PROGRAM PHOTO ALBUM
Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things you can expect:
- We typically receive 2-3 blog posts per week here at GLA Headquarters from our program staff and students, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post daily – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates sent on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors, including but not limited to internet accessibility, photos may not always be available to post onto the blog. Sometimes onsite program staff are only able to send text back to Headquarters, where our team updates the blog.
Cell Phone Policy: The GLA cell phone policy is currently in place this summer to help foster meaningful connections between students. This means your student’s phone will be collected every day and returned to them throughout the program during designated spaces of time we call ‘tech time’. Actual tech times and regularity will vary greatly by program location. During designated ‘tech time’, your student may use their phones as they wish. Please note that your student may not always choose to use this time to get a hold of their parents. If you are not hearing directly from your student each day, you can assume that no news is good news! We strongly recommend you follow the blog to follow your students’ experience without talking to them every day. If you are a parent and would like to get in touch with your student directly, you can call us at +1-619-758-3031 and we can set up a formal time for you to connect with your student.
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
Click here to jump down to the most recent posts!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 18
Hola todos,
Wow! What a day! Today was both tiring and exciting all at once. All of the anticipations that were built up exploded today. We played so many games for everyone to get to know their new friends!
Our group has all safely arrived at our hotel for the night. We took pictures right before bed when everyone was cozy in their pod with their roommates for the night! Luka is the only student with a late arrival time, but everyone will get to meet him bright and early in the morning! We leave in the morning to take our trip to Homebase in Parismina with stops for fun along the way.
There’s so much excitement from students to start working with our local partners and community. They are all so excited to support turtle conservation and other environmental projects. Everyone is also looking forward to many great adventures ahead of us. Our group is so ready to learn about the local culture, language, and environment from the locals.
This is our first blog. This will be a way for us to share our daily experiences, learnings, and adventures! We hope that you enjoy this blog as a way to experience this journey alongside us throughout the next week. The next blog post will be written by our leaders of the day!
Until next time!
Sea turtle initiative team (Mag, Alysse, and Marco)
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 19
Hola!
Everyone woke up still a little tired but excited for our journey to Parismina. We loaded the bus and were on our way. After a couple hours on the bus we arrived to our ziplining adventure. During the adventure it started to rain, then quckly escalated. We were all a little weary at first but then everyone embraced the rain. Seeing the rain in the rainforest was ironic. During the zipling we saw some cool animals! We saw a toucan, a tapier, and a sloth. The ziplines were very thrilling and crazy! Coming back from zipling completly soaked we had a fulfilling lunch with yummy plantains, rice, and beans. We all got to put on dry clothes and continued our journey to Parismina, almost like a bus karaoke! We arrived soon at a market where we all were able to get snacks for the remaining duration of the trip.
The next part of our day was arriving at the docks to take the boat to Parismina. We arrived after seeing some Spider Monkeys along the way. We were all amazed at the beauty of the lodge that we are staying and settled into our rooms and headed straight to check out the beach. We did group appreciations at the beach and had lots of fun. The group bonded over the amazement of the beach.
We played a few games and had dinner . Lights out at 9:45!
Saludos,
A collective group of creative students
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 20 & 21
Hola, this is Gavin, Lance, Eli, and Colin. This entry will cover the events of yesterday and today. Yesterday, we woke up early morning and primarily focused on orientation and found out the schedule for our remaining week or so in Costa Rica. Later on, we went down to the beach, swam some, and came back to home base. At around 8, we went on our first night patrol, which entails looking out for turtles until about midnight. We did not find any turtles, however, we found a lot of tracks. The last of us came back around 00:30, and it was the best sleep of our lives.
This morning, we woke up and got ready for a boat tour. We saw a lot of different wildlife, some of the species we encountered are Crocodile, Caiman, Red Poisonous Dart Frog, Roseate Spoonbill, and some Spider Monkeys. Afterwards, we went into the village of Parismina to get a tour and learn about the culture of Costa Rica. Next, we got a demonstration on how to tag a turtle and make an artificial nest. Later on in the day, we did beach clean. As the finale of the day, we bared witness to the hatching of nine Leatherback Turtles, and watched them crawl into the ocean. We then rode in the back of trucks through the jungle back to home base, ate dinner, and did a turtle debate.
Stay tuned for the next update. Saludos!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 22
Written by Lucas, Jack, Olivia C, and Aidan
Hola todos,
In the morning, we feasted on eggs, watermelon, pineapples, and arepas. Arepas are a type of sweet bread. While we were waiting for the rain to clear, we played a few games. After the rain cleared up, our local director, Jason, led us on a tour through the farm near the lodge. On the tour, we saw many native plants such as the breadfruit, cocoplum, shampoo flower, plantain, sensy-plant and others. Jason also showed us how he opens a coconut with a machete. On the tour we saw howler monkeys in the trees above us. A few of them were quite annoyed with our presence and threw a few pieces of fruit at us. We also saw lover’s grasshoppers, a caiman, baby iguanas, and a freshwater turtle. When we got back to the lodge, we ate lunch and then had time to nap. Later, we headed to the beach to clean up the trash. This made us more mindful of how plastic trash affects our planet and harms marine wildlife. Then, we had a quick swim and enjoyed the waves. We headed back to the lodge to shower and relax until dinner. And now, we are about to head out to our second night patrol.
Hasta manana!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 23
Hola this is Harper, Grace, Erin and Oskar.
Today was a fun day! First we rode into town in the back of the trucks. We then made empanadas with locals. Afterwards we explored and shopped throughout town stopping to buy smoothies and food as a group. After finishing our food, we made our way to the Casona to relax before the art fair that was scheduled for later on. We played group activities and card games during our wait in order to pass the time. When the art fair arrived, we bought many different pieces of jewelry and art made by the locals. 10% of proceeds went to the organization that helps preserve the beaches and marine life, while the other 90% went directly to the locals. After the art fair we went to the field to play volleyball and soccer with some of the local kids in the town. After a long, fun day, we went back to home base to relax and rest. Finally, we headed to the beach to do night patrol.
Saludos! Pura vida!
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 24
Written by Maia, Ava, and Olivia K.
Hey guys,
The first activity of the day was touring a local organic vanilla farm. We learned how to grow vanilla beans and how difficult it is for a farm to obtain organic status. After fighting with all the mosquitos on the farm, we came back to the homebase for lunch. Towards the afternoon we cleaned and painted the park benches in Parasmina village. We took breaks in between and went shopping for snacks in the local shops.
After we finished painting the benches, we went to the volunteer center to have a dance lesson. A local came by to teach us a variety of dances. This included salsa, macarena, cha cha , and more. Towards the end of the lesson it started to rain and we began to make our way back to home base. After a needed dinner of fried chicken and fries we went out to our last night patrol.
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 25
Written by Skyler, Sofia, and Olivia S
Hola!! We started off the day with an early morning boat/bus ride to the Pacaure River for rafting with long awaited phone time on the way there. We went down the river in 4 rafts and had fun getting soaked by the rapids and jumping into the water(and onto other rafts). We played games such as king of the hill and nobody was eaten by crocodiles. After a struggle to change into dry cloths we then stopped at a restaurant nearbye for buffet-style lunch. On the bus ride back to homebase we sang songs (We Are Young 🙂 ), took naps, and enjoyed the view of the banana farms around us. After taking the speedboat home, half of us quickly changed to go swimming on the beach for the last time, while the other half had a siesta and packed. While at the beach there were push up and arm wrestling contests (and our own Mentor, Marco was the winner!). We had fun taking pictures and then enjoyed our last dinner at homebase. It consisted of empanadas, salad, and brownies! Now we are all packing to head home after countless exciting adventures together!
Pura Vida!! 🙂 <3
BLOG POST FOR JUNE 26
Written by Zach and Luka
Good morning Costa Rica!!!
Our trip to Costa Rica was a blast. Going ziplining, rafting, and volunteering made this trip life-changing. Our day started with packing and cleaning up all our messes. We then had a delightful breakfast of eggs, toast, and sandía (watermelon) from the incredible kitchen chefs. We then continued our journey away from home base with a lovely boat ride from our amazing Parisminan locals. After, we loaded up onto the buses and continued our journey for the hotel. The constant rain caused a landslide on our usual road so a detour was needed. After hours of long driving, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant. Roasted chicken, salad, rice, and beans were served to students and staff and it was an amazing meal. We cleaned up and headed back on the bus (while grooving to some bomb music provided by alysse). At the hotel, we got tech time and participated in the OMG activity skit. Lastly, we finished up with dinner and an appreciation circle, to sum up, our trip to Costa Rica. This also sums up our last blog. Thanks for tuning in!
