Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
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BLOG POST FOR JULY 23
Arrival day has… well you guessed it, arrived! All students have been welcomed safely with a few delays and a bit of mid day traffic we went back and forth from our hotel to pick up students at their different arrival times. First we welcomed Zealand and Sam who had the chance to have breakfast at the hotel and get their swim tests done. Vivia, Hazel, and Tyler arrived next and we made it back to share a lunch together. Declan, Charlie, Josie, Evan, and Jenna were next and our group started spending time with their roommates and new arrivals. No more swim tests were done because it got so cold and rainy! It was a nice little cool off before we head to the hot and humid Uvita tommorow.
Rosalie and Julia had a long flight from Belgium and were very tired, but we were all able to share our first Sunset Circle together talking about some fun things that have happened already and learning everyone’s names followed by a nice dinner together.
Rowan and Luna were our late arrivals so they didn’t get to meet the whole group yet, but we will have lots of time on our long bus ride tommorow to chat and get to know each other more.
Hasta mañana,
Kaycie, Ingrid, and Tiffany (program staff)
BLOG POST FOR JULY 24
Hola!
Today we started off the day with a delicious, American style breakfast buffet with pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and freshly squeezed orange juice. With an early start, we began our journey to Uvita. On the way, we got to visit the iconic crocodile bridge, where we spotted two grown crocodiles chilling in the sun. Then we continued our long drive that went by quickly by doing icebreakers and listening to music, along with enjoying the views of the ocean and wildlife.
Once we arrived at our home base, we got to eat a nice meal prepared by our wonderful kitchen staff. We finished up swim tests and enjoyed the pool for a bit before starting orientation. We had a nice suprise and took a spontaneous break to the local beach in the national park, and swam as the sun set. Then we traveled back to our home base and finished orientation along with trying a bunch of local fruit such as rambutans, dragon fruit, sour sop, and jacote thanks to our local director, Tiffany. After orientation we had dinner and did mentor groups where we set up a list of group agreements to follow for the rest of the trip! Then we wrote letters to our future selves and went to bed!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventure!
-Rowan
BLOG POST FOR JULY 25
This morning, we ate breakfast at 7 AM and after we got on the bus to go on a community walk in a local town of Uvita Costa Rica, where our tour guide Wayne taught us about many different tree species, such as papaya trees, which are 90% edible (except the sap) and the ficus tree. Wayne also taught us about a lot of Costa Rica culture such as facts about the schools and what happens when there is a flood. Then Wayne took us to get ice cream popsicles from a lady who makes them homemade, she has been making them for 20 years. We got to enjoy different flavors such as mango, coconut, passionfruit, and chocolate. We also learned that today is a national holiday, Guanacaste Day, when the region was peacefully annexed and about the cultural heritage and importance of round stone marker attributed to Diquis culture.
After walking for some time, the next cool fact that stuck out to me was when Wayne told us about how Uvita got its name. A lady who figured out how to make wine with grapes, fought against the government to claim that her wine was not illegal alcohol. After fighting for many many years she was in the hospital and has aged a lot where officials brought her a sign that showed her that the town of Costa Rica was now called Uvita, which means small grapes. She won her case and to this day the town is still called Uvita. Next Wayne took us to the beach and he taught us how to open coconuts without any tools. This was a highlight for most of us in our day and we realized in this experience how cool of a tour guide Wayne was, we all miss him already.
After the beach we all loaded back up on the bus and went back to homebase. We ate lunch and then went on an hour and a half bus ride to Kids Saving the Rainforest where we will be doing our service work. Today was just an introduction day and we got a tour of all the animals and even got to see how they are fed. Some of us even got to feed them! The animals we will be working with cannot be returned to the wild because of lifelong injuries or because they have been exposed too much to humans. There were many cool animals such as monkeys, owls, Scarlet, macaws, and sloths. My favorite animal was the Scarlet macaw because of how when they lose their partner, they don’t look for another one and many macaws stop eating so that they can rest with their fallen partner. Once we got back to homebase, Tyler and Evan taught everybody how to throw cards after dinner. To wrap up the day, we read an article about volun-tourism and learned about our service learning rubric. We were paired in groups of two and were tasked with a topic on sustainable tourism to work on throughout the program.
See you tomorrow,
Tyler and Evan
