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
BLOG POST FOR JULY 26
Today we had an early morning and woke up at 6:30 AM so that we could arrive to Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR) to do our service. Once we made it to KSTR we split into our three groups and did different services for the morning. Each group either prepared meals for the animals in the sanctuary, created enriching activities for the animals, or cleaned the habitats. Right before we went to lunch, all the groups combined to bring the food into the animal enclosures. After, we went to lunch and ate burritos made by the staff at our home base. After lunch we went back into our groups and switched our activities, the group that had been making food switched to creating enrichment, etc. At the end of our afternoon service, a huge downpour of rain came out of nowhere, and we had to wait for the worst part of the storm to pass. After the storm passed, our bus repeatedly got stuck at the top of a hill, until we were finally able to get free thanks to our driver, Marco’s physics knowledge. Once we got back to the home base, we had some free time to swim in the pool and get ready for dinner before our sunset circle at 5:45. After sunset circle, we ate our dinner and had our mentor group activities, and then more free time until curfew!
Adios,
Vivia and Josie
BLOG POST FOR JULY 27
Good Evening from Uvita!
Today was an action packed day in Costa Rica. First, we woke up bright and early at 7 AM for a delicious breakfast. After that, we took the bus just over an hour to Manuel Antonio national Park, the most visited national park in Costa Rica. Here we took a little over an hour to walk to the beach, stopping with our guide to look at different animals and plants that we saw along the way. We learned about animals such as bats, sloths, and snakes. Then, once we arrived at the beach, we spent some time in the water. It was the most beautiful beach we’ve seen with clear blue water, palm trees, and really cool rock formations. While we were walking from the beach to the showers, we saw a family of monkeys running across the path, which was a highlight for many of us. They got so close because they are used to humans. Once we arrived back at home base, we spent time with each other picking rambutans and hanging out in common areas.
Hasta Mañana,
Charlie and Declan
BLOG POST FOR JULY 28
Day 6 update!
We woke up bright and early and met up with Wayne our service guide to help with an area of the beach in Uvita. We picked weeds and cleaned out an overgrown area, cut and painted pieces of plywood to create warning and educational signs about how to protect the ecosystem and ocean while visiting the national park.
We then headed back to homebase and had a delicious lunch, and then spent our break time relaxing and swimming. With most of the day left we went to a local yoga lesson with Lara and learned about ways to stay healthy and agile in our minds and bodies, along with how we can implement yoga into our adult lives. Then we went to a local soccer field and spent time together playing with some locals. We came back again to a delicious dinner of meatballs and french fries, along with getting cake and ice cream for my (Rowans) 17th Birthday!
We then did a group activity led by Ingrid where we learned about what type of leaders we are and figured out our strengths and shortcomings. Overall the day was filled with learning opportunities and celebrations from goals to birthdays.
Can’t wait for tommorow
Rowan and Luna
BLOG POST FOR JULY 29
Goodmorning GLA family,
This morning we ate breakfast at 6:45 AM, a bit early than usual because we had surf lessons in a national park and early morning tides are the best for surfing conditions. We surfed for two hours, all then came back to go get our money and then we left for the local farmers market where most of us got fresh smoothies and hand made souvenirs. After the market, we came back to eat lunch and we also had free time after. Every body swam in the pool, and we made a whirl pool. After free time, we went to the Costa Rica coral restoration project, where we had a guest speaker talk all about coral and the restoration process in Costa Rica. The most important thing we learned is that genetic diversity is essential for the survival of restored coral because they can better adapt and have higher survival rates during events such as warming ocean temperatures. On the way back to homebase from Coral restoration we stopped at the local market to get snacks for ourselves and also complete an activity practicing our Spanish, finding new fruits, comparing prices to US, and other tasks. Once we got back to homebase, we ate dinner. After dinner, Evan and Tyler taught everyone how to shadowbox and we went to bed under the full moon.
Your leaders of the day,
Evan and Tyler
Note to families: We’ve also added in new photos for the July 28 blog post. Scroll up to check them out! 🙂 -GLA HQ Staff
BLOG POST FOR JULY 30
Today we started off with beans and rice for breakfast as usual. After that we took a ten minute bus ride to zip line through the jungle of Uvita. We started out on simple lines, saw a sloth as well on the way up, then escalated to longer lines and eventually had the opportunity to go on one upside down, of which most people participated in. From there we moved on to repelling down a 70 foot drop, of which we had the options of going rapido, medio, or despacito, rapido being the best which most of us opted for.
After this we then moved down to the “monkey drop” which was also a very high repel, but this time straight into a natural pool, and like the first repel, we were able to go fast medium or slow. After this we had one more opportunity to jump off a platform on which some eye glasses were lost unfortunately. Then we moved back up to where the bus arrived and had fruit provided by our guides and some of us bought smoothies.
We came back to lunch, of which we had rice and beans as well as other things, had about 2 hours of free time, went on another 10 minute drive to a local restaurant in which we had a hands on interactive empanada making experience. There was also a puppy named cheddar there. We enjoyed eating our empanadas after they were fried.
After eating the empanadas we made, we headed back and had our learning moment of the day held by Sam and Zealand (us) which was a brief lesson on the workings of cameras and how to use certain features. Soon after we had dinner which was beans and rice as well as other things, this time was fried fish. We had our mentor group after where we practiced a conflict resolution strategy known as VOMP, Vent/Validate, Ownership, eMpathy, Plan which was pretty funny.
Buenas noches,
Zealand and Samuel
BLOG POST FOR JULY 31
Hola familia,
We started off the day with a delicious breakfast from our kitchen staff a bit later than usual which was so nice to be able to sleep in some more. After breakfast we took a short bus ride over to a local school in Uvita where we were doing our service for the day. We helped paint walls, paths, tables, benches, and more. After our service was over, we played soccer with the school children, and then made a quick pit stop to get boba tea as a nice treat before heading back to home base for dinner. We finished the day with mentor groups where we discussed and discovered our top values.
Gracias
Hazel and Vivia
More pics coming soon!
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 1
Today was another busy but really fun day! We started with breakfast at 6:30 a.m., then left for our service work at 7:20 a.m. We arrived at the rescue centre and started working around 9:00 a.m.
Our tasks today included cleaning the animal cages, feeding the birds, and preparing their food. It was hard work, but it felt really rewarding knowing we were helping take care of the animals. We did receive some sad news about the toucan, he has sadly passed away due to a tumor. We were all very shocked when we heard the news as we just fed him the week before.
After finishing our service, we drove back to home base for lunch. In the afternoon, we had a debate about turtle poaching, where everyone shared different opinions and ideas that were assigned to us. These included being a conservation club, fishers, developers, and non-profit organization. It was interesting to hear everyone’s perspectives and learn more about the issue.
Once the debate was over, we finally had some time to relax. We spent a while by the pool, which was the perfect way to cool off after such a busy day. Later, we had dinner together, and to end the day, we all watched a movie: Surfs Up.
See you tomorrow!
Julia and Rosalie
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 2
Hola,
We started the day with our last time at Kids Saving the Rainforest. There, we split up into our 3 groups and cleaned up outside the spider monkey and squirrel monkey enclosures where many leaves blocked the path and we fed the animals for the last time. After, we all came back to the homebase for lunch, which was rice, beans, chicken, and other fruits. Following that we reviewed our service learning questions which we were given to us at the beginning of the trip. This involved discussion on the sustainability of the organizations we were working with, what impact they have on the community, and how they track their progress and impact. We had some free time to swim and had our sunset circle and learning moment led by us, the leaders of the day, as usual. We taught the group how to apply a tourniquet. Lastly we had our mentor group which was the passion roadmap which made us think about where we are in life, what challenges we face, what fuels us to keep going, and where we want to end up.
Goodnight,
Samuel and Zealand
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 3
Today we started the day off with a breakfast of bacon and waffles before driving to the beach for our boat tour. We then got onto our boat and began the whale and dolphin tour. During the tour we saw sea turtles, dolphins and whales. This was the first time many of us saw whales, it was a mom and her baby. At the end of the tour we jumped off of the boat and swam next to Isla de Ballenas. After that we drove back to home base and ate lunch. After that we drove back to the beach and spent the afternoon swimming in the waves and relaxing on the beach. Finally we stopped to get snacks for our bus trip tommorow and Tiffany got us an ice cream. We ate dinner and the attended a dance class where we learned salsa, bachata, meringue, and other traditional Costa Rican dances. We had so much fun together on our last night in Uvita.
Declan and Charlie
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 4
Our final full day started with one last surfing session in the morning. It was the perfect way to end our time by the coast, enjoying the waves and making the most of our last moments at the beach.
After surfing, we packed up and began the drive back to San José. Along the way, we stopped halfway to grab some snacks and pick up a few souvenirs to remember the trip.
Once we arrived in San José, we had a meaningful appreciation circle. Everyone had the opportunity to share what they were grateful for and reflect on the experiences, friendships, and memories we had made throughout the journey. It was a special way to close such an unforgettable adventure. Before calling it a night, we took some group pictures to capture the final moments together, share a dinner, and write cards to each other with messages of gratitude and memories with each other.
Families, we will see you at home soon
Rosalie and Julia
BLOG POST FOR AUGUST 5
Adiós chicos!
Thank you for sharing your summer with us whether you picked this program specifically because you were interested in ocean and wildlife conservation or your parents just told you, hey you’re going to Costa Rica, or you had other plans but they changed so ended up here. We’re glad you made it.
What a full circle moment it was to pick you up from the airport, start our time in the Robledal, end it in the same place, and reflect on all the things we did and memories we made along the way. We said our first goodbyes to Hazel who has an open mind and effortlessly adapts to new environments and experiences, Luna who brought a sense of calmness and always had cool stories to tell, Zealand who showed respect and desire to grow, Rowan who always went the extra mile to help out at service, and Sam who really wanted to learn from every part of the program.
Our next goodbyes were to Vivia who’s personality helped the group open up and bond quickly, Tyler who displayed strong leadership development using his strengths and values to guide himself, and Evan who always brought a positive attitude and has a smile that can make anyone happy.
With a bit of flight delay Charlie who was able to lead the group with ease and joy and always made people laugh, Josie who’s confidence served as a reminder to always be yourself, and Declan who’s balanced nature reminded us we can be both silly and present made it to the airport along with Rosalie and Julia who always made us laugh reminding us of how much life is a gift and not to take everything so seriously.
Your group showed us how unique each of you is individually as people and how differences can actually bring us closer. You learned from each other, laughed with each other, and grew together. We wish you the best!
Pura vida,
Kaycie, Ingrid, and Tiffany
Note to families: We’ve also added in new photos for the August 4 blog post. Scroll up to check them out! 🙂 -GLA HQ Staff
