7:11: Breakfast: Gallo Pinto, aguacate (Spanish for avocado, although “avocado” is already Spanish, it actually means “lawyer”), that sour-cream yogurt stuff (never ate any), hot chocolate and coffee. “Bready pain” (from another brand of bread, pain=bread, I think the name was Painy Pain or something). Doña Olga knows what we like. There is now a peanut butter dance (to go along with the anticipatory coffee dance invented by Chantal when coffee is first ready in the morning).
    Last night’s dinner was of Gallo Pinto, good potatoes, an interesting zucchini vegetable mix, watermelon, and orange drink (suspiciously similar to the McD type). Sarah and I missed lunch since we were off climbing the volcano, all that we’ve heard since we’ve got back is how good the chicken they had was.
    After dinner, we all sat around the classroom and told riddles; I screwed up the telling of most of mine, giving too much away, or leaving out something vital. In the meantime I replicated one of my drawings of the environs by tracing over my transparent water bottle with a flashlight shining through it.
    Now that the labs are done, we have to design and execute a research project in the time we have left. Most people have paired off or are in groups of three. I’m working with Nicole as we’re both botany-biased. We came across a completely anecdotal and baffling textbook reference to tree ferns inhibiting the growth of other tree ferns nearby. We’ve decided to investigate by comparing the number and type of plants found growing upslope and downslope from tree ferns within 1, 2, and 3 metre radii. We’ll section off two 90° pie-wedge quadrats per sample, Nicole will count one, I’ll count the other, and we’ll alternate upslope and downslope to avoid subjective bias. Diane suggests 30 sample plots for a statistically robust result. The stats all boil down to a paired-sample T, which makes us happy, but getting that much data will be challenging given the time available. We start now.

1:11 pm: Gallo Pinto, good chicken, lettuce and tomato in olive oil, white pineapple, watermelon, papaya, and a drink made out of oatmeal in water. (I also wrote down a quote from someone that makes no sense now, it says “I like the thing in my pants”.)

5:35: I have a bug bite on the knuckle of my right thumb. It makes it difficult to write. I saw the damn thing too, it was tiny.
    We spent the day walking in concentric arcs around tree ferns. The plants are good, the question is good, the data is good, the method is good, actually doing it is horrible. I like the idea of doing relevant research, and the plants are interesting, if ugly and prickly. At least we’re getting better (or faster) at doing the quadrats.
    Being out alone in the woods and standing relatively still is quite different from everything we’ve done before. Nicole observed how we’re plant people and don’t particularly like having unknown jungle animals smashing through the underbrush towards us. Something large took off from beside the trail as we walked back to the station; it was a bit surprising. We brought back some fern fronds for identification.
    After finishing one plot a bit early, I went scouting ahead on the lookout for tree ferns. Even alone, the forest is raucous with noise. Silence is not an issue. We saw a Morpho flying around a tree over and over, and something small running along some branches, a squirrel or small monkey.

9:52 pm: Everyone is asleep except for Daryl and Ross, who went to the horse pond to look for frogs and snakes. People started to go to sleep at 8 pm. The ones studying birds or looking at how light affects certain organisms have been up since 4:30 am or so. Ross is studying light and temperature in relation to leafcutter ant behaviour, and he plans on checking the nearby colony at 4 hr intervals through the night. Good thing plants are immobile.
    Dinner consisted of Gallo Pinto, “Chinese” noodles stir fried with carrots and ham.