Resting?

    Yesterday was our first rest day!  Though what did we decide to do on it?  Study? Sleep?  Actually rest? Not all of us.  No, eight intrepid explorers decided to get up early and go on a hike to town through the forest.  Of course, this involved 3 1/2 hours, rain, and the fording of a number of creeks and a legitimate river.  This was amusing with my leaky rain boots; after leaving the river, with every step water squirted out of the holes in my boots.  I can’t believe that one of the few people to go hiking was me, and I’m sure none of you can either! Let’s just say I was sore today, especially since we went on a two hour hike for class this morning.  We have a daily yoga sess in the house though (what else is there to do?) which helps. I’m aiming for the splits before returning to the States.

    We were talking about the things we were starting to miss from the States.  Sandwiches – for some reason, we never have any here.  No deli style meat or something.  Diet Coke – they do have Coke Light here which was a relief for me (I tasted some Costa Rican soda at the Coke museum in Atlanta last summer, and it was sugary disgusting), but it tastes like what they sell in Europe and no like my beloved American brand.  Not having mosquitos everywhere.  Pizza.  Snickers bars, or really any kind of lovely chocolate.  Four more months and I’m sure the list will be out of control. 

    By the way, identifying insects is one of the most terrifying experience ever.  Those things legitimately look like terrifying aliens.  They all have huge mandibles, nasty scales, and the way their heads attach to their bodies is just not correct.  Seriously, look at close up photos of even just mosquitos or horseflies.  Disgusting.  

    This is a Marantaceae plant, one of the nineteen families we have to memorize for our plant practical Sunday.  You can tell because of the S-shaped venation on the leaves and the pulvinas, which allow the plant to bend when wet and get the water off its leaves.  I feel like perhaps I won’t need to know this once I leave the tropics.  But now you know what I do all day!