Nature of Costa Rica

It's no secret that Costa Rica is my favorite country that I've visited so far.  The main thing that I loved about Costa Rica was being surrounded by so much nature!  The variety of different plants and wildlife that we saw at the biological station alone was incredible and we were able to see even more in Manuel Antonio.  Today, I wanted to share some of the amazing sights we saw and were able to capture in Costa Rica, including a Toucan, which was way harder to spot than you'd think. 

Travel Tuesday: Wilson Botanical Gardens, Costa Rica

Alternative Spring Break:  Las Cruces, Costa Rica with James Madison University - March 2009

My second ASB trip was was to Las Cruces Biological Station/Wilson Botanical Gardens in Costa Rica!  What an amazing trip and beautiful Country.  The trip actually started out Rocky.  We got to the airport and had to run to our terminal only to find out that the flight was delayed.  It ended up being delayed 2 hours which meant we missed our connection in El Salvador.  6 hours in the El Savadorian airport is enough to make anyone stir crazy (you know, with the 4 whole terminals there). Since we arrived in San Jose so late and the rain made it impossible to cross the mountain, we stopped at a hostel to sleep for a few hours before beginning the trek to Las Cruces. Once we got there though it was amazing.  We worked on the biological station doing inventories and learning about different species of plants and animals and two of the mornings we went to a local elementary school to teach English.  It was a really rewarding experience.  I have already written about our experiences at Manuel Antonio after leaving Wilson.

We left Harrisonburg the day before our flight and stayed at one of the girl's brothers house in Arlington in order to catch our flight at Dulles.

Bri could fall asleep anywhere! I was so jealous.

We actually ended up meeting a group of guys from JMU that were headed to Costa Rica for a rafting/hiking adventure!  We were on the same flight out of El Salvador.

We finally made it to Costa Rica behind schedule and stayed in a hostel for a few hours before making the trek from San Jose to Las Cruces.  It was a trip that was approximately 5 hours long. 

I get very motion sick so usually I don't sleep in vehicles but on this trip I was so exhausted that I slept for a little more than 3 hours!  Thank God, because according to some of the other girls, it was a scary drive across that Mountain.  I did catch some photos of the drive after I woke up.

When we got there I was in awe of the place.  I would go back there and work for them in a heartbeat.  It was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't believe that I was getting to spend a whole week there!

We had a beautiful view at meal times and our rooms were comfortable.  Nothing extravagant but comfortable and just what we needed.

Throughout the week, we did work cleaning up the grounds, learning about the plants, learning about animals, inventorying Agoutis and teaching English to local school children.

 

This is a clay-colored Thrush, which is the national bird of Costa Rica.

Little Squirrel joined us daily for meals.

This picture was taken after we went into the rainforest at night to learn about bats with some Grad students studying abroad from Princeton.  It was so neat and will definitely be getting its own post in the future. 

The Kids, definitely deserve their own post as well.

We also felt a legitimate earthquake.  It hit Panama pretty hard and we were feeling aftershocks for a while.  It was a surreal experience for an east coaster who has only felt small tremors.   I had so many great experiences on this trip and it is definitely a trip I wont ever forget.  Costa Rica definitely has my heart.