Costa Rica, 2003

A Spanish course in high school gave me the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica for a month. I went on this tour with several other spanish students around the entire country of Costa Rica. We rode on buses down the sides of mountains. through rolling hills and under waterfalls. My trip to Costa Rica was exhilarating to say the least. I witnessed a whole different way of living. A more simple and accepting way of living. The people of Costa Rica changed my life with out even knowing it. I saw inner city residents washing their clothes in buckets or a small creek behind their house. Some homes did not have four walls to shelter them. They endured a poverty stricken life. My junior year of high school I learned not to take everything in life to granted. The most convenient of things, a washer and dryer. I learned that Dolce and Gabbana were not necessary to make me happy or life more enjoyable to live. If I had the opportunity to go back to Costa Rica, I would go in a heat beat. There was a lot of tanning on the beach, watching professional surfing competitions, exploring the rainforest and steering clear of the untamed lizards. I can vividly remember laying on the beach, watching sailboats float near the cliffs, green ocean water carrying friends out further and further as the tide came in and out and three large lizards sun bathing no more than a couple feet away from me.