Costa Rica Post Dispatch #4

Update from Thomas
Our last blog left off with us heading out for a zipline tour through the rainforest canopy, followed by swimming in volcanic warmed hot springs. The next day we went for a hike up the Rio Celeste. This is a normal-looking river flowing through the green rainforest (yes, it was actually raining) until it passes a place where a spring enters from under the river channel, turning the stream a brilliant light blue, thus the name. The river later pours over waterfalls and through a beautiful rock strewn channel. That evening we went for a drive to a place where we could see lava bombs exploding out the top of the volcano, tumbling in glowing, splintering balls down the flank of the volcano. Cool! No, HOT!!
On day eight, we traveled by 4wd truck to the tiny village of San Antonio where we met our host families for our homestays. Many of the kids were quite nervous, mostly about language issues, but by yesterday morning (day 11), all had formed bonds that were comfortable, joyful and heartfelt. We did a formal presentation of the laptop we had brought to donate to the school and it was enthusiastically accepted. The school is housed in a nice building, but has practically no resources outside of an excellent and dedicated teaching staff. While we stayed in the village we performed studies of the cloud forest, including looking for fractal patterns and collecting invertebrate and tree diameter data for later analysis.
After saying our goodbyes to our hosts in San Antonio, we travelled to San Ramon where we ate pizza, and visited the local church and the museum featuring Jose Figueres—the man responsible for bring culture, education and dissolution of the army to Costa Rica.
Today is our last full day in Costa Rica, and we are spending it with our host Steve cooking a Costa Rican meal. Later we will return to Elbert’s family’s casa where we will play soccer and dance with local musicians.

Student comments:

Max's Entry
When I first heard that we were going to do a zip-line high in the trees, I was kind of nervous, because I’m scared of heights. But when we got there, the people really knew what they were doing and made me feel okay. When I saw the first person go on the first line, it looked really fun. I ended up not being scared at all, even on the ones that were really high. They went really fast, so you couldn’t see much, but on the really long one (500 meters) you had a really great view. The zip-line has probably been the most exiting part of the trip so far and I’m glad I got to do it.

--Sarah's Entry
Today is our last day in Costa Rica. Everyone in the class is learning how to cook traditional Costa Rican food here at Steve and Kathleen’s house. The thing I enjoyed most was seeing the beach again and staying with our home-stay families in San Antonio. The first night at our home-stay, I wasn’t too excited for the rest of our stay. As the days went on, though, I learned how to better use my Spanish, and my family learned how to communicate better with me. The little girl in my family and I talked a lot, and she really helped me with daily life. We found out that we have the same birthday, too. I learned a lot about how the people in San Antonio live. What an experience this has been for both sides. Most people in the town had never heard an English speaker before. In the house I stayed at, the only map they owned was of Costa Rica. By the end of our stay, I realized what selfless people all of our families were. Every host mom cried when we left the town. It was a really good experience for me to practice my Spanish and learn about something new.

Lenna's Entry
I am sitting here in Steve and Kathleen’s beautiful home learning how to cook original Costa Rican food on the last day of the trip. This is the first time that I’ve done a blog entry because I have been trying to figure out what the most enjoyable part of this trip has been. I’ve now figured out that there isn’t only one thing that was great but the whole experience has been wonderful. Seeing the ocean for the first time in my life was truly……………. I guess there’s really no words that describe it. Hopefully you will understand.
The first night at the home-stay was really hard for me, but as I spent more time with my family, I learned more about their culture and language. I’m very lucky that Sarah was there to help translate, because they talk really fast. I could tell that it was very hard for our home-stay mother to let us go, because there was a lot of crying. I’m grateful for having had this experience and I will see everybody at home tomorrow around dinnertime.

Finn's Entry
Costa Rica has been really fun for me. I haven’t ever been out of the US, so things were very different from what I thought they would be. Surprisingly, a lot of the cities weren’t very different from what I was used to. The traffic was pretty crazy though. People here seem to think parking in the middle of the street isn’t a very bad idea.
I wasn’t really sure what a poor community would be like in Costa Rica, but when we arrived in San Antonio I felt very much at home. The town reminded me a little bit of Crestone. There was a small store, the houses were very far apart, the school wasn’t very big, and the roads were bad. Really bad. Every house was very comfortable though. There was electricity and running water everywhere, which I think the town has had for 17 years. The kids seemed like average teenagers from what I could tell. I talked to a kid named Fabio for a while and he told me about things they did there. It was a fun place to be, and I could adjust to living there pretty easily.

Nathan's Entry
When we went to the home-stay I was kind of nervous, because I did not speak Spanish and they did not speak English. The first day was very weird because we tried to talk to the family but we did not know what they were saying so I just sat and drew in my notebook. The next day was a lot more fun because we played hacky-sack and sang karaoke. We sang the Titanic song because it was the only song they had in English. The last night we played soccer with the village people then later that night we all went to a dance. The next morning we said good-bye and left, never to see them again. All the mothers cried; it was very sad.

Jesse's Entry
It was not until we hiked through the national park that I understood why the forest Elbert took us through was termed a dry rainforest. The drier forest seemed much like the woods around Crestone—the ground had a few vines ranging across it, but was largely clear. In the rainforest, the ground floor was covered in all manner of plant species and the trails were slippery with mud. The second day we spent in the cloud forest was even wetter; a squeeze of some moss would be greeted with a shower of water. During the past few days of our trip, the rainy season has descended and the lower country is covered in a thick fog.

And One Last Note from Sammy
-Ahem- I think I speak for all the students of LINK when I say: DON’T MAKE RICE FOR DINNER!!!!!!!!!!