Costa Rica Journal

Here, I recount my nine day trip to Costa Rica with the organization Rustic Pathways. I participated in the Intro to Community Service program where I completed 22 hours of service.

View from our hotel in San Juan

Day One - July 3rd

First Day! Anxious as ever, I was so excited to head out on my own to Central America. Traveling all by myself for 9 days racked my nerves. I had quickly finished packing the night before, making quick errands to get that last can of much needed bug spray and a compression bag to ensure all my clothes fit into the tight 60L duffel bag. I arrived at Newark Liberty Airport at 10am. After checking in my bag, I sat with a group of strangers, all of us ready to embark on our journey. Discussing where we are from and our feelings about the adventures ahead, my nerves were calmed. I realized we were all in the same boat! After going through security and getting a quick bite to eat, I sat in the sea of blue (all the Rustic Pathways travelers in our matching t-shirts) waiting for our flight to San Jose. Our flight was delayed for 2 hours! After sitting in that airports for nearly 8 hours, I was ready to start my travels. However, this delay gave me time to find people on my trip. Sitting in the middle of the airport, we played a game of BS and started to get to know each other.

We finally boarded and the 5 hour flight was finally underway. After arriving in San Jose at 10pm, we headed to our nights hotel. I met a few other girls from Massachusetts and roomed with them. We were exhausted!

Day Two - July 4th

The wake up call was at 6:15am. Breakfast at 7am. Groggy from a long day of travel and only 4 hours of sleep, we headed down to a breakfast of bacon, eggs, baked goods, and of course, rice and beans. After breakfast, we were quickly herded onto buses to start the 3 hour drive to La Fortuna de San Carlos in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica, where we would spend the rest of the trip. The bus ride left little to be desired. As we headed out of San Jose, the roads became windy and rough. Most of us slept all the way there. On the bus, we met 3 of the 6 program leaders: Ananda (Ani) and Rodrigo from Brazil and Pepe from Costa Rica. Half way through the ride, we stopped at a souvenir shop. The view there was gorgeous and I began my conquering of all the souvenir shops I stepped foot in.

Once we arrived at the base house in La Fortuna, we congregated in the outdoor saloon. The base house consisted of two houses, a dining area, a pool, a small field, and a saloon with ping pong and foosball. It was definitely nicer than I expected it to be. We then met the rest of our program leaders: Sylvia who is from Canada and is El Salvadorian, Alex from Spain and Scotland, and Patrick from Florida. The group (33 of us!) then were able to get settled into our rooms. I roomed with two girls who happened to be from Andover as well, Diya and Caroline. We all then had about 4 hours of free time, with lunch at 12. I decided to take a quick nap and then hung out on the balcony with the rest of the girls, getting to know everyone. It was really nice to sit out and talk to people, discussing where we are from and our interests, all while surrounded by nature.

Views from the bus ride

First group photo of the trip

The children welcoming us with a traditional Costa Rican dance.

Playing "pato, pato, ganso" (duck, duck, goose) with the kids.

Finally, 3 o'clock rolled around and we headed to the local Sonafluca Elementary school, where students gave us a cultural presentation, consisting of traditional Costa Rican dances. The children were adorable, greeting us as soon as we got off the bus. After their dance, in which they made us join in on, the students and their teacher took us on a tour of their school. It was amazing to learn how schools in Costa Rica worked and see the similarities and differences between them and my own elementary school.

Costa Rica is a country which values its education heavily. Their military was abolished in 1948. The money once needed for the military is allocated now towards the betterment of Costa Rica's people in terms of education and public health. Costa Rica has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, surpassing the United States.

We returned to the base house at 6 o'clock and dinner was served! I was starving. It honestly felt like the longest day of my life; and it still wasn't over! At 8 o'clock, we had orientation. I was exhausted and initially just wanted to pass out on my bottom bunk, however my attitude quickly changed. In groups, we went around and had discussions with each program leader.

First up was Rodrigo: We discussed what it meant to be a traveler versus a tourist, a topic which stuck with all of us throughout the entire journey. It was a really insightful discussion. How travelers try to assimilate and soak in all the culture and different ways of life; how they go off the beaten path and immerse themselves, communicating with the locals.

We then went onto to Patrick: We discussed the basic hygiene and the poop teams (warning: sorry for the TMI!). In order to check in on our general health throughout the trip, we would have poop teams. Team Ghost, Team To Solid, Team Solid, Team Not So Solid, Team Volcano, and Team Double Dragon (yikes!). It was pretty awkward. (Note: As the week went on, it became pretty funny).

With Pepe we talked about our safety and the various potential dangers we may encounter. One of the major components was wildlife. In particular, snakes. There are 22 species of venomous snakes in Costa Rica! Honestly, I am petrified that I am going to come across one later this week. I hate snakes.

Finally, with Alex, we discussed what it meant to be connected and the benefits of putting down our cellphones to truly immerse ourselves the in the experience we've been given.

At 9 o'clock, it was finally time to head to our rooms. I was so exhausted, and still am! After taking a quick 5 minute shower, I hopped into bed and talked with Diya and Caroline before we all passed out.

Piles of rocks and soil, ready to be mixed into cement.

Day Three - July 5th

Today was our first day of community service! After breakfast at 7am, which was made by a local Don Eric and his family, we began our opening discussion. The program leaders explained to us what our community service would entail for the trip and why we are doing what we are doing. We talked about what is means to be supporting a community versus merely helping one and the white savior complex.

At 8am, we headed off to the San Rafael Elementary School. Our goal was to help build new toilet blocks and complete work on an additional classroom. We mixed cement and transported it to the toilet blocks, where the construction workers helped us lay it into the blocks. After our work on the toilet blocks was finished for the day, we boarded the bus and went back to base camp for lunch. Lunch was made by Don Eric again and it was delicious. Traditional Tico food! The Yuka chips were by far my favorite. We then had about an hour of free time. I went back to my room and tried my best to get the dried concrete off of me. It was pretty useless though. I layed down for a bit and then went out onto the deck to talk with the rest of the girls.

We returned to San Rafael. For the rest of the afternoon, we transported the soil and rock piles to the foundation for the new classroom. It was a lot of hard labor!! But we made it fun, singing songs and playing games. Even just talking with everyone about their lives and goals was so entertaining. It was very interesting hearing about people's lives and seeing our similarities and differences. f it wasn't for this trip, I would never be talking to people from Texas, New Orleans, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico!

Also, the snacks.... Costa Rican fruit is about 100x better than fruit back in the U.S., especially the pineapples. We all ate so much pineapple today, and that tingly feeling your mouth gets after was so worth it.

We then headed back to the base house and had dinner, which was spaghetti and meat sauce. While I was slightly disappointed to not be eating a Tico meal, it was kind of nice having a basic meal.

Everyone was SO exhausted by the end of the day. I quickly showered, got into bed, talked a little with Diya and Caroline, and passed out!

Side Note: We saw a sloth today! Honestly, so freaking cool to see one in person, even though it was up in the tree. On our way to San Rafael, Bernie (our bus driver) spotted the sloth and pulled over on the side of the road. We all huddled on the grass, eyes straining, trying to see the sloth. It was kind of hard to see, so I couldn't get a great picture, but hopefully we will see it again!

Day Four - July 6th

We started the day bright and early at 6:30am as per usual. Today my group went to the local community La Altura to help finish off the construction of their local community saloon.

The first part of the day was pretty relaxed, a nice change of pace from yesterdays hard labor. We were helping lay and grout the tiles. Kennedy, Ellie, and I, worked with the head worker Don Julio. It was so fun talking to him and learning about the community, even though the language barrier was a bit difficult. However, even with my basic middle school Spanish knowledge and some patience, we were able to have some really interesting conversations as well as joke around.

Don Julio saying hi to "mi familia" back home.

We mixed cement and helped Don Julio spread the cement, lay the tiles, separate the tiles, and clean them. It was a really fun experience! The program leaders played some music and we had some fresh fruit as always for snack! It was a fun and rewarding atmosphere!

We finished up the first half of our day and headed back to the base house for some lunch! When we met up with the other half the group who went to San Rafael school, we shared out our experience and laughed a lot at all the highs and lows.

After lunch we had about an hour to relax. Some people went to the pool, but I was beat. I took a quick nap and hung out with some people on the deck!

We then headed back to La Altura. This time around, I helped in digging a trench to help with the irrigation system and removing rocks to build a staircase. This was much more physically demanding than the first part of my day! Still it was fun! A bunch of local kids came around and we started playing soccer and dancing with them! They were so cute! We had snack and got back to work.

The work day finally came to a close. We were SUCH a mess though. Our boots were so dirty and we were covered in mud. The program leaders and us attempted to hose off our boots and clean our gloves to the best of our ability. Somehow we managed this. We then loaded the bus, said goodbye to Don Julio, the crew, and the kids, and headed back to the base house.

We had a quick early dinner and then headed off to the hot springs. I guess it is a Costa Rican must try. I honestly thought we were going to a little hole in the ground, but then we pulled up to the very nice hotel/spa situation. These hot springs were AMAZING. With lots of different pools with varying temperatures, it was such a relaxing experience and was a great way to end our really laborious service. We all chatted amongst each other and started to get to know each other even more.

We finished our two hours in the hot springs, headed back to the base house, and went right to sleep.

Day Five - July 7th

I'd have to say that this has been my favorite day throughout the entire trip! Today was our "adventure" day. We woke up early, grabbed breakfast, and made sure we were all covered in bug spray and water-proof clothing and piled onto the buses. I was extremely excited. It was zip lining day! While I have been to little zip lines before, never have I been to a proper zip line course. We got there early, grabbed our helmets and harnesses and watched the safety demo. In order to get to the zip lines, we had to go up in a sort of ski lift contraption. It was an amazing view of the area but it finally dawned on me how far up we were going to be.

Getting to the course, I was pretty hesitant. I'd never been that high up before. However, with everyones encouragement, I got down the first small course and loved it!

There was a series of about 7 zip lines. We were incredibly high up but the views of the Arenal lake and forest below were beyond anything I'd ever seen before.

After ziplining, we headed to our cultural immersion of the day. We went to house of a former Costa Rican President. The family that ran the house were very sweet.

We first took a tour of the plantation. We saw banana leaves, star fruit, and other crops native to Costa Rica. After our tour of the plantation, we headed to the outdoor kitchen where we helped make empanadas and our own tortillas. We were able to hang out and relax while talking to some locals about their life.

The women at the house made a huge traditional Tico meal for us. It was delicious. There was chicken, rice, beans, mixed vegetables, salsas, and our own tortillas. As we were finishing dinner, some of the program leaders started to play music and it turned into a sort of dance party. It was genuinely so much fun!

Day Six - July 8th

Today was awful. Wow, what a change of pace from my last entry! I woke up this morning at 3am and felt really sick. My plan was to just power through it because I did not want to miss out on white water rafting. I barely ate anything at breakfast and then went back to the room to get some Advil. We then started the morning activity. It was a variation on sharks and minnows and entailed some light running. That really messed me up. I felt disgusting. I thought, if I couldn't handle some light running then I sure couldn't handle some class III rapids

I told Ani and then she had to have a meeting with all the other program directors. I felt so bad, I was holding up everyone.

A local park in downtown La Fortuna

They eventually decided that Patrick was going to stay with me and that they had to take me to the clinic. The clinic.... that was interesting. After getting checked out, the doctor prescribed me some medicine. Patrick had to call my family as well. It was nice talking to them, but I was just really annoyed at myself. After the clinic, we walked around downtown La Fortuna. It was such a pretty scene, with the Arenal Volcano visible from anywhere you stood. We walked around, talked about our lives, and then sat outside Pizza Ranch for some WiFi. It was pretty interesting hearing about Patricks life and how he ended up as a Rustic program leader. Honestly, all the program leaders were so inspiring and had such great stories.

Finally, we met up with Sylvia and the girls who couldn't go rafting due to injuries for lunch. It was nice spending time with this small group of people. I felt like I got to know them a lot more.

After lunch, we had a few hours of free time before everyone else got back. I decided to take a nap in hopes of feeling a bit better. I think I was out for a solid 2 hours, but I felt so much better after.

Finally, everyone returned from rafting! I was greeted with lots of "How are you feeling" and "Are you okays." It was nice having support for everyone! And the stories from rafting were so great! I wish I could have gone.

Anyways, tonight we had had a "party" of some sort. Don Eric came and apparently he is also a DJ. So we had the whole DJ situation and everyone was dancing and playing foosball or talking. Later we had a small bonfire and we had makeshift s'mores and a few of the guys sung while Alex played the guitar. Making friendship bracelets also became a thing during this trip. Ani saw a bunch of us making some a few days ago so she asked the main coordinator (Fofo) to buy some string and he did! So we taught Ani how to make the friendship bracelets. We chatted a lot about her life and her journey to becoming a Rustic leaders and where she is now. Ani is honestly one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. She had a rough childhood and time in school due to abuse and just having so many odds stacked against her. The her experiences and passions in university and teaching and everything else. It was just very empowering.

It was a long and stressful day! So I later went back to the room, showered, took my meds, and just passed out.

Day Seven - July 9th

Today was our last day of community service! We went to the Arenal Volcano National Park to help with trail maintenance. The first part of our day, we spent in the natural trails digging small trenches for drainage. With all the rain, it is important to maintain the trenches in the paths to ensure that they do not flood. In small groups, we went up and down the trails, digging the trenches.

When lunch time rolled around, we got back onto the buses and headed to a National Park rest center. There, Don Eric and his family had cooked lunch for us. We ate with a fantastic view of the Arenal Volcano and played card games. We had an hour to spare so I decided to head into a back room and take a nap. I was still recovering from my mishap yesterday.

After an hour or so, we continued with our service. Our next goal was to do maintenance on the paved trails along the volcano. It mainly included sweeping and raking the pathways and washing the look out decks. We played music and had fun doing so. By far the best part of the day was when we were walking through the trails by towards the buses. All of a sudden, Alex stopped us and told the group to be quiet. Suddenly we heard rustling in the tree tops and when we looked up there were monkeys! It was so amazing seeing monkeys up close in the wild! That is surely something I will never forget.

After we finished our service, we headed back to the base house for dinner. Right after dinner, we had our closing ceremony. After almost 9 days together, I think we all became pretty close. It was a great sort of bonding experience. We tied our Rustic ties with the Costa Rica flag on them on each other. Everyone chose a person and said something nice about them like a memory. I'm really going to miss it here!

Day Eight - July 10th

Although today was our last full day, it was one of my favorites of the trip. It was my room's turn to make breakfast for the group. We made our way down to House 1 for 6:30am and met up with Sylvia. Diya and I were on egg duty. After cracking and season around 30 eggs, we were so ready to get to the scrambling. However fate was not aligned with us that morning: the portable pan was not working! Soon it was 6:50 and still, no eggs. All of us were perplexed. Sylvia ran upstairs and asked Alex if we were doing something wrong. Apparently the pan is motion activated (WTH!). The pan FINALLY started heating up and we got onto scrambling. It was an interesting experience.

I was also feeling a lot better from my bout of sickness. I guess those meds were working! After packing my bag for the day, we boarded the bus for our final day of service.

Today, we went back to the Sonafluca Elementary school (where we visited during Day 2) to complete the LECI (Language Exchange and Culture Immersion) program. When we first got there, Rodrigo led the opening activity: The Privilege Walk. It was probably the most interesting and memorable opening activities that we had done all week. Essentially, we all stood on the same line and as Rodrigo asked us questions, if it applied to you, you had to step forward or backwards, depending on the question. Some of the questions included "If you go to a private school, step forward," "If your parents encourage you to go to university, step forwards," "If you've ever been discriminated against due to your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, step backwards." Once the questions were finished, Rodrigo told us to run to the finish line from wherever we had ended up. Of course, the people who had the most privilege finished the race first, while those towards the back had to work that much harder to end up in the same place. It was an honestly such an eye-opening activity.

We then broke up into our groups from the previous day and began preparing the game for the kids. My group decided to play musicial chairs, but we alternated the music between American and Costa Rican. The kids really seemed to enjoy the game. It was a lot of fun playing with the kids and talking with them.

After LECI, we went back to the base house, grabbed our bags, loaded the vans, and said goodbye to the house. I couldn't believe we were going home tomorrow! The bus ride was honestly so solemn and sad. At the half way mark, we stopped at the same souvenir shop as we did the first day to buy our final gifts and take a quick break. I was able to snag a picture with a few of the program leaders. They are such amazing people.

Once we got closer to San Jose, we played a game on the bus, where if we won, we got a bracelet! One of the categories was to tell five facts about one of the program leaders on the bus. Fortunately, Patrick was on my bus, so I knew 5 facts about him easy because of the sick day I had!

We finally reached the hotel. Anndd then we realized that the kids from Houston and California would have to go to another hotel, while everyone going to Newark stayed at the first hotel. Upon that realization, there were a lot of teary goodbyes. I wasn't expecting to be that sad, but I feel like I had really gotten to know these people on the trip. Saying goodbye to the program leaders was also really sad. Rodrigo, Ani, Patrick, Alex, Sylvia, and of course Pepe, really made the entire trip.

After the goodbyes, we found our rooms, grabbed some dinner, and went to relax in our rooms. It was late and we had to be up super early to catch the flight!

Day Nine - July 11th

The alarm went off at 2:15am. Yikes. Diya, Caroline, and I quickly got ready and met everyone in the hotel lobby for 2:45am. Everyone was exhausted. Despite the sadness that our adventure was almost over, we all seemed pretty ready to go home. Check-in at the airport took forever, but finally we were past security, grabbed some breakfast, and secured a spot by our gate. A group of us gathered and reminisced over our trip. Exchanging those last bits of contact information and making plans to meet once we were back home.

Finally at 7am, we boarded the plane and we were off. The plane ride seemed to last ages. I chatted to the girl next to me, Brook Lynn, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

We arrived at Newark at 2:15pm. I was so ready to get into my own bed, however a 5 hour car ride stood between me. Waiting for our bags, we all said goodbye, hugging and slightly crying. I was not ready for the trip to be over!

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