I am very happy with how this experience played out. I was weary to apply to the program in the first place because I have had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica before. But this trip was different in every way. I went to knew places, learned new things, and made new friends!

I loved being able to learn about the country before hand and to understand how the region came about and what lead to the biodiversity of this region. I was also happy to go in with the perspective and goal to learn more about the sustainability and green effort that Costa Rica is trying to implement. They are different from the US in many ways when it comes to this. Every bathroom or hotel room you are in there are signs reminding you to turn off the lights or conserve the water. You can see the effort they are putting forth. But like every cause not everyone is behind or supports this push for sustainability. This happens because being able to live a sustainable life is in my opinion a privilege.

This trip showed me how I can personally make a difference in my life and try to influence the others around me. The change won’t come overnight and it will be a long and slow process but I think given enough time and support that here in the US we can start to learn from Costa Rica and put into place some of the things they are already doing.

Pura Vida!

Our last day here : ( I am sad to leave this amazing place! Everyone you talk to is so friendly and willing to help you! And they all just genuinely want to talk to you! We headed to Manuel Antonio which is further south down the coast than Jaco is. The beach was more gorgeous than I remember. All morning I was just able to swim and layout on the beach and enjoyed a few hours of paradise. After about three hours we said our goodbyes to the beach and made our way back to San Jose so we could catch our flights in the morning!

Made our way to Jaco which is located along the Pacific coast. The temperature change between the mountains and the coast was drastic, and the humidity increased greatly! The views along the way were amazing. We arrived and went on a crocodile tour and we saw a few along the way! They were a lot bigger than I was expecting! We got to see the Mangroves which was different than anything I had ever seen! After hanging out at the pool for a little we went to the beach and watched the sunset together and it was a gorgeous view.

I can’t believe that my time here is already coming to an end! I am very sad, this is the first time I have left home and not been super homesick! I don’t want to leave! I am looking forward to the last day spent relaxing on the beach!

Today we took a trip to the Santa Elena Reserve! It is a cloud forest so it had an entirely different look and it was very interesting to see a different ecosystem! they gave us a lecture and showed us all the various creatures that they have captured with their trial cams! Their first trail cam was actually donated to them by Estes park which is a place I visited this past August so that was an amazing connection!

Then we went and were able to go plant trees! Hazel and I named our tree Wilbur!

After dinner we went on a night hike at a place close to our hotel! Wo got to see some bats and even a scorpion that glowed when we shined a black light on it! It is amazing all the creatures you can find that you would normally pass by if you were not looking!

We spent the first part of the day traveling the winding and slightly terrifying roads to Monteverde. Once we arrived we ate lunch and then headed to a tour of an orchid garden. It was awesome and our tour guide was very knowledgeable and she made all the information fun to learn about!

We then checked into our hotel. This one by far is my favorite. It is remote and hidden in the clouds. Monteverde itself is located in cloud forest because it is located on the Tilaran Cordillera which is located at a high elevation. After checking in we headed deeper into the cloud forest where we went zip lining! That was a lot of fun, it felt like you were just floating through the clouds!

We spent time in town exploring the local coffee shops and art galleries. We then headed to dinner at a local pizza place! The food was amazing and they had live music and the guy was awesome!

I have enjoyed being able to compare the differences between the different regions and truly experience how being in lowlands feels vs how life is in the cloud forest! They are located so close to each other but feel like they could be different worlds! In my opinion is it colder and less humid up in the cloud forest than in the lowlands!

Today we went to Tenorio National Park!

There we hiked to the Rio Celeste and we saw the beautiful bright blue of the river! This blue is caused by the mixing of the sulfur and calcium carbonate deposits and also the way the light refracts off of the large body of water! It was an amazing and one of a kind sight to see! The hike was also very fun! The Volan Tenorio is a part of the Gaunacaste Cordillera which is apart of the Chorotega volcanic front! At the end of the hike we went down and saw a waterfall that was formed by the river and it too was a beautiful blue color!

After the hike we headed to the Baldi Hot Springs. The place was massive! It was amazing and the perfect place to go after a long hike in order to destress and relax your muscles!

Another great day in the books! I can not believe that the trip is halfway over! It is crazy to think about!

Today was a very busy and eventful day. We checked out of our hotel and made our way to La Fortuna. The town is located at the base of the Arenal volcano. It is called La Fortuna (the fortunate) because when the volcano erupted the town was spared from the disaster, hence the name. Once there we headed straight to the waterfall.

I did this the last time I came but it was just as incredible. Afterwards we headed back the 500 steps we had just come down! We then headed to lunch and then to lake Arenal to go kayaking. We were a little behind schedule and storm clouds were in the distance but no one seemed worried about it. We got to the halfway point and got out to swim! After getting back on our kayaks the thunder started and not soon after the downpour started. It was raining so hard I had to close my eyes and just listen to what Hazel was telling me to do. In the moment it was terrifying because we were literally kayaking for our lives in a downpour with thunder and lightning getting closer every second. But looking back on it it was a great memory and one that I will never forget, and we managed to make it fun and have a few laughs about it. After dinner and getting dry we went to Down to Earth coffee. We had visited earlier that day but could not stay long but we loved it so much we had to return! Matias is an amazing person and explained to us how his goal is to be sustainable and one way he is doing that is by utilizing the whole coffee plant and not just the bean! Cascara is outer seed of a coffee cherry, and when it is dried and brewed it is transformed into a delicious tea that actually has 5x the amount of caffeine when compared to coffee! I loved seeing and learning how he is striving for sustainability in his own business! Again an example of changing yourself and what you do personally everyday to change the world! Down to Earth coffee is my new favorite coffee shop and will be for a long time!

I was woken up in the middle of the night from a raging thunderstorm. It was very scary but eventually I was able to fall back asleep. The next morning we packed up and took the boat back to the town. Here we met our bus and headed west to Sarapiqui where we were scheduled to go white water rafting! After we had lunch we hopped back on the bus and went to where we were dropped off at the top of the river! Here we got out gear and we learned all the signals and safety tips! I was very nervous at first but after going down the first rapid I was having an amazing time!

It was an exhilarating experience. Our guides were hilarious and made the trip down the river even more fun! Out raft guy had been doing this since 1999. I asked all of them how they liked their job and all of them said that it wasn’t a ‘job’ at all for them. It was something they genuinely loved doing. We stopped halfway and jumped off a cliff and ate some fruit on the river. We finished the ride and it was awesome! Today has been my favorite day so far and I hope to go rafting again but I am glad I get to say my first time was in Costa Rica!

We had a wake up call this morning at 5 am! We woke up mostly to our alarms but also to the Howler Monkeys that were having a party outside our rooms (or at least nearby-they can be heard up to three miles away). We all got on a boat and took about a 2 hour ride around the rivers and canals. We saw some really amazing stuff. The one thing we was that broke my heart was a female bird with a plastic bag wrapped around her beak 🙁 It was so so sad and there was nothing we could do about it.

It was a great experience to see all the houses and the way the people of the area lived. We took note at how telephones lines and poles were carefully threaded through the rainforest. It was an interesting thing to stop and think about! 

After lunch and a morning nap we headed into the town of Tortuguero. There we walked around and Hazel and I made friends with a local man named Mariso, he was making awesome turtle figurines out of large seeds he had collected from the forest. They were beautiful. IMG_5368-26s2sv6 click this link to watch him in action! It is very cool!

Afterwards we went to the beach and I was the Caribbean Sea for the first time! The sand was black which blew my mind and it was so soft I could have slept on it. We took a walk to the sea turtle conservancy. We learned about all the different turtles that visit the beach and all the efforts they put in to make sure the eggs stay safe! The turtle that visits this area to lay eggs is the highest frequency are the Green turtles! The Leatherbacks, and Balua turtles also visit just not in a high frequency!

I fall in love with this place even more everyday! The first time I visited Costa Rica I was not able to experience Tortuguero so I am very fortunate that I got to experience this amazing area!

I have a feeling this trip is going to be filled with early mornings! We had to wake up by 6am! We ate breakfast and then we were on the road. Traffic was bad in San Jose but after that the only factors were the mountains and the bumpy roads! We stopped to look at the amazing view of the National Park we were driving through! Unfortunately I forget the name of it 🙁 Here is a pic!

We then entered the Tortuguero Lowlands which are as they sound, very flat. This drive was extremely rural and had the bumpiest roads. We stopped to look at a banana plantation of the Chiquita company. Mario explained the whole process to us and it was very interesting! I cannot imagine working on a plantation like that in this heat!

We passed many more like this on the way. It was a strange site to me because all I am used to is fields on fields of corn but seeing fields of bananas was very cool and different!

We arrived at the canal where we took an hour bus ride to Tortuguero. We are staying at the Rana Roja and this place is amazing. It is in the middle of the rainforest and we are staying in cabins that remind be of summer camp from when I was a kid. We all just spent a few hours in the pool and are going to go on a nature walk with Mario soon.

Here is a list of cool things we saw on our walk!

-Macaws- we was green ones because they are mostly on the Caribbean side and the red ones are more on the Pacific side.

-Blue crabs- these were kinda scary looking

-Orioles- Mario told us that these birds feed from Cowstone trees.

-Red Poison Dart frogs.

Another quote from Mario that I liked- “We need to pay closer attention to the silence of nature.”

Overall the second day was just as great as the first! The only downside of today has been the cockroaches that we found in our room (in one of my bags-EWW) and the frog that decided to hang in our room!