PROGRAM PHOTO ALBUM
TIME CAPSULE LETTER
Pura Vida GLLP!
We cannot believe how much time has passed since our Costa Rica trip ended! It feels like yesterday that we were all together zip lining through the jungle, planting hundreds of coconut and almond trees, and having an absolute blast swimming and doing cool tricks in the sea! You’re likely back in school and back in the swing of your everyday lives, but we want you to know that we are still always thinking of you and thinking of our time spent together making an impact in Costa Rica!
You truly left an impact on the communities in Montezuma and Parrita with all of your hard work, curiosity, and open mindedness. The time you spent cleaning the beaches in Montezuma of plastic waste and natural debris left the sea turtles with the space they needed to lay their eggs. While we may not have actually seen any turtles on night patrol, you all put in the hard work of clearing crabs from the hatchery and replenishing the sand — we know that the turtles will be grateful for all your efforts later in the season! In Parrita, you learned about the importance of reforestation and planted hundreds of coconut and almond trees. We hope you realize that while you might not have tangibly seen the impact of all of your service, your hard work and effort will continue to serve the communities here for months and years to come as the trees slowly begin to grow and turtles come to shore to discover the newly cleared stretches of sand. We hope that the knowledge you all have gained from this experience will stick with you throughout your lives and that you will continue to educate those around you on the importance of marine conservation in order to protect and respect our environment and all those who inhabit it!
Another thing we simply cannot forget is all the crazy FUN we had together! You are truly such a special group and we are so proud of how welcoming and accepting you all were towards each other, towards us, and towards the local communities here in Costa Rica. We went trekking to a waterfall and cliff jumping, cooked local cuisine and tried so many new foods (especially all the fruit juices), and felt our stomachs drop as we fell fast on the zip line. At homebase, we spent nights doing tricks in the pool, hours playing at the pool table, and we showcased all kinds of strange talents during Send Me Your Champion. We spent mornings doing yoga, meditating, and going for runs on the beach.
We had countless beach days where we played huge group games of soccer and volleyball and you all COMPETED hard. We went shell hunting, splashing in small tide pools, and flopping on the sand like mermaids (special shoutout to Kevin)!
We’re so proud of how committed you all were to the program, to the local communities, and to yourselves. We so appreciated all of your genuine curiosity and desire to learn and grow as individuals throughout this experience. We saw the growth in all of you guys and hope that you continue to use what you learned during your time here to grow even more upon returning home.
On that note, who remembers our OMG – “one meaningful goal” we created together at the end of our session? — We pledged to clean up garbage and share about it on social media to encourage others to do the same in order to leave the environment around us a little bit better than how we found it. How has that been going? Has anyone gotten their community involved? We would love to hear about it!
Remember those personal goals you all created as well. We hope and truly believe that you’ll continue to BE THE CHANGE wherever you are in the world!
We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for making these two weeks so special. Best of luck to everyone in the future and remember to always dream big and continue working towards all of your goals!!!
Much Love,
Taylor and the Costa Rica Team
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BLOG POST FOR JUNE 28
Hola Famila y Amigos!
Arrival day has come and gone. We have all landed safely in Costa Rica and spent the first day slowly trickling in from the airport and beginning to get to know one another through lots of fun games and conversations!
At homebase, some of us played a utilized the volleyball court for a big group game and lots of us completed our swim tests!
We really enjoyed sampling our first few Costa Rican meals. It’s so exciting to try some things we haven’t ever tasted before (especially the fresh fruit juices)!
We’re going to sleep tonight anticipating an exciting travel day tomorrow: off to Montezuma we go! We can’t wait to begin our service projects and to explore the beautiful beaches in the region!
We have the most exciting trip ahead. The next two weeks are going to be filled with adventure, learning, and friendship — we are SO pumped!!!
As the Costa Ricans love to say,
PURA VIDA!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 30
¡Hola! We had a very active start to the day with 6 of us waking up at 6:30 to go on a 30 minute jog with Sawyer. Many others chose to begin their morning with yoga while others decided to catch up on sleep!
We had a delicious pre-breakfast of an orange and watermelon slice topped with nutritious chia seeds followed by a mini crepe, eggs, rice and beans, and plantains. Some of us made breakfast burritos! The juice option was soursop along with coffee, water, and tea options.
We all made sure to eat and drink as much as we could because we knew we had a long, but fun, day of service ahead of us.
Upon arriving at the ASVO facility, Diego gave us a presentation about the turtles we might find (the Lora, Tortuga Negra, y Tortuga Baula), their diets, sizes, tracks, egg count, and more. We also learned about the hatching and conserving process that is used to repopulate the turtles. After the presentation, the work began! We cleaned off the beach and began the process of transporting new sand into the hatchery. We learned the new sand is needed because the old sand has bacteria and microorganisms from the previous batch of turtles.
Next came an incredible lunch! The juice choice was banana and quass (a type of guava) and the option of water. The meal was a classic lentil dish the came with rice and fried plantain chips. Chilena (spicy pickled vegetables) could be added for some spice.
After lunch we had a nice hike across rivers and roots to a huge waterfall. Here many of us climbed and jumped off a ten foot rock into the waterfall’s pool (saltamos de un catarata). This was an afternoon of fun, cooling off, and socializing.
After the hike back to home base, many showered, read in hammocks, and played board games. We then gathered for a leadership activity revolving around the impact of social media in our lives.
We capped off the day of delicious meals with grilled red marlin fish, mashed potatoes, and salad with pickled carrots and beets. The juice with this meal was a delicious lemonade, and always water.
Finally, we had our first mentor groups of the trip; here we wrote letters to our end-of-program-selves. We miss you all and buenas noches familia de GLA.
From, Emelia and Kevin (11-0 so far in chess)
BLOG POST FOR JULY 1
We started off day 4 with an amazing breakfast created by our awesome kitchen staff!!
Then we ventured to our service which consisted of picking up sticks to clear out the beach in order for turtles to lay their eggs. Covered in hermit crabs we powered through so we could make a nice space for the turtles.
After service we had a quick dip in the ocean and saw some monster waves. On the way back we were graced with by presence of monkeys which pathed the way back to our hotel. We chowed down on some lunch and made our way for our kayaking journey!!
When we arrived, we all shared a picnic dinner with a gorgeous view and listened to the sound of howler monkeys. After heading out on the water we were so lucky to see bioluminescence which was absolutely stunning.
We headed home and clocked out for the night after a long fun and incredible day.
Adios!
Carlos and Bridget
BLOG POST FOR JULY 2
Buenos Días GLA family!
Day 5 started with breakfast once again created by the awesome kitchen staff!!!
We then went onto our final day of service where we loaded bags of fresh sand into the hatchery.
Afterwards we went back to homebase for some lunch and then we headed out to the beach. We swam in the rain and played some beach soccer and volleyball and explored the tide pools.
Later on, we went back and started getting ready for our first night of night patrol to look for mama turtles and their nests. Although we did not see any, we were thankful for the day. We’ll head into night patrol tomorrow with good intentions and high hopes!
Buenos Noches!
Kenzie & Mia
BLOG POST FOR JULY 5
Hola!
We started off the morning with a healthy breakfast containing rice, beans, eggs, and of course Rice Krispy treats with a side of ice cream!
Then, we hopped on the bus and made our way over to Curu National Park where we took an hour long walk through the forest seeing crabs and tons of howler monkeys!
Afterwards, we had lunch at the beach in the national park next to some cute monkeys! We spent the next hour laying around on the beach and refreshing in the ocean before our next long bus ride!
We then took an hour long ferry which continued to an hour long bus ride where we stopped for some empanadas and hot chocolate! Before continuing on, we walked across a bridge to take a peak at some hungry crocodiles!!
After another hour long bus ride, we finally arrived to our next home base for the final week in Parrita! We enjoyed a delicious dinner and headed off to bed!
Hasta La Vista!
-Saydee & Brenna
BLOG POST FOR JULY 6
Good morning!
we started off the day with a delicious first breakfast in our new home base then got ready to do service.
Today, we learned about the importance of planting trees on the coast, as it acts as erosion prevention. We planted dozens of coconut and almond trees as well as harvesting over 100 almond sprouts in a new home so they can grow!
When we returned to the hotel, some of us took a dip in the pool before indulging in a yummy lunch!
After a little free time, the group took dance lessons from Kenneth, learning several Costa Rican styles of dance. The vibes were super fun and everybody stepped out of their comfort zone to try something new!
Then, we did a fun leadership activity. We got into groups and when a question was asked, we picked the person who had most applied to. We had multiple funny impressions of people and animals, etc.
Later, we had a delicious dinner and started writing letters for everyone to read at the end of the trip. tomorrow we look forward to zip lining!
Love Bryn and Mackenzie
BLOG POST FOR JULY 8
Hola Hola Familias!
We have been having the BEST time over the past couple of days.
Today, we left bright and early for one of our most highly anticipated days: Manuel Antonio National Park. We were all so excited because we knew we’d get to see all kinds of amazing animals (especially sloths)!
When we entered the park, we set off with our guides, some powerful telescopes, and the belief that sloths, monkeys, and other cool creatures would meet us along the way.
After our nature hike and animal spottings, we all but ran down to the beach in the park and spent the late morning swimming around in the blue/green waters surrounded by palm trees. The whole group got into the water and it was one of our favorite team bonding moments!
When we were all swam out and our stomachs were beginning to rumble, we packed up and grabbed our packed lunches to eat at picnic tables at the beach. It was such an incredible morning.
Returning to homebase called for an afternoon of pool time and games. We enjoyed some chill time before meeting back up as a group to play a competition game on the beach at sunset.
In the evening, we had dinner and split into mentor groups where we discussed our goals for post programming.
The day was everything we imagined and more and we are so grateful to have seen so many INCREDIBLE animals in their natural habitat.
Tomorrow is our last full day here in Parrita and we cannot wait to see what is yet to come.
Adios!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 9
Hi Family & Friends,
Today, we jumped back into service. The focus of the day was sign painting. We used our creativity today to design the signs and wrote important messages about conservation. It was super fun to tap into our creative and artistic sides for this project!
We returned to homebase for lunch and then headed right back out and into the community in Parrita to attend a cooking class. We had the opportunity to cook a meal with a local community member right in her very own kitchen in her home. It was so amazing to be so warmly welcomed into her house and to learn from her.
We made a traditional dish from scratch and drank some homemade juice and coffee. She even gave us some eclectic aprons and hats to wear while we cooked!
On the way home, we stopped at a fruit stand where we bought cacao, rambutan, mangos, fresh fruit juices, and more!
We enjoyed our last dinner in Parrita and then began our appreciation circle where we had the opportunity to recognize each other for all of our hard work & kind hearts shown over the past two weeks.
After dinner, we got ready for our surprise: a bonfire on the beach! We each threw a stick in the fire and announced one thing we would like to leave behind after this trip. It was super cool to hear everyone’s response and to understand ways in which everyone wants to continue to grow when they get home.
We roasted marshmallows and hung out on the beach around the fire for the night.
All of us can’t even believe that tomorrow is our final day!
See you all soon!
