2025 Pollard Costa Rica Service Adventure

Ziplining Sloths!

Hi, my name is Joeun, and today we went ziplining. There were many pretty trees and plants. Some of the trees contained many insects, but others contained sloths. We saw three sloths today in the trees, and they were really cute. We went on 10 different ziplines, and each one of them you could either hold on to, or some of them you could flip upside down, or go backwards. We also went to the butterfly garden and crocodile pond to look at butterflies and crocodiles. There were crocodiles that were really big, and others that were very small. As far as the butterflies, the blue ones were really pretty, but they were really hard to get a photo of because they were really fast.

Hi – Felix here. So after zip lining, which was super fun, we came to the pool. We played some cool water polo. I was a beast. Then we went to lunch at the hotel, which was delicious. We had a choice between blackberry juice or pineapple juice. After that, we got into groups and went shopping. There were lots of things to buy like jewelry, pura vida signs, T-shirt’s and sloth stuffed animals. After the shops, we saw some monkeys on the way to the beach, and it was super fun. The waves at the beach were really big. Overall, it was really cool.

Hi, this is Faye. Now we’re about to go out to get pizza and drinks for dinner in a nice restaurant. Because this is our last night here, we dressed up nice. After dinner, we are writing a letter to ourselves that we will get back in about a year. The letter is about our experiences and how much of a good time we had here. It could be about going ziplining and surfing (for some, like me, our first time), about the service work, and being with our host families. Then we will go to bed and get ready to hike the national park tomorrow!

Surfs up!

Hi, I’m Charlotte, and this morning we left our host families in Sara Gerardo. It was really sad because all the families were awesome, and we will miss them. We got on the bus for a three-hour drive. A lot of people talked and did other hobbies, such as listening to music. We then got to Manuel Antonio and walked to lunch. The food was really really good- especially the lemonade. After that, we walked to the beach.

Hello, I’m Violet, and after the car ride and lunch today, we went to the beach to take some surf lessons. It was really fun, and the waves were huge. The water was really warm, not at all like the water at home in Massachusetts. Everyone got their own instructor who helped them surf and get up on the waves. While you were not surfing, we were using boogie boards and just swimming around and sloshing in the waves. It was really really fun because the waves were huge. We loved diving under them or jumping on top of them.

Hi, I’m Gabe, and after we went surfing, we checked into the hotel. Once we put away our luggage, we immediately went to the pool. There we played multiple games like who can do a handstand for the longest, and a dance talent show. Everyone was having a lot of fun.

Michael here. At the pool, we saw our first monkey, which was such a cool experience! Now we’re gonna go prepare for dinner in town and try to get a good night’s sleep because we are looking forward to zip lining tomorrow!

The last day with our host families

Cora, Aimee, and Julia here!

Cora and Aimee: Some people spent the majority of the morning working on building a sidewalk from the Centro Educativo San Gerardo school to the church. We shoveled cement and flattened it, and brushed dust to bricks to make them adhere to each other. Others spent the beginning of our day digging away dirt and weeds from the sides of the gutter and from the top of the wall. After a quick 15-minute break, with oranges, bananas, and watermelon, we shifted our efforts to clearing out the interior of the gutter, allowing the rainwater it contained to flow more freely. This part in particular was quite difficult and required multiple people using their shovels together to effectively scoop out any muck in the way. We stopped, after this, for lunch from our host families. For lunch, I (Cora) had a home recipe bean burger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, pearl onions, mayo, ketchup, and fries. After lunch, it was all hands on deck to complete the work we started. People cleaned the gutters near the gazebo, helped clean the fence, continued clearing the gutters by the walls, removed plants from the top of the walls, and used cement to repair parts of the rock wall. Work was cut short when a heavy rainstorm rolled in, but we got most of the job done! Using the rain to our advantage, a small group cleaned gloves that were going to be thrown out; that way, we could donate them to the other workers who needed them. Julia here! After the day of work, we went back to our host family’s to get ready for the goodbye party that the teachers and Walking Tree Travel hosted. We arrived at 6 in our nice clothing with our family. We danced for a little bit to both Spanish and English music before we all sat down with our host families to have dinner. Everyone got in a line to be served rice and beans, pasta with tuna, and chips with refried beans. Then we played a few games like picking a color pen out of a bag and answering a reflective question based on the color we picked, and trying to be the first to blow up and sit on a balloon.

Afterward, everyone had a chance to give our families the gifts that we brought for them and take a picture together. We danced and hung out with the children of the families before a piñata was set up, and we all got candy! It was such a fun time and a really good way to say goodbye to our host families that took care of us.

The Sun and the Rain

My name is Kelvin Brown and today in the morning a big thing that we were focusing on was carrying bricks to the sidewalk we are creating and then walking back and repeating the process to get all the bricks. Later in the day, we were able to use the wheelbarrows and it helped us to finish the task faster. We worked hard to finish moving the bricks before taking our break when we enjoyed watermelon and bananas.

Hi I’m Tigran. After our break, we continued to clear the vegetation off of the wall. We spread concrete and then put sand on the sidewalk. We also cleared out grass from the gutter and on top of the wall.

Hi, it’s Lilly. For lunch today I had chicken, rice and beans. Normally at home I wouldn’t eat these foods for lunch but here I’m trying a lot of new stuff. Other people had similar stuff as well but somewhere different like fries and chicken and fish.

Hi, this is Maddie. After lunch, we continued our work on the sidewalk and clearing the wall. We put sand down for the sidewalk and laid the bricks. As we were finishing, it started pouring, and we all ran inside. We made a lot of progress on our projects today and hope we can finish them up by the end of tomorrow.

Hi, this is Addison. When it started raining it was really really loud and so we came in to do an activity. The activity was writing letters to our host families to show our appreciation and what we like most about being in their homes and what we will remember most. For my letter we did drawings of every person in the house and we can’t wait to see them tomorrow and to do our celebration to say goodbye. We hope that we will make a memory in their hearts. We are about to head home to the host families for dinner and to play some games before we start our last day of work.

What a day!

Hello, this is Ayla and Abby reporting from Costa Rica. This morning everyone woke up after a peaceful and rainy night. We were fed well by the host families. Most people had eggs, rice, and beans for breakfast, which is the typical Costa Rican breakfast. Later we walked down to the soccer field and met up with Jesyka and Karen and talked about what service work we would be doing for the community throughout the day and what service work meant to us. We started off the day with six people going to help work on the sidewalk and the rest of the group worked on cleaning and restoring the stone wall around the soccer field. For the sidewalk people were working on breaking up what was previously there with pickaxes and shovels, and for the stone wall, people were using their hands to pull out the plants inside of it and using a brush to get the dirt out from in between the stones. Another task we were given was to dig out the plants and dirt over a gutter so water could flow. People used shovels and wheelbarrows for this. Everyone rotated through the jobs to try and push themselves out of their comfort zones and try new things.

Then we took a break for lunch and our host families brought everyone lunch. There was a variety of different foods from each family and everyone enjoyed the lunch that was given to them. After we split into groups and went to the supermarket and bought snacks and beverages to have for later in the trip. After lunch, we continued working on our given tasks and we are hoping to finish all the sites before we have to say goodbye to this community.

This is Ethan and Micah reporting about the rest of the afternoon. Afterwards, we celebrated Mrs. Silver‘s birthday and we had cake and soda. Then we played soccer with some local residents who were younger than us but better than us for 45 minutes. It was very fun. Afterward we took dance lessons. It was salsa and bachata and we did that with partners and music. We are excited to go back to our host families now and have dinner and spend the night there again before we do more work tomorrow.

Blog 2

Hi, this is Ava! Yesterday when we woke up at the hotel we had breakfast and then we did an orientation about how the rest of the day would go. After that, we boarded the bus and drove about an hour to go for a hike, which was really fun and wet.

Luke here now! After the hike we went and had lunch in a place called San Isidro and it was pretty good. I had chicken with garlic bread and salad, which is pretty good, and others enjoyed different dishes. I think everyone liked it and I also had a Costa Rica exclusive drink called soursop that also was delicious. After that, we continued on and made our way towards our host families making a stop at a cheese farm along the way.

Hey, my name is Bella! Yesterday we went to a cheese farm and the first thing we did there was get a tour of the farm. Then, the owner showed us how to milk a cow and we all took turns milking the cow, which was pretty exciting. After that, he took us to a place to sample all of the cheeses, but before that he showed us how to age the cheeses and we all tried some bread and cheese samples. After that we were allowed to buy some cheese if we wanted.

This is Sophia! After the lunch, we took a short five minute drive to arrive at our host families location. They were all waiting for us at the soccer field. We met in a room, got assigned our families, picked up our luggage and started our walks back to the houses. On our walk to the houses we talked to them about our journey and about what we wanted for dinner. We then unpacked and ate dinner. Everybody seemed to like their dinner a lot and I know mine was really good. Then we just showered and went to bed early. It was fun to learn how to communicate when they only speak Spanish and we didn’t know much Spanish so we ended up using Google translate, a lot of hand signs and the little Spanish we know. All the families were so nice and excited to have us there to visit and help out. We are looking forward to spending the next couple days with them.

Arriving to Costa Rica

Today, the group arrived in Costa Rica at 4:30. WTT guides Karen and Jesika met them at the airport. The group was tired, but happy to be in Costa Rica.

Most of them were hungry, so we took them to La Casona del Maíz Restaurant, a typical food restaurant where all of them tried traditional food and were energetic and enjoying their meal time. Then, we arrived at the hotel and everyone went to their rooms.

– Karen

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