Adventures with Plants

Hi, it's Sean and Soren. Today we had adventures with plants and trees. We woke up really early, ate breakfast, and immediately set off to go our separate ways. Sean went to the zip-line tour, while Soren went on a nature hike.  The groups switched activities in the afternoon. Here goes Sean.

So when we set off to go zip lining, we walked to the guidehouse across the river, and we waited for about ten minutes until a bus came to pick us up. After that we drove for about 15 minutes, and we arrived at the site of the zip line. Then we got all of our gear on for zip lining and we started to zip line. So the first one was pretty short, and the second one was very high and long. After those two we went on 12 more, all through the jungle canopy, and it was very fun. It took us about two hours, and the last one, back across the river, was very long. Then we finished up and we had a snack, then we headed back. After that we walked back to the ecolodge, and we had lunch and headed off on the nature hike.

All right, it’s Soren again. So, my group walked through the ecolodge land, stopping every now and then to learn about interesting plants and birds. We found plants that were edible and sugary and big multicolored birds. We walked along the street for a little while and found leaves that stick to you like Velcro. We then went along a farmland trail and found a plant that hung down. If you stood in it, you would think you were standing in the middle of a rainstorm. Finally, we sat down in this alcove area on the farm of Jaime, our guide. We sampled many plants. One of my favorites was coconut, which I ate three of. We also had star fruit and sugarcane and many other fruits and plants that are important in Costa Rican “ethnobotany.” Finally, Jaime pulled out some chili peppers and asked jokingly if any of us wanted to take some. I volunteered. Miles also wanted some, so I broke it in half and gave some to Miles. On three, we both popped the peppers in our mouth. Well, Miles took a bite, but I ate the whole thing. Two seconds later my mouth was on fire. Five more seconds and I was crying. Bix handed me a coconut to suck on, which greatly helped. I sat in the corner shivering for the rest of the experience. My tongue had gone numb. I have not been able to taste anything all day. It was amazing, and I’d do it again almost instantly.