I'm a coffee scientist!

So some of the volunteers and myself joined our team leader for an outing into town to watch what was to be a very exciting futbol game at a local bar after dinner on Monday.  Alas, Costa Rica was (what seemed easily) defeated by Argentina 3-0 but seeing a different aspect of local culture and tasting a local beer was quite fun indeed.  And I am reminded by Dr. C's husband that I may in fact have to start getting into futbol if there isn't a football season.  Fine with me.  Soccer players are very easy on the eyes.

Day 2 of work went very smooth.  I was again measuring coffee plants and counting coffee beans, but since I was partnered with Sebastian, I finally felt comfortable with knowing what I was doing.  I felt a little slow and unsure the first day and wondered if that's why Sebastian decided to be my partner, but when I switched and worked with Dr. C, we easily maneuvered through huge coffee plants in no time and our group came together like a real research team.  It wasn't easy, but it was fun.  Back at the lab, there were more Earthwatch people and their friends who kept coming and going as the day went on.  I am amazed at how many like minded, environmentally concerned locals there are here.  It is incredibly inspiring to listen to the work that each of the people here is involved in, from soil rejuvenation to the economics of eco-friendly agriculture and more.  One Earthwatch woman, Natalia, was chatting away about her week of workshops with local farmers, encouraging them to follow the lead of the Coope Tarrazu.  We are hoping to fit in a visit to one of these workshops, but our day is actually quite packed with data collection and lab time, especially considering that we aren't exactly doing a working lunch.  In fact, we are doing lunch Costa Rican style, so it takes about 1 and a half hours.  Plus, after we finished entering data into the computer and doing other things around the lab, there was a rare traffic jam on the way to the workshop and as Dr. C pointed out, we did not come to Costa Rica to get stuck in traffic!  We should have some time this week to visit farms.  The team is debating about which farm is best: butterfly, bee, organic, or high school farm associated with coffee coop that has animals.  Many of you are reading this blog, please comment on which farm you think we should go to!  We are leaving early this morning so I'll post pics later...