Wonderfolk Costa Rica 2025
July 5, 2025
Today July 5, I had to wake up at six something so I can make it to the airport at 7:30. Some people didn’t make it in time so we had to wait extra which wasn’t a problem 😁 we went through TSA, bag checking, and we were good to go to get on our flight. I was a little scared because it was my first time on an airplane taking off really had my stomach twisting and turning but landing had me jumping on Isabella, which I apologize but overall, I rate this flight a 7/10 I liked the snacks.
Hii guys it’s diamond!!! Today we had a lot of traveling, it was very tiring, but I enjoyed everyone’s presence and their energy. It was really fun traveling with kids, my age. I’ve never had that experience before so it was great! Me and my little group went to Starbucks and different places to go eat and while waiting for the plane to actually go to Costa Rica, we were playing games on our phone with each other, listening to music and talking. It was fun and I definitely am excited for the upcoming days with your children. thank you!!!
By Divine and Diamond
July 6, 2025
Today Cohort 2025 began their journey both physically and metaphorically. We began the day in San Jose with the traditional breakfast of Gallo Pinto, which contains rice, beans, and a variety of Costa Rican seasonings. With the Gallo Pinto we ate eggs, ham and all the fruit Costa Rica has to offer. After breakfast we started our orientation which was full of building our community agreements and the trip leaders sharing the history of Wonderfolk. Us students shared what we hope to gain from the program. We ended our orientation with signing bandanas which were turned into bracelets, anklets and hair pieces which can be seen in the video included. They signify our understanding of the agreements to the community guidelines. We then packed our bags and hit the road to our next destination. We enjoyed singing along to various songs, playing Pictionary and admired the scenic beauty of Costa Rica. We had lunch at Mi Rancho while being able to actually immerse ourselves into Costa Rican communities by participating in common Costa Rican cultural practices. When we arrived at Sueño Dorado we met a dog named Moli and enjoyed swimming in a natural hot springs which was full of mineral water. After we took another ride we began singing along to musicals and free-styled to our own beat. Then we ate dinner and played telephone. In the photos provided, some students ordered virgin pina coladas which actually came in pineapples. The main focus of today according to members of the cohort was traveling and getting accustomed to the new environment.
Best regards,
Arturo and Khadija
July 7, 2025
Today, we loooved The Two Little Monkey’s chocolate tour! We tried the seed straight from the cacao, which was surprisingly sweet! The speakers were all so kind and full of information. We would have never guessed that cacao is the 2nd most nutritious food. We drank the Drink of the Warrior (which was spicy and sweet!) along with some of the best milky, frothy, hot chocolate I’ve ever had; 10/10 chocolate high-key. We then got to make our own chocolate and for some reason my team (Claire) was doing it really fast (we ate tho). We also made the best chocolate turtles :)) 🐢🐢🐢. We then got to squeeze the juice out of sugarcane, which was a 3 person job. It started to down pour suuuper hard, but it was really beautiful. Getting to hear the birds and water hit the ceiling was surprisingly therapeutic. The rain had us put our matchy matchy purple jackets on. Through the rain, we got a tiny tour of the farm and saw a sloth 🦥 !! This was our first time ever seeing a sloth and we were in absolute awe. He didn’t seem very excited to see us though.
Afterwards we went to the main shelter and ate our beautiful custom chocolates which were delicious. We had some downtime where we got into a heated argument over the rules of down by the banks. I (Claire) used my camp counselor skills to break off any arguments and unfair play :). Next, we headed to lunch and got into another heated debate about Shrek 1 vs Shrek 2 to see which was the best Shrek movie of all time (we never came to a consensus). While at lunch, there was a souvenir shop with a little boy as the cashier. Arturo got a discount while everyone had to pay full price!! Finally, we headed to the site of a waterfall which included a rigorous stair hike. Boy was the hike back hard, but we saw the most beautiful waterfall and took beautiful pictures. We ended the night with volleyball and a scrumptious dinner!
Adios!
-Grace P and Claire B
July 8th 2025
The day started off with a downpour of rain that woke us up for our final morning at La Fortuna. As we savored our breakfast, our hearts pounded with adrenaline at the thought of our next activity: Zip lining at Sky Adventures. Many of the cohort were first timers to such activities, but the idea of zip lining through the Arenal Volcano enticed them enough to step out that bus. The view was breathtaking and made my eyes water from the force of dropping down hundreds of feet. Strangely, I (Yuki) felt quite at zen. I (Emma) couldn’t have been more excited to start our zip line adventure through the cloud forest of Costa Rica where the views were great but the energy was even better. Many screams were shared during our journey, both of joy and fear. Thankfully, everyone survived the challenge and came out stronger than ever with awesome photos to show for it. As a reward for our bravery, the group ventured out for lunch. Sushi was a popular choice among the cohort, but SOME PEOPLE decided to be different and get a burger. Afterwards, the group headed to La Fortuna’s main Plaza where we put our tourist hats on and got to shopping. The extremely hot weather fried our brains, and most were more concentrated on finding a store with AC rather than any overpriced tourist traps. We dragged ourselves to the ice cream store as the final purchase. Jacob never got his haircut (blessing in disguise) and couldn’t handle the heat and melted on the sidewalk. After peeling the fallen off the sidewalk, the group traveled to our future homestay community. We saw the work of the groups who came before us, including a large bullpen where the community comes together to watch bull riding. To try out the building ourselves, we held a bull race of our own. We got into groups of two, with one person piggyback riding the other as they run to see who gets to the other side the fastest. We then said our farewells and got on the bus to Crisley’s Farm to stay for two nights. After a short break, we headed on down to dinner and watched an amazing traditional performance inspired by the love Costa Rica has. Our own cohort even got to preform- not for anyone else, but for themselves! The night ended with an intense game of volleyball shared by the local community, terrified screams about bugs, and secret mukbang sessions.
-Yuki and Emma 💕💕🦥🐢
July 9th 2025
Wednesday Morning began bright and early at 5:35 AM with a pack of fruit snacks and a white monster energy drink. The cool Costa Rican air felt incredible as we watched the sun rise over the trees. Today was the first day of being on Crisley’s Farm and we woke up bright and early to milk some cows! Surprisingly, a group of 14 woke up to milk the cows and we were all geared and ready. I(Luong) went to interview everyone before the milking as we walked over to the cow pen. There was a general slump due to the early risings, but everyone was excited and ready to see what it looks like to milk a cow. We got the the pen and it smelled TERRIBLE! Literally like a sewer, but everyone went to milk the cows and it felt weirdddddd. It got to my turn and I did it successfully! (Although a little bit of cow dung got on me) which I had to wash. So I ended up sun drying my shoes and then taking an early morning shower afterwards. Milking a cow was so different and squeezing the utters for milk was so strange. I’m glad I did it though. We all hung out until breakfast came which was Gallo Pinto as always, and as always it was delicious. Afterward, we toured Crisley’s Farm and saw so many surreal things from funky weird plants, to animals, to even poisonous frogs! Then we went and begun making cheese, courtesy of the Crisely family. The cheese tasted AMAZING, and it was by far the most delicious and flavorful cheeses I’ve ever tasted. We ate some lunch which was nachos and then got ready to go visit the animal sanctuary, where we learned about rescued animals and how to act when visiting forests and dealing with animals. It was honestly super sad to hear their back stories and all the bad things that had happened, but I(Temesgan) felt like I learned a lot about Costa Rican fauna and how to act, as well as getting some sick pictures of caymans, monkeys, macaws and more. We ended the tour with making food for the animals, putting them in toys and feeding the monkeys! On the way back, the bus ride was filled with One Direction songs and karaoke. We ended the nights with pool volleyball, and some awesome salsa dancing. It really feels like this trip is warming up and we can’t wait to see what’s left for the trip.
P.S We just found out that Temesgan is able to stay for the whole trip (YAY)
In Unity & Service,
• Luong 🦒 & Temesgan😛
July 10th, 2025
Tuesday it is. We were were warmly welcomed by some cool rain in the morning which rapidly turned into sunshine. Breakfast was served at 8 a.m. we had warm pancakes topped with freshly sliced bananas and drizzled with syrup. After our little grub we were put right to work. We walked down with Crisley’s as a group and learned how he plants maiz and sorgo. We then helped him out by planting both seeds we took turns placing 3-4 seeds in each empty pocket in the ground. Crisley assured us he would send updates and pictures of his family eating corn to assure us our hard work payed off. Soon after we headed back to the our tables we had Yucatada for lunch today. It is made out of deep fried mashed yuca, stuffed with some of Crisley’s tasty homemade mozzarella cheese, with a side of salad. After our lovely meal we packed our bags up and waited for our buses to arrive.
Now we were ready to embark on our journey to Poco Sol. We split up onto two busses, But first, a quick run to the mini mart or el “super” as they call it. We made our pockets hurt by splurging on Costa Rican snacks. Afterwards we started our short but bumpy ride to the cloud forest. Even though the road was rough our energy was filled with excitement and joy as we all sang our favorite songs. Soon we made it to Poco Sol and after our group leader assigned our rooms we took a hike. Our hike in the forest was filled with laughter and a couple of screams due to the fear of bugs. However small insects didn’t stop us from admiring the beauty of Mother Nature and connecting to what we were surrounded by like the big trees and flowers. As we were coming back from our hike it started pouring rain, the slippery ground made us want to hurry up to our rooms and start some fun games. We began by playing uno and twister and soon we were all laughing and enjoying our time together. The night ended by having dinner and reflecting about the past days we have been in Costa Rica and how these experiences have impacted and inspired us to be the best version we as cohort can be.
By Alicia🦎 & Angeli
July 11, 2025
Today we had the privilege to learn and work in Costa Rita’s biggest rainforest, the children’s eternal forest/ cloud forest. The cohort started the day by learning about the history of the forest and where it gets it’s name, the “Children’s Eternal Rainforest”. The name derives from the 1940-1990s when the forest had lost all but 50% of the land. Because of the devastating news, a group of kids in Sweden decided to get together and start fundraising to see if there was any possibility of the land being restored. The children’s used multiple ways to raise money, such as lemonade stands and rabbit races. In the end their efforts proved to be successful and helped the country restore all that was lost.
After learning about the history of the forest, the cohort spilt into groups to help maintain the pathway going into the forest. Half of us (Jacob & Sylvie included) started by going into a puddle of mud and lifting out a MASSIVE gutter, and adding rocks under so it could be better supported while in a water stream. From there Jacob and Sylvie’s group collected bags full of sand and rocks packed by the other group and layered them down on the gutter—this created a pathway through the stream. The goal for this was to make it much easier to access the other side of the forest for the rangers—this was especially important to us all because during our history lesson we learned that there are 5 rangers patrolling and maintaining the forest. They likely wouldn’t be able to finish this project until a matter of days, where as we finished it in hours due to the large numbers of us. The rangers were incredibly grateful and we were honored to finish a project off their to-do list—especially one that helps the small group of workers maintaining this forest so much.
After lunch we switched places so now my group (Jacob and Sylvies group) was packing bags full of sand while the other group finished what we started before lunch. During that time so much happened; Sylvie had a tarantula jump on her hand that was genuinely massive then flicked it on to Temesgen’s jacket. Later in the day once everyone freshened up and got off all the mud, we prepared for our host family interactions and how we should effectively communicate important messages to the families. We studied with fluent Spanish speakers and even ended up making skits and acting them in front of the cohort to try and sink in the messages. Then when we went back up there was a big cockroach in room 3 coming out of Sylvie’s backpack and that’s how we ended the night!!
By Jacob 🕷️& Sylvie‼️
July 12, 2025
The day began at 7:00 in the morning with a filling breakfast at the dining hall. Upon finishing with our meals, we prepared ourselves for service. The cohort suited up with rain boots, rain jackets, a water bottle and a positive attitude. We made our way down to the lagoon where all helped shovel sand and rocks into at least 200 bags, and loaded them onto the dirt bikes. Then everyone hiked a little further down the trail to the place where we would begin our second half of the project. The goal was to take the bags we filled and carry them down the long trail and re-paving it. there was pouring rain throughout both parts of the project but no one slowed down, even when soaked with the rain, sweat, and mud. Every person played a vital part with some carrying many bags at once and others giving positive encouragements to uplift the team. We crushed the project, as expected, and headed back to our lodging area to clean up.
Before lunch, we had a thoughtful discussion/conversation about our community agreements, and each cohort member and staff re-committed to the agreements. Once lunch was over, the buses were loaded and they started driving towards the homestay community. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by all the families we would be spending the next few days with. After playing a few games with the kids, we formally met the families we would each be staying with. Everyone collected their bags and headed to the homes to bond with the families and prepare for the day full of service.
Miranda & Cristina
July 13, 2025
The day starts at 8:30am with a day of service awaiting us. The night prior, our homestay activities comprised of card games, visiting relatives, and seeing wild animals. We now head out from our homes with our bellies full varying from rice, beans, eggs, or empanadas. As we say adios to our families we separate out into groups and begin service.
Each group had its own set of responsibilities. For starters, the painting group focused on painting walls and doors. The gardening groups focus was on tilling the mud in preparation for new plants. The cement group was responsible for digging up cement and removing the grass. There were also individuals digging up dirt. Our mindset going into the service work was not doing what we think they need, but rather doing what they need us to do. Even as the temperature rose, we continued on working, reminding ourselves why we’re here, and what we want to accomplish. During a quick break in the shade, the sight of a wild macaw caught our eyes, representing the beauty of Costa Rica.
During lunch, we were blessed with the opportunity to converse with our home stay families while we ate the lunch they brought. These packed lunches included traditional Costa Rican food such as fresh avocados, papayas, rice and beans, and fresh squeezed juice. The delightful sound of the children’s laughter filled the air with joy. Sports varied from teaching Costa Rican kids volleyball, and one of our very own students, Temesgen, playing a match of soccer with the local men. We finished up our work, then ended the day with donut making. One group took on the job of cutting out the donut shape, while everyone got in line to fry their own donut. The energy stayed high with everyone decorating their donuts with icing, sprinkles, or m&ms. Many groups were also had silly competitions for the best donut without a care in the world.
We wrapped up the night with washing dishes and cleaning up the communal space, and saying our goodbyes as we make our way home. Despite being pushed and challenged throughout the day we remembered that we GOT to do service work in Costa Rica and leave behind a comfortable area for the community:))
Until we meet again,
Jayda😊😊 & Sesina😝😆
July 14, 2025
This morning we were awoken by the sounds of los pollos (roosters) and the smells of plantains being cooked by our home-stay mom. Excited for the day we headed to the kitchen for another love filled meal, made by our temporary families. We got ready for the day and reminisced in the melancholy feelings of the last full service day with our new found communities. Our families guided us to the community center where we were sorted into three groups to work on several different service projects. Painting, gardening and building a shed. I took on the garden where we planted multiple different types of flores so that in the future the near by church can be adorned with beautiful native greenery.
After a long day of hard work we sat down all together and ate a delicious lunch of salsa de pollo y piña, accompanied with a refreshing glass of limeade. To cap off the afternoon we played soccer and volleyball in the newly painted soccer field. With many soccer balls to the face we headed back home to put on our nicest clothes and got ready for our despedida. The sound of Costa Rican voices filled the air, and the taste of marvelous ice cream in our mouths, as we danced the night away, our final full day with our home stay families came to an end. But don’t you worry, the adventures don’t stop here…
-Isabella and Khadija 💕💐
July 15, 2025
The final morning with our home stay families proved to be difficult for us all. We all made many connections with the local community members—ones that will impact us for the rest of our lives. I (Jacob) met my host abuelita’s great nephew, Jose, during the time spent with the family. My roommate Tomi (Temesgen) and I were greatly impacted by his kindness, authenticity, and perseverance. Leaving such a good friend in a town so far from where our next destination was located made the departure difficult. Many of the cohort shared this same experience. Some of us cried, laughed, smiled, and screamed, but no matter what reaction anyone had, leaving this community was difficult for us all. After waving the community goodbye in the bus, we started our road-trip to the coast. The 6 hour drive—as uncomfortable as it could be—was a time full of games and lots of sleeping. Many of us created a game where if you see a sign labeled “imperial” you punch the person next to you. (The imperial company is a VERY common liquor brand in Costa Rica). The same game had other opportunities to punch someone, like if you see a car pass us up on the road (very common in Costa Rica). With both happening every other minute you can imagine the game got a little heated. At the 3 hour mark we stopped at a hotel/restaurant where we enjoyed some buffet style food and smoothies. After we finished eating we walked into the massive gift shop attached. Lots of people were eyeing the beautiful sculptures and ornaments made. Once everyone picked out what they wanted from the shop we made our walk back into the bus—except Jacob and Sylvie, they forgot to head to the bus and made us wait 10 minutes for them. Upon arriving at our hotel La Playa Luna near the coast, everyone awed at the public pool that would unmistakably be taken advantage of later tonight. Once we all settled down, the cohort got ready to head to dinner at Restaurante Tex-Mex for delicious plates of chicken quesadillas and the overwhelmingly popular birria tacos. Once we finished our dinner, most of the cohort finally jumped into the pool and played some games and overall just enjoyed the beautiful pool right in-front of the hotel. Many of us played chicken, taught others some life guarding techniques and raced to see who was the fastest. I (Jacob) ended up beating everyone I raced 🥇. But most of us started getting prepared for tomorrows surf lessons and the swimming that’s ahead of us 🏄♂️.
By Jacob 🕷️ & Yuki 💕
July 16, 2025
Today started at 7 AM, our beautiful cohort woke up with smiles on their faces, while overlooking the view of the lovely La playa Luna hotel and Flora below their balconies. We all got ready for a busy day ahead of us, that we had been dreaming about since the beginning of the trip, SURF DAY!!!! but I’m getting ahead of myself, first, the cohort had to head down to breakfast at our tried, and true spot Restaurant Tex-Mex, for a delicious Buffet style breakfast filled with toast with guava jam, fresh orange juice, and so many fruits. Once we filled up, we rushed upstairs to get our final things before we took a short walk to the nearby beach in order to get our surf on. We basked in the sunlight and beauty of the Costa Rican ocean, and took our time to soak it in. Some taking a dip in the ocean, and others going on a hunt to find the perfect San dollar. Once we settled in the joy of this experience. We made our way over to our four surf instructors, they taught us the form, and went over safety instructions before we each got a signed our own surfboard. We hopped in the warm sun-kissed ocean, and embodied our inner surfer bro. The hour and a half of surfing flew by with how much fun we were having, many of us got the form down and were living the Shaka lifestyle 🤙. All of us were pretty dead tired after, so we headed back to the hotel to rest and have lunch. Once our bellies were filled once again, the leaders allowed us to have some free time. Many of us headed back to the beach, where we ignited the saying “when’s the next time you’ll be in Costa Rica”, some of us went and played mermaids in the pool 🧜♀️ and a couple others enjoyed in the ethereal feeling of the AC in our hotel rooms. But all of us adventured to the enthralling drink and ice cream stand near by where we indulged in fresh coconut water served in the shell itself and many different flavors of ice cream. As the sun slowly started to set on our twelfth day in Costa Rica, we headed to dinner, which was topped off with delicious pineapple drinks, and a FaceTime call to celebrate the birthday of one of our leaders still in Oregon. After dinner the cohort embarked on a late night trip to the nearby Supermercado, where we got snacks, drinks and some even souvenirs. Once our snack binge was over, we are headed to bed with joyous thoughts of the day and jitters of excitement for the next day to come. Despite this being the 12th day, there are many more drinks in Coconuts to come.
By Isabella 💐 & Yuki 💕
July 17, 2025
Today marks the end of the fun Wonderfolk festivities. We started the day off with a 7 AM breakfast to fuel ourselves for a morning hike to a waterfall. The switch from the bug-less beach to a very buggy forest was not the most ideal but we made it through! Along the way we saw several spider monkeys with babies jumping from fence to fence and tree to tree. We then grabbed little baby trees for us to plant during the hike and were accompanied by a cutie white dog :). We then started the hike and planted the trees, a way to leave our mark through the trees in Costa Rica. Next, we hiked down to a waterfall, deep in the forest. We trekked over roots and rocks and wadded through murky water until finally, we arrived. The falls fell into a small pool, which a couple of us cooled off in. For lunch, we headed to a Tex-Mex-style restaurant. After lunch we had downtime where people could go to the market, swim in the pool, or just take a nap (Grace loaded up on sugar). We got ready for dinner in our best outfits and hopped on the bus. The restaurant had a beautiful scenic view of the ocean where we took gorgeous golden hour pictures. We headed to our table and ordered smoothies and entrees. We both got watermelon smoothies and Grace got “the catch of the day” and Claire got chicken curry. Everyone agreed this food was some of the best we had had the whole trip! Once we finished, we took a quick look at the stars and took more pictures. After heading back to the hotel, we ended the night with our final reflection. This reflection was to show appreciation to each other. One person steps forward in a group circle, and everyone goes around and says one positive word about the person. Feeling bittersweet, we ended the night with last minute packing and socialization.
See you soon!!
Grace 🫧 & Claire 🌸
July 18th, 2025
Today was the day we had to leave the costal hotel and head back to the San José airport. This was heartbreaking to the cohort because all the fun adventures were coming to an end!! We are ready to finally see our families, but were going to miss the family that we made along the way. Our family developed by seeing each other every day for 2 weeks, heading to the airport, we knew this was no longer going to be the case. As everything is coming to an end, Khadija, Divine and I (Diamond) are going to reflect on the trip. On the first night we all missed our family and our phones, and it was a little overwhelming to have to experience different environments within a matter of days. The second we stepped into Costa Rica, you can feel the difference. As the nights passed, people laughed and people cried, but we were always able to come together and move forward with a smile and our shared goal. Through this trip we learned many things, one importantly is that people are all different and will always have different perspectives, but that doesn’t mean that it has to divide us and cause a ripple in the group. Costa Rica has allowed us to step into other perspectives and embrace cultural differences in a new and eye-opening way. Even though there were uncomfortable differences like putting the toilet paper in the trashcan and not having warm showers; these simple changes shaped our trip and ourselves for the better. Thank you so much, for looking at all the words that we shared. At the end of the day we had a beautiful, beautiful dinner that had an epic background that people took photos at. It was so fancy, and we were so grateful, we loved every aspect of it! Play who took an iPad Now, everyone in the cohort is going to type one word about this trip; how it’s changed them, what it means to them or what the biggest challenge was. Whatever anyone feels they need to say—they’ll say it.
1. Alicia: Serenity
2. Angie: Living
3. Sesina: Ambition
4. Divine : Fun
5. Luong: Core Memories
6. Arturo: Monumental
7. Temesgen: chill
8. Grace: Freeing
9. Miranda : Strengthening
10. Claire: Bodacious
11. Yuki: Buckaroo
12. Cristina: Refreshing
13. Jayda: Watershed
14. Emma: Happiness :
15. Izzy: GROUNDED
16. Sylvie: Overcome
17. Khadija: Eye-opening
18. Jacob: Enlightening
19. Diamond: Life changing
Now Wonderfolk of 2025 is signing out, thank you to our important staff for building a genuine community dedicated to our youth. We love you.🤍
-Divine & Diamond
