COSTA RICA – Beachside Service Adventure – Eco – June 17

Time Capsule Letter – October 2016

Greetings from sunny Costa Rica,

Not long ago the Ecoplaya team welcomed a group of 23 energetic and warm-hearted students. YOU! Our first group, and my personal favorite. Today I want to share with you some of the memories that stick out from the trip!

You were the group that started the service sites and laid the foundation of the projects! How cool? Those sites you worked at are now finished, and it would have never been possible without the hard work you put in. At the Manzanillo beach we did a lot of shoveling, cementing and cleaning up. Also, it was Grayden’s initiative to make a fire pit, and it was a success. At the Centro de Acopio you cut down overgrown weeds, prepared the land for cementing and interacted with the refugees. For those of you who painted and sanded at the park it turned out amazing! The kiosk is up and the games look like new, good job.

GLA is all about service but also about fun, and we had so much of it. The adventure days were exhilarating; swimming in the clear waters of the oropendula waterfall, the mud spa and hot springs, hiking in the pailas sector of the rincón de la vieja volcano… pretty sure you remember the smell of sulphur! Tubing was a blast. Sheina and Maria were my floating buddies, Evan made it like 1km without a tube and we were all there for each other when our tubes flipped (unconditional support). Horse back riding was also a lot of fun, Jackson and Jordan (the fake siblings) led the pack. Oh and remember I didn’t do the zipline because I was too scared? By session 3 I built up the courage to do it… and I lost a shoe!

Another highlight of the trip was the soccer game. Thanks Chazz for coming up with solid soccer strategies: “patience, stay calm, don’t get overly emotional, stay focused, listen, be affirmative, mind over matter. Your mind is your strongest weapon. Deep breaths. Stay hydrated.” Great performance guys! And even better performance against hotel staff the last day. You were the most competitive and athletic group, thank you for sharing that energy with us during the 10 days. The hotel was filled with life when you were around; opening coconuts, synchronized swimming, DJ Zein’s music, 6am yoga, awesome flips and even a cow in the pool. Unbeatable!

I hope you keep expanding your horizons and spreading love everywhere you go.

With love,

Cami, Nico, Lila and Smara

Recollections:

-Affirmative Anne’s lava cake recipe was a hit
-Waking up EVERY DAY for running or yoga
-Sheina’s shades surviving all trials (swimming, tubing, ziplining)
-Jillian riding Evan’stube down a full set of rapids
-Grayden got covered in bugs after breaking a branch at service
-Jackson and Brandon’s shoveling dance
-Wager’s barbie girl performance at the talent show

Summer Blog Posts

6/17/2016

Summer is here, and so are all the students!

Yes, everyone arrived safe and sound, and we’re getting ready for our next days of service, adventure and discovering the roots of PURA VIDA!

Off we go to our journey of adventure, service, new culture, learning and a lot of fun!

– The GLA Costa Rica Team

6/23/2016

These past few days have been enjoyable and productive and contained many activities. The day following our arrival, we enjoyed many “get to know you” activities. These included the trust walk, journal entries, and reviewing the code of conduct.

The following day was our first adventure day. We all woke up early and took a two hour bus ride to Pailas Adventure Park, where we hiked a volcano, sat in a hotspring, and later enjoyed a packed lunch. Once we retruned to homebase, we played a game of capture the flag on the beach.

The next day, we broke into small groups and worked on our community service sites for the first time. The time spent was mainly focused on cleaning the areas so that we would be able to safely perform repairs and/or build structures. After return from the sevice sites, we enjoyed a boat ride to the island of Bolanos, directly across from our homebase. Once we arrived we hiked up the island and the view was extremely worth the effort. Our evening ended with more games and a basic Spanish lesson.

– By Benjamin Sarrasin

The past few days in Costa Rica have been extremely fun and filled with new experiences. On the first orientation day, I was a little nervous because I came alone but then I met some pretty awesome people. Our first adventure day was cool because we got to go on a hike and see volcanoes. In addition, we covered ourselves with mud and relaxed in a hot spring.

I was at “Centro de a Copio” for my service site, where we work on expanding a recycling business. It was rewarding to see all the progress we made in two short days. My favorite part of the trip so far was when we climbed the island mountain. I think the adventure of it was what made it so exhilarating. The view from the top was spectacular as well.

– By Fallon