An Unexpected Wonder

     I was asked to go on the Upper School trip to Costa Rica, and of course, said yes. My rationale was that with my own child starting off as a college freshman next year, trips for me would be far and few between. Yes, I knew that Costa Rica was made up of rain forests and cloud forests and had volcanoes, but I truly was not prepared for the incredible number of birds and the variety of wildlife that lived in and around these locals. To see leaves that an adult human could use as a place to curl up and read a book, or flowers that you and I pay good money for each spring growing wild along the roadside, should have been my first clue, but it took waking up to the sound of howler monkeys and the sight of steam coming out of an active volcano to really drive it home.

     It was hysterical to watch the students react to certain situations: unknown foods, “wildlife” such as spiders or lizards in their rooms (hello, this is a rain forest!), and doing without a lot of technology. It was gratifying to watch some of them overcome some real fears to participate in some of the activities and to have them force me to do the same. I was not big on going down that zip line and I KNEW a shark was waiting just for me when we went snorkeling, but if they could do it, I had to do it too. And it was great!  

     Many of the students were glad to pay the $8.00 bill for an American hamburger and fries when we got to the airport to come home, but I was already missing the plantains and the wonderful coffee. All of the people that went on this trip experienced things that we had not seen, heard, tasted, or experienced before from seeing cacao beans processed into chocolate (one of my personal favorites) to riding horseback along a ridgeline or deserted beach; bathing in pools heated by volcanic heat or having a science lesson in a tidal pool on a beach with tapir tracks; eating fresh coconuts or watching iguanas come tumbling from trees and ceilings to steal bananas from each other. These and so many other experiences truly made this an incredible trip. Not to mention the variety of planes, buses, and boats we took to reach our destinations.

     So, the next time you come by the school, talk to some of the students that went on the trip and check out some of the photos on the wall. Then try to figure out which student won a rodeo contest, “screamed like a girl” when he saw a spider, caught a blue sailfish, fell into a tilapia pond, lost his shoes in the river, went jet skiing three times, landed on a dirt road in a small plane, carried his luggage to a boat to be loaded from the beach, swam in a rainforest waterfall pool……You get the picture. It was wonderful and surpassed anything I was expecting. I would go back in a heartbeat, but just in case it doesn’t happen; I brought back as much coffee as I could fit in my suitcase.

Lalla G. Boatwright