PROGRAM PHOTO ALBUM
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 JULY 18
🐢 Welcome to Costa Rica! A New Adventure Begins
There’s something unforgettable about landing in a new country — palms waving in the breeze, unfamiliar accents in the air, and 22 excited faces stepping out of the airport in San José, Costa Rica.
We are gathered at our welcome hotel in San José, ready to begin this incredible journey together.
As each student arrived, they were welcomed with open arms and warm smiles by our dedicated staff team:
• Maribel, our International Director, and Jason, our Local Director; will be guiding the group through every step of this experience.
• Esther and Anna, our energetic and caring mentors, are already helping students feel right at home and have a lot of fun.
✅ Stay tuned to our blog for updates on our conservation work, cultural experiences, and unforgettable pura vida moments.
💡Parents: Please know your students are safe, supported, and already beginning to shine. Just a small note — signal coverage and Wi-Fi will not be available during our time in Parismina, but that’s also part of the beauty of this immersive experience.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 20
🔥 Zipline adventures
Before we arrived in Parismina, our journey took flight — quite literally — through the zipline tour at the Costa Rican rainforest.
On our second day, our group made the journey to home base. The drive from San Jose to the remote, pristine Parismina was long and exhausting, taking up the vast majority of our day. About halfway through our drive to the ferry, we stopped to zipline in the rainforest. At the beginning, the weather was mostly tolerable, however as we went down the last few ziplines, it started to downpour. After ziplining we quickly ate lunch and got back on the bus to continue our journey. Our next stop was about an hour later, our last glimpse at civilization. We stopped at the local grocery store and bought snacks and everything we were missing.
The bus took us to a pier on a murky river that wound around marsh and farmland. We loaded our bags in a separate boat before taking the ferry to the eco lodge. The ride was short but very exciting, as we were super low to the water and were constantly looking for crocodiles. We unloaded our bags and got introduced to our Local Director and owner of home base, Jason, who taught us the rules of the lodge and introduced us to the cooks. After that, we ate dinner which was red sauce pasta, garlic bread, and salad. After that we got into our mentor groups to debrief about our day and just to relax a little. For the rest of the night some people played card games and after all of that everyone went to sleep.
From your Leaders of the Day Finley Keene and Aarielle Arnett.
💡To our families back home — thank you for encouraging these bold young leaders to dive into something real. They’re thriving.
BLOG POST FOR JULY 21
🌿 Eco Living 101: Lessons from the Lodge
At our home base, the Green Gold Eco Lodge, during our third day we did a bunch of fun activates such as, leadership activates and going to the beach. We had an orientation class where we learned more about the guidelines and boundaries in our program and home base. But the main staple of the day was the night patrol. We had a person come into our home base and talk about sea turtles and what they do. For example, sea turtles are fully concentrated on laying eggs, so much so that researchers can tag, identify, or measure the turtle. That was just one part of the presentation. After the presentation we had to change into our night patrol outfits and go out. While we didn’t see any turtles or their nests, we saw turtle tracks and bioluminescent creatures.
Another part of this day was the games, the game was “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. The rules are simple. One person can’t see but can hear and talk there job is to get the objective, One person’s job is to see the blind person and rely that info using hand signals because they can’t talk, and finally one person can’t see the blind person but can talk, they relay info they get from the muter person to give directions, correct wrong ways and help the blind person see with commands like, down, right and left. It was very fun!
At the next day, we explored the organic plantation farm around home base, learning about the different fruits and plants growing. Using baskets and shaped sticks, we harvested pineapples, avocadoes, cacao, and mangos. We learned about shampoo flowers and tried coconut water from the different stages of coconut development. In the last stage we tried the coconut meat and other indigenous fruits. Afterwards we went prepared for the beach where we walked and picked up multiple bags of trash. We feel good about our environmental impact and the different creatures that will benefit from it. After the work we were able to play many games with Jason and enjoy everything the beach had to offer, such as bodysurfing in the waves or digging in the sand.
We dried off and did some leadership activities such as building trust, were we draw the river of our life and reflecting upon the day that we had. In a chow circle we expressed gratitude for different things throughout the day. After doing origami in our mentor groups, all of us broke off and played games. Such as card games and night at the museum. Ending the night with charades before heading off to bed. Despite the rain changing our plans for the day, we had a great time!
From your Leaders of the Day Gabriel Merriman and Addyson Gutierrez (July 20st ); and Charlie MacDonald, Aleia Labonte, and Lily Hanlon (July 21st ).
💡Parents: Your students are doing more than adapting — they’re thriving.
Also, due to limited WiFi at home base, we’re not able to send as many photos as we’d hoped. We will send more pics as soon as we can!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 24
🇨🇷 Tico Life
During this week, our students have come face to face with the real meaning of environmental leadership and the profound connection between what we consume, how we live, and what we leave behind. Then the daylight hours here in Parismina are giving us rhythm, flavor, and a deeper understanding of what “pura vida” truly means.
After breakfast we were supposed to go on a jungle boat tour and see the vanilla plantation, but we started the day raining. Many plans were moved leaving a lot of open time. During that free time, we all bonded over group games and got to know each other. All the games we played helped us reflect on our leadership values. Some values we practiced were communication, connection and trust.
One activity we did was GLA jeopardy. We also played fun fact bingo and a silent game, getting to know more about each other. Afterwards, some women from town came in to braid our hair and give us a dance lesson. During the dance lesson we learned several styles of dance, like salsa, merengue and bachata. Almost all of us got our hair braided and tried different types of braids. In the afternoon we played duck duck goose. During our game the rain stopped so we all went to the beach to continue the game, it was very fun! After dinner, we gathered for mentor groups where we reflect about our day. In the evening, we all got ready for night patrol and split into two groups. Halfway into night patrol one of the groups encountered a turtle but it quickly fled back into the ocean. We all returned to home base late and hung around shortly before going to bed.
At the next day, we took a truck at 9 in the morning to get to town. Then once we got to the town, we talked to the president of ASTOP (the local turtle protection program) about their hatcheries and the information they collect from the sea turtles they find. We walked around and saw all the different buildings and places there. We had cooking lessons and learned how to make empanada’s, we made ones with cheese, beans and both. We had a good view of how the people of Parismina live and how they live their day to day lives.
After our cooking classes and tours, we went to a local smoothie shop and tried smoothies made from a variety of local fruits. Some of us went to a corner store in the morning and some of us went more towards the afternoon. Then after we finished our tours, we went to an Artcraft fair run by some local vendors where 10% of the profit went to ASTOP. The last activity we did in town was playing sports like soccer and volleyball with some of the local children. It was a great opportunity to meet people despite language barriers. We got back into the trucks to head to home base around 5 o’clock and enjoyed a delicious dinner of rice, beans, and stew. We finished our day with some meditation and a giant game of mafia with the whole group.
From your Leaders of the Day Jackson Helmes, Ariel Bohrer, and Lydia Curnow (July 22nd); and Niall Klose, Miles Warnke, and Bradley Green (July 23rd)
💡Parents: Your students are engaging with the world not as tourists. They’re immersing themselves in Tico life or Costa Rican life, and leading every step of the way ¡Pura vida!
