Costa Rica 2008

El final

2008-01-22T10:54:00.000-06:00

After almost two weeks in Pura Vida aka Costa Rica, Y-Immersion Costa Rica has made a safe journey home! The way back was much more doable as our flights were only delayed a total of 90 mins and we were provided with blankets and cots for our overnight layover in Dallas :)

The final step now will be bringing our trip back to the Twin Cities. From what we learned about conservation we are confident that we can re-emphasize the importance of conservation through basic means such as recycling, not littering, planting native crops and not domesticating wild animals. These may seem pretty basic, or a little strange but it is important to think about the cycle that one is interrupting when doing these things.

Overall the trip was very enjoyable and we now have one correspondent (Rui) stationed in Costa Rica until April to provide us with more information that will no doubt make us extremely jealous... to say the least.

-Dustin

2008-01-18T09:30:00.000-06:00

We are almost here at the end of the trip. Tomorrow morning we head back down to San Jose for the journey home. I have been very interested in what I have seen on this trip. A country on the tipping point between a first world and third world economy, a multitude of natural resources at its disposal, and a conflicting will to both protect the environment that gives this country its beauty, and also grow economically. It has been trying to do both through functions such as eco-tourism or even delving into functions such as bio-digesters and other forms of locally grown energies. Any form of tourism has its downfalls though, as you can see an area lose its spirit and culture under the greedy hordes coming in from other countries to see Costa Rica. It isn´t always a bad thing, but if you let it get out of control (think Cancoon) things can get out of hand and you can strip away the very meaning of your country in exchange for some money in return. Costa Rica has some interesting choices over the coming years, and there actions are going to be the example for the other countries in this region to follow for either success or faliure of their economic and their environmental concerns.

Nick Spartz

2008-01-15T12:19:00.001-06:00

We arrived in Santa Clara last night, and today is our first day at Amureci. We meet the women who started the organization and they explained a little about what they do. The organization a group of women who started their own business by recycling paper and making it into Journals, photo frames, and other paper souveniers. They started their business 7 years ago and it has been growing ever since. We spent the morning learning how they make paper and decorating our own photo frames. This afternoon we plan on having lunch with a family near by and going for a hike. The weather has been treating us well, and everyone is having a good time!

Update 1-14

2008-01-14T13:43:00.000-06:00

Ahh another day, and more adventures. Today we went on a canopy tour of the jungle around La Fortuna. That involved flying down a series of zip lines to reach platforms which we 100 plus feet in the air. We rode horses to get there, which was a lot of fun. Tonight we will be hanging out in some hot springs and hiking around the volcano Arenal that looms over the entire town. There had been tons of hiking, walking, climbing, and falling. We have been stuffing our faces with food, which is offset by all these activities! We are looking forward to staying with a new set of Costa Ricans for the remainder of the week.

2008-01-10T16:13:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

Today was very eventful. In the morning we cleared some rainforest brush and planted bananas and yuca plants. This afternoon we will be able to relax and hang out with our host families and later this evening we will be touring an English school for teachers learning how to teach English as a second language.

So far our trip has been excellent. Each day we have done something new and fun. Our first afternoon we went swimming in a local river and last night we went to a families house to watch a soccer game between two of the countries biggest rivals. Comming up we will be going to a rainforest on Sunday and we will be enjoying some tourist activities on Monday before we go to our next stop at Amureci. Some of the group members already know that it is going to be hard for them to leave in a little more than a week.

Hasta luego,

We have arrived in Pura Vida

2008-01-09T12:11:00.000-06:00

Hola,

First of all, thank you to the parents who drove out to the airport. It was greatly appreciated by our group. After one cancelled flight, and two delayed flights we have finally arrived in Costa Rica. We flew into San Jose about 5pm on Monday night. We took a van to our host families in San Carlos. There are two or three students living with each family. Jered Bright and I (Eric Garvey) are staying with Castelia (mother) and her son Mario who is 26 years old. On Tuesday morning we were transported to Proyecto Asis which is run by a guy named Alvaro. We were split into groups to complete different projects. One group worked on making concrete and cemented the floor of a cage for Benjamin who is a kinkajou. The other group worked on pulling weeds and clearing the walking paths at Proyecto Asis. Proyecto Asis is all about wildlife and rainforest conservation.

After volunteering for they morning, everyone was dropped off with their host families for lunch and after lunch we were transported to Pechuga River. The river is formed by water coming from the nearby mountain. A few brave souls jumped from the bridge into the water, but no worries, it was only a 15 foot jump. Last night was spent with our host families relaxing and eating dinner. Though people are a bit tired from all the traveling, Costa Rica has rejuvenated our spirits and it has been an amazing trip thus far.

This morning after breakfast, Alvaro picked us up and we then traveled on a bus to the city of Quesada. We have been shopping all morning as well as saw the church here and the main park. This afternoon we will be taking salsa classes. I am writing to you all from an internet cafe down the street. The bus is coming in 5 minutes, so I better get going. Adios!

Tuanis,
Eric Garvey

Jamie

2007-12-30T17:50:00.000-06:00

Hey! I'm Jamie from Minnetonka area in MN. I am currently a sophmore at the U of M working on an animal science degree. I love to travel but other than traveling around the US quite a bit I've only been to Mexico. I'm super excited for Costa Rica and the exploring the rainforest and all the animals around, along with getting to know the host families! Only a few more days!

¡Bienvenidos!

2007-12-19T21:11:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!

I'm Jered Bright, a sophomore doing a dual degree here in Spanish Studies for a B.A. and Mathematics Education for a B.S. (weird combination, I know). I'm originally from a tiny town called Zumbro Falls in Minnesota, about 20 miles north of Rochester, MN. Born and raised on a small family farm of 250 acres. Check out my profile on here for more info about me.

Anyways, I am REALLY excited to go to CR and I kind of hope we are able to explore the culture and nightlife as well as the environmental aspect, which will be really interesting as well!

A question I have for everyone is what are you getting your host families? I know in Spain I gave my host family a cookbook and a book full of pictures from Minnesota...Any ideas?

Pure life, no?

2007-11-03T11:21:00.000-05:00

The greatest thing I've probably done in my life was volunteer in Costa Rica for six months in Winter 2006. It was a tough transition at first from different cultures and different paces of life, but by the end I had come to enjoy the Pura Vida lifestyle and the people were just so chill and laid back and always had something to teach you or talk about. When I arrived I had one host mother but by the time I left I had 7 about Costa Rican mothers looking after me.

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Since then I've dedicated my travelling to pretty much soley saving up money to travel back to Central America. After going to New Orleans last year on an Immersion trip and finding out that you can go anywhere with these trips, I knew right then exactly where I was leading a trip to.

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I feel very confident that this trip will be a great learning experience for all of those involved, either directly or via blog. With my contacts working for me in Costa Rica to plan this, the early committment from my co-leader Eric and the group members committments has further motivated me to make this trip the best possible.

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I can't even write how excited I am for this trip to happen. I haven't been in Costa Rica since las t May so I know I am long overdue and if it weren't for school and work I would still be living there. Unfortunately we have round trip tickets but I hope this experience encourages everyone to add Central America and Costa Rica to their future travel itineraries.

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Your very emocionado trip leader,

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Dustin

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(The pic above is only a preview of some of the reforestation that our group will be helping out with while the pic below is me and about 4 of my Costa Rican mothers and some of their kids too.)

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vamanos...

2007-11-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

Hola-- my name is Meredith and I am a history major, Spanish minor here at the U. Aside from some stateside travel, the only other country I have visited is Mexico. I am taking this trip to help improve my Spanish and get some traveling under my belt, but I am really hoping we can stay with host families. This will be an adventure for me and I am looking forward to experiencing all that Costa Rica has to offer. Oh and I am excited I am acquainted with one of the participants already- Rui, we had a Spanish class together once.

Andale

2007-10-30T21:26:00.001-05:00

Hi guys, I'm Caleea, and I am super excited about the trip. I have a little experiences doing service work abroad, as Dustin can attest to, and I am graduating in December with a dual degree in Child Psych and Spanish. I love everything latino, and have never been to Costa Rica, so immersing myself in Costa Rican culture is gonna be a dream come true for me. Hit me up if you wanna know more, or meet up sometime, I am a TALKER, so I would have no problem just gettin to know eachother before we spend weeks together. Email:vann0089@umn.edu. Taluego!

Un Poco Sobre Mi

2007-10-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

Hello~

My name is Rui. I am majoring in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, and minoring in Spanish. I am graduating in December. I am in the process of applying to graduate school for Speech Pathology. My traveling experience includes some traveling around the states and a little international travel. I have been out of the country a few times to Japan, Mexico, and Costa Rica. I am going on the Y-Immersion trip to expand my knowledge of Costa Rican culture, gain better fluency in Spanish, and have the opportunity to volunteer with environmentally focused establishments. I look forward to meeting everyone!

Saludos,
Rui

Bienvenido

2007-10-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Y-Immersion Costa Rica trip blog. The trip will be going in January so check back often as this blog will begin to live and breath very soon...