Day 3: Santa Elena Cloud Forest Hike

Immersion! We spent a solid morning finalizing our metagenomic sample selections found in IMG/M for use in our phylogenetic distribution stacked bar graphs: These show the distribution of microbes in the compared samples.

After lunch we went to the community run Santa Elena Biological Reserve. We hiked up through the cloud forest to a tower platform that allowed us to see the landscape in all directions. We saw amazing flora and fauna including a tarantula up close, some black guans (pavos - in the turkey family) climbing/squabbling with each other in the trees, huge Ficus trees, toucan barbets, listened to a toucan squawking, and more!


Cloud forest growth (Epiphytes) on the branches!










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