Hi everyone!

Today was a really awesome day! Early in the morning, before breakfast, Martie, Nicole, Jenny, and Hayley got to see a Capuchin troop come through El Zota! It was the first primate spotting of our trip! After breakfast, we all loaded up onto a long tractor and traveled to the primary forest. This is where we took our first hike and it was amazing! We got to see a group of howler monkeys, including a baby. We also saw lots of different frogs and lizards. Martie was really good at spotting the frogs. We did a hike called a line transection where we walked through the rainforest, collecting data of animal sightings along the way. Phoebe must have taken a million pictures! Our guide, Boa, knows all about the plants and animals. He was really great at spotting some of the smaller critters and picking them up for us to observe; he even picked up a snake that I found!

After our long hike and a nice lunch, we had a lecture with Carson. In today's lecture we learned all about the characteristics of a primate. Then we talked about different types of monkeys, especially the New World monkeys because they are what we'll find on our trip. After class, we had some free time to get our work done. We have lots of reading to do and a field exercise to complete! When Martie, Noah, and I were working near the pond, we saw a caiman in the water! It was kind of freaky because it was so close, but it was still really cool, so we called Sam and Alejandro over to look with us. They brought Macho, a friendly dog that lives here at El Zota, with them.

After dinner, we had a fun spanish lesson with Boa. Alex took a lot of notes because she doesn't know much spanish, but now she knows how to say a lot of helpful phrases. Spanish pros Joelle and Kristen were super helpful because they've taken a lot of spanish in school. Now everyone is sitting in the dining hall, working on their field exercises before bed. Tomorrow we're going to go on another hike and everyone is really excited, including me. Today was pretty exhausting, but it was so much fun!I can't wait to see what adventures the rainforest holds for us tomorrow!

Adios!

Emma