Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Journey to Costa Rica


We set off for Costa Rica bright and early on July 15th.  Very bright and early.....as in "caught the 3:00am RTD bus to the airport" kind of early. Everyone was in surprisingly good spirits though for the flight to Houston and on to San Jose.







Finally in Costa Rica!!!!

We waited for a bit for the bus to pick us up from the airport. 


Finally, we made it to our first hotel.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Day 1- San Jose

We didn't have anything on the itinerary for that first day, so I assumed we'd just be hanging out by the pool and relaxing.  Our guide Margel, however, had other plans, and he took us on a walking tour of San Jose.  
It's not the greatest city on Earth (which is probably why it's not part of the set itinerary), but it's still neat to see the city, especially after having seen all of the rural spots we saw throughout the country. 


It started to rain after a bit...

Outside the market

Bryce bought a hammock for some still unknown reason. 


Dinner

Dinner

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Day 2- San Jose to Sarapiqui


We left San Jose early in the morning and boarded our bus to Sarapiqui.  I wish I had gotten a picture with the driver, as he was the coolest guy ever. The roads in Costa Rica can be questionable in spots, but he got us everywhere safely.

Waiting for the bus before breakfast

Our bus

Margel, our tour guide, was quite an interesting fellow. Of Jamaican descent, his family has lived in Costa Rica for three generations.  He's never left Costa Rica and has been a tour guide with EF for 18 years!  Needless to say, he knew the country like the back of his hand, and did an awesome job leading us around. 



We stopped off at a nature park on the way out of San Jose. 






Playing with tree sap



Lunch (just kidding)

Lunch

It looks like cheese, but it was apparently some sort of corn pudding.

You can't really tell, but that's a two-toed sloth.

Cloudy Volcano


Walking up to the volcano

Majestic view of the volcano haha

At the museum

We then stopped and got strawberries at a roadside stand.


We also stopped and got pictures at a waterfall



The hotel





Dinner




Random Dogs


We tried dancing. We tried.






Saturday, July 26, 2014

Day 3- Sarapiqui

We started out the day with some whitewater rafting. I spent most of my time pretending that I didn't know what I was doing and that I was all scared....you know, to build the kids' confidence in their own abilities.





This is the whole group that is traveling with us in Costa Rica. 



We followed up with lunch at the rafting place


When we came back to the hotel for a bit, it started POURING. You really can't get a sense of how wet it was.  I've never seen rain like that in Colorado.



We then went to a chocolate tour.


We saw all of the stages of chocolate making. Actual cocoa beans are absolutely disgusting. We were told to suck off the goo. 


They made chocolate in front of us, giving us samples every step of the way.



The students helped too.


Elle DESTROYED it!



We got a group photo too.


Later we wandered around town before dinner.




Later we had dinner.


The hotel in Sarapiqui had the best random dogs in it.