Blogged by Amy Maas, Summit Development Officer
On Wednesday, May 29, 20204 a group of 13 travelers, consisting of Summit Prep high school students and adults, began the journey to Central America for The Summit’s third International Trip.
We are thrilled to share our adventure with you, our Summit blog readers! Our goal is to post daily on this blog, so you can experience the thrills of Costa Rica and Panama with us! We have been told our internet connection may not always be reliable, so have patience with us and we may have to post multiple blogs on the same day. Each day, a different traveler will share their perspective with you and recap our daily activities.
Here’s Ms. Amy’s account of our first day, our travel day, to Costa Rica:
Hola from Costa Rica! Our group woke up early on Wednesday and met at the Springfield airport at 4:30 am for our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica, with a quick layover in Denver. I am thrilled to be returning as the Group Leader for The Summit’s third international trip! While our journey began in the very, very early morning hours, we were fortunate that we had no flight issues on our way to Costa Rica. We arrive in Liberia, Costa Rica (in the province of Guanataste) located in the northwestern region of the country, around 3:15 pm and met up with our Tour Director, Portifirio Hidalgo (Porfi for short), a group of middle schoolers and their chaperones from Boulder Colorado, and two EF specialists all of whom will be our traveling companions for the next nine days.
Porfi and our driver, Christian, took us to lunch at a rest station called El Jardin right after picking us up from the airport. They had a buffet style lunch, where we picked a protein and two sides (I chose a fried white fish with a pasta salad and beet salad) and a drink (I went for the pink drink which we think was a type of strawberry apple juice). The rest area had a souvenir shop and an heladeria (ice cream shop) as well.
With sustenance in our bodies, we made our way to our Liberian hotel, aka home for the next two nights. It’s a tiny little place, with a pool in the courtyard and a restaurant attached. It’s also located next to a plaza area with a Taco Bell, Papa Johns, McDonalds, two banks, and a little market. Porfi calls it Plaza de America (because of all the American fast food restaurants). The hotel is also located on Hwy 1, a highway that runs from Argentina all the way to Alaska! We can watch the cars going by during our meals, and it’s a fairly busy road.
Upon entering our rooms, we immediately turned on our AC unit upon entering our room, it’s a humid 92 degrees fahrenheit here, and got situated before dinner at 8:00 pm (yes we ate two meals within a very short time of each other). Costa Rica is on Mountain Time, so just one hour behind what we’re used to in Springfield, Missouri and the Central Time Zone. Dinner on Wednesday consisted of fish sticks, french fries (trying to ease the children into the local meals), and a sweet lemony, iced tea. Oh, and ice cream!
We have already learned a new catch phrase during our journey: Pura Vida. It literally translates to “Pure Life” but it is the unofficial slogan of Costa Rica and is used to express a simple, cheerful outlook. You can use the phrase in almost any context: an answer when someone asks how you’re doing, a happy expression when you greet someone, or a confused statement when you’re a tourist and can’t think of the correct Spanish words to communicate. Did you know that Costa Rica is known as the happiest country in the world? ¡Sí, Pura Vida!
As you can imagine, we were all exhausted after dinner and returned to our rooms to sleep and prepare for our first full day in Costa Rica when we’ll go snorkeling in the bay and hiking in the rainforest!
Be sure to check back for more updates from our travelers as we journey through Costa Rica and Panama together!