey destroyed us on her first time playing) before the night hike began at 7:00 PM. The night sky was filled with hundreds of stars, clearly visible due to the lack of light pollution and being cloudless, which was rare. As we hiked, we saw a lot of sleeping birds, a small frog, and even a scorpion. We headed back to our rooms around 8:00 PM and after taking showers we played card games like spoons.
