Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
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BLOG POST FOR JUNE 14
Hi Family and Friends, The GLA Costa Rica: Marine Conversation and Sea Turtle Expedition 14 day program is officially up and running!
By 2.30pm 18 of our 21 students arrived in Costa Rica. One more student will be arriving later tonight and two more will join us tomorrow.
Today we had lunch, completed the swim test and then had dinner before having an early night to catch up on sleep.
Tomorrow morning we will be waking up early to travel approximately 5 hours to Montezuma, where we will be based for the next 6 nights. Tomorrow afternoon, we will play some energizer games, do some team building challenges and run our program orientation.
That’s all for now folks!
Saludos,
GLA MCSTE Team (Fernanda, Ryan, Cos, Laila and Stacey)
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 15
The GLA Marine Conservation and Sea Turtle Expedition kicked off its second day of programming!
We woke up bright and early to catch the ferry from San Jose over to our second home base in Montezuma; we got settled in and soon began our GLA program orientation.
We covered important policies, the GLA leadership curriculum, and much more. As orientation continued, we were kindly greeted by several visitors: white-faced monkeys! We took a break to observe the wildlife, ate some snacks, and continued with orientation. Afterwards, we settled for a yummy dinner!
To close the night out students wrote a future letter to themselves to read after their GLA experience, and they reflected on ways they hope to grow from their time abroad. We ended the night by developing our community agreement and welcoming our last two students who arrived!
We can now welcome all 21 students to the program, pictured in our first official program group photo!
Looking forward to our first day of service tomorrow!
Best,
GLA MCSTE Team Mentor – Laila Jones
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 16
Hello from Montezuma!
Today we started off the day with breakfast at 7 am followed by service with ASVO. ASVO focuses on expanding the sea turtle population through creating a habitat for the turtle eggs.
At service we practiced digging holes for sea turtles to lay their eggs in. It was super rainy and we were soaking wet by the end, but we still had a great time. After service we enjoyed some free time and a yummy meal!
Following that we all did a fun leadership activity called Social Sync involving what GLA stands for, such as the phone policy, and some time to get to know each other better.
The last part of the day was spent exploring the beautiful coastal town of Montezuma and a lovely dinner. We began our mentor groups and ended our third day here in Costa Rica!
We celebrated Wyatt’s 17th birthday after dinner with a special cake.
“Pura Vida” from the leaders of the day, Alicia and Aislean!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 17
Hola!
For our fourth day in Costa Rica, following a filling breakfast the crew left for our first service of the day. Today we cleaned the beach by picking up plastic and trash. We filled so many bags! This work improves the quality of the beach and makes it safer for turtles to come onto shore. After our first service of the day, we came back to another amazing meal.
After lunch we all got together in the Yoga room where we participated in plenty of leadership activities. We created a tree drawing where we expressed where we come from (our roots) and our core values (the tree trunk). We then split off into small groups and agreed on a main goal that we have for this program, and an individual goal we can strive to!
Next we all slapped on our rain jackets and took a stroll into town where we got to enjoy the local gelato! On our way back we played a big game of beach volleyball before heading back to home base.
Everyone showered up before we had a fantastic dinner that Chef Kati prepared for us. We all then surprised Paige with some yummy cake for her big 17th birthday!
The day is not over yet! We then got ready in all black attire for our second service of the day. We walked back to ASVO, where we walked along the beach patrolling the turtles fortresses and had a hermit crab race! At around 10 pm we stumbled upon an olive redly turtle that was ready to lay her eggs. Abby and Wyatt won the race and collected 104 sea turtle eggs and brought them back to the hatchery.
After a long busy day, everyone was ready for lights out and got cozy for bedtime!
I hope you enjoyed today’s update from your group leaders, Willa and Abby! Adios!
