2022 Goffstown Costa Rica Service Adventure
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Blog 8
Accompanied by bird songs and the distant waves, we walked quietly through the forest in Manuel Antonio National Park. We were paying attention to the moving foliage as it was an indicator of our neighbors: white face, howler and spider monkeys (some with their babies on their back!) were sliding at easy above us, eating berries for breakfast or stealing sunscreen from their paparazzi.
Blog 7
Hola familias y amigos,
After a delicious breakfast, we said our sad goodbyes to our families and Alfombra. It was such a beautiful place and we met so many fun, interesting people. They taught us many things and fed us so much food. We couldn’t thank them enough for the amazing experience. I don’t know about everyone else, but I for one will miss them dearly. We then hopped on the bus to head to Parque Nacional Bahía Ballena. We arrived an hour early so we spent it swimming and enjoying ourselves. Most of us were jumping in and out of the waves. It was so much fun besides inhaling a ton of salt water. We were all very dehydrated, but we drank a lot of water to make up for it. Then Dennis taught us how to surf. It was pretty funny practicing how to do it on land. There was sand all over us but we didn’t care because the water got it off quickly. In the water, most people were able to get the hang of it, like Brian and Liliana, as well as Penny and Nicole. We all were having a lot fun which is really the most important part. We then took a short break to rehydrate ourselves and some of us went walking along the beach, finding some big, beautiful sand dollars.
After we got dressed and showered, we quickly ran to get lunch, which was good since it was a buffet and we got to try a variety of different foods. 50 minutes later, on the bus, it brought us to our next adventure in La Foresta where we all took a zip lining trip across the forest canopy. The view was amazing, well if you could see anything (the rain was really heavy). The first 4 lines had us practicing for the longer ones and, when we got to the 5th one, we all had to go against our fears and hang upside down. I thought it was super fun but several of us didn’t like it and didn’t want to do it again. The next line allowed us to spin and bounce which was also fun. We also got to race each other and I totally won (Brooke) against Abby. Later, we had to drop down to the floor of the canopy and several people screamed bloody murder which we all laughed at after. I definitely squeaked but we don’t need to talk about that. Then the last line was us swinging like Tarzan and many of us dared to go upside down again. We even got Señora McKinnon to go upside down again too.
After we dried off, we made our way to the hotel and got settled in. We relaxed the rest of the night and swam in the hotel pool. During dinner, we talked about our stay with our host families and heard of all the fun adventures and stories our families told us. It was nice to reflect back on our stay. The dinner was amazing too. Nicole and I got pizza de nutella for dessert which was pizza but it had nutella, marshmellos, and bananas on it. Super yummy but also really sweet. It’s sad to know that we have one more day left before we fly out. It was such a nice adventure and I hope to do more with our school in the future. Tomorrow will definitely be an amazing last day.
Adios familias y amigos,
Brooke Paris and Abby Mckee
Blog 6
Today was the second day of community service in Alfombra, Costa Rica, “where the sky meets the sea”. Today the group finished most of the work in the garden. Savannah, Brian, and Eli worked in the greenhouse to plant lettuce, cilantro, and peppers. The group of travelers working on cementing the basketball court also inched closer to finishing, completing three out of four rows of cement needed to cover the whole floor. Toni, the supervisor of the cement mixing, was also a huge help. Today, the group earned Toni’s confidence, as their batches of cement were more consistent and needed less correcting. During the hard work, a Costa Rican Driver drove into a ditch right next to the school, with his back wheel completely lifted and off of the ground. The group rushed to help but he was able to back out on his own, making for a climactic end to day 5.
Blog 5
Written by Eleanor LaRoche
Today was the last day with our host families and the last day of working at the school. Once we arrived at the school the students were already there and energetic. We were about to start working when more gravel was brought to the school, but we realized it was the wrong gravel! So while we waited for the correct gravel to show up, we were able to spend time with the kids. While waiting we hung out with one or two kids and played games/drew pictures with them. We also spent a little while to expand our Spanish speaking skills by getting to know the kids and asking questions about them. Once the correct gravel arrived our group started out mixing the gravel and cement mix together with water to make the cement. After our hours of hard work we finally finished the play area! At the end we all wrote our initials in the wet cement, as a memory of our hard work. While all the cement was being poured and mixed, three of us worked to dig a small ditch for water to flow through. At the end of the day we ended up with more cement than needed, and put some in the ditch to make it more sturdy.
Once we were all finished with our work, the ladies at the school cafeteria brought us all some ice-cream. It was a nice and refreshing snack to have after our hard work the last three days. Then we all left to our host families around 2 p.m. to get ready for la fiesta de despedida! At the party we all ate with the host families and some kids from the families and the school! After we finished eating we all took our turns saying gracias to our families in Spanish. After the speeches we watched a little slide show the families made for us! It included pictures of our work during the last few days, and highlights in La Alfombra. We had a little dance party with the kids and had some ice-cream. I’m giving an honorable mention to our little party man Bruce. He was definitely the star of the show this night, and took over the dance floor in instructing our group to dance his way! We also all had a turn to dance with una abuela, and got graced with her expert dancing skills.
After the dance party we hit a piñata and got some Costa Rican candies! And peanuts. We returned home after a long day, and my group of girls said our goodbyes to our family and have hugs everywhere. We’re sad to be leaving our families, but we exchanged information to continue talking with each other in the future! It was a great last day with these amazing families, and cannot wait to continue our adventures in Costa Rica tomorrow!
Blog 4
Written by Ava and Penny
Today we got up nice and early in our cabins to have a quick breakfast at the florida farm. After everyone ate we packed our lunches for the day and met the bus at the top of the hill before taking off. The drive was rather short and everyone was a little nervous for the hike witch ended up being sorter then we thought. When we arrived at the Nauyaca waterfall we were greeted with Carameoya refreshments and a spectacular view. We road a tracker down to where we would start our hike. It was a beautiful and very fun little spot with hammocks and hanging chairs. Once we all got our far share of pictures we began our hike down to the waterfall. We all were prepared for a long hike but it was actually quite easy. We went down to the base of the waterfall first and it is a sight to be seen! Es muy Bonita! The waterfall itself was really big and the current in the pool was very strong so we chose to hike to the top pool of the waterfall were we could swim. The views were breathtaking and everyone was really excited to get in the water. We were definitely all taken back at the size of the waterfall once we started swimming and jumping off the rocks in the pool. We hung out for around an hour and ate lunch and just enjoyed eachothers company before hiking back up to prepare to meet our host families. By the time we made it back to the hammocks at the “top” of the hike we were exhausted. The tracker ride back was much appreciated and so was the ice cream. The bus ride to the host families was used wisely by practicing our greetings and how we planned to share our home with our new families. Everyone was nervous and excited to meet the hosts but after introducing ourselves and going our own ways I feel like we all connected with our families and are happy to call them our Costa Rican family.
Blog 3
Written by Nicole Tardiff
Dear reader, today we ate our breakfast, most of us had gallo pinto which is a famous dish in Costa Rica. After breakfast we immediately left our host families. We thought that the hiking was over but apparently not since we had a 10 ish minute walk down to the school. Although it was tiring the views made it worth it. We saw many beautiful flowers and trees along the way and let’s not forget the abundance of dogs. Once we arrived at the school we were greeted by Tony who showed us what needed to be done. Before we could do any work though we had to get our group picture in-front of the school sign. Thank you to Señora DeMarco! Eventually we separated into two groups of 6 and got to work. The first group worked with the concrete, our job was to first pour sand into the wheelbarrows until we had 4 of them full. Next we poured it into a wooden container we’re we added a bag of concrete mix and 2 1/2 buckets of water. Luckily Tony was there to help because we were standing there like lost puppies. We managed to get a decent portion of the cement done, and not to brag but we did pretty good. The second group worked with the plants. It was beautiful, the school had a set up where they used spray painted tires as decoration to hold the plants. Some of the tires were even put together to look like tea cups. Their job was to clean the tires, mix new dirt to replace the old dirt, and plant new plants. Let’s just say this wasn’t an easy job. While cleaning, we used bleach and now our shirts have white dots. On top of that mixing and planting is very physically demanding but there were many of us so the job was easier. Once we all started to work, we got into a groove and ended up having a lot of fun with it. As time went on we all got pretty tired so we took a well needed and deserved break. Coral brought snacks for us and we made sure to stay hydrated. During the break we talked about our host families and what they were like. We are lucky to be with such nice and welcoming families, they even understand that we are trying to speak Spanish and understand what they say. After our break we continued to work and before we knew it the time flew by and it was time for lunch. While everyone ate the lunch that their families brought them (12pm), the host family that Eleanor, Abby, Brooke and I (Nicole) had took us to a birthday party for a three year old. Not just any birthday party though, it was Moana themed. Although we left the house 40 minutes late, but this was no surprise because this was just tico time. Tico time is when people get distracted and don’t pay attention to the time, but they don’t really care since they are very flexible with schedules and relaxed. The party was in San José Providence so it was a longer ride than expected. It was in a huge building, and there were so many people. They even had 2 bouncy houses for the little kids. During the party they played music and we were singing the English version to the kids songs like twinkle twinkle little star and wheels on the bus. For us things died down kind of quickly since we didn’t know anyone but we made the best out of it. Although once they took the piñata out the fun began again. We watched everyone hit the piñata and we even got some candy ourselves. Fun fact they put peanuts and candy in the piñata. Eventually we were served dinner which was pork shoulder, rice, and salad with tortillas and it was delicious! The night continued, we danced and Brooke even taught me (Nicole) the waltz. Before we left we had some cake and ice cream of course, it was soon time to go home and we are all exhausted but that didn’t stop us from dancing some more. Now that was a Saturday night in Costa Rica!
Blog 2
Written by Liliana and Savannah
Today we woke up in la Rosa de America and then we had a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we got on our bus with all of our luggage for a 4 hour ride to la Florida! The ride didn’t even feel like 4 hours because there were so many wonderful sights to see outside. We stopped to see crocodiles, parrots, and even stopped to buy local snacks at a supermarket! A lot of us purchased plantain chips, which are a very popular snack here. Toward the end of the bus ride we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the beach! While we were waiting for our food we walked to the beach and skipped rocks. After our meal we drove about an hour more to our destination. We arrived and were able to settle into our cabins before the coffee tour. On the tour we were able to sample lots of fresh local produce like bananas, chirimboya (star fruit), spicy peppers, and cacao pods, which were delicious. After we got to see the animals they had on the farm and even got to feed the pigs some bananas. After the pigs we saw chickens, hamsters, bunnies, and cows! The farm dog named ‘pecan’ followed us along on our adventure. After our tour we gathered in an outdoor kitchen to make our own empeñadas! While they were cooking we also made coffee and hot chocolate from the beans that they grew on the farm. After our snack we went back to our cabins for some down time, and then about an hour later we gathered in the dining building and got to make our own nachos! There was even a pool table for us to use. After dinner we showered off and went to bed!
Blog 1
Written by Lisa
Una imagen vale más que mil palabras. Pictured: arriving at the airport in San Jose; on the bus to lunch; enjoying our first meal of Costa Rican cuisine; the beautiful view outside of the restaurant; our rooms for the night at Hotel Rosa de América; our tour bus; relaxing before dinner; enjoying the pool.