Day 1: May 31, 2025
¡Bienvenidos a Costa Rica University of North Carolina Charlotte! What better way to start this journey than with food, specially traditional costarican dishes like a casado or arroz con pollo. ¡Muy rico! We headed to a beautiful city called Heredia where the students were super exited to meet their new costarican homes and families.
Day 2: June 1, 2025
We started the day going to the local marker ¡La feria de Zapote! It is a very traditional marker where plenty of fruits and vegetables can be seen, very fresh. After an exciting morning, the group had a tour in the capital of the country, San José. They got to explore the Teatro Nacional which is a very important and historical building. Just like time traveling!
Day 3: June 2, 2025
Una muy tranquila mañana ¿No lo creen? The group enjoyed the morning visiting the San Joaquín de Flores Church, very beautiful; we also had a little game to get to know more about the city. ¡A scravenger hunt! We interacted with locals and explored. In the afternoon, our professors waited for us to teach us a lot of new spanish vocabulary.
Day 4: June 3, 2025
¡A trabajar duro! Today the group volunteered at a local school in Heredia, after a short explanation of the ONG and being handed the correct equipment, the group was more than ready to start the action! Painting walls, cleaning and washing some furniture were some of the efforts made to make a difference and a better academic environment for the local students. We played with the kids too!
Day 5: June 4, 2025
With still some work to do at the school the group returned again super exited. They continued working on the organic vegetable garden the school has, later on we got to participate in an school activity where the kids danced and played in the band.¡Que bello!
Day 6: June 5, 2025
A free morning! Some of the group were able to sleep more while others decided to continue exploring the streets of Chepe, which is another way of refering to the capital city. In the afternoon the group had clases, they played grammar games and continue learning spanish. Getting better every day!
Day 7: June 6, 2025
Mishka! That's welcome in Bribri, one of the indigenous tribes in Costa Rica. The group traveled early in the morning to the indigenous territory, crossing the Telire River. They reached Casa Cónica which is a ceremonial house where a curandera, the healer of the village, greets them by singing.
Day 8: June 7, 2025
¡Medicina Bribrí, impresionante! The students learned amazing details about medicinal plants common to the area, in gardens or the forest close to the village. It is incredible the ability of the Bribriís to find these kinds of plants and know all their uses. After a delicious lunch of local cuisine and an amazing experience at the village, the group headed to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. ¡Vamonos!
Day 9: June 8, 2025
After the great experience in Talamanca with the Bribris, the group continued to the coast where everyone wanted to go to la playa. But before! The cahuita national park, where we walked through the tropical humid forest, we spotted a sloth, tucan, and lovely family of capuchin monkeys! Right after was the time for chapuzón on the sea.
Day 10: June 9;2025
What an end in caribeanside of Costa Rica! Listening to one of the most folk music in Cahuita which is Calipso, they started playing and students danced with the rhythm. They were sharing with the musicians and trying to play la Conga which is a traditional instrument in Calipso music.
Day 11: June 10, 2025
After unforgettable weekend on the caribeanside the group retured to Heredia and their familias ticas, happy to return the students continues iwth their spanish lessons. During the break some played soccer in the campus and talked about soccer culture in Costa Rica because they knew that "la sele" soccer team of Costa Rica was going to play. After clases they were going to watch the soccer match with their families.
Day 12: June 11, 2025
¡Cocinando a lo tico! Ready for the Costa Rican cooking clases, they got ready to become professional chefs, firstly they started learning the names of the vegetables and utensils. Then, they prepared the dish " picadillo de chayote con carne molida" by cutting vegetables, others chopping carrots and also making the homemade tortillas. Once everything was prepared, we said "¡buen porvecho!" and ate the delicious food that they prepared.
Day 13: June 12, 2025
¡A mover la cadera! What a morning, dancing like costarrican learning some steps of chachachá, salsa and swing criollo of Costa Rica. Such different rhythms and dancing styles, master dancers congrats and well done!
Day14: June 13, 2025
Last day at Valle Central with their families and CPI's teacher They had the free morning where some of them were packing las maletas to visit La Fortuna, the land of the magestic Volcán Arenal. Everyone was exited to visit one of the beautiful waterfalls of the country and to visit the hot springs, perfect places to connect with nature.
Day 15: June 14 ,2025
Ready for a day in La Fortuna where they swam in the Catarata la Fortuna and they had a very refreshing morning swiming. Some free time at La Fortuna visiting some shops and markets with the view of the arenal volcano, it looked huge! We ended the day chilling on the hot springs allowing our bodies to relax after a long day.
Day 16: June 15, 2025
Ready? Set? Monteverde here we go! After a delicious lunch, the students changes their views from a big volcano to a huge lake then lots and lots of trees the closer we got to Monteverde. One we arrived the families were already waiting for the group, ready to take them to their new homes and met the rest of ther familias ticas.
Day 17: June 16, 2024.
¡Sobre las nubes! Starting the week in Monteverde with a tour in Santa Elena Reserve with a local guide who explained this incredible forest in Costa Rica. The guide showed how unique this ecosystem is and also the fauna in this area, after all a Cloud Forest is not as common as we think. And guess what we saw!! A Quetzal!!
Day 18: June 17, 2025
Cafeteando en finca LFE! ( cafeteando = to drink and taste different types of coffee ) What better than drink coffee and discover where it comes from? The students had an amazing opportunity to explore Life Monteverde, which is a coffee plantation that cares a lot for compost and organic products. The group got to play a game where they guessed the type of roast of the coffee they were drinking and the winners got to eat coffee covered in chocolate.
Día 19: June 18, 2025
Sharing with the Coffee peakers! We visited one of the properties of Life Monteverde and git to experience a real coffee plantation, plus we connected with some of the workers and were able to learn about them ad their lifes.
Day 20: June 19, 2025
¡Mañana libre in Monteverde! A little bit of rest for the students today after good job at the volunteering. In clases some of the groups visited a place that is very known which is CASEM, there they heard the story about a group of ladies who work with handcrafted.
Day 19: June 18 ,2025
Today we learned more about the importance of nature, water and how micro plastic can reach any places. Being in the jungle collaborating with cleaning a river was an incredible experience. After lunch, we got to play like a costarrican kids with some of the traditional games like la cuerda, bolinchas y el trompo .
Day 22: June 21, 2025
HHow about we fly on top of the forest? Sounds good? Getting to feel the wind in our faces while we did canopy is definitely one of our favorite things to do in Monteverde.
Day 23: June 22,2025.
Another day, another part of the counrty to discover. Flamingo, located in Guanacaste, will be our home for our last week in Costa Rica. We live next to the beach! On our way to Flamingo we made a stop in another indigenous territory which it is Chorotegas in Guaitil, we saw costarican pottery and learned about this incredible art.
Day 24,June 23, 2026
Keep learning the pura vida! The students met teachers of CPI Flmaingo, during the clas they learned a little bit more about the culture in Guanacaste. Excited to be in the water we moved to Playa Penca to relax and to have fun in the water.
Day 25: June 24, 2025
Hechandole la manita a la comunidad de Lorena . Another beautiful day being a volunteer but In this case it was in a small rural place in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste with Siempre amigos which is the non profit organization who has been there and collaborating with the community for a long time.
Day 26: June 25, 2025
Second day in Lorena. We continue with our energy to the max. Wanna guess what we are building? A basketball court for the kids!
Day 27: June 26, 2025
¡Un día más con mucha energía! We started the day with spnish classes, perfecting even more our habilities. After that we traveled to Tamarindo to enjoy the beach and do some surf!
Day 28: June 27, 2025
Lat day of classes! We had a small graduation with our professors who encouraged us to continue with our spanish learning journey. We wsill miss them very much! We anjoyed our last day at the beach, refreshing in its water. See you next time, guys! Pura vida a todos