Grace Barnes Day 12!!!

Hi everybody! It’s Grace again. 

Today was a big adjustment day for most of us, but overall I thought it was really fun. We left our bug boxes (copyright pending) for a breakfast of oatmeal, honey, and bananas. We were supposed to meet with the park rangers this morning but they had an emergency meeting about some flooding in Costa Rica as a result of a tropical storm. Instead, Yorleny, who works at the camp and grew up in Caño Negro, gave us a tour of the town and the surrounding nature reserve. We were accompanied by her daughter Casandra, niece Camila, and nephew Arón. The kids and Julia became fast friends. On our walk we saw the elementary school, church, supermarket, park, sports field, and a couple of docks/lookouts to the lagoon. Yorleny explained that in the dry season (roughly October-April) the lagoon is completely dry and you can walk from one side to another. Today, however, the water seemed pretty high. We saw a couple of caiman heads poking out of the water as well as many different types of birds and insects. The sun came out during the later part of the walk and made it really hot outside. 

After spending some time wandering and buying cold snacks at the store, we returned to camp for lunch. We ate egg salad sandwiches with chips and yummy fresh mango juice. Then we began our first project at Caño Negro: bird houses. Together we measured, cut, and nailed wood together to make nesting spots for some of the smaller birds in the area. Outside of the nature reserve, many trees have been cut down to free up more land for cattle. As a result, birds have fewer safe places to nest, hence the bird houses.

Afterwards, we had some free time where we played frisbee and volleyball for a while, then we ate our snacks and journaled. Lukas found a lizard and gave it to me so we hung out until I had to return to my room. 

For dinner we ate roasted chicken with rice, broccoli, and some more mango juice. It’s definitely a fan favorite. Lukas spotted a green iguana in a tree and showed it to us all in a phenomenal Steve Irwin impression. While we ate, we had a fascinating conversation initiated by Evie about what kind of fruit we are and what kind of fruit we’d like to be (for reference, I’m an apple but want to be a guava). It stretched our brains and was a good source of giggles. Dinnertime is when the mosquitos become a big issue so afterwards we retreated to our bug boxes to hangout. We could hear singing from the church service across the road as well as all the birds and insects. I had a lot of fun seeing the animals today and hanging out with everyone. 

Pura vida and have a nice week!