Day One in the "Rich Coast"!

After successfully completing our first day of adventure in Costa Rica, our students and teachers are enjoying a few moments of free time at our hotels. Reflecting on the day, we've been busy! Today we visited a coffee plantation (thanks to Ms. Cuffee for the update), a volcano, and an iguana hotspot as we traveled from San Jose to La Fortuna, in the Arenal region. Although today was heavy on bus time, our tour guides mercifully broke the trip up with frequent stops for attractions and food.

Our view from the bus leaving San Jose

Flowers everywhere!

After a sample-heavy tour of the coffee plantation, our group made their way to Volcán Poás. Although Poás is a gorgeous national park known for its abundant hiking and wildlife, the real draw to this location is the opportunity to view the bubbling, sulfuric mud of an active volcano from way up high. Unfortunately, our group fell in to the roughly 70% of visitors whose hopes of seeing this site are dashed by the heavy cloud cover of the peak. In their typically resilient manner, the students took this setback in stride and used the opportunity to practice their "selfie" game.

This picture shows a pretty accurate look at our "view" from Poás

Our lunch offered the opportunity for students get a taste of typical "Tico" cuisine: rice, beans, fresh produce, the occasional meat, and abundant fresh fruit juice. Students filled up and we hit the road toward our destination, La Fortuna. Along the way, we made sure to fuel up on snacks at a popular road stop that features delicious ice cream and a guaranteed encounter with iguanas. Speaking with our guide, Freddy, I learned that this road stop is just one example of small communities capitalizing on their natural resources to draw tourists and dollars. Iguanas were once hunted for their meat in this area, but the practice quickly stopped with the arrival of revenue from curious tourists.

This scaled friend was viewed through the safety of a zoom lens

Tonight and tomorrow night, our group will be split across two hotels in the shadow of Volcán Arenal in the town La Fortuna. This town is a popular destination for travelers with an eye on adventure and geology. We'll learn all about this as tomorrow as we hike to a waterfall, kayak in Lake Arenal, tour the town of La Fortuna (with more ice cream!), and end our day relaxing in hot springs.

A road side waterfall, Cascada Angel, offered more selfie practice

Also, in case you are wondering, our students have been remarkable ambassadors! Their manners, curiosity, and worldliness have been on full display everywhere we go and I've already heard several compliments. Now that the shock of visiting a new country is wearing off, our goal as chaperones will be to push our students to step outside of their comfort zones even further and use their Spanish!

Arenal hides behind the clouds this evening, but we expect better views tomorrow