Click here to jump down to recent posts!

Friday June 22, 2018

Hello family and friends! Our first day is coming to an end and has felt both long and short at the same time. Students were arriving most of the morning and afternoon and settled well into our hotel in San José. Some had the chance to swim in the pool / jacuzzi before a thunder storm passed over and we headed to a buffet dinner of typical Costa Rican fare. After dinner we played a quick name game before going to our rooms to get some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will be doing a city tour in the morning and getting to know our local home base before lunch! We’ll post again in the new few days to keep you updated on the experience.

We are still waiting for two friends to join us – Nickolas and Parker Johnson. We all look forward to meeting you on Sunday!

-by Nico Couto, International Director

Sunday June 24, 2018

Hola amigos! Today was the first full day in Providencia, and we immersed ourselves in the local culture through dance, Spanish, and soccer. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, French toast and fruit, we commenced our journey through the process of learning the local language, Spanish. In the midst of practicing basic conversational skills and being introduced to the local slang, students from Providencia taught us typical Costa Rican dance while helping us improve our Spanish.

Following the eventful morning, we enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by the local women. We then spent our afternoon playing soccer with locals at the communal soccer field, the Plaza. Our night concluded with a lively debate regarding small whaling communities. It was a fabulous day!

P.S. Happy birthday to Sophie Whitney! We had some yummy cake after dinner and hope it was a memorable sweet 16.

-By Jamie Malasek and Jordan Davidson

Thursday June 28, 2018

Hello! We just finished day 7 of our trip; hard to believe it´s been a week! Since last update, we´ve accomplished a lot.

The first thing we did before we even started service was have a talk about sustainable development. The leader of the organization Green Communities, Jonathan, talked to us about the modern world of consumerism and exploitation of the resources on Earth, and the impacts that our current culture will have on the world. He explained to us how to counteract this trend with ecologically friendly bio-farms. These bio-farms reduce environmental impacts without depriving the humans who depend on them for survival. We will be working on one of these bio-farms as our community service project in the coming weeks.

We had 3 days of community service this week. We worked in the Plaza, which is an area for the locals to gather in Providencia. Currently, there´s only a soccer field. We were working on building a basketball court/amphitheater right next to the field. The main jobs during the 3 days were making and mixing concrete, and digging the outline of the field. By the end of the 3 days, we had crossed the halfway point in creating the new area, and learned the arts of using a pickaxe and making cement. It was hard work, but it was rewarding to see real progress being made to help the town.

At 4:00 this morning, we all woke up for our first excursion of the program: our whitewater rafting trip in Turrialba. After a 3 hour drive, we got into groups of 5 and learned the intricacies of paddling. We started down the river on our 28 kilometer (or 17.3 miles) journey down the Pacuare River, starting with easy, Class 1 and 2 rapids. After a few warm up rapids, we got to the real action, the bunch of class 3 and 4 rapids. They threw us around, and some people out of the raft (sometimes even twice). We stopped on the side of the river and had some iguana tail burritos (tastes like chicken) and some fruit juice. We resumed the 2 hours after lunch encountering more class 3 and 4 rapids. We got to get out and swim while we were in between 2 mountains, one of the most beautiful sights we´ve ever seen; there were waterfalls, trees, and the mountains and cliffs towering above us. When we finally finished, we got back to our hotel in Turrialba. We waited in the lobby as our rooms were figured out, and they actually got changed up from our home base tents: good chance to make new friends!

We also celebrated another sweet 16 today; happy birthday to Malia Old!

That´s all for now, tomorrow we head to Cartago for a city tour by Luis Diego, our Cartago-native mentor. Adios!

-By Jared Kupersmith and Parker Johnson

Sunday July 1, 2018

Hello parents!

I hope you guys are enjoying the blog because we GLA students are putting a lot of effort and time into keeping you posted on what we are doing!

First of all we would like to introduce ourselves, today talking here is Courtney and Henrique and we are glad to write for you!

Today we started our day at 6 in the morning, I don´t know if you are aware but some of us have been exercising before breakfast. The run took about 30 minutes for us to have time to change and pack the needed items for the day before eating. Breakfast started at 7 am where we ate Gallo Pinto (typical Costa Rican food), eggs and fruit. Right after that we went to a coffee farm to work as we did the past day. There we helped the farmer Gerardo to spread fertilizer in to the ORGANIC coffee plants, don’t be fooled, we did had a lot of music and water breaks!

Service finished at 11:30 where we had half an hour to chill (most of us showered) before lunch that started at noon. At lunch we were served chicken, vegetables, guacamole, and plantain chips by local women! Delicious! Believe me we had another break after that, GLA believes in a balance between work and time for people to reflect and relax (play cards).

If you are asking yourself yes us (Henrique and Courtney) are the best card players ever, no one cheats like us. At 2pm our Spanish class started. Henrique is in advanced where they studied about neutrino carbon emission in the world and about Franklin Chang Díaz, the first non American to go to space with NASA. Courtney is in the intermediate class where they watched part of a documentary about environmental issues and talked about it in Spanish. The lower group cooked, we think. One more free time later, we had food at 6:30. At dinner we had some amazing MEAT! Yeah we some other stuff like Pico de Gallo but is not as important. After dinner we had some group activities to get closer and have fun. And now we have a last free time before bed that we are spending here writing for you!

Friday July 6, 2018

Hi! Our names are Sophie and Henrique, and we´re writing the blog for you today to keep you guys posted on what the GLA students are up to.

So, since we haven´t been updated in days, we´ll summarize the past
few days:

Tuesday morning, we left Providencia to head towards Dominical for a
beach excursion. Once we reached Dominical, everyone
had lunch at a restaurant with a spectacular ocean view, followed by
everyone chilling around the beach, buying souvenirs from pop-up
booths. However, the highlight of the trip was the surf lesson we
took. Everyone seemed to get the hang of surfing, and several people
were able to stand up and ride the waves to the shore. The second
highlight of the excursion was visiting Manuel Antonio National Park,
where we saw lots of cool animals and bugs, including monkeys and
sloths. Also, at the park, there was a nice beach with some crazy
waves and, unfortunately, some sharp rocks (we all survived!)
Finally, we ended our excursion with watching the sunset on the
Dominical beach.

We started yesterday morning by waking up bright and early (7 am) for
a 3 hour drive back to Providencia, but an unexpected landslide closed
a crucial highway we needed to return. So, to pass the time, we
embarked on a scavenger hunt in a nearby town named Perez Zeledon.
When the landslide was cleared 2 hours later, we continued our trip
back to Providencia. With about an hour left of our ride, we stopped
for a quick meal. After getting back to Providencia, most of us went meet
different families and keep practicing our Spanish.

Today, we started 2 new service projects (our main project was delayed
due to rain): eco-bricks and biogardens. Eco-bricks are plastic
bottles filled with other “trash” that would normally accumulate in
the ocean. These “bricks” are used in Providencia to build bleachers
and walls, so we spent around an hour stuffing bottles to make
eco-bricks. After the rain cleared up, we started our biogarden
project, where we dug a meter-deep hole and collected a large amount
of rocks. Biogardens are used to filter the “gray water” to make the
river in Providencia cleaner. Recently, higher levels of soap and
sludge were detected in the river, and Green Communities plans to
reduce these levels.

We hope you enjoy reading what´s been happening here in Costa Rica, and we´ll keep you guys posted!

Monday July 9, 2018

Hello everyone! We´ve reached the end of Day 18 already and it´s crazy to think that only two more full days lay ahead of us. Today was our last service day, with great effort and teamwork we managed to fill our giant hole with all of the rocks that we collected, put in the first pipes and collect the type of plant we need to finish the bio-garden.

We also had our last Spanish class today, with everyone participating in many different final presentations that took place in the presence of the creator of the Green Communities Spanish course. Before breakfast and after lunch we had the chance to see the beginning and end of the process of creating sweets and sugar from raw sugarcane – grinding the sugarcane, boiling it with a special tree bark, taking the solid product and putting it into mold with different herbs and spices. We also went to an adventure park where we did zip-linning, tarzan swing and even climbed inside the middle of a tree!

On a more academic note, we have had a couple more discussions: one on consumption and another on water usage. We walked down to a natural spring for the water talk which was very interesting, and we were pushed in both of them to think about alarming angles of over-consumption and water use, how this affects us at home and what we can do about it.

Tomorrow we will be hiking to a waterfall as our last outing; after that just another leadership activity and then packing, evaluations and a talent show on July 11.

-by Nico Couto (International Staff)

Click here to jump down to the new posts!

Tuesday July 24, 2018

Hola!!!!

After a long day of flying we have all made it to Costa Rica! When we got here most of us took a nap right away in the hotel after meeting our mentors. Then we all did a walking tour through the capital city, saw the most import Monuments and even saw some street performers!

We came back to the hotel for dinner and then got some sleep for our three hour drive to home base!! We won’t have WiFi there so please don’t worry if we don’t get back to you. We’ll be having too much fun to look at our phones.

Adios!

Friday July 27, 2018

Hola amigos! Today was an awesome day. We woke up at around 6:35 to eat breakfast at 6:45.
It was delicious! Then we got on the bus and headed over to San Pedro where we meet up with
the group. Then we broke a sweat working hard on the long-term project of a sidewalk for the
kids and public to walk on. We then hopped on over to lunch, where we had an authentic Costa
Rican meal cooked by wonderful and generous ladies. We then played a quick match of soccer
and headed back to home base. After our daily Spanish classes, we had a scrumdiddlyumptious
meal and then bounced back to our cabins for a peaceful night sleep. We had an incredible day
today and we can’t wait for tomorrow!

P u r a vi d a m a e !

Saturday July 28, 2018

Hola amigos! Today we had another amazing day in Costa Rica. We got to sleep in until 6:50 to
have another delicious breakfast at 7. Then we went down to the bus and made our way to San
Pedro to begin our third day of service. Today we primarily worked with cement with some of
us transporting compost to participating eco farms. Due to an event in the main hall we ate our
lunch in a different place today, but the food was just as good! After that we headed back to
home base to begin another Spanish lesson that lasted 2 and a half hours. Then we ate a
delectable dinner and had free time for the rest of the night. Tune in tomorrow for another
picante post from your blog baristas. Goodnight folks!

P u r a vi d a m a e !

Tuesday July 31, 2018

Hola!!!

For the first half of the trip, we’ve been working on a sidewalk in the small town of San Pedro.
After fully cementing the drainage ditch on a large portion of concrete, we started the second
half of our community service, which involves working on local coffee farms and using compost
to fertilize coffee plants. We formed assembly lines with buckets, and through group effort, we
fertilized hundreds of coffee plants.

After four days of hard work, we decided to take a break and head to the beach! For our first
day in Playa Dominical, we all took a surf lesson for two hours. The conditions were great, and
everyone was able to surf multiple waves. After a delicious lunch, we drove to our hotel for
some much needed wifi and rest. It was a chill afternoon by the pool leading up to another
group meal in the hotel dining room.

For our second day in Dominical, we got up early and shuttled to the Manuel Antonio National
Park. We made our way through the park and were lucky enough to spot a three-toed friendly
sloth, and several other amazing animals including a rainbow grasshopper, and squirrel
monkeys. We arrived at a beautiful beach with crystal clear waters and white sands where we
spent two hours swimming and meeting other American teenagers. We left the beach right
before a rainstorm hit, and headed to town where we ate lunch and shopped to our heart’s
content. We then went back to the beach to watch the sunset.

Today after driving an hour to the beginning of a dirt road, we boarded four by fours trucks and
ascended 10,000 feet of mountain road to make it back to the cloud forest and Cedrela. The
ride was bumpy and fun and everyone had a great time. This afternoon we continued our
Spanish class, as the rain once again kept us inside. We’ll continue community service at the
coffee farms for the rest of this week. Pura Vida!

-Blake and Olivia

Saturday August 4, 2018

Hola!!!

We had an amazing time fertilizing organic coffee farms the last few days! The compost
smells…absolutely amazing 😉

Unfortunately, today was our very last day of service. It was a little hard to say goodbye to
Arturo and Alvaro, our service leaders. They are amazing people and are super passionate
about what they do. The mothers that cook lunch for us every day celebrated all our hard work
by performing some traditional Costa Rican dances for us in their traditional dresses. It was so
fun to dance with them!

When we got back to Cedrela we also had our last Spanish class today! Each level of Spanish
had to present their final projects. Level 1 taught us about Costa Rican legends, level 2 hosted a
game show to teach us about different regions of Costa Rica and level 3 presented a summary
of everything we have done here the past two weeks. Nothing can beat the new GLA Costa Rica
theme song: “La playa” written and produced by Rex and Eli!

We had a delicious chicken dinner and then spent the night doing our last Leadership Activity.
We got the chance to think about our future selves and what/who we want to be twenty years
down the road. After that, we had some free time before bed and Tona and Esteban took us
animal hunting in the woods. Didn’t see much though, and the animals we thought we saw
turned out to be Esteban playing jokes on us!

Tomorrow is our last full day in CR and we are heading to the Extreme Forest Park. We cannot
wait!!!!

Click here to jump down to the new posts!

Sunday July 8, 2018

Pura vida, mae!

We made it to Costa Rica on this beautiful sunny day! Even though we are super tired from our long flights, we managed to make the most of our day in San Jose. We got to do a walking tour through the capital of this amazing country and learned all about the buildings.

While we briefly visited the nation’s most important historical buildings, what really caught our eye was the sunset and parakeets!!! Tomorrow we are heading to our homebase and stopping for a coffee mill tour on the way! We won’t have internet at our homebase, but don’t worry, we will be busy having fun making new friends, practicing our Spanish and serving the San Pedro community!

Hasta luego,
GLA

Tuesday July 10, 2018

Hola!

Yesterday we woke up pretty early so that we could head to home base. It was about a 2.5 hour
drive, but we stopped on the way to do a coffee tour at La Pira de Dota. We learned about how
coffee is produced and the many steps that are involved in that process. We also got to taste
their homemade coffee and fresh lemonade. After we got to home base we ate a delicious
lunch of fish and fruit salad. We did some team building activities in the afternoon along with
some intense card games. Our leadership roles were chosen and then we ended the night with
mentor groups.

Today was an early morning as well. After eating breakfast, we drove to the town of San Pedro
to start our service projects. We shoveled compost into bags so that it can be transported to
the coffee fields that need it. After we worked for a couple of hours, the women from the
community made us lunch which consisted of rice, beans, and chicken. We came back from our
service site and started Spanish. While some of the group was doing interviews in Spanish, the
rest of us played interesting games. We ate dinner and then got our Spanish placement results.
We ended the night with a bonfire which lead us to becoming a closer group.

Pura vida,
Kendall

Wednesday July 11, 2018

¡Hola!

We had another early morning today to begin working on building a sidewalk for the community of San Pedro, so the children can walk safely to school. We divided up into three groups, with two groups mixing cement and the other group leveling the ground and laying down the cement. Unfortunetly we had to stop construction about half an hour early due to rain. After service we had lunch made by the local mothers of pasta with vegetables and meat. Following lunch we returned back to home base.

Back at home base, we had some free time that we could use to shower, as we were very dirty from building the sidewalk. Then we began our first day of Spanish classes in our groups. We worked on lessons in our different level groups, as well as activities all together. After Spanish lessons, we had some more free time. Then we had dinner at home base of pasta, cream sauce, and bread.

After dinner, we had an evening activity where we watched a video about all the processes the things we buy go through from when they are made to after we throw them away. It made us all more aware about the impact the products we consume have on ourselves and the environment. After the video we finished the day with a movie night.

Hasta luego,
Autumn

Saturday July 14, 2018

Yesterday we worked on the sidewalk that runs from the school to the town. We were covered in cement when we left, but it was all worth it. For lunch we had rice and salad that was made by the local women. After lunch, we took Spanish class and then had a discussion about smart tourism before going to the beach.

Today we woke up around five to leave for the beach. We rode on the bus for about an hour and then we got on an outdoor Jeep. It was an amazing experience to see the mountains and the unique variety of fauna. After driving, we arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park. We took a tour there and saw toucans, sloths, monkeys, raccoon, and a lot other animals. We went swimming at the beach, and then went to relax at the hotel.

-Kendall

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Papa Tom (Tommy) and Emma here. Today we had our first experience tending to a coffee
farm. Prior to service, we discussed the differences between conventional and organic
agriculture. We also visited both types of farms. After learning the importance of our service for
the organic coffee plantation, we went to work. We spilt up into groups with some people
shoveling and others participating in an assembly line to spread compost throughout the fields.
We only lasted about 20 minutes before a group of warrior ants interrupted our work. The
shoveling was postponed for a while, but we were able to see the impressive ecological wonder
of thousands of ants migrating in a flowing line. After the ants finished their crusade, we went
back to our jobs. Later, we enjoyed a homemade meal cooked by the wonderful mothers in the
community. Once we returned to home base, it was time for Spanish class! We had a surprise
addition to our class: a Spanish cooking lesson lead by our chef Memo. We learned to make
arepas con queso. We ended the night with a delicious dinner and a fun dance class lead by the
mentors. We learned bachata, salsa and even had a demonstration of the worm. Tomorrow we
have another day of service and fun, so for now hasta luego and buenas noches!

Friday July 20, 2018

Hola Mae!

Today was a bittersweet day for everyone. We celebrated our last ‘real’ day in CR with a visit to the Extreme Forest Adventure Park. We swang from trees, ziplines and even climbed a hollow tree! After our outdoor adventure, we ate lunch at the other GLA base located in CR. We completed our day of adventure with a short walk to a natural pond and waterfall where we braved the cold waters for a quick swim. We then headed to the local fair in Santa Maria.

There we had the exciting opportunity to be in the presence of CR’s president! After we came home, the afternoon was spent packing and enjoying time with our friends. After a delicious dinner, we completed the night with a talent show (congrats to Vincent and Bella for receiving 1st place!). Our last activity was an appreciation game full of love and laughter. While many of us are ready to head back home, everyone can agree that the memories we made here will stay with us forever.

Nos vemos y Pura Vida!
Emma

Click here to jump down to the new posts! 

Friday June 22, 2018

Holaaaa!

We made it to beautiful Costa Rica! After some long flights, some delays and some arriving early, our students are safe and sound with GLA staff in San Jose!

We had a great time getting the opportunity to talk to everyone and we even got a chance to swim in the awesome hotel pool to show our staff our swimming skills! We can’t wait to use them while we try surfing in a week or so!

We had dinner in the hotel, the traditional meal of rice, beans, chicken or fish, fried plantains and veggies! Yummm! After dinner, we got a chance to hang out with our new friends. Well, we are off to bed because at 6:20am we need to be ready for breakfast. We have a very busy day ahead of us and we cannot wait to see our homebase, Cedrela EcoLodge, tomorrow afternoon! We won’t have WiFi access there so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us, we’ll be too busy moving in to our new home!

Not pictured: Jake Writer

Saturday June 23, 2018

Hola Amigos,
Erin here!

Today we left the hotel in San Jose, and started the morning with breakfast at Dennys. We then took a tour around the city of San Jose, and learned a little about the history of Costa Rica. We learned that the majority of the buildings around are post-colonial due to the civil war in the 19th century that destroyed the older buildings. An interesting historical fact we learned about was the story behind the elimination of the army. In 1948, the president of Costa Rica, Pepe Figueres, destroyed a part of the military fort as a symbol to end the spilling of blood between brothers in Costa Rica.

After we toured around the city, we drove through winding streets up to the Los Santos region to La Pira, and had a tour around a coffee farm. Gabriel, the owner of the coffee farm business explained to us the process from picking the coffee fruit to extracting the bean and shipping the beans to coffee companies across Asia and the Americas. After the tour, we got to do “cupping,” which is the tasting of several coffees.

Getting back on the bus, we continued up the mountains to our home base. At the home base, we had a delicious lunch of chicken, potatoes, and a kale salad. Brutus is the dog here at home base, and there is also a cat, who are both adorable! We then hung out and did some orientation activities. We got to know each other better through name games, and more! As it got darker, we had a dinner of pasta, bread, and some blackberry juice. Afterwards, we got to know our mentors and played a little game of trivia which turned competitive very fast.

Again, it was pouring rain by 9pm, as well as lighting and thunder, which hopefully we’ll be able to get used to! But besides that, the view from our home base is absolutely gorgeous, and we’re looking forward to our first service project tomorrow, and having more fun!

That’s all folks!
Hasta luego!

Erin out

Sunday June 24, 2018

¡Hola Todos!
Kyle and Erin M. here!

Today we had another early morning, and had a yummy breakfast of pineapples, mangos, bread, and eggs. All the fruits and vegetables are grown here, and we got to each them fresh! Even the bread is homemade by our dearest chef, Memo. After breakfast, we left at 7:15 to our first service project in San Pedro. We met some of the local members of the community, and talked about developed communities, and sustainable communities. In the group, we also talked about why we are here in Costa Rica, and what we are doing here to support sustainable development in the community of San Pedro. Some of the things we can do here to benefit the environment is not only through the service projects, but also the little things like taking short showers, and recycling during our stay at the lodge.

Our first service project here that we started today is to make sidewalks for the kids here in Costa Rica to be able to safely walk to school. Split into groups, we accomplished our part for the day through teamwork. Some groups created cement, others dug out and flattened the dirt for the concrete, using shovels and pickaxes! Working together was very crucial, and also communicating with the community leaders as well. This service project for us was a very good experience to be able to use our hands and bodies to create something out a few materials to create an impact on the community. We are very excited to continue tomorrow, and get to see more of our progress. Although it was hard work, and at times tiring, we pushed through and getting to eat a delicious homemade lunch was very rewarding.

After a few hours of working on our project, we walked back down to the community school to meet the mothers of San Pedro who cooked lunch for us! We had an incredible lunch of beans, mixed vegetables, rice, guacamole, meat, and fresh fruit juice. Another way we were able to create a positive impact on the community was through being able to provide an income for the mothers who cooked for us. By involving and interacting with the community members, we can also encourage them to support Green Communities! After lunch, we went out and played a quick and fun spirited game of soccer. It got a little competitive, but I’m proud to say that the ‘chicas’ won! (plus Kyle was on the team too!)

Returning to the lodge, we got to take a little break and rest a little to recover. Then, we had our first Spanish lesson, which was more of just games and activities. We also had a few competitions with Pictionary and more. Then we played sardines, and some of us also played card games. For dinner, we had beef, kale salad, and fried yucca sticks which were all tasty once again. The kale here is actually grown right on the lodge! Tomorrow we will continue with the sidewalks, and have our first official Spanish class in our designated levels. Being able to practice our Spanish with some of the community members was fun, and after getting some good rest, hopefully we are up and energized for the next day of cement mixing and more digging!

¡Pura Vida!
¡Hasta Proto!

 

Monday June 25, 2018

¡Hola Amigos!

It’s Anna and Grace here to fill you in on all the exciting adventures of today!

After a nutritious breakfast of eggs, bananas and cereal, we began our day and headed to San Pedro for our second day of building sidewalks for the kids here in Costa Rica. Luckily for us, we got an extra 15 minutes of sleep because of the later breakfast time and were well-rested for the busy day of service and Spanish ahead!

At San Pedro, the service leaders were designated groups and led their teams in mixing cement, smoothing sidewalks and shoveling dirt. All the activities were similar to the ones we did the day before, but we all felt much more confident and comfortable doing each of the tasks because of our previous experience from yesterday. Today was special because we were able to listen to music during the service, making the hard work a little more fun and upbeat. Through the dancing and singing, there was not one sad face at the service site.

After our work at San Pedro, we drove to Santa Maria and practiced our Spanish speaking through interviews with local Costa Ricans! After breaking into groups, we asked shopkeepers and people around the park about what leadership means to them. By conversing with them in Spanish, we were able to apply our language skills and learn more about the role of leadership in the culture of Costa Rica. It was so enjoyable to step outside of the classroom and our comfort zones!

Our Spanish classes, split into 3 sections: beginning, intermediate and advanced, took place once we returned to the Cedrela Homebase from Santa Maria. By doing a variety of activities in the classes, including singing and discussions, we were able to get to know each other and expand our knowledge of the Spanish language.

After a relaxing break which included a gorgeous sunset, we had a delicious dinner made by our chef, Memo. Once we filled our stomachs with fish and mashed potatoes, we once more had a break before winding down for bedtime and planning for tomorrow. Overall, it was a successful day of sunsets, Spanish, service and leadership (otherwise known as “liderazgo” in español)!

¡Adios!
¡Pura Vida!

Friday June 29, 2018

Hola amigos!

We’re back from our “beachend” excursion from the land of Dominical and Quepos!

For the first day, we went to Manual Antonio National Park, which is in Quepos. There, the group was guided by a Tico expert on the historical preservation and knowledge of the biological ecosystems in the park. He helped us spot sloths, exotic crabs, lizards, birds, and monkeys hanging from the trees and scurrying across telephone lines!! We witnessed a National Geographic moment of a monkey indulging two eggs for its lunch. If we had a professional photographer, that moment would be worth a lot of money!

After our tiring but fascinating hike, we ended up at the beach, which is located in the Central Pacific of Costa Rica. Since the water was such the perfect temperature, Nicole and Tona had to drag us out for lunch. After a fun day of activities, we headed up to the hotel to rest up for the next adventure.

The next day in Dominical many of us experienced surfing for the first time. Through the local surf shop, we received lessons and the materials to surf. The waves were wild but we could not wait to stand on the board for the first time. After interviewing one of the surfers, Anna, she describe her experiences as so fun and exhilarating.

While some of us were surfing the rest of the group was on the avenue shopping from dynamic venders and buying locally made ice cream. Regrouping for lunch we traveled to a beautiful beachside restaurant where we enjoyed an array of dishes such as: fish tacos, hamburgers, shrimp and rice, and meat nachos. Mind you – every dish served to us in Costa Rica is accompanied with freshly squeezed fruit juice.

That night we all did our own thing by chillin’ in the pool and dancing the night away. We wrapped up the night with a family style dinner and the authors of this blog were the Head Queens of the table.

In the morning, we packed up our things and headed back up to the Eco Lodge. We are excited to get back and start service tomorrow, but we wish we had more time to relax by the water.

Pura Vida!!!!!

Lily and Nia

Saturday June 30, 2018

Hey y’all!

Today we started our second part of service. To start the day, we went to a conventional coffee farm and observed what the plants looked like when the farmers use pesticides and harmful chemicals. This farm was so dry and lifeless that one of the students referred to it as the graveyard¨.

After viewing the ¨graveyard¨, we went to Alvaro’s (the local leader of Los Santos) organic coffee farm. There was a noticeable difference in the plant soil, sun exposure, and amount of bug holes in the plants´ leaves.

Now comes the time that we have all been waiting for… to use Mother Nature’s resources to their fullest extent! By providing local revenue, jobs for Ticos, and positively contributing to the future of San Pedro and beyond, GLA students used manure, food scraps, and beneficial bacteria as our fertilizer. At the organic coffee farm in San Pedro, we helped fertilize one area of the farm by using an assembly line method. Some of us shoveled organic compost into buckets, passing them down the line to be dumped around the base of the coffee plant. By working together, we were able to complete a job, that would normally take one farmer 2-3 days, in 4 hours!

To end our day in San Pedro, we played an intense game of fútbol. In a close match the boys ended up winning 6-5. As a closing remark, we all had a blast getting back into service and spent the remaining afternoon learning Spanish and hiking around the EcoLodge.

¡Hasta Luego!

Nia, Lily
Hazy for pictures

Sunday July 1, 2018

Hola!

The sun beamed its usual rays this morning as the group took a minor detour to the organic coffee farm, where we began working on the day prior. We walked to a spring creek near the entrance of the lodge, where we discussed the importance of trees to our water supply. Planting the trees help retain water in our ecosystem so we began planting more trees around the area of the creek. These were small trees (no bigger than 3ft) but they would grow into mature trees with an important job. We also brainstormed the importance of saving water and steps we can take to preserve our water supply for when we return home.

Once we arrived at the organic coffee farm, we began spreading the compost to the small coffee bushes. This compost was locally made by the community and is used to add nutrients to their organic farm. We formed an assembly line of sorts and began passing compost buckets to the needed areas and tossing the empty buckets back to be refilled. After 45 minutes or so, rain clouds began rolling in, so we packed up our gear and headed to the community center for lunch.

At the Community center we had rice, chicken with steamed veggies and a Sugar Cane Lemon Iced Tea, followed by a lollipop for dessert. After lunch, many of us played a childhood favorite: Musical Chairs along to some popular Latin music. The room filled with cheers, laughter, music and the roars of our competitive spirits. Then, we returned to the lodge where we began working on our final Spanish projects with our Spanish classes.

Lastly, Dinner Time! After a nutritious common Costa Rican meal, we began to learn some Latin dances, taught by one of our peers, Mhelaney, which included Salsa and Bachata. We all had a blast learning and dancing with our partners!!! Truly a night one will never forget…

Until next time,
Hazy

Click here to jump down to the new posts!

Wednesday July 18, 2018

¡Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!

Our local and international staff have excitedly been preparing for our newest session!! Arrivals were smooth on the first day and we picked up all 21 students at the airport!!

The group arrived safely at our Home Base near Playa Flamingo to freshen up and settle into their next 14 days of Pura Vida! Even though everyone was tired after a long day of travel, we all enjoyed a delicious dinner together, played some fun name games and icebreakers to get to know their new GLA family, and shared some important information regarding safety.

Tomorrow Thursday, we will review the itinerary of the program with the students to learn about all the soccer activities they will have, visit our first service site, have a pool party with swim tests in the afternoon and then watch the sunset at the beach.

Stay tuned for more news!

-Christina, Ferney, Luismi, Tyler and Jose Pablo (el equipo)

Thursday July 19, 2018

The very first day of the Soccer Beyond Borders program was full of excitement and of course full of Soccer.

Our local chef delighted us with a typical breakfast in Costa Rica (eggs, gallo pinto, jam, cheese, fruit and coffee/fruit juice). We had a first meeting all together to keep bonding and to learn more about the program, the service, the community and about the home base rules.

Once we had the information in place, it was time for us to go in action; we went to visit our service site and had our first official time for SOCCER, we had a blast!

Then, after recharging batteries with lunch, we went to a pool party to have a swimming test and to share by the poolside where the students came up with a funny game in water and enjoyed showing their dribbling skills.

Finally we ended up the day with the most beautiful sunset at Flamingo beach, while again, we shared our passion for SOCCER. Costa Rica was showing us its best nature gifts on this day, like saying “welcome” to us!

It was an awesome day!

More blogs to come!

Friday July 20, 2018

In the morning we had Mrs Verónica (chef) cook eggs, rice, beans, and pancakes. After we ate we headed to our first community service. It was a lot of hard work and teamwork. We painted the middle of the basketball court to make the lines for the volleyball court. After the hard work and effort of painting and cleaning we played a little bit of soccer with the locals. After we had our first soccer practice with Brazilian coach Moreira. We did a couple of drills with him and we scrimmaged at the end 11 v 11.

We came back to the homebase and had a cooking class with Veronica. She taught us how to cook pico de gallo and made empanadas de steak, cheese, and beans. We also made guacamole. It was delicious.

-by Esteban & Marcello

Saturday July 21, 2018

Our third full day in Costa Rica was full of excitement and fun! After a delicious breakfast from Veronica the chef, we loaded into the bus and headed for a local soccer clinic. We set up stations and made great friendships with the little local kids. After an awesome scrimmage with our new pals, we got back on the bus and were off to a soccer practice with the local Costa Rican U15 girls team. Coach Moreia and Coach Danielle led us in challenging yet invigorating drills and a fun scrimmage afterwards. We had a late yet delicious lunch and rested before leaving for the beach. After a well-deserved nap, we went to the beach and enjoyed a soccer tournament and swimming in the ocean. After a long day, we were all sleepy and excited for dinner and bedtime!

By Addie and Cece

Sunday July 22, 2018

Today, in the morning we started off very early, as breakfast was at 6:30. This early start created a lethargic attitude for us. Breakfast was normal: eggs, rice and beach, and tortillas. From there, we had a 2 hour bus ride from home base to the river, which was a struggle because we were really tired from the early start. While on the drive, we stopped by a restaurant to take our last bathroom breaks before our adventure, as well as to take our lunch orders. We drove about 20 minutes longer before switching vans in a remote location, and then taking a bumpy ride to the river. Before getting on the river, we put on our helmets and life jackets and had a safety briefing. Around this time, it started to rain so it was a downpour throughout our rafting. We didn’t think the river would be too exciting, but we were glad to be wrong, as there was a rapid around every corner.

Towards the end, the rapids became more intense, with a few boats flipping and many falling into the river. During one of the biggest rapids, on a drop, one of the leaders of the day accidentally ended up falling onto the other leader of the day and we ended up falling into the river. Then towards the end we hit the biggest, most exciting drop of them all, which was about 12 feet straight down. Most of the people from our group ended up falling out. After, we all got out of our boat safely and no casualties were involved I think. We also stopped at a souvenir shop and the rest of the day was normal: bus ride back, dinner which was lasagna and our favorite part was the pinto, which contains rice and beans. We then had free time, a team meeting and now dorm time. At the end of a thrilling day we are looking forward to the next day.

Unfortunately we don’t have any photos of this day since you can’t bring your phone on the raft 🙁

-by Caleb and Marko

Monday July 23, 2018

Day 6 of our Costa Rica adventure was full of soccer, service, and good vibes.

Our original plan was to do service in the morning then soccer in the afternoon, however there was torrential rain the previous which caused the sports court to be too drenched to be painted on. We had to do soccer in the morning and service in the afternoon instead.

After breakfast, we travelled to a futsal court where we divided into 5 teams. We played king-of-the-court style where the winning team stayed on the field. The games were made 5 minutes long to try and keep up a fast pace. The extreme Costa Rican heat really tested our endurance!

When lunch was over, we took a short drive to the local park where the sports court was. First, we got the brushes and brooms out to clean off the court. For the rest of the service session, we split up into pairs to sanded the wood to make signs for the park.

The awesome day was rounded off by a delicious dinner and group meeting!

Will T. and Brandon

Tuesday July 24, 2018

We woke up to an early conditioning session for an hour and covered the gym in sweat. After conditioning we all ate a delicious breakfast and then finished up packing and got on the bus to Arenal Volcano. On the way we stopped at great restaurant for lunch and sovereigns and met two very cute puppies.

Once we arrived we checked into the hotel and got ready to go to the hot springs. The hot springs were filled with fun slides and perfect water. The hours we spent there flew by. After we were finished sat down for a nice long buffet and got to eat all the food we wanted. Stuffed with food and tired from the water we all went to bed in our hotel rooms.

Nick and Will R 

Wednesday July 25, 2018

After a good nights sleep in Magic Mountain Hotel we went to a breakfast buffet to start the last day of our excursion. We had an exciting day of zip lining over the rain forest ahead of us. The group got aboard a trailer which took us up into the mountains of the forest. Here is where our first zip line would start. We climbed to the top of a tower and awaited our turns. We were introduced to our first zip line with a 125m drop below us. Everyone’s heart was racing. We glanced at the beautiful volcano and waterfall has we rapidly flew by. This was followed by the longest line reaching just under 1 Kilometer.

The third line out of the seven we did was the fastest line, with a top speed of around 50 kph. The group ended the tour with a educational meeting with one of the guides who happened to be apart of the Maleku tribe. We gained knowledge of their culture and history. Afterwards we were served a traditional Costa Rican meal which consists of gallo pinto and your choice of meat. Sadly this was the end of our excursion to the Arenal Volcano. We than began our long journey back to home base. Once back, we ate and showered preparing for tomorrow’s adventures.

by Gardner and Ben

Thursday July 26, 2018

In the morning we started with a surfing lesson at Playa Grande, where we were instructed by experienced mentors. It was a first for many GLA students but they were quick to adjust to a new challenge with help from the instructors. It was a fun experience although sometimes difficult, we enjoyed surfing the waves of Costa Rica. After spending a few hours in the ocean we returned to home base.

In the afternoon the students were split into two groups to host soccer clinics, one group stayed in Brasilito and the other group headed to a new town, Potrero. We both were in the group that headed to Potrero; we scrimmaged against local athletes and got to know better the locals in Potrero. It was a great experience on both sides to be able to meet new people and make new friendships. Although we didn’t speak the same language, we were able to break the language barrier through soccer. Not only were we able to interact with younger children, but also other locals who were our age and older.

by Adriana and Daniel

Friday July 27, 2018

We woke up and had the usual breakfast of gillo pinto, eggs and watermelon. After breakfast we put on the first layer of paint on our signs for the park that we had been working at. Afterwords, we came back to home base and had another delicious Veronica cooked meal. Then we went to a local fut-sol court and played futbol five with and against another program partnering with beyond sports. After we beat them 3-2 and 5-0 we came back to home base and had another amazing meal before our dance lesson. At the lesson Greddy, the instructor, put us through a crazy work out while learning how to slasa, merengue, and bachata. After the workout we had dorm time and went to bed.

-by Leo Van Sickle

Saturday July 28, 2018

We started off the day with a delicious breakfast. Then we got ready and went to the service site to help repair and paint the basketball court for the community. During this day we focused on painting the lines of the basketball court. Everybody was working very well together and the end product was so amazing to see.

When we were done with the service site we headed back to home base to get ready for next event which was soccer practice. We got the honor to be trained by a professional Brazilian coach. Even though most of us didn’t speak the same language as him we all spoke the language of soccer. It was such a great experience.While we were all playing together he started become closer friends and teammates for the big game.

Once we are all tired out we head back to homebase for a delicious dinner prepared by a professional cook.

It was one of many great days to be in Costa Rica.

-by Gabe W and Jack B

Sunday July 29, 2018

Today was a big day filled with lots of different activities. We started off the day by finishing up our service at the basketball court and playing a couple games of knockout. Some of the locals were able to join in our game making the experience even more exciting. Being able to see the completion of the court and it being used made everyone extremely happy. Next, we visited a local soccer match. Santa Rosa, the underdog, won 2-1 making it an exhilarating game. We finished off the day with the sunset swim at the beach nearby. We planned to have a goodbye dinner at the beach but unfortunately got rained out last minute. We left the beach early and came home to a wonderfully cooked meal by our chef Veronica. It was a great day filled with a lot of energy and excitement.

-by Garrett and Juliette

Monday July 30, 2018

First thing this morning we woke up at the the crack of dawn. 7:55 for an 8 AM breakfast. After eating breakfast we prepared to go on a long journey through dense forest. A one mile hike to the beach. Tiring. After we began the walk we ended up on a dirt road which quickly turned to gravel which quickly became the paved road of a resort. We arrived at the beach and camped out under Ferney’s special tree. We got in the water and swam with man eating fish and deadly rocks. We swam for about and hour and then left the ocean, dripping wet. We bought slushees from a street vendor. Best dessert ever. Then began the long 1/4 mile walk to the bus which happened to be down the road. We hoped on the bus and arrived back to home base in about 5 mins compared to the 20 min walk.

Lunch was amazing as usual thanks to the wonderful Veronica. After some rice and beans, chicken, and a small slice of cake with sprinkles, we quickly left home base to go to the final soccer game at Liberia Stadium. The first half was played against a u16 team and the second half was played against a u18 team. An undeserved 6-1 loss. A hour long bus ride back finished off with a final dinner provided with music and some of the best food of the trip. The last activity was packing to end off an unforgettable trip.

-by Jackson and Micah