Grade 8 to Costa Rica

Students in Grade 8 departed for Costa Rica on Tuesday morning. Here’s an update from one of the trip chaperones, our Spanish teacher and International Program Coordinator, Tarrah Elam, on the students’ adventures.

“We arrived safely to Turrialba, a long drive in and out of small towns. The kids were total troopers.

We had a 5:30 AM wake up call, ate a small breakfast of juice, yogurt, breakfast bars, and fruit and headed out to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) to work with the bird specialist, Rees. Translated to English, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center is of the world’s premier centers dedicated to research and graduate education in agriculture and the management, conservation, and sustainable use of natural resources. We were able to get a full idea of what happens each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to track the health of the birds and migration. Students went on three different bird netting rounds, helped identify species, took measurements and were also part of the release. There was a few birds that were rarely found, one of which is on the endangered list, so we felt lucky to be part of it.

Around 9:45 AM, we returned back to the hotel. Students relaxed for about an hour when we went for our first tour around Turrialba. We found the pandaria! At noon, we headed across the street for our first lunch. Veggies, chicken, rice and beans. We were hungry, so there wasn’t much left on the plates when we left!

For the afternoon, we walked to the Botanical Gardens at CATIE, about a mile and a half. We were met by a retired chemical engineer, now botanist, Paul. He introduced us to a variety of fruits and plants from all over the world – gifts from different countries. We sampled all of the fruits – yes, all of them! Our students were risk-takers! It was nice to see them be adventurous.

It will be an early night to bed. We have a 30 minute bus-ride to Guayabo Archaeological site. In the afternoon, we will have our first opportunity to meet the kids at the orphanage.”

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Watch the blog for more spring break adventures!