Friends Meeting School Costa Rica 2025
May 17, 2025
Elijah, Ben, and I (Gabriel) woke up at 1:30 am to leave to Dulles International Airport. We arrived at approximately 3:00 am. As it turns out, the United Airlines ticket counter didn’t open until 4:15 am, so we spent the time sitting around, while others were playing volleyball using suitcases as a net. Once we checked our bags, we went to security.
On the plane we had screens to watch movies, and most of us watched something. We landed in Houston, Texas, for our layover, where we were on a time crunch. Despite that, some of us decided to get food, as we were starving. We had to go a long way to find a restaurant that had pre-prepared food. While Wyatt and I made our way back to the gate more or less on time, Jacob had to fetch a few members of the group who lost track of time.
We got onto our plane and watched more movies. When we arrived in San José, Costa Rica, the line for immigration customs must’ve been a mile long. Outside the airport, we were greeted by our Global Works leaders, Randall, who was on last year’s Puerto Rico trip, and Rebecca. We went to a traditional Costa Rican restaurant for lunch, where between a few friends and I, we ate 12 plates of food, 7 pieces of cake, and drank 8 juices. We celebrated Jacob’s birthday and ate too much cake.
When we got to our first house, we put down our luggage and started to explore. The place was awesome. It had a pool, plenty of places to relax, several nice houses, and an incredible view of the city and the mountains. We all played Marco Polo in the pool together, which was a very fun bonding experience.Soon after, we ate a delicious dinner provided by the house caretakers. We did a group activity after dinner, in which we inroduced ourselves, made trip guidelines, and stated our excitements and concerns for the rest of our Costa Rica experience. We then showered, brushed our teeth, and went to bed.
By: Elijah, Ben, and Gabriel
May 18, 2025
After breakfast, we went into the van to head to our second location, and had a pitstop at a small restaurant/connivence store and some of use grabbed snacks.
After arriving, we had a very good lunch and then made some delicious mozzarella cheese, and learned the whole process. We also learned about different fruits, plants, and trees and tried some star fruit (which most of us had never tried before) and kinds of grapes/blueberries. We also saw pigs, cows, chicks, and poison dart frogs, which were really exciting to see, since most of us had never seen them before. The people who owned the farm were really nice, and their kids were really nice as well. In the rest periods, we would play volleyball and the kids would hang out and play with us. Even though we had a language barrier, we still found a way to communicate and had a really enjoyable time.
After our nutritious dinner we did more activities and played games (the younger kids joined in as well). At the end of the night while others were playing volleyball, some of us hung out, filmed a short film, and got ready for bed.
There were many cute animals other than the pigs and frogs. There was a four month old puppy that was really tiny and fluffy, and another three year old dog that was really sweet and kind.
By: Naomi and Ivy
May 19, 2025
We started off our day bright and early with a breakfast of eggs, rice, beans, cereal, homemade yogurt and juice, to top it off, we were able to enjoy it outside in the warm sunny weather. After breakfast we went on a walk and ended up seeing two sloths, a mom and her baby. When we got back everyone packed their day bags into the cars and we started our drive to the nature reserve, The Children’s Eternal Forest. During the drive we got to see insanely beautiful mountains that were covered in greenery and there were so many bugs and butterflies, we saw the blue morpho. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with so much wildlife. We could here birds calling, see hundreds of hummingbirds drinking from flowers and we even heard some howler monkeys. And we didn’t even have to leave the building.
After lunch we learned about all the ways this place is protecting the rainforest. It turns out this place owns a lot of land and every moth or so park rangers even go on backpacking trips to set up cameras to keep records of the wildlife, we watched a couple and they were really cool!
In the afternoon we walked down to a nearby lake and enjoyed the views and then after that, we learned three types of dances: Merengue, Bachata, and Salsa. We had tons of fun today.
At the end of the day we gathered around on a porch, shared as a group and played some fun games, also with a light we looked at a whole bunch of cool moths and beetles including one which is apparently quite rare according to one of my friends, Gabriel, who is super knowledgeable about insects. We think the beetle was the Golden Scarab Beetle. We were not able to go on the night tonight hike because it was raining and lightning very hard (probably can do it tomorrow)
When we were sharing our thorns and roses, many people said they were bummed that two whole days had already gone by and we don’t wanna go back home! I agree because tomorrow, even if the night hike doesn’t work out, I am sure that we will be able to see even more cool wildlife and have a heck of a good time.
By: Clem and Arno–
May 20, 2025
Today was our service day. We woke up early for breakfast at about 7:00. We had a very good breakfast, then walked through the jungle to La Laguna. Our job was to fill up bags with sand from the beach using a shovel, load them onto an ATV with a trailer, so they could use the sand to cover and even out the path.
After a couple of hours of work, we walked back up and poured the sand out on the path, then evened it out. After all that work, we only covered the part of the path in front of the building, but we knew we were just starting. After us, more groups of volunteers are coming and helping.Then we had lunch. It was Elijah’s birthday, so we sang him happy birthday and had chocolate cake.
After our break, we went back out to the beach to continue bagging the sand for another two hours. After we were done working, the workers told us that without our help, it would have taken the small amount of them fifteen days to get all that sand. Then we were told we could swim in the lagoon. Everybody leaped in and swam around, it was a really good reward after all the work we did.
When we got back from swimming, we were hungry, so we showered and had homemade coconut ice cream, hot chocolate, and snacks. We hung around till dinner, some of us playing cards or soccer. Then it was time for the night hike. We went in two groups. While the first group was on their hike, my roommates and I played Panna and tried to keep a soccer ball in the air.
When it was time for our hike, we all gathered at the dining hall and made our way into the jungle. It was basically pitch black in the jungle. We saw a green basilisk, a red-eyed tree frog, a cane toad, and on the lake, we saw a giant crab. In the forest, we saw giant tarantulas and a baby venomous snake. We heard some howler monkeys and an owl too. Our guide was super helpful and told us about the animals we found.
By: Ben and Russel
May 21, 2025
We woke up early and ate a wonderful fruit filled breakfast. Waking up to seeing the beautiful rainforest surrounding us was amazing and we are sad to see it for the last time as we move on with our trip. While we were eating our breakfast Jacob spotted a black and red bird on its nest. The whole group sat on the porch enjoying the view for the last time until the busses arrived. On the way back to the farm, there was a tree blocking our way so we waited in the van until the workers cleaned it up. When we got to the farm, we had lunch which was chicken and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, salad and star fruit juice. The fruit grown here and it is delicious and so fresh. We then swam in the pool to cool off for like an hour and made a whirlpool that actually worked well. We had some free time where we went on walks around the farm and just enjoyed our time here in Costa Rica! Later in the afternoon we had a group activity where we acted out scenarios and they were all clever and so funny. We also talked about what service meant to us and how we made a positive impact on the world. We talked about what sustainable service and non sustainable service is.
After dinner, we watched a wonderful performance by a traditional dance group that was amazing. They invited some of us on to the floor and dressed up and taught us the moves. All of the dancers were so talented and very friendly. We ended off the night by having a talk, playing card games and packing for tomorrow. Rebecca showed us a magic trick using cards that was mind blowing.
Rebecca and Randall are great guides and we’re grateful we met them and they are here with us.
Pura Vida!
By: Nox and Oliver
May 22, 2025
Good evening from Costa Rica! Today was our last full day, but definitely the most fun one. Today, some of us woke up at 6:30 to milk cows on the Crisley farm. The cow we milked was very cute. Milking the cows was more difficult than we expected but over time we improved our technique. We still weren’t as skilled as Crisley, though. We also were able to pet a calf which was really cute! It even rested its head on my (Roma’s) lap! I, Emma, even drank the milk straight from the cow’s udder! After we milked the cows, we ate a quick breakfast and headed off to the zip line. The zip line had 7 different lines and each one was a different length! On some lines, we got to go with a partner which made the experience more memorable. After the zip line we headed over to lunch at El Jardín which was really tasty. There were so many different foods to eat and everything tasted so good!
After everyone ate, we had around 45 minutes in the area to either buy snacks or go souvenir shopping. While other students were shopping, Nox, Peggy and I (Roma) went up the road to see a bunch of animals including peacocks, ponies, pigs, and other animals. One of the ponies loved licking our hands which was really cute. Once we left the lunch spot, we went back to the first hotel, Villas Aracari. We swam in the pool, the water was nice and we had an amazing view! After the pool, we all went inside and dried off and had our final activity of the trip, it was very special because it gave us the opportunity to appreciate and recognize each person who took part in this trip. Finally, we ended the day with a super tasty dinner and we are planning to watch a movie before bed. Costa Rica is absolutely gorgeous. This trip was super fun and we are so grateful we were able to experience Costa Rica with this fantastic group of people! Pura vida!
By: Roma and Emma
