2024 Mullen Costa Rica Conservation Expedition

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Blog 6

What we did and our favorites:

  • We started by shopping in the town and bargaining with local shop owners
  • We got to go to one of the biggest hot springs in the world
  • Got to go down some of the fastest water slides
  • Enjoyed anything from boiling water to freezing water
Our Challenges:
  • Working as a team during big rapids in the sarapiqui river.
  • Surviving the brutal slides at the hot springs
  • Staying awake throughout the long drive out of the rainforest

Things we learned:

  • Today we learned how the water in the hot springs heats up.
  • We also learned to not take comfortable beds for granted.

Blog 5

Written by Will R.
The experience I had with the Costa Rica locals was very positive. All of the tour guides were well informed and excited to share the culture. Not only were they good at explaining, they had a great sense of humor and were always inclusive in every activity. A great example of this was when we were about to go on a zip line they said “fly like a penguin”. The people we got to experience were always friendly and easy to talk to. We got to play soccer with local communities as a whole and it was one of the most fun experiences on the trip. They understood that we were not very good at it and they made sure to be inclusive. We got to practice speaking Spanish while making new friends. Overall, the locals we got to meet were always friendly and easy to talk to, it was a very positive and welcoming experience.
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Written by Alexa H.
As the trip went by, the culture of the Costa Rican people taught us about patience, respect, and the importance of unity amongst all peoples. The culture grew throughout the trip, watching each and everyone of the people grow a little from learning about the culture. We learned patience through the lengthy walks with the experienced guides who first indulged us into the Costa rican culture of admiring nature in our own individual way. We learned respect through the games we played, how they allowed everyone to take part, no matter how good, the culture created a family with respect. Unity was learned throughout the entire trip, as a group, as friends, and as family, we were taught the beautiful culture and adapted to it as well.

Blog 4: Day 5

We asked our group to share different aspects of their journey in Costa Rica so far. Discover their insights and experiences from day 5 below:

Highlights:

  • We started with a hike that involved plant adaptations
  • Then we got on the bus and went  to learn a couple of traditional Spanish dances
  • Next we got to play more soccer with the locals, this time futsal
  • At dinner everyone got to replenish themselves with a traditional American Burger
  • Finally we went on the night hike which was awesome

Things we learned:

  • We learned how to salsa dance
  • Plant adaptations
  • Animal differences

Challenges:

  • Keeping energy high throughout the whole day because we were doing so many activities
  • Braving the jungle at night
  • Enduring the heat on our hikes
  • Seeing scary bugs
  • For some people learning the dances or playing soccer was physically challenging

Blog 3: Day 4

We asked our group to share different aspects of their journey in Costa Rica so far. Discover their insights and experiences from day 4 below:

Highlights: 

  • Hiking
  • Sightseeing
  • From seeing sloths, snakes, and ants
  • Mass

What we learned:

  • Realizing how much vegetation is in the jungle
  • Learning sloths have a special smell
  • Trees use poison to protect themselves
  • Lots of competition throughout the forest which leads to evolution

Challenges:

  • Paying attention to the path and animals at the same time
  • Humidity

Long hike OTS:

  • We walked around the secondary forest and learned all about it
  • Saw sloths, toucans, monkeys, snakes, frogs, bullet ants, lizards, agoutis,

La Misa:

  • We were able to finish our Sunday today by visiting a local church for mass.
  • We got to be immersed in the Costa Rican culture at mass entirely in the Spanish language.
  • There was a dog that walked down the aisle at communion which was a fun highlight of the mass.

Blog 2: Day 3

We asked our group to share different aspects of their journey in Costa Rica so far. Discover their insights and experiences from day 3 below:

Highlights of our trip :

  • Cooking class
  • Soccer with the local kids
  • Tattoos from fruit (don’t worry, they’re temporary)
  • learning about bats on a night hike

What we learned:

  • Ethnobotany
  • Bat benefits

Challenges:

  • Language barrier
  • Trying new things
    • Foods
    • Sports

Soccer:

  • We played soccer with the locals. The score was 2-1 and was ended earlier than expected due to the rain.
  • Meeting lots of friends we shared ice cream and ran through the rain.
  • We learned to overcome the language barrier between us and the locals. It was incredibly cool to communicate with those of other cultures

Cooking class:

  • We cooked our own lunch and it was delicious.
  • We cut and made the salad, and cut and pressed the plantains.
  • There was also Caribbean chicken that was delicious.

Bats:

  • Listened to a talk about bats.
  • We were then shown some of the bats they had captured on the reserve.

 

Blog 1

Click the link for our first blog: Costa Rica Field Experience J-Term 2024

Pura vida!

We’ve arrived! More coming soon.

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