Introduction: Over spring break, a group of forty-three students and four teacher chaperones traveled to Costa Rica as a part of the Spanish Club at the high school. The group spent nine days doing activities from exploring different towns to mountain biking on a volcano base. They traveled from coast to coast during the trip to see many different cities within Costa Rica. This was also a great opportunity for the students to practice their Spanish speaking skills. We have written below the activities we did each day, as well as our own stories from the trip.

DAYS 1-3 by: Lily Bauer

On day one, we traveled to the airport and had to be there at 3 AM. Our flight boarded at 5 AM, but getting through TSA and getting our bags checked took a long time. The first flight was about three hours to Miami, Florida. A lot of people slept on the flight, but I sadly was in the middle seat in the very back row, and I could not get comfortable.

Once we landed in Miami, we had about an hour layover until we boarded the plane for San Jose, Costa Rica. During this time, we got snacks, and I bought $20 sunscreen because I forgot mine at home.

When we landed in San Jose, we met our tour guide, Pav. He was super nice and made sure we felt super welcome. We had a charter bus take us to a supermarket so we could get some snacks and so we could wait to check into our hotel. Then we went to our hotel, and everyone relaxed by the pool before dinner.

A few students weren’t feeling well after traveling, but everything was fine at dinner. On day two, we traveled to Tortuguero. The bus ride was around three to four hours because of the traffic, but we eventually made it to the boats we needed to take to get to our hotel. The boat ride took an hour and a half, but it was very peaceful.

When we got to our hotel, we realized that there was poor wifi and no air conditioning, which was definitely challenging. Then we hung out at the hotel until we got back on the boat to travel to the Sea Turtle Conservation Museum. We learned about how researchers keep the sea turtles safe and help conserve the species.

After, we went to a little town down the beach from the museum and walked around to the stores. Then we went back to the hotel and had the dinner provided for us and some people played games while others swam in the pool.

On day three we got up bright and early at 5 AM to go on an animal tour by boat. We went through the different canals and saw monkeys, birds, and crocodiles. It was super cool to see animals outside of the zoo in their natural habitat. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and ate some breakfast.

That day we also went on a nature walk around the hotel. We separated into groups, group one went on the walk first at around 10 AM while group two laid out. My group was group two and we were the best group. We all tanned and played by the pool until 2 PM.

Then we went on the walk where we learned about the nature around us. We got to eat coconuts that fell from the palm trees and I got a really pretty hibiscus flower put into my hair. After our walk we went back to our room and got into our bathing suits to go to the pool.

We also made a sand volleyball court on the beach and played collectively as a group. My team lost a couple of times but it was more about the memories that we made playing. After I washed most of the sand off of me, we gathered for dinner and surprised Parker Nelson by singing happy birthday and the hotel made him a cake. We all ended off the night by playing games and told stories around a bonfire.

DAYS 4-6 by: Hallee Inman

On day four, we started the day off by leaving the hotel where we stayed in Tortuguero. We took boats back that morning and then traveled to Sarapiqui. The trip back took a long time because we were going against the current.

We got to our new hotel around lunchtime and then went river kayaking. It started calmly, with everyone trying to figure out how to do it, but quickly turned intense when the guides started splashing everyone with their paddles. Halfway through, we stopped on a small beach and ate fresh pineapple and watermelon with cookies.

The second half was even crazier as it had turned into a free-for-all with splashing, and some people even jumped out of their kayaks into the water. We walked back to our hotel, and then everyone changed into dry clothes, and we walked around the town right outside of our rooms.

We even met the mayor of the town, who was very excited to share some of the history of the town we were in and what each letter of Sarapiqui stood for. That night, we went on a short hike and saw red-eyed tree frogs, sloths, owls, lizards, and more.

Day five started with a drive to Arenal to walk around another town. After about an hour of that, we went to the Arenal volcano base, where we all got mountain bikes. We then went on a bike ride around the volcano base, both downhill and uphill, while also sharing the road with cars.

After finishing that, we got more fresh pineapple to enjoy and celebrate finishing the ride. That night, we went to the hot springs for a few hours. There was this one water slide that would shoot people upwards at the end, where everyone was taking turns going down. We finished the night at dinner, where there was live music and a lot of dogs walking around that we could pet.

On day six, we went to Tenorio National Park, where we went on a 3.6-mile hike, both uphill and downhill. It was raining heavily throughout the entirety of the hike, but that made it even more fun in my opinion. Gracie and I, and a couple of others, spent some of the time playing a game where we would take turns saying a random line in alphabetical order to people we walked by. We did it a few times, talking in different accents or singing.

During the hike, we also got to see a waterfall and a lagoon. As we were heading to the next hotel, our bus tire popped off while on the road. Luckily, everything was alright, but we ended up being stuck for about an hour waiting for another bus to come pick us up. We made it to the hotel safely and spent the rest of the night swimming and playing card games. A lot of people used Uber Eats also to get McDonald's and Pizza Hut for a late-night snack.

DAYS 7-9 by: Gracie Pfautsch

On day seven, we began our day by going horseback riding and zip lining. We rode the horses up a steep mountain trail and zip-lined on eight different ropes. We then got to come back to our hotel and swim.

That night, our teachers had put together a dance class for us. We learned different dance styles and practiced them with our partners.

The next morning, we got up and traveled to Guanacaste, where we spent our last day at the beach. Before heading to the beach, we went to a souvenir shop and got lunch. Then, at the beach, we swam in the ocean, played with a frisbee, and got to see howler monkeys. The water was cold, but refreshing. Our teachers always reminded us to wear sunscreen!

Later in the night, we all got dressed up and went to the sunset. We took pictures and walked along the beach to end the day. The final morning was spent packing and traveling back to the airport. With flight delays, and a group of 50 of us, we barely made it home at the scheduled time. Just take a second to imagine almost 50 high school students running through the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Our sprinting paid off, as we made it to the gate with two minutes to spare. Overall, Costa Rica allowed all of us to branch out, learn new things, and, of course, make so many memories that will last a lifetime.

Image 1 Left

  • Drew Disko
  • Ty Thorp
  • Brayden Ditmeyer
  • Landon Prost
  • Ryan Goldstein
  • Ruth Kamp
  • Ainsley Nelson
  • Isla Loucks

Right

  • Macaulay Hoffman
  • Jackson Pettit
  • Dorien Davis
  • Parker Nelson
  • Brady Menke
  • Sam Heath
  • John Sirko-Carney
  • Everett Dinkins

Image 3

  • Zach Overstreet
  • Ainsley Nelson
  • Ruth Kamp
  • Amelia Blacketer
  • Willem Kuelher

Image 4

Image 5

First Row

  • Ella Miller
  • Giada Sanzottera
  • Halle inman
  • Jordyn Mittlelhauser

Middle Row

  • Claire Allen
  • Landon Prost

Back Row

  • Ryan Goldstein
  • Graham Rollins

Image 6

Left boat Gretchen Schuester Mrs. Struckoff Right boat Ellie smith Keagan Murphy

Image 8

Ty Thorp, Noah Wolberg, Dorien Davis, Mr. Seideman, Parker Nelson, Brady Menke, JD Iver, Jonathan kamp

Image 9

Dorian Davis Sam Heath Drew Disko Jesse Omohundro Abe Larrew John Sirko-Carney

Image 11

Hallee Inman, Claire Allen, Jordyn Mittelhauser, Mr. Wolf

Image 12

Macey Thompson Bella carruthers ella miller

Image 13

Ryan Goldstein Noah Wolberg Graham Rollins Jonathan kamp Landon Prost Sam Heath, JD Iver Ty Thorp

Image 14

Giada Sanzottera, Claire Allen, Jordyn Mittlelhauser, Gracie Pfautsch, Lily bauer,