August 11, 2017
Day 1
I arrived to the airport and I saw the whole group with GLA shirts and a sign. Then we went to take the bus to the hotel we were staying at for the night. The city was amazing the streets were full of like people chilling with friends near stores, it felt very alive. When we entered the hotel everyone was very nice, the locals here always have a smile. I met my roommates and we hit it off well as people and we all spent the whole day playing cards as a group. It rains a lot here in different times it could be humid then out of nowhere it starts raining and hard. We all went to sleep after knowing each other all in all it was a nice experience.
Day 2
We were all going in a 4 hour long ride to the GLA home base our home for the next two weeks. During the ride here everything was beautiful all the nature was just amazing. I saw howler monkeys, sloths, and different types of trees. We arrived to the base going into our rooms then we ate after that we went on a rainy walk but it was good seeing the community that we live around, then we started to dry off in the home base to have dinner and then a meeting.
-Gerardo
The first day was tremendously tiring. The flights were really late for some but not for everyone but some lived far and some lived close, And some just had really long layovers. Some people came earlier than others. And in my experience I was lucky enough to get my ticket upgraded to first class and it was really amazing and I literally didn’t pay anything. They had so many things that other people do not have, but enough about the plane. When we got to the hotel it was really nice and it had WiFi which was pretty good. I liked the hotel. Then we went out to eat as a group it wasn’t the full group but it was most of them and then we went back to the hotel and just relaxed until the rest of the people came. The next day it was also great. We went to homebase and on the way we saw some wildlife. We saw a monkey and a sloth. We got to home base and we had some Free time and we played a big of soccer and then we went on a hike. It started to rain but just a little bit. It started to pour and me including other people decided to not bring our rain jackets so we got soaked, but in my opinion the rain was amazing and refreshing. After that we came back and it was fun we relaxed and waited to eat dinner. The dinner was amazing to be honest. The first few days have been amazing and I believe that the rest of the days are going to be amazing.
-Marlon
August 14
Today we had another day of surfing but the waves were harder this time. Then we had about 3 hours to ourselves at the beach, we were hanging out and riding waves throughout the whole 3 hours.
Then we had project of the day where I taught everyone jiu jitsu. Then we had an intense soccer match with the locals. Finally, we had announcements and then we chilled for the rest of the evening.
-Gerardo
8/16/2017
Day 7
We went to see the whale, which is part of our service. It’s a life-size metal whale that we are helping wrap with plastic trash as a visual. I was mostly drilling holes into bottles so we could run wire through them and then place them in the whale.
Then we had lunch and went to go to the last day of surfing, I stood on my board. All in all it was a good day.
-Gerardo
8/17/2017
Today was amazing day because for me it was the first time getting on a boat. It was scary at first but then I got used to it and it got fun. We saw a momma whale and baby whale, it was amazing to see them swim together. Then we saw turtles mating. At first we thought they weren’t mating and then we noticed that there were two turtles. We took pictures and recorded them.
Then we continued to move along and then we saw some dolphins swimming along it was nice to see. Then we got on the island and started to walk into the jungle. We saw a lot of animals and it was an amazing day.
-Marlon
8/18/2017
We went to go to the waterfalls and it was amazing because we jumped off to the water and it felt amazing. Also we had a bit of free time after then had a talk on plastic and how valuable it is yet dangerous because of the waste it leaves behind. Then we went to the second soccer match it was good but then later on I messed up my knee, but it will be better.
-Gerardo
8/20/2017
Today we went to the whale’s tail to walk around and see the tail. Then we went to see the rumble soccer tournament but before that we went to get snacks from stores around the area. After we went to go to finish the whale to then came back to home base full of laughter.
-Gerardo
8/23/17
This morning was a busy morning packing up and leaving home base. We said our goodbyes to the wonderful local staff and started our journey back to Alajuela.
After dinner we sat in the Central Park to reminisce about the adventure of our last two weeks. We enjoyed some ice cream on our walk back to the hotel saying our last goodbyes to each other.
We are now making our way back home to share our experiences to our friends and family.