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Friday

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Friday was another great day in Costa Rica!  We visited a very educational farm and learned a lot about sustainability practices in Costa Rica.  After the tour we had a very peaceful lunch at the Farm, followed by an exhilarating hike down 500 stairs to swim in a waterfall, and then hike back up. Dinner was fun, especially with the company of our guide’s wife and daughter.

 

Our great guide, Greiven!

Learning a lot!

Sneaky, sneaky! These leaves are great! They were the source of “bitters”. They were bitter.

Emily showing off the goards!

Dried Star nuts

Nicole showing off her mad lasso skills!

Morengo juice has a lot of medicinal properties! Salud!

Nicole earned some warrior face paint!

All painted up and no place to go…

Star nuts on the branches.

Who knew fresh turmeric would stain your mouth yellow….

Fuzzy chickens!

Arenal Volcano from the town square in La Fortuna

Making sugar cane!

Making “friends”

Yummy seasonal vegetables!

I was actually there!

Sunset at the hotel.

Dinner in La Fortuna

Sweet little Vaentina!

Bull dog puppy made out of towels at the hotel!

Thursday!

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Thursday we made our way from EARTH to Fortuna, a beautiful city at the base of Arenal Volcano. We hiked to the observation area and the end of the lava flow from the 1968 eruption. After that we had a wonderful lunch and then bathed in the hot springs in the evening. This is paradise and there is a lot to soak in from various perspectives of sustainability.

Leaving EARTH

On the way we stopped to see Chickens of the trees” or iguanas.

Starting up Arenal

At the top!

Repping OSU!

The whole group!

On the way down we met an artist and friend of Rafi’s, Freddy!

We visited Rafi’s dad’s Farm/garden and loved it! Roman loves the concrete sphere!

Beautiful hibiscus

Touring

View from my room at the cabin hotel!

The cabins

Hot springs!

Relaxing!

Wednesday

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Wednesday was out day to tour the campus and see their many projects!

Before our hike through the campus reserve. It is a primary forest, which is unique because most forests have either naturally or by man are not in their original state.

 

Hiking through the reserve!

Lexi pointing to the most biodiverse part of the forest.

Learning about the integrated livestock system before touring it.

Rafi educating us about one of many bits of wisdom he has imparted thus far.

The early stages of livestock waste compost.

Touring the campus organic farm.

Learning about the microbiotoc cakes made to enrich the plants.

The community education garden on campus.

Racing against each other to fill their hanging gardens.

They had a very colorful garden with many interesting works of art.

Later that evening Difei pulled out her ping pong skills and may have caused an international incident. She has a wicked return!

Monday afternoon and Tuesday

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Monday afternoon we checked into a charming hotel with cabins in a jungle type area. This gig tree was huge! Notice the natural buttresses!

The cabins.

The beds.

The waves were very rough and scary so we took to the beach for some land based fun.

Always loving the Buckeyes!

An intense game of chess!

Tuesday morning was supposed to be more beach time, but the rains came. While we waited for a lull, some students took matters into their own hands and had fun in the rain!

After we finally made it to the quieter beach and spend the morning enjoying the waves, we made our way to EARTH University. There was a lot of singing on the bus ride.

More jumping, this time in the rain.

Getting into camps requires moving the banana bundle rails. They supply a lot of Whole Food’s bananas via the campus plantation. The rails are used to move the bananas from the fields, across campus and to the processing plant.

After dinner we got to meet a few students who told us their stories and passions.

All of us together!

 

Sunday-Monday morning

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Sunday we woke up early and toured our family farms. In the afternoon we met as a group to do some projects at the small community’s health center. It was mainly building/repairing benches but also fixing some plumbing issues in the drainage system in the back yard.

Sarah milking a cow before breakfast. We later got to see our “Mama” make fresh cheese out of the milk.

A motley crew of poultry. The large white one will get 4x that size. The created on in the front is named Rasta because it “looks like he has dreadlocks”.

Natalie P loving the baby pineapples.

OHIO on top of a beautiful view with Papa Fernando. Jose, the little brother, was not to be left out of the OHIO.

There is something about Study Abroad and jumping…

Ally was a master craftsman and knew what she was doing!

Always time for more Buckeye pride.

This picture has way more context than meets the eye. The bench was very worn and had screws. We had no drill or marking tools. The students engineered a way to mark the holes and pre-drill the boards with nails before putting in new screws.

Monday morning- saying goodbye to our homestays.

Monday morning- saying hello to Cahuita!

We saw two sloths! This is a photo through our guide’s telescope.

April rocking the CFAES recruitment shades!

A selfie with a group of students enjoying the Caribbean ocean for the first time.

 

Busy, busy!

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First, my apologies. My sense of access to wifi and time not in direct conversation with the group was grossly overestimated. All is well and Costa Rica has been the Pura Vida-Pure life!  We have had adventures everyday and they students are learning/growing quite a bit.

We spent much of the week traveling and seeing This beautiful country!

Brumas artisanal coffee plantation- the have held records for high scores and sale prices at international auctions

The group loving life! Saturday

Service learning project of building a biogas generator- Saturday afternoon

After it was finished! Students did three projects simultaneously- biogas generator, filling plant propagation bags with a compost mix, and transplanting trees to the open field.

Tucan! The iPhone specs won’t let me turn the photos. I’ll update later.

Headed to the homestays!

 

We made it!

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Airport arrival

This is the start of the 2018 Costa Rica Service Learning Blog!  This morning at 9:30am 21 students, Difei Shen and I met at the Columbus airport to catch our first flight to Miami in route to San Jose, Costa Rica!  My first adventure was getting my name onto my ticket.  You see, I only found out I would be traveling with group at 3:30pm on Wednesday afternoon.  Poor Paul has Influenza B and could not travel.  Because there were really no other options that were fair to both the candidate and the students, the responsibility fell on my shoulders.  I am very excited, but it did take quite a bit of effort to make it happen and will require some adjustments by many other gracious people.

 

 

Through CMH security

We landed around 7:30 tonight and after immigration, customs, exchanging money and a few other details we hit the road!  Our guide is, Rafael, a very well versed and passionate Tico (the name for Costa Ricans for which we have already learned the cute and real meaning behind).  After packing the luggage on top of the bus and getting a briefing, we had dinner at a cute restaurant surrounded by a play ground.  It was an amazing mix of rice, beans, “pumpkin”, fried plantain and fish or cheese.  We also had both Cas and Mango juice to drink.

 

 

Tonight we are tucked in at the very Costa Rican- Holiday Inn Express, with Denny’s in the same parking lot!  Tomorrow is an early start with a luggage call at 6:45am followed by a coffee tour and then our biodigester project!  We are going to get dirty!