Tales from the Third Day in the Rainforest

Megan Schillinger

Our third day in the rainforest was pretty crazy. We woke and had cocoa crispies for breakfast! I was probably the most excited I had been in like forever, since I like rarely enjoy the food that they have for us, cause you know, I'm such a picky eater. Oh, and they had bananas! But then there was this crazy giant lizard in a tree and Victor, who by the way is amazing, took us down a trail and we saw like a ton of little spider monkeys or some species like that. It was so cool, I don't know if it was because monkeys are my favorite animal or if it was because we seen them somewhere else besides the zoo. Either way it was amazing, I was so excited I carried my banana down there.

After that we worked on our trail. It wasn't difficult because we knew what we were doing, but it was just so hot and everyone was so thirsty. There were even monkeys down where we were working and a ton of bugs which I am definitely not a fan of. I pretty much hate them. After working for a few long long long long long long hours, we finally got a couple hour break where we could do whatever we wanted. Most people chose to sleep but I just can never fall asleep when it's daylight out so I just chilled with a few other people who were unable to sleep.

After the break we had to go on about a 4 kilometer hike. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty difficult going up because it was mostly uphill and the hills were very steep. Though while hiking we took occasional breaks to learn about the different plants used for medicinal use. Like a certain plant/tree helped to cure a stomach ache or malaria and one helped with bug bites. It was pretty cool to see like what plants they used and what they were used to cure. And we learned the different things that can grow from trees, like cocoa, chocolate and cinnamon. Then we had to go across the rainforest in a little cage basket. It was so amazing. Personally, I was really excited because I'm not afraid of heights or anything and it was just so cool. When the horrible hike was finally over we were on top of a mountain, kind of, but we could see the Pacific Ocean! It was really cool just to have made it up there. I just felt so accomplished because I felt like I wasn't going to make it, because I'm lazyish.

Then by dinner time, I was so hungry because I've barely eaten anything because I'm such a picky eater but as always, I didn't eat again because it was fish. And I don't know why but fish just makes me want to throw up, I just find it extremely disgusting. Ms. Arenth did make me taste it though and I still wanted to throw up, so I just really didn't even eat anything. It wasn't cool. But yeah, the third day in the rainforest was really exciting. There weren’t many bugs so I was happy and I seen some really cool animals and everything. I'd have to say it was a pretty good day.