Best Day Yet

What an amazing day in the rainforest! Is spite of the fact the lodge has no AC, it was actually quite pleasant overnight and I slept well. I got up shortly after 6a and headed out for a morning walk at 6:45. I took the suspension bridge over the river before coming back across to follow the self guided trail. I passed a few howler monkeys eating and a large iguana before I even got to the trail. Almost immediately I found several green and black poison dart frogs. Didn't see much else except a couple of squirrels, but the flora was beautiful in the morning sun.

After an hour and 20 minutes of walking I got breakfast. By about 9 we were headed of for our day of adventure. My group started with zip lines while some others went horseback riding. For my first zip lime experience it was great. We took 9 lines through the tree canopy. We were high up with beautiful scenery - unfortunately it all happened too quickly. The 8th line was a lot of fun. It was a long one where the guides bounded the cables up and down. The 9th line was the best - it was the longest and took us across the river back to where we started.

We barely had time to rest from that when we took off whitewater rafting. Everyone who went seemed to think this was the highlight of the trip. It was better than I anticipated - a long trip (10-12 km) with great scenery, fun rapids, bird sightings, and swimming. Midway through, we stopped at a swimming hole where we could jump in from the bank about 10 feet above the water. That's also when we had our snack of fresh-cut pineapple. Our guides were really good an a lot of fun, too, making for a great afternoon.

After the rafting, we had lunch at the restaurant is overlooking the river before returning to the hotel for some free time. I walked around to see if I could find a sloth, but had no luck, even with the help of Ivan the conservationist at the hotel. I ran across an active group of monkeys and spent a long time taking way too many pictures. I then walked across the suspension bridge one more time to look for toucans and I saw two in the distance. Finally I took a dip in the pool while chatting with students and our excellent guide Jorge. Now I am laying in the hammock in the rain forest writing a blog post.

We've got our closing dinner in a while, then tomorrow morning at 7:30 we head back to the airport. It will be a long travel day. No one wants to leave.

Rainforest Adventure

Yesterday we wrapped up our time in San Jose and we're now in the Sarapiqui rainforest in the northern part of Costa Rica. We had a great walking tour of the city, starting with a dance lesson in one of the parks near our hotel. We them walked to and toured the National Museum. From there, we walked to the Cathedral. After that. the group split up to enjoy the rest of the day.

I had a really nice lunch with the other facilitators before visiting the beautiful and ornate NATO Al Theatre, built in 1897. We then went to Mercado Central and took in all of the sights. I got a milkshake and had a failed shopping excursion before Justine, Emily, and I walked to the National Park near the congress buildings and through the other market.

We rejoined Prof. McDougal for dinner, and we found the most delightful Mexican restaurant next to the Theatre. None of us really thought we wanted Mexican, but it was completely different than the Tex-Mex we are used to at home. I had the most delicious Mole chicken ever. Ended the night with a stop at Buckets, across from the hotel. It was good to spend some informal time with the students.

Today we had a beautiful drive through the mountains to the low country. We had a great boat tour on the Sarapiqui river and saw some wildlife before a pleasant outdoor lunch. Adventure tourism is on deck for tomorrow!

Butterflies and Peace

This morning we visited Costa Rica Entomological Supply, also known as the Butterfly Farm. Now celebrating its 30th year, this social business was the first to export butterfly pupae in Central America, and perhaps only the second such business. The now have a supplier network of 80 family butterfly breeders. The butterfly garden is closed to the public but we were able to arrange access following our discussion about the business.

 

 

For the afternoon, we had lunch and a tour of the University for Peace in the mountains above San Jose. We hiked through their reserve up to the Peace Monument. We were pleased to learn that our host's sister has just accepted a faculty position at Indiana University.

We had dinner on our own tonight, so we Kelley staffers headed to Nuestra Tierra restaurant to celebrate Emily's birthday. Kind of a fun place with yummy food.

Heart of Palm salad.

Beef, Ham, Mushroom, Onions, Peppers, & Cheese on tortillas. Served on a leaf.

 

Tonight we had a lecture from an Ashoka Fellow who runs a youth foundation. You know what a speaker in a meeting room looks like, so no photos.

Quick photo updates

Still having an amazing time in Costa Rica, in spite of my technology problems. I seem to have found workarounds allowing me access to all of the photos I've taken.

Out first full day included a trip to Sarchi, where they make the traditional hand-painted Costa Rican oxcarts. We got to see the world's largest oxcart and visit the factory where they are made.

 

Our final stop that day was the Los Angeles Cloud forest near the Arenal Volcano. Great spot for a group photo!

Yesterday we visited el Triangulo precario (slum) and the organization El Niño y la Bola. Even though the homes there were small and poorly constructed, the families have televisions and comfortable furniture.

 

Our Amazing Guide explained to us that in Costa Rica a "Soda" is a small restaurant. There is an economy in the precario. We saw several stores, a barber shop, and places selling mobile phone minutes. El Niño y la Bola set up a bakery in the community.

I spent time helping students Sonya, Raquel, Jose, Andrea, and Miguel practice their English. Raquel is graduating from University soon. Jose has one more year of high school, and the rest are University students.

Back near the hotel I walked to the nearby park and took a picture of the pink school.

Last night we attended a cultural dinner 1500 feet about San Jose and the Central Valley floor. Amazing views, good dancing, and fun times.

Frustrations...

Oh, how I would love to share with the world what a beautiful country Costa Rica is, and all of the cool things we're doing here. But my laptop will not recognize the media storage from either my camera or my phone - even after purchasing a new card reader today. I also do not have administrative access to the laptop, so I can't explore potential solutions. Oddly enough, the laptop does recognize the School's camera that Emily has, and Justine's camera. It just seems to think I don't really need to post any o f my own photos.

I'm starting to get a little worried that my camera memory card will fill up and I have no way to save photos from the card to a computer or even cloud storage. I will be in the rainforest when I have to stop taking pictures. Fun times!

Meanwhile, I can continue to post a picture from my camera here and there via email, but only after we get back to the hotel at night where I have WiFi access.

Love it here - it's beautiful. We've done some really cool things. I just can't stay up all night trying to figure out how to access the photos and/or writing about it.

Is this the world's best travel blog post?

First Full Day in Costa Rica

We had a long but wonderful day yesterday. Interesting visits and beautiful scenery. Here I am at Villa Blanco Hotel in the Los Angeles cloud forest. That peak disappearing into the clouds behind me is the Arenal volcano.

I have very little time to blog, but I posted last night on the Kelley Study Abroad blog (link on the right). Also having technical difficulties getting photos off of my real camera. I'm off for another long day today!

One our way!

My third trip abroad with Justine! We're off to Costa Rica. Left the house at 1:22 am - a very early start, but no insurmountable problems so far. I got to go through expedited security! Kept my shoes on and left everything in the bag or in my pockets.

Tweeting

I've never Tweeted before, since I don't have my own Twitter account, but in Costa Rica I will be contributing posts to the Kelley School Study Abroad Twitter account. Follow along at @KSBStudyAbroad.

Getting Ready

The trip to Costa Rica is now less than two weeks away. Our final class to prepare for the trip is this coming Monday. Things have been so busy around here, I don't feel prepared to travel. Between moving offices this week and two concert performances this weekend, there hasn't been a lot of time to prepare. We did finally meet and review a draft of our itinerary, and at least I've started a packing list.

In San Jose, we will stay 6 nights at Balmoral Hotel before spending two nights in the rainforest at Selva Verde Lodge in Sarapiqui. While in country we will visit a cloud forest, a butterfly farm, a women's embroidery craft shop, a health clinic, an agency serving a Nicaraguan refugee community (where we will read to children and paint a bakery), and several other sites. It will be a busy time.

In addition to blogging here, I may also contribute to the new Kelley Study Abroad Blog.