¡Pura Vida! Costa Rica 2010

I was extremely privileged to travel to Costa Rica in July this summer, with the Experiment in International Living. It was truly an incredible, life changing experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was really nervous at first traveling alone to a different country, but I almost immediately connected with several of the people in my group and had a blast with them throughout the month. We began the trip spending a few days in the capital city, San Jose, just to orient ourselves and become a bit more accustomed to the "culture shock" of being in another country and having to speak Spanish regularly.

One of the many beautiful mountain views in San Jose

The Post Office and behind it the National Bank of Costa Rica

Some ancient mayan artifacts from a museum we visited

Then we travelled to San Gerardo, staying a night at the Subargre hotel. We went bird watching really early in the morning, but we were lucky enough to see the legendary Quetzal, a truly rare and beautiful sight, and the national bird of Costa Rica. Finca Kobo came next, we spend two nights there, where we planted trees and learned about sustainability and conservation.

The view outside the rooms of the Subagre Hotel

Our group then travelled to Campanario, a beach two hours by boat from the nearest town, located on the edge of Corcovado National Park, one of the several national parks found all over Costa Rica; we went on lots of rainforest hikes and one night we hiked to the "bat cave," where we captured bats to collect data as they flew out of their cave at sunset to feed.

After Campanario we returned to civilization, staying a night in La Cusinga Hotel, which was right on the beach and close to another national park.

After that came the 12 day homestay in the rural village of Pejivalle. This was a truly eye-opening experience for me, as I got an authentic taste of Costa Rican culture and daily life. My host family was extremely hospitable, giving me the royal treatment, and making me feel at home and welcome in their house. My host brothers and I played a lot of soccer, as there was a makeshift soccer field just a few hundred yards from my house. Over the course of our week and a half in Pejivalle we worked to restore the town's Senior center as our service project, moving rocks, planting grass, and repainting the whole building; it looked pretty good after we had finished. On the day we had to leave Pejivalle it was a truly emotional experience, and everyone was very sad to go.

The Central Plaza of Pejivalle, to the left just out of view are a soccer field and church.

My host mom, host brother, and me, going for a swim in the river on my second day in Pejivalle.

The house I stayed in during my time in Pejivalle

The senior center we worked on during the homestay

After our homestay we traveled to a major tourist spot in Costa Rica- the city of Fortuna, home to the Arenal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. In Fortuna we took a zipline through the rainforest, which for me was one of the biggest highlights of the trip; it was both exhilerating and terrifying to fly upwards of sixty miles per hour hundreds of feet above the rainforest treeline. From the zipline we also had a great view of Lake Arenal, a manmade lake at the base of the volcano.

The Arenal volcano- we were really lucky to get this view, as the clouds usually obscure the peak of the volcano

Lake Arenal- from the zipline platform we had a great view of the lake.

We then wrapped up our trip with a few days on Isla Chira, and the day before we had to fly home we returned to San Jose to go souvenir shopping and such. I had an incredible time, and I learned so much about the culture of Costa Rica. I'm truly thankful to have been given this opportunity and I'd like to extend my sincerest thanks to the Wilson family for allowing me to experience this wonderful place. Pura Vida!