8/2/2015
The gang is all here!
All of the students (and their bags) arrived today without any problems! All are a little sleep deprived, having left home super early this morning or even late last night, but have been troopers. After settling into the hotel, we enjoyed a late afternoon tour of San Jose. The skies were clear today, so not only did we see things like the National Soccer Stadium, but we also got to enjoy the mountains and volcanoes in the distance. We are spending the night in San Jose and the tomorrow we are off to Los Santos and our home base!
8/3/2015
Today we woke up early and had breakfast as a group in our hotel in San Jose. Immediately after eating, we left on a two hour ride to our home base. The sky was sunny and blue so we were able to enjoy the amazing scenery. The drive was mountainous and the road was windy, but the views were unbelievable. Not far from our home base we stopped in the town of Santa Maria to tour a coffee co op. We learned a lot about picking, roasting, and classifying coffee. After the coffee tour we stopped at the bank to change money and then went to Cedrela Eco Lodge, our home away from home for the next 3 weeks. It’s really beautiful and the food is amazing! In the afternoon we had our program orientation and after dinner we continued to get to know each other. We can’t wait for our first day of service tomorrow!
8/5/2015
Waking up in new places can be scary but at the same time quite exhilarating. After starting the day off with a bang at the door for our 6am wake up call, we tiredly made our way down to a delicious and nutritious breakfast prepared hours ahead by the incredible chef. Potatoes can be pretty plain but Memo spices things up.? With full and happy bellies we loaded up the buses for the bumpy ride down to the coffee plantation in a town called San Bernardo with a population of only 50 people.
As soon as we arrived we suited up, filled up all the water bottles, and loaded the trucks with a special fertilizer mix that we made the previous day called bocachi. After the last bag was loaded on to the truck, we walked over to the coffee plantation where we worked in the blazing sun for what seemed like countless hours. Finally it was time for lunch, which was prepared by the local women of San Bernardo.
As we are always on the move, we then ventured off to Santa Maria where we met with our wonderful Spanish teachers to practice our Spanish within the town and participate in games such as local vocab and scavenger hunts.
We then came home after a truly exhausting day to another fabulous meal made by chef Memo. After dinner we had group activity time where we played some challenging games that really required a lot of teamwork.
All in all the day had been very productive and left us all with a feeling of accomplishment that would sure last us through the weeks ahead.
– Olivia Wilk & Jhunie Tongohan
8/6/2015
With an extra 30 minutes of sleep, everyone woke up with smiles on their faces and enthusiasm in their hearts. We headed down at 7 AM to a delicious breakfast in order to get pumped and energized for the day ahead. Proceeding our breakfast was our Bus, which arrived at 8 and headed towards the Volcano; Irazu. The long three hour bus ride was filled with laughter, as the group played a game called “Contact”. When arriving at Irazu, we were greeted by an amazing and vast scenery. The view was breathtaking, not only because we were at a substantially high altitude, but because the atmosphere and weather conditions gave it a “heavenly” vibe.
Afterwards, we had another amazing meal at a restaurant with nearly all the group members ordering a Costa Rican style hamburger. To keep things interesting, we decided to play some more “Contact” during the meal. After lunch, we went to the Basilica of the Church of Los Santos, exploring the Church and learning about it’s Holy artifacts. Inside, the Sun penetrated through the glass windows and reflected beautifully on the gold accent of the church; revealing and amplifying its detailed and illustrious European architecture. Finishing our expedition throughout the Church, we hopped back into the bus to go to our final destination; the Hotel. Thankfully, the Hotel provided Wi-Fi which allowed everyone to keep in contact with family members and enjoy the day for what it was mean to be: a day off.
-Maya & Alejandro
8/7/2015
It was evident that today would be a fun filled adventure when we were armed with the knowledge of our upcoming RAFTING TRIP in ‘Rio Pacuare’, which is why when we found out that we were getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep it was an undeniable gift. The day began at 7am when we woke everyone up often using creative measures such as blasting music while jumping up and down in peoples room to get everyone pumped for the day ahead. When we walked onto the deck of the cabin we stayed in, we had no choice but to absorb the view, which accompanied by the visible floating mist and picturesque Costa Rican mountains was truly a remarkable sight. However we had 30 minutes to get ready as breakfast was at 7:30 and were forced to gravitate back towards our rooms.
With Memo as a chef we had become very accustomed to incredibly delicious food which is why when we discovered it was pancakes (and an assortment of other breakfast foods including ‘gallo pinto’) no one could help but have a smile plastered to their faces as the food was almost as satisfying as Memo’s – It was a great way to kickstart the day. With last minute preparations of packing up our things from our hotel rooms we were off without a hitch around 9am as we piled onto two separate buses. We entertained ourselves with our new favourite game called ‘Contact’ which we learnt from Ariel a member of the GLA staff(huge shoutout to her as a day can’t go by without as playing it.) We arrived at ‘Rio Pacuare’ which is known as the 5th most beautiful river after a 45 minute bus journey.
Before we were off on the river we were kitted with life jackets and helmets also making sure not to forget our water bottles to keep us hydrated. We teamed up in 3 separate rafts made up of 6 people and our instructor. Then we were given some quick instructions and then we were all off down the river. We were initially told the river was a Class 4 rapid which is very challenging to raft through, equipped with big holes on the left side and big rocks, so you had to be very careful not to fall in. While we rafted down the river it was integral that we were in sync. Most people did so by counting they’re strokes while others chose to sing classic songs like ‘Row your boat’ and Beyonce’s ‘flawless’ replacing key words with the words ‘raft’ instead. These creative alternatives kept up moral as we travelled down the Rapids.
Half way through we stopped for a fabulous lunch of burritos prepared by our wonderful guides. This gave us time to reflect on the picturesque scenes filled with waterfalls, exotic butterflies and birds. During our break we entertained ourselves by feeding leftovers to the eels in the river which fascinated us to no end – some people love to watch TV but instead we love to watch the eels surface from the river and hustle for the grub.
Afterwards we were off again gliding down the river and swerving over the tipsy turvy waves. Navigating the river took a lot of teamwork so when Carla and Ben fell out the raft we all kicked into action to make sure that they were safe and sound. Our rafting experience was definitely one for the books. Sadly all the fun had to come to an end so before our adventure came to a close we all jumped, flipped and tumbled into the river for one final float, soaking up our last minutes in the breathtaking ‘Rio Pacuare.’
The rafting took a lot out of us so after showering and changing out of our wet clothes we pit stopped at the hotel and then we were on our way back to the home base. During our 3 hour journey we snacked on ‘Canastas,’ slept and reflected about our wonderful day. Once we got back to the home base we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of prepared by Memo. We were so knocked out by the rafting that we were eager to get some rest.
We can’t wait to see what else Costa Rica has in store for us.
Andre and Shekinah
8/8/2015
Day 6 of our awesome Costa Rica Adventure: As Leaders of the Day we had to wake up all of the other campers. With waking up at 6 plus finishing our first excursion everyone was very drowsy this morning. Breakfast wasn’t as bubbly as usual, but we did manage to squeeze everybody into one long “dining” table type situation. We ate Memo’s amazing Pancakes with a topping bar style for whatever you wanted on top. We loaded onto the bus and headed to San Bernardo. We got to San Bernardo and immediately smelled the manure. Who doesn’t love that smell at 8 am? We mixed, separated, and shoveled all of the Bocachi. We then all met Cristofer, one of the cutest kids ever. We taught him how to Whip, Nae Nae (all popular dance moves), and the phrase Bae (it means Novio/Novia{boyfriend/girlfriend} – that is how we explained it to him). When you weren’t mixing manure you were playing pass with Cristofer. We loaded up the van and headed to the Community Hall where we ate fruit and played with Cristofer. I think all of us could agree Cristofer made mixing 7 kinds of poop together fun. After service we headed back to the Community Hall for an amazing authentic homemade dish by the Local Women. We headed back to the Home Base and on the way then we got “blessed” by rain, as David says. As leaders of the day, we got the decision of either having Free Time before Spanish or after Spanish. But smelling like manure and sweating like a dog, we didn’t want to be in a 3 hour Spanish class smelling like that. Spanish class went and we got to say our Good Byes to Esperanza : one of the 3 cutest dogs ever, who came to the Home Base as a stray and was adopted by loving family. After Spanish, we had mentor groups and dinner. Since we did not have Mentor Groups the last 3 days, we had so many High’s & Low’s to go through that all we did was say our high and lows. After dinner, we had an exciting yet very short game of Hear no Evil, Speak no evil, See no evil. The game was really short we had an hour and 10 minutes until we had to be in our cabins. Soooo, we decided to play Stupid Ninja a fast fun memory game that includes a lot of movement with sound effects. We then finished off the night with Sleep!!!!
Written By
Liam Barberi & Carla Velasquez
8/9/2015
This morning we woke up almost bittersweet, bitter having it be freezing cold but at the same time excited to be in Los Santos! We had breakfast, then took our usual 45 minute drive to the work cite.
Once we got to San Bernardo, we all suited up with sunscreen, bug spray, and of course our water bottles! After getting ready to work we divided into two groups, one group would go with Edurardo to fertilize coffee plants while another group went with Nacho and David to mixed the Bocachi.
Group 1: Sari, Liam, Maya, Carla, Alex, Andre and Kaylyn. All of us followed Eduardo to finish up the original coffee plantation we went to previously. We worked amazingly as a group, we even got done early! We got to move to a new area of the coffee plantation so we could get even more work done.
Group 2: Mason, Shekinah, Olivia, Jhunie, Ben, Alejandro, and Meghan. Today we helped the local community and finished making bokachi for the coffee plantation. We listened to music and finished it in about in 1 hour. Some of the community members showed us puppies and we then went to their house to see the rest of the litter. When our group was just about to leave Nacho( community member) showed us a hedgehog and we all had fun holding it and taking pictures of the hedgehog. We then drove back to the community hall to take a break and to continue our service.
After both groups finished their 1st project, we had a yummy snack of juice, pineapple, watermelon, and bananas. Next we had part 2 of service!
Part 2 consisted of shoveling, mixing, and pouring cement to expand their sidewalk! To do this we divided back up into the two groups and each group made 3 batches of cement. Working together with the people of San Bernardo made it go so much faster.
Right before lunch we got to play with these 3 beautiful puppies and this one adorable hedgehog. They were all so cute and so much fun to play with.
We had our amazing lunch of rice, salad, a few tortilla chips, and soup. The best part of lunch is that we got to sit and talk with some of the people who we have been working with. Our Spanish class was also incorporated into lunch, having us talk to and ask questions to those community members.
After lunch our Spanish class continued to more of a cultural side and we played fútbol with the people we had just gotten to know better. It had just poured rain so there were puddles, so many people were spilling and falling everywhere. But overall everyone had an amazing time, maybe a little muddy and dirty, but fun.
Next we had the 45 minute drive back to home base, most people fell asleep in the van on the way home cause they were so exhausted from our exciting and active morning. When we got back we had some free time to shower and get ready for mentor groups.
After mentor groups we had dinner, which was Costa Rican twisted hamburgers and homemade fries…AMAZING! Our last event of the night was a group activity. We played a game that was one person seeing the picture, then describing it to the next person who couldn’t see the picture. That person would tell the last one who would have to draw it. It was a challenging but exciting activity! After group activity we all were relived to go to sleep. Passing out almost instantaneously.
-Sari Brown and Mason Luebke
8/10/2015
We started off our day with a breakfast of rice, beans, cheese omelets, and sausage strips. It was delicious, as usual. Once we had arrived in San Bernardo, the site of our daily service, the group was divided into two smaller groups for the first half of the morning. One group of the volunteers mixed a large pile of bocachi, a combination of different manures used to fertilize coffee plants in an environmentally-friendly manner. To do so, they split the large pile into two smaller piles and then combined those piles to form one, in order to blend different manures. The other group continued work on a side walk between San Berbardo’s school and community hall. They first had to use shovels and pick axes to dig out a path for the sidewalk.
After a short snack around 10am, we paused our work to discuss different forms of community development. We split into two teams, one which represented a resort development that wanted to build a 5 star hotel in San Bernardo and another which represented the citizens of San Bernardo. The hotel developer attempted to convince the citizens to allow a luxury resort to be built in their town. The activity demonstrated that some forms of community development can harm local communities.
Then the two groups merged to mix more cement and then poured that cement into the trench we created earlier. We finished most of the sidewalk today, and expect to finish it all tomorrow. After a lunch prepared by some of the women of San Bernardo, we headed back to our Home Base for Spanish class.
Today, we learned about various forms of dance in the Spanish-speaking world. We also played a game in which we had to listen to a song and identify the corresponding type of dance to that song. Our classes ended early, around 4pm to make room for an hour long class of Zumba, a combination of different types of dance. A professional Zumba instructor led the class. The hour was really intense, as we took no breaks in between songs, but we managed to keep our energy high throughout the entire session.
The evening schedule continued in a standard fashion afterward. We split up into discussion groups from 5:30-6:30 and then ate a delicious dinner of rice and chicken. Our evening activity focused on building trust among the group. Specifically, people in the group paired up together and one person in each pair closed their eyes and was led around the room by a partner. Then each pair switched positions, so that the person who acted as the leader before closed their eyes and was guided by a partner. Afterward, we discussed how the activity had forced us to trust our partners guide us safely and prevent us from hitting an obstacle or another person.
-Ben and Alex
8/11/2015
The day started off the same at 6 in the morning and had amazing breakfast as usual. We went to work and split up into two different groups. Half of us finished making the sidewalk and the other half shoveled and mixed the bochache. After three days of fermenting the bocachi developed a thick steamy odor that attached to all clothes. After service we drove to town and were treated with a free coffee from Coopedota. Then walked around town and ran errands. After a long day we drove back to the home base and had a good night sleep (after dinner and a dance battle.)
-Maya and Andre
8/12/2015
Today was a day filled with mixed emotions as it would be our last day working with the beloved community of San Bernado. We had gotten attached and were feeling very nostalgic during our final bus ride there, however we were also harbouring an intense desire to work our very hardest and best in order to leave on a high note.
The day started off with the normal routine of a 6:00 am wake up call with breakfast at 6:30 am, however days in Costa Rica are always far from ordinary, especially when they are kickstarted with Memos incredible food.
When we arrived at the work site we lathered ourselves up with sun screen and insect repellant and proceeded to get into two groups. Group 1 consisted of Olivia, Mason, Shekinah, Ben, Carla and Alex who worked on the Bokachi mix. We swiftly finished our work with the Bokachi with help from Javier and Nacho two members of the community. Group 2 consisted of Maya, Liam, Alejandro, Andre, Sari and Jhunie who mixed cement to complete the pavement and aid the natural barriers. After both groups finished their work we reenergised with a fruity snack of mango, watermelon and pineapples and proceeded to paint.
Unfortunately painting the tires which served as natural barriers from the animals was out final task in San Bernado and the time had come for us to bid the community goodbye. We enjoyed our final meal prepared by the local women in the community savouring the delicious taste of the cooking. After we had eaten our fill we gathered our belongings and proceeded with the ‘despedirse’ which is Spanish for goodbye. It was very emotional and bittersweet as we were extremely proud of all the work we had done and excited for all the memories we made, but were still very sad to leave. Especially after all the kind words we exchanged about our mutual appreciation.
Alas, we all loaded onto the truck to return to Cedrela out home base. When we got back we had a talk with our instructor David. We reflected in the importance of the work we were doing with the community and the prospect of continuing it. Afterwards we had free time for 1h 30m where we chilled, showered and played games.
At 4:30 we all gathered in the dining room for a group activity. We then proceeded to watch a TED talk by Chimamanda Ngozi-Adiche a famous Nigerian novelist entitled ‘The Danger of A Single Story.’ It was a moving and enlightening talk about the how fatal stereotypes can be as when you “show people as one thing over and over again and that’s what they become.” It was very insightful in light of the trip and was a source of motivation as we were half way through. After the talk we shared stereotypes that we had all faced causing us to try to be more open minded, as we are all guilty and have been victims of a single story.
Promptly after our activity, we had a quick mentor session where we shared our highs and lows of the day. After that we settled down for dinner consisting of an exquisitely made pasta dish. At 7:30pm we had another group activity where we played a very intense game of musical chairs, it was a wonderful throwback to a fondly played childhood game. Although it was tough, Sari was victorious gaining a mixture of ‘woo’s’ and a lot of applause. Musical chairs was a huge amount of fun and wonderful way to end the day. After the announcement of Olivia and Jhunie as our new leaders of the day we all piled into our rooms to pack our bags. We could barely contain our excitement with the news of our 2 day beach trip the next day!
8/13/2015
Today was the day we finally got to go to the beach! After we filled our bellies with a delicious apple pie made by the incredibly talented Memo, we loaded the vans and were off to the beautiful national park and beach of Manuel Antonio. The first part of the 4 hour trip was a 45 minute bus ride to a pick up location where trucks with seats in the bed covered by a tarp were waiting to take us on a safari like adventure down the mountain and through the jungle. The views were breathtaking and the whole ride had all of us bouncing up and down on the edges of our seats to see what was around the next bend. The remaining half hour or so was spent in a hot and crowded van that was not as scenic as the open air trucks but still was a great view of the beach! We finally arrived at Manuel Antonio National Park and began to venture through the park.
As we were making our way to the beach, we saw monkeys, sloths, crabs, snakes, grasshoppers, and raccoons all around the national park. After the walk everybody enjoyed the day on the beach where we spent our time in the warm waters of Manuel Antonio. The views were absolutely stunning.
Afterwards we went to our hotel, Hotel Diuwak, were we all had free time to go around the stores to buy souvenirs. Lastly we had dinner at a restaurant that was conveniently 1 block away from the hotel. Everybody had a great dinner except for one unfortunate person who had sent back their food 4 times because the order kept getting messed up, but we laughed every time. After dinner a few people started doing the cup song which entertained everybody and eventually others joined in and the whole table was singing! After our entourage of banging, clapping, and singing we had to run all the way back to our hotel in the pouring rain! Freshly soaked from the down pour, we all retreated to our rooms for a much needed good nights rest.
-Olivia Wilk and Jhunie Tongohan
8/14/2015
Today in our 25°C rooms we woke up at whatever time we wanted except we had to be down at the breakfast table at 8 in the hotel. We ate an amazing Buffett breakfast and then headed over to the Surf Lessons located in the hotel. We put on rash guards grabbed boards and walked over to the beach. We got an intro into surfing and then actually got to surf. The water was very rough and slushy.
We all caught a few nice waves and that was fun. We stopped for pineapple, bananas, and water. After the break many people went surfing others swam or sat on the beach. We all walked back to the hotel, showered, and went shopping in the little town near the hotel. We bought gifts for family and friends. We all got back to the hotel at 1, to hop into the buses and drive to a really cool lunch spot where you could go into a plane and walk around that had no chairs or aisles or anything. We ate lunch and got back into our vans. 2 groups, Group 1 was Liam, Maya, Mason, Alex, Carla, and Shekinah. Group 2 was Sari, Olivia, Jhunie, Andre, Ben and Alejandro. We drove back to Cedrela and some of us made friendship bracelets, some played chess and others wrote this blog (Liam & Sari?). Dinner was very eventful at one table participating in a “How high can u lift your leg up” Contest. After dinner we didn’t have a group activity so we went to sleep early. ‘Twas a good day!
-Sari and Liam
8/15/2015
The day began promptly at 6am when we woke everyone up for breakfast at 6:30. It was a bit of a struggle because we had just returned from a very memorable & active trip to the beach. Everyone was tired and their energy was clearly drained. This exhaustion could not stop us though. We had a full day ahead of us! IT WAS A SERVICE DAY! We were starting our service in the town of Zapotal & we did not want to leave a bad first impression. As the leaders of the day, we felt obligated to bring the energy of the group up. I wish I could tell you how we managed to do so, but we did. The ladies of the community greeted us with a beautiful dance that definetly helped with our energy. After the dance, we jumped straight into eco brick making. WOOHOO. We listened to the mixtape the people of the community put together for us as we pounded pounds of recycled plastic into plastic bottles. This interesting activity was followed by an AMAZING lunch with the members of the community. After lunch, we headed back to Cedrela for spanish class. In spanish class we rehearsed for our final projects. We wrapped up the day with Dinner & group activities. Overall, it was an amazing day spent beautifully with beautiful people☺️
– Carla Velasquez & Benjamin Schulman
8/16/2015
Today was our second day of service in the community of Zapotal. We ate breakfast and then boarded the bus to the town. We then split into two groups. One group continued to make Eco-bricks, plastic bottles stuffed completely with flexible plastic. Another group mixed cement, which it then used to fill part of a sidewalk in the center of Zapotal.
After another delicious lunch prepared by the women of Zapotal, we headed to our Spanish lesson. Today’s class was a cooking class, and we prepared dish for dinner. We first visited a fish farm near our home base, and each student caught his or her own fish in a small pond. Back at home base, we first reviewed Spanish vocabulary for various objects and actions associated with the kitchen. Then, each one of us had the opportunity to gut a fish! Although some of us were nervous beforehand, we all were brave enough to participate in this part of the dinner preparation (with the help of our Spanish teachers, of course).
We had a bit of time to shower and relax before we headed back to the kitchen to cook our dinner. We once again split up into multiple groups, each with different responsibilities. One group breaded and fried the fish. Another fried plantains, and the third mixed a fruit salad. We also danced to Spanish music along the way. By the time dinner was ready to be served, at 6:30, we were all really hungry. And the dinner was great!
We finished the day with our usual mentor groups after dinner, in which we touched on the various high and low points of the day’s events. Finally, we drank hot chocolate together around 8:30, and the tasty treat definitely ended the day on a high note.
– Alex and Mason
8/17/2015
To begin our day of service, we all had to get everyone ready to go for breakfast, made by the one and only Memo. We had rice, sausage, eggs & toast which was incredible per usual. Then we headed to zapotal to begin our work. Before working on the eco-bricks, the whole group hiked down to see the spring water which took the whole groups effort. During the hike David explained the importance of water. He discussed that consuming water in many places including india can be very difficult. We all had the chance to enjoy the spring water by using it to wash our faces and fill up our water bottles. Soon afterwards we headed back up the hill to start our service. The whole group struggled going up the steep hills back to the top. Getting to the top was an extremely difficult task for some. The purpose of the hike was supposedly to explain the difficulty of other countries around the world who are struggling to get water for their needs. A few students made it back and a few had to be picked up by a vehicle. Sari had to go to the clinic to get her ankle checked, which gladly was only sprained. During that time the group was working on making eco-bricks for an hour and 10 minutes. After service we had a delicious lunch made by the ladies in Zaputal. We headed back to home base where we had to prepare for our Spanish project. Both Spanish groups were making their projects as perfect as possible before performing. We showed our skills and knowledge about the Spanish language and the Costa Rican culture. Everybody’s acting and dancing skills were all on point. Lastly the Spanish teachers Lindsay and Benecio gave us our diplomas one by one as proof that we have graduated. In addition we received a white bucket hat as a graduation present. After a long day of hiking and work we had another amazing meal and finished our day off with a group activity. By the end of the activity we headed up to our cabins and got in our comfy beds for a good night sleep.
– Maya and Jhunie
8/18/2015
We started off the day with Memo’s amazing pancakes, back by popular demand. Next was everyone sprinting to the van in order to get to Zaputal. When we got there we spilt up into two groups, Andre’s group which was going to be working on cementing a sidewalk and Sari’s group which worked on making more Eco-bricks. Both groups went there ways but meet back up and 10am for snack. Today snack was watermelon and isboros. After snack it was the final pull to make 180 Eco-bricks. We only needed about 25 more, with everyone’s hard work we were able to finish making 25 with time to spare and meet out goal in order to build the bench before lunch. Building the bench was defiantly one the most rewarding service projects. Using all the Eco-bricks that took us hours to make, and then getting to paint them was so much fun. We had our yummy lunch made, of course, by the amazing moms. Next came the saddest part of our day, saying goodbye to all the amazing people of Zaputal. After everyone finished there goodbyes we jumped back into the van and headed back home. But not before a quick stop in San Marcos. Once we got back to home base, we had some free time to shower and practice some more for Talent Show. We had an early dinner of tacos with beef and cheese in a crispy tortilla, so amazing. After dinner was Talent Show setup, helping move tables and last minute practices. Sari and Andre welcomed our guests. Once all of our guests had arrived, it was time to start off the show! Andre was our MC along with Alejandro, who helped with translating. To start us off Liam, Jhunie, Maya, and Sari got the ball rolling with a dance to “hard knock life.” We had about 14 acts including, solo dance, scene reenactments, bird calls, reverse strip tease, and a monologue. Also acts from our guests such as an awesome dance party! Before everyone left we had a yummy dessert of a piece of pancake, ice cream, and strawberry jam. Next came the not so fun part of saying goodbye and cleaning up. After clean up everyone headed up to bed after a long exhausting day.
– Sari and Andre
8/19/2015
We started out the day by waking up an hour later than usual, at 7:00. It’s amazing what an extra hour of sleep can do for you, and we all started off the day a lot more energised. We then ate a delicious breakfast at 7:30 and then piled onto our beloved green communities van, driven by David aka the worlds best DJ. Then we were off to try and catch a glimpse of the beautiful Quetzals; famous for their beautifully vivid green and blue feathers.
After we had located out guide who would help us locate the Quetzals we were off on a hike through the beautiful mountains where the migrating Quetzals had briefly stopped. The views that followed where magnificent and breathtaking, never failing to disappoint. We occasionally stopped to take a few pictures or in Olivia’s case gathered materials for her beautiful flower crowns. After about 15 minutes we paused and waited for our guide to give us the signal that he had found the exact locations of either a male or female counterpart.
We had to be very quiet as we walked as the birds are heavily sensitive to sound and could flee at a moments notice. It is also a well known fact that if you saw both a male and female Quetzal you would be blessed for life. After hiking for a few minutes, we stopped in the middle of the forest in order to observe quetzals. Our guide set up a telescope and we each looked through to see the birds, which otherwise were difficult to see. We saw two birds, both male, and they had really beautiful and colorful plumage. We took pictures to save the memory.
We then hiked back to our van and drove to another part of the forest, in order to possibly find more Quetzals. We hiked on a circular trail for around forty minutes, and although we did not find any more quetzals, we did observe some hummingbirds and more beautiful views of the Costa Rica landscape. We ended up at a local restaurant, where we ate a lunch of rice, beans, and meat. The restaurant’s wifi also allowed us to briefly catch up with our friends and family.
We then drove back to our home base for a discussion with David of Green Communities. We first watched a video about the negative impact of resource extraction and the production of consumer goods on the environment and local communities, and then discussed how our service on coffee farms helped to reverse this trend and grow crops in a sustainable manner. The discussion made us realise the importance of our trip in protecting the environment and influencing others to do the same.
We then had some time to shower and rest. At 4:30, we met up to make cards for the staff of our home base and David expressing our gratitude for their help. Groups of a few students used poster paper to make large, colorful cards, and one group made a t-shirt for David.
We ate another delicious dinner at 6:00. Then, in our mentor groups, we wrote compliments and short letters for each of the other members of our group. We will be reading the letters written to us tomorrow, which will certainly demonstrate everyone’s appreciation for one another.
We ended the day with our group activity, in which we each answered short questions about our experience in Costa Rica. The purpose of the activity was to both recognise the most memorable and important aspects of our experience and to prepare responses to questions from friends and family about our trip. It definitely made us realise how meaningful this trip has been to all of us.
– Shekinah and Alex
8/20/2015
The day began at 6:15am when everyone was awoken for breakfast at 6:45am. The energy was initially high as a mountain because everyone was so excited for the day ahead of us. What day was today? You may ask. It was EXTREME FOREST ADVENTURE PARK day! We headed over to Providencia for a day full of intense fun! We were split into two groups and on we went. We climbed century old trees, ziplined etc. This was all summed up by an amazing lunch from a local restaurant. Post-Lunch, we did the best thing to do after a full day of swinging from trees. JUMP OFF A CLIFF! We jumped off of a 20 foot cliff into a beautiful nearby river. Everyone was a bit hesitant at first but quickly gave in and enjoyed themselves. This was a very unforgettable day spent in an amazing way.
– Carla Velasquez & Mason Luebke
