Student Reflection - Jared

Happy Derby Day everybody!!! This is Jared here or for today better known as Tarzan. I would like to believe that y'all had a better day than me but that is more than likely not the case at all. Today was filled with adventure and celebration. As you might of been able to guess from the reference, today was the day we got the opportunity to venture out into the rainforest. For those out there who don't know me, which is more than likely the majority of readers, I consider myself to be an outdoors men of sorts. So having the chance to hike through a rainforest was like a dream come true for me. I spent the majority of the time at the back of the group soaking in as much of the nature as possible. Even though we did not see a lot of animals during our trip, it was super awesome for me to get to see all the different types of vegetation and fungi it had to offer. As we reached our destination on top of the hill it was both an erie and beautiful sight. You see a forest fire had recently claimed the top of where we were but the background was filled with fruitful vegetation and mountain peaks. For me it was an appreciation to see the cycle of the forest life taken place. Even though carnage and desolation was all around, it will soon be claimed again by the life of the forest. I just hope maybe I can return to see it when it is full of life. We continued our trip in the direction of a supposed waterfall that would offer us some cooling relieve in the sun. Unfortunately the path was blocked below causing us to take a u-turn back to the start. Truthfully it was kind of a bummer but I wouldn't let that get me down. I mean how could I in the middle of a rainforest. After this awesome trip we packed up shop and headed back to headquarters, and what could be more awesome after a morning of hiking than a burrito bar waiting to be consumed. Needless to say I crushed multiple burritos before we began our afternoon of more fun activities. Now you cannot be from Kentucky and not celebrate Derby Day at all. So we had to accomplish that Belize style. This was kicked off with a trivia game of related Derby topics. Even though my team was down the majority of the time we made an astounding comeback in the latter two rounds to make it very close. Now we did not get to finish due to the actual race but I am pretty sure we had it in the bag. So they were off and my horse did horribly poor but oh well. Cannot complain too much in a tropical paradise with great new friends. Well it's time to finish up and drink this on the house papya shake. Dueces.