Costa Rican Adventure

I was lucky enough to be a mom chaperone for a Spanish Immersion middle school trip to Costa Rica with Sully and Greta, we had a great time! We were a group of 40+ people and it was an experience, to say the least! 

Organized travel isn't something I am used to, so it was a unique experience all around. I only had to follow directions, and hardly had to think! We arrived in San Jose for one night, moved to the Sarapiqui area for a coffee plant tour and a zip lining adventure, a cacao plant tour, tourist traps, and white water rafting adventure, everyone had so much fun. Then we moved to the Arenal Region where the kids took dance lessons, we enjoyed a hot springs, found more tourist traps, took river tour for crocodile sightings, went to a pineapple farm and kayaking in the rain. We finally made it to Guanacaste for snorkeling, tourist traps, national parks, and a night frog tour. All of this in six days, wow! All of our tours were done exclusively in Spanish and the kids did awesome. So so impressive. 

Sully traveled with a few buddies and had various room assignments. He didn't need me much, but when he did, he was happy to have me there. It was fun to see him making new friends and being on his own. He is so grown up. Greta, on the other hand, didn't have a buddy built in (the only other 7th graders were boys, yikes!), so she was pretty nervous about that. I had requested a private room, so she ended up rooming with me, but also made connections with the older girls almost immediately, I was so impressed by their willingness to take Greta in. She would move from group to group during the day, and when it was time to turn in, she would find me. It really was the best of both worlds, for both of us. 

The other mom chaperones and teacher chaperones were fantastic. I knew a couple of them pretty well and I would call the others friendly acquaintances. I was so thankful for the opportunity to get to know them all a bit better. I made so many new friends, too!  

We did have some hiccups, some uninvited pests ;), detours by bus due to mother nature obstructing some roads and the biggest doozie of them all was having a delay out of Costa Rica forcing our flight to detour to Miami due to the customs office in Dallas being closed (after hours)! Oh dont worry, we made it to Dallas at 3am. Imagine 40+ middle schoolers meandering through MIA at 1am, we were so happy to land in Sioux Falls the following day. 

Overall, it was a really fun experience!

Hacienda Doka Coffee Farm 

Beans and bean and beans. 

The zip liners!

White water rafting. 

Fun for all! 

Greta living her best life in the freshman girls boat. 

Greta makes the big jump. 

Sully too! 

Snack stop. 

Costa Rica Pineapple tour. 

Natural thermal springs with some of the moms. 

A cold and wet kayaking excursion in Arenal NP. 

Sully and Bennett

Greta and friends. 

More of the moms. 

Natures makeup, bixa orellana. 

La Fortuna waterfall, Bennett, Mason, and Sully. 

Greta and Ellie. 

Arenal Volcano

Night hike. 

Veronica, my seat mate. 
We had the best time together and I'm so thankful for her. 

High class crocodile tour boat. ;)

Snorkeling on our last day. 

Sully

Smile so big her eyes are closed. xoxo
Thats a wrap!