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5/3/2009 10:54 AM
Written By Daniel Mauleon From Volume 13 Issue 5 of The Purple Press From the plane, my first view is of small rows of houses with red roofs, it reminds me of Miami where we took off no longer than two hours before. The plane continues to descend as we approach the San Jose airport. Mountains are abundant and used for acres of farming. A peculiar chasm peaks my interest as it winds its way through the capital. I later learn that it was been carved by a river that winds all around San Jose before heading to the Pacific Coast. Finally, the plane touches down and I high five my seatmate, Emmett. Seven other students, two teachers and I are in the beautiful Central American country Costa Rica. After clearing customs, grabbing luggage, and changing some of our dollars into colones(1 dollar is equal to roughly 500 colones) we finally leave the airport and meet our tour guide for the week, Gustavo. Hair tied back and wearing big sunglasses he welcomes us to Costa Rica and tells us of our wonderful trip coming up. We take a short bus ride from the airport to our hotel for the first night. The seven students: Seniors Griffin Larson, Myles Alteri, Pa Dong Xiong; tenth graders Julia Iwaszek, Karl Magnus Gustav Brose, Emmett Ruff; and ninth grader Zane Altov. I went to explore San Jose. The general area around the hotel was filled with a shopping district. It was filled with clothing stores and street peddlers. Going a bit farther the city peels out to a more residential area. Worn down houses neighboring trash filled lots. A small train whizzes by packed with passengers. After taking in the urban landscape we head back to the hotel for dinner and rest. Early the next morning we are on the bus heading towards our next town Arenal. First however we stop off at the Nation Diversity Institute of Costa Rica (INBio). There we take a small tour through a preserve and get to see many animals and trees. After two hours we are back on the bus. Our next stop is one of the many Costa Rican volcanoes, Poas. In fact, while Costa Rica appears to have a lot of mountains they
We all pile back onto the bus and prepare for a two-hour ride. Most of the group is sleeping or reading the book assigned by Leo over break. Half asleep we pull into our hotel, it is located in Arenal, a tourist town at the base of the Arenal volcano. The hotel is quaint, run completely by one family. We have free time for the rest of the day, so a few other students and myself hit up the town in search of towels. In comparison to San Jose, Arenal is tiny and quiet. With a little park in the center most stores focus around tourism. Towels in hand, which we purchased in a tiny market for 2,000 colones compared to towels being sold in a souvenir shop for 7,500 colones, we headed back to the hotel to catch the end of the Costa Rica and Mexico World Cup qualifiers. I cheered silently when Mexico won. After the game we ate dinner. All week our meals were served in a sort of buffet style and all meals had rice and black beans. The remainder of the night was spent playing Marco Polo in the pool. Within two hours of waking up we were in kayaks. We spent the next few hours paddling, singing, swimming and pirating across the gorgeous man-made lake, Arenal. Amidst all the fun though we didn’t realize trouble we were in. The volcano wasn’t the only thing looming in the horizon, the almighty suns rays were being cast upon us. With the lake reflecting extra rays on us, our skins secretly sizzled. Something we regretted later in the day, at the Hot Springs. Hot Springs are hot, ranging from 102 to 150 degrees. Of course when you are sunburned even 104 degrees feels like walking on the sun.
Winding mountain roads are not fun, they are less fun in a giant coach bus. I realized this the next day after we left Arenal. We were heading to Monte Verde along the continental divide. This meant a long trip up the mountains of Costa Rica. Looking out the window provided wonderful views. Through the window you couldn’t see the ground we riding on, but instead the edges of cliffs. The fears washed away as soon as we got out of the bus and were at our next hotel. We stayed long enough to eat and we were back on the bus heading towards a local school. After a short, but wonderful cultural performance by the kids of the school everybody headed outside. In no time a futbol game was started, United States against Costa Rica. While our team doubled most of them in height they tripled us in numbers of players. It took no time for them to score multiple goals. The game finally ended with a score of U.S.A. 1 Costa Rica 15. Futbol however was not the only activity that was taking place. Across the beaten field many other games were being played. Tom Totushek was spinning kids around. Myles was teaching a kid how to play Hacky Sack. The kid, however, preferred to throw it like a baseball. Sadly we had to head back to the hotel. Names were exchanged as well as hugs and then we were back on the bus, waving goodbye. Refreshed after a night of parkour, dancing, and hacky sack we headed out next morning to the cloud forest. We started by taking a hike through the cloud forest, taking pictures of trees, plants, and birds. Not to long into the forest though we witnessed a rare bird called the Quetzal. Gustavo told us that bird watchers come from all over to see this bird and few ever do. We had seen the forest from below the trees, but next we had something wilder planned. Ziplining over the cloud forest. There
When you are in a different country you begin to lose track of the date. The next morning that is exactly what happened. We were on our bus just leaving Monte Verde when Gustavo got a call. It seemed that the hotel we were staying at had run across some errors and we were being sent to a different hotel. This was fine, at first, until he explained this would mean no beach and no ocean. So as we moped are way through the bus ride, with a slight distraction from a Crocodile river tour, I was pleasantly surprised when we stopped outside a resort. The day was April First, and we had been tricked. Ocean waves are salty. Everyone already knows this but I needed to say it again. We spent the next two days at Punta Leona, a resort along the Pacific coast. Most of the time was spent in the ocean and at night the group would talk philosophy or going swimming in smaller pools. Griffin and I built sandcastles but were constantly beaten by waves, which would creep up and destroy our work. Attempts were made to catch a Coati, a raccoon like animal, which had tried to take our food at dinner. Our trap was destroyed by the ocean. After two wonderful days of nearly endless sun we headed back on the bus one last time and made our way back to San Jose. The final night in San Jose was for the most part uneventful. Our location in the city made walking around seem pointless so we were confined to our hotel. It was a mellow night as we all contemplated our return back to the states. Leaving Costa Rica the next morning I saw once again the rows of red houses that welcomed me to this friendly foreign country. The next time the Open runs an abroad trip, make sure you are there on the plane. Trust me, you won’t regret going.
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