Do snakes poop?

Overall, today was a pretty boring day. I know that you think that there is no such thing as a boring day in Costa Rica, but today was just that. Woke up, worked on an assignment, went to class for an hour and a half, had lunch, went to class for another 45 mins, worked on the next assignment. Coming into it, I wasn't really aware that our first few assignments were going to be on Excel and take us about 8 hours each to complete. Being at the Soltis Center, there isn't too much to do unless we are going on hikes or collecting data for projects (which we aren't starting until sometime next week), so we didn't really have a choice besides sitting down and completing our assignments. I guess it worked out that they took all day long to do (and I'm still not even halfway done with the second assignment) because when we have free time, there isn't really anything else to do besides play on our computers or sit around and just enjoy the scenery... which I have done lots of. I'm so glad that all of the other people that are here are really cool and that we all get along really well. We can pretty much always entertain ourselves sitting or laying on the cool tile and just talking.

Thankfully our day got a little more exciting when Dr. Quiring told us that we were going to go on a night hikeafter dinner to look for cool creatures in the forest. Everyone grabbed their flashlights, or like me their awesome headlights, and we headed out. We saw animals such as poison dart frogs, green frogs, more huge toads, a tarantula, long skinny tree snakes, a pit-viper (yes, they are venomous!!!), leaf-cutter ants carrying their leaves up super high trees, and of course tons of new weird looking bugs. For the amount of time we were out there, we didn't see as many animals as I thought that we would. It could have been for the reason that there were 20 of us and we definitely were not quiet at all... but I was really expecting to see a lot more creatures out and about.

 

Putting aside all of the schoolwork that we had to do today, it is really awesome how close all of us are getting. We are spending just about every waking minute with each other so I feel like I have gotten to know everyone fairly well, and a few people really well which has made this experience even better so far. Today we were lucky that it actually didn't rain! Who would have ever thought that there would be a day where it didn't rain in the rainforest?! There were hardly any clouds in the sky around the time when the sun was setting, so we got to see our first sunset of the trip... and it was BEAUTIFUL. The canopy of trees in the distance literally looked like they were on fire when the sun was setting behind them. All of us saw it while we were doing our assignment, and we all sprinted to our bungaloes to grab our cameras and take pictures from the highest point. I really wish that I had a nice digital camera while I was here, but mine gets the job done.

 

Thankfully tomorrow we get a day off from doing work! We are going to Volcan Arenal (one of the most active volcanoes in the world) tomorrow right after breakfast, and we're staying there and in the city La Fortuna the entire day. I'm super excited! But I am also exhausted. All of the schoolwork we had to do yesterday and today combined with the few times we have gone hiking has sucked all of the energy out of me. I think I can find a way to manage though :)

Time to go dream about all the fun things that could happen at one of the most active volcanoes tomorrow!