Day 1
My trip to Costa Rica started at
three AM, on Thursday, June 27, 2013. My dad and I woke, making sure not to
wake up my mom and my little brother Zac. We hustled around trying to get ready
as fast as we could. When the car was packed up and we were ready to go, we
woke up my mom and little brother, said our goodbyes, and started the 45 minute
drive to Portland. When we arrived at the airport, we got our boarding passes
and walked to the bag check. It all went smoothly, and we got to the terminal
with about 30 minutes to spare. As soon as we got on the plane, it took of
within five minutes. We then arrived in Dallas, Texas. With the temperature at
a steady 95-100 degrees we got on the monorail that took us around the entire
airport. We then got to our terminal and waited to be able to board the plane.
As soon as I was on that plane, I realized that I wouldn’t be in the US for
another ten days. We arrived in San Jose Costa Rica at about 11:30 PM. We all
got on a bus that took about two hours to get to the airport because of the
traffic, and then we were on our way to the hotel for our first night in Costa
Rica. The hotel we stayed in was very similar to the average American hotel. My
group got tour room key, and the three of us all went to bed.
Day 2
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| The amazing Poas volcano |
We all ate breakfast at about seven
thirty, seven forty five. We then got on the bus and traveled to InBio Parque. A one of a kind park that lets
you be as close to an animal as you want to be. With our tour director giving
us some pretty cool facts about the next stop, the Poas Volcano. We walked
about a quarter of a mile to the top. The sight we saw was breathtaking. The
crater of the Poas volcano is massive. And more than 1 kilometer down. 1
kilometer is 1000 meters. One meter is about 39 inches. That’s pretty close to
4000 feet straight down. After seeing the volcano, we drove back down the
volcano to local restaurant for lunch. The meal would be the same as our dinner
chicken, white rice, black beans, and plantains. We then drove to our next
hotel and had dinner. We all then jumped in the pool and played Marco Polo for
2 hours.
Day 3
For our
third day, we all woke up early and went kayaking. The lake was beautiful and
calm. We all got buddies and started to paddle over to the far side of the
lake. After staying there for about an hour, swimming, hand fishing, and more
kayaking, our tour guide told us all to get back in our kayaks and get ready to
paddle back. Once we got back on the bus, we drove over to the La Fortuna
waterfall. We stayed there for about one hour, and then we hiked back up the
480 steps that we toke to get down. Once we got back to the hotel, we had about
an hour of down time. After swimming in the rain in the hotel pool, we made our
way over to the two and a half million dollar Baldi hot springs complex. There
about 20 different hot spring pools that I went in and there was even more that
I didn’t go in. We were there for about two hours. We then went back to the
hotel and played in the pool until dinner at seven.
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| The beautiful Arenal Volcano is rarely ever seen without for around the its top. |
Day 4
The next day, we got dressed, did
some last minute packing, and hade breakfast before getting on the bus for the
five hour bus drive to Monteverde.
As we got closer to our destination, we stopped at a local school called Las
Nubes. We stayed there for about an hour and a half, looking through all the
class room, getting to see a traditional Costa Rican dance, and playing soccer
with the kids. From there, we drove for another hour to the hotel. After we
checked in, got our stuff in our rooms, and had lunch, the group and I all
drove to 100% Aventura. There we went horseback riding. The entire experience
horseback riding wasn’t too eventful. Then we got back on the bus and drove to
the hotel.
Day
5
In
the morning, we all piled on to the bus after having breakfast, to go to the
Santa Elena cloud forest. We were there for about two and a half hours. Then we
got back on the bus and drove to 100% Aventura again for our canopy tours, or
in other words, zip lining. This is one of the best experiences that I had in
Costa Rica. One of the zip lines was about 10 meters of from a mile. The rest
of the day from then on out was nice and calm. Having nothing planned for an
hour, we all went to our rooms and relaxed, except for me. My roommate hade the
key to our room, and he was with the group going on the coffee tour. He left
before I had a chance to ask him for the key to our room. So I stayed on a
bench outside the front door to my room, or playing cards with one of my
friends there. After that, we all got on the bus and went on the night hike.
Through the thick trees, we could see frogs, bugs, and lightning. There was one
of the biggest lightning storms that I had ever seen. Every five to ten
minutes, you would see lightning flashes and then the following sound of
thunder. We walked around on the night hike for about one and a half hours. We
already had dinner before going on the night hike. The night hiked ended and we
had about an hour to kill before lights out, which included packing, playing
games on my I-Touch, and lying in my bed talking to my roommates.
Day
6
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| Our tour guide for the crocodile tours has been hand feeding wild crocodiles for the past nine years, and still has all of his fingers. |
For day six, we all put our stuff
under the bus, and walked up to breakfast. After eating we loaded the bus and
prepared ourselves for the three and a half hour long drive to our next hotel,
La Isla. This hotel was located in the central pacific coast of Costa Rica.
This hotel will always stand out to me because all the other hotels had hot and
cold setting on their showers, but these hotel showers only had cold. That day,
we arrived to the hotel after already doing one of the tours. The tour that we
had already done is the crocodile tour. This tour is one of my favorites. We
arrived at the tour area, getting ready to go on the tour, covered in sunscreen
and bug repellent. We traveled up and down the river, the entire time, seeing a
crocodile almost every 20 to 30 feet. This is one of the coolest things that I
remember about the trip. It is also a very rare sight to see. The river that we
traveled on had one of the highest populations of crocodiles of any river its
size. This ecosystem is only ever found in a few other places, such as the
Nile, and a few other places. After that, as I had already said, we went to our
hotel. We didn’t have any other plans that day and we all relaxed in the pool
for about four to five hours. The dinner for that night was different from
everything else that we had had during the entire trip. It was a standard
American meal of chicken wings, and fries. We all slept well that night, with
the thought and taste of home with us.
Day
7
A about 8, we all loaded the bus after
having a breakfast of eggs, toast, and cereal, and drove for about ten minutes
to the beach. It then took us about 30 minutes to get to the beach from a trail
we had to take. The beach that we went to was amazing. The entire time we were
there, the water was at a steady 85 to 90 degrees. The water tasted like salt,
which is expected when you visit the sea. The entire experience is amazing, and
one of my friends and I that that I made when I was in Costa Rica, where
running into the waves, and flipping into them. It was really cool. We also
dove over the waves, and swam under them. For the first time in my life I got
sunburn there at the beach. After
returning to the hotel, we all drank as much water as we could, considering
that we had all gotten some of the salt water in our mouths. We had a satisfying dinner of halibut and
broccoli. I then stayed up until about eight, or about half an hour after I
finished dinner.
Day
8
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| This is the worlds largest Ox Cart |
After eating breakfast, we hopped
on the bus and drove to San Jose. On the way there, we stopped by many
different stores that all had their own local artisans. The main one that we
stayed at was a shop that had made the world’s largest ox cart. Then we walked
over to the restaurant El Rio (which is right next to a river) for lunch. After
getting my sunburn at the beach, I couldn’t sit still without sticking an ice
cube on my back. After finishing lunch, we walked next door to the gift shop
that they had. It was a nice shop, and it’s where I got my mom here present. We
then finished our drive to San Jose and checked into our hotel. We had about an
hour to kill, so we headed up to the rec room and played pool, and foosball.
Then we had dinner and ice cream for dessert.
Day
9
As we approached the end of our
trip, we all got excited about going home. But our trip wasn’t over yet. As we
waited for the bus to get back from taking the other group to the airport to
leave Costa Rica, we played pool, and ate breakfast. When the bus finally
arrived, we headed to our next tour, white water rafting. It was a really fun
experience, and we got to do a lot of different things. We went swimming, went
into a category three rapid, and jumped off a ledge into the water. After the
excursion, we walked up the beach to have lunch, PB and J sandwiches and black
beans. We then went back to the hotel, extremely tired, and wanting to go to
bed, to have dinner and sleep.
Day
10
At five AM, our group leader came
to our hotel door, and started knocking until I got up and told him we would
get ready. My roommates are heavy sleepers, so I walked up next to their bed
and yelled at them to wake up. When we were finally dressed, we walked to the
elevator and into the lobby to get our sack lunches. We loaded onto the bus at
about five thirty, and drove to the San Jose International Airport. After
navigating around the airport to our terminal, we got on our plane, and got
comfortable for the five and a half hour long flight to Dallas, Texas. When we got off the plane and into the airport,
we were given our second set of tickets, and 10 dollars for lunch. My roommates
still had 80 dollars left, and his dad wanted him to spend it all before he got
back, so he bought our group lunch. Then we went back to our terminal and sat
around for four hours, waiting for our next flight. At about nine twenty, we
started to board the plane. We all were tired and ready to be home. As soon as
my head touched the headrest of my seat, I fell asleep. As the flight was
uneventful, I got a good four hours of sleep. As we arrived at the Portland airport,
we walked off the plane and to our families. The drive home felt short compared
to all the traveling we did in Costa Rica. I was really tired and wanted to go
to sleep, but my mom kept me awake, by asking me questions. When we finally got
home it was one in the morning, and I fell asleep in the same clothes I had
been wearing all day. The next day I woke up at noon, was glad to be home.
I would like to give a special
thanks to everybody, who donated and helped me earn my spending money, and to
my mom and dad for paying for this entire trip.
