St Albans & NCS Costa Rica

Aug 19, 2023

After dragging ourselves out of bed two hours before the sun rose, the group met up at the airport. Travelers divided into a group of boys and a group of girls. Hours later, after going through security and spending at least 45 minutes in line at a coffee shop, we boarded the plane, where we were given the standard safety lecture by a man who roasted all of his passengers and definitely hit a nerve for a few members of the group. We landed, waited in another incredibly long line, drove to a restaurant for lunch, and stopped at a supermarket. The guys immediately bought out the stores supply of snacks and pop. When we arrived at our hotel, the guys went swimming in the pool and the girls  played some games. Dinner was pretty chill, and for most people, the 4 o’clock wake up caught up to them and they went to bed.

By Jacqueline A.

Aug 20, 2023

Hi Parents,

Today we went White Water Rafting. We started are day at 7am and ate breakfast. Today for breakfast was eggs and toast. After that, we packed up and drove to the rapids. When we got there, we mixed up boys and girls into groups of 6. The rapids were stage 2 and 3 rapids but with the rain some felt like 4. At the start there was a worried vibe in the space from the safety talk but through the rapids the scaredness turned into fun, goofy vibes. After the rapids we took a short break and ate fruit (mango, piña, sandía). Then went to Monkey Park for lunch. Finally, we drove to the hotel Heleconias and rested. At 7pm we ate dinner and played Musical Chairs (Matthew Wells won) Lastly, we picked our new captains of the day, which are Matthew, Derin, and Jaqueline. Overall we had a great first day.

By Antonio C., Benj C., and Alex S.

Aug 21. 2023H

Hello Parents,

Today we woke up at 7am and had breakfast at 8.00 am. We had pancakes with sprinkles, eggs, fruit, and cereal. We arrived at the organic cheese farm at 9:30 and learned how to make cheese. After that, we explored the farm and visited the farm animals. We then had lunch and said our goodbyes to the Crisley family.

Our group took a short ride to Proyecto Asis, an animal rescue sanctuary. We had the chance to visit and learn about different animals that had been poorly treated or injured. It was fun getting to feed the animals at the sanctuary too.

After a short ride, we got back to the hotel, had dinner, and played Infection. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

By Derin, Matthew, and Jacqueline

Aug 22, 2023

Dear Families,

We woke up around 8 and had breakfast at 8:30. We left to go to a school and we repaired and decorated tables, chairs and walls. We especially enjoyed using the paint roller, although we got very tired doing so. We painted a design tables which was exiting. We listened to some music and dancing performances. We learned lots of new Spanish words and made new friends. We had lunch at 12:30, continued painting, and then left. We played lots of soccer and cards at the school. At 5, we had a salsa lesson where we learned how to dance the salsa as well as other types of dances. At 6 we had dinner which was chicken fingers vegetables and mashed potatoes. At 6:30 we played charades and  we prepared a trial about what happened on the first night. We went to bed at 10.

Thank you for reading,

Sincerely, Leaders of the Day- Ben P. and Quinn M.

Aug 23rd, 2023

We went to La Lucha, a school in Alajuela. When we were there, we sang the song “Vivir la Vida” to the kids. We also danced with them and we painted some of the walls. We taught an english class and got to play four corners and do word searches with the 5th graders. We had so much fun hanging out with the kids at the school. After that, we loved learning how to make tortillas with the school cook. We then came back to the hotel and had a wonderful time hanging out with our friends in our cabins and at the pool. After dinner, we had a eventful trial about our group contract and the chaperones and kids tied. Overall, we had a very fun and social day, and are looking forward to tomorrow.

From, Jay and Ernie

Aug 24, 2023

Hey there Parents,
Today was a special day because It was Dixon Deans 13th birthday. Today we started our day at 8 and had breakfast. Then we left the resort at 9:30 to head to the ziplining course. When we got there, It was cloudy and drizziling in short periods of time. The ziplining course had 8 ziplines, of which the 7th zipline was .6 miles and we went the fastest. Some boys even had GoPros to record the fun and thrilling experience! After that we ate at a food bar which had Mexican, Japanese, and Italian food. They also had smoothies which we all enjoyed. Once we finished eating, we went to La Fortuna which is a town with a church, a park, and lots of stores surrounding. Once we finished shopping and enjoying the nice weather. We headed back to the resort and had a suprise party for Dixon. Once we suprised him we went up to the restaurant to enjoy dinner, cake, and ice cream. Over all we had a great day.

By Antonio Cecchi

P.S, Happy Birthday Dixon.

Aug 25, 2023

We traveled from Heliconias Lodge in Alajuela and went to El Tecal in Uvita. The drive was several hours long. The Crisley family joined us for our fun adventure. We stopped at a buffet for lunch at a restaurant called El Jardin and looked around at the gift shop. On the bus, the girls listened to music and read. The boys played card games and took a pit stop in the bushes. Once we arrived, we settled in our rooms and enjoyed a few hours of free time, which included swimming, reading, playing card games, and watching tv. Afterwards, we had dinner and a very loud band played in the background. The dinner was a meal we had ordered previously in the day. It was a tiring, long day, except for the girls’ surprise macaw sighting. We saw a bunch of red macaws in a tree near a beautiful beach. It was a lot of fun!

By Molly Greene and Helena Yan

Aug 26, 2023

We did surf camp at the beach. We learned how to ride white water waves. The difference between the waves are, a green wave is when the board goes over the wave and you have to paddle to catch up, then a white water wave is when the wave has already crashed and you ride the white foam into shore. After we went surfing we fell off a lot but also got good waves and our surf instructors told us this was the best beach for surfing beginners because there are no coral reefs or rocks on the floor. We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and it was pasta with salad. While we were there a big race was happening with runner running all day, and some people set up souvenir stands in the parking lot. After all that at 4:00 some people went to the beach to swim and play football while others stayed in their rooms relaxing. Then we went to dinner at a Hispanic place down the street. Then we talked about the schedule, then we relaxed and went to sleep. That was the end of our day.

Signing Off Fromm Deep in the Jungle,

By Patrick and Sienna