Travel Journal
February 24-28, 2008
Jean Grant

Sunday, February 24, 2008 5 am
I’m off to the airport with Carol Brandt, VP for International Programs and Study Abroad. I can’t wait to see what’s in store. I hope I get to really have the experience—immersion style. I don’t want a vacation, I want an adventure. Will I be transformed by this experience?

10 pm
We arrive in San Jose, change over our money and gather our bags. Taxi to the Gran Hotel, a 1930s gem of a hotel in the heart of the city. I take a quick shower and crawl under the sheets. I can’t wait to wake up and see Costa Rica.

Monday, February 25, 2008
I wake up early, get dressed and head down to the outdoor café in front of the hotel. I settle in with a cup of Costa Rican coffee and watch people walking by. It’s a busy morning and school children are walking to school in their navy blue and white uniforms. Women in high heels are walking effortlessly across the cobblestones. Teenage boys with backpacks, mothers with children--life is in full swing in San Jose. Yet it feels peaceful. I love that. I can’t believe it but I actually feel a little chilly. I was expecting it to be hot and humid. This morning is deliriously beautiful.

Carol joins me presently and we eat some locally grown fruit before heading out to explore the city. Carol shows me landmarks, shops, interesting sites. We browse in the markets. There is so much to buy! Beautiful bracelets, woodwork, paintings, handmade dolls, jade, turquoise—it’s hard to choose! We find an art shop that sells handicrafts from local villages. I am getting a feel already for the richness of this culture.

We meet up with Javier, our driver, in the lobby, grab our suitcases and embark on a 4 hour journey up to 11,000 feet and back down to sea level to get to our destination: The Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology. The roads are well paved and the driving is quite calm. Nothing like I’ve experience in other countries.

Lush plants, roadside produce stands and houses tucked in the hillside. When we reach 11,000 feet, we literally enter a cloud forest. The clouds get lower as we go higher. Palpable, cool, magical,. Lush hydrangeas everywhere. Flowers blooming, pineapples, garlic, peaches, melons, fresh flowers for sale. Wild lilies, Quetzal bird watching camps and fishing cabins. We stop for lunch and enjoy a delicious Costa Rican meal of rice, beans, hearts of palm, chicken, shrimp and more. Delicious! I’m embarrassed at how rusty my Spanish is! Javier is very patient as I scramble to pull out all my Spanish learning from college—a long time ago!

Soon we arrive at the Firestone Center. We meet Isabel, the program coordinator and she welcomes us with coffee and we get acquainted in the program house. I take a deep breath. “I love it here” I hear myself say. The adventure has begun!

Soon we are hiking. Carol wastes no time in getting me into the environment. She and I in our “gaiters”—our special equipment to keep our ankles safe from snake bites, bandanas and hiking boots head out for an amazing adventure. We hiked through the most beautiful forest you can imagine. At the top was a view of the ocean. We saw a “coati” (peyzote in Spanish), colorful Toucans, lizards, and beautiful plant life. Amazing. I want to care more about the earth. Plants have souls! I want to care for the earth more when I go home.

After the hike we clean up and head out for dinner with Carol’s contacts in Costa Rica—the director of a non profit called ASANA, Christian, and a biologist named Alvaro. We eat at the local open air Italian restaurant in Dominical, a surfer town and have a lovely evening. I’m learning about the biological corridors that ASANA is working to create for endangered species in CR, especially a pig-like creature called the Tapir.

To bed by 8:30. I fall straight to sleep!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

3:00 am
Awake. Can’t sleep. I eat some Costa Rican cookies I bought on the way here. Powdery and soft, filled with caramel. Then I listen to my iPod, read and finally fall back to sleep.

Carol prepares for her meeting with ASANA and all the local landowners around the Firestone Property. I prepare myself to zip line through the jungle. Javier takes me to Hacienda Baru Wildlife Refuge for my zip line adventure. We hiked and got lots of exercise. Between zip lines (there were 7 all together) we saw sloths, coatis, Toucans, even white faced capuchins. The Capuchins chattered at our group and threw sticks at us! Ziplining was amazing. I kept thinking, “Am I REALLY doing this?” I love how natural the animals are in their habitat. I don’t feel we are disturbing them, just gently observing and moving on.

After getting unhooked from all the zip lining gear, I wander through a small butterfly garden. Costa Rica has the most amazing blue butterflies!

Then off to lunch with the local landowners, Carol and our ASANA friends. I met an American couple with a 2-year-old and a 4-year- old who invited me to bring my boys down to stay with them! Jackson and Isaiah would love Costa Rica.

Later Carol and I go for a more advanced hike of the property. I had no idea what I was in for. We hiked to a waterfall for a swim and then into a bamboo forest that was absolutely magical. We saw the Caiman pond, a firefly colony, black squirrels, lizards, monkeys and evidence of wild pigs. I realized how disconnected I am from nature and how I do not value it enough! At one point, Carol hacked down a coconut with a machete and we cracked it open and drank the coconut water and ate the coconut meat. We were starving so it was delicious and wonderful. When we got to the top, we looked out over the ocean and marveled.

After that hike I thought I’d never walk again but Carol wanted to hike down the road to Dominical (about 2 miles) for fresh mangos. When we got there we decided to eat dinner at a restaurant that serves fried whole fish with rice and beans. Delicious. After dinner, it started to sprinkle. I bought a scoop of ice cream and we got on a “motocicleta” taxi which was a minibike with a cart on the back. A small somewhat uncertain young man drove us back to the Firestone Center. We laughed and ate ice cream the whole way back while the rain began to come down. Crazy American women!

Back at the Center, Carol and I enjoyed the rain coming down on the tin roof and read, returned emails and listened to Pavarotti on our little boom box. The mangos and rum were a great treat! Toads hopped around the screen door and the rainforest filled itself with the croaking of frogs and the buzz of the shrill cicadas as the rain came down so hard I thought the roof would come down with it! Mesmerizing. What a day!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Today was my day to do research for local facilities for the alumni trip in 2009. The first and most obvious choice for accommodations is Hacienda Baru Wildlife Refuge. It’s near the beach and has several cabins that will suit us well. It also has a lovely outdoor restaurant so we can eat our meals there and talk about our experiences. I am already looking forward to 2009!

Later I checked out Coconut Grove, a place right on the beach and slightly less rustic where President Trombley stayed a few years ago. Very close to the beach and owned by an American couple. It has a pool and some VERY large iguanas that seem to own the place!

For those who want a resort experience, Hotel Mar is lovely and has an office where you can sign up for a variety of adventure tours like horseback riding, repelling down a waterfall, ATV adventures and cow roping amongst others. Some alumni may choose to stay here or add a week to their trip and take advantage of all these great tours.

Javier and I checked out the town of Dominical and saw surfers hanging out. The rip tides are pretty dangerous so you have to be a good swimmer out there. The water is beautiful though and the beaches are untouched. Tourists are still relatively few and far between. The beaches are strewn with smooth stones and sun-bleached white drift wood. And the sunsets are incredible!

Later that night, Isabel, a Costa Rican national from the Firestone Center, told Carol she was taking us for drinks along with her significant other “Lobo” who is originally a sea captain from Germany. They took us to an unspoiled beach and laid out blankets on the driftwood and made us cocktails on the beach as the sun set. What a relaxing evening. Wow! It was peaceful and relaxing. I realized something, “I need to watch the sunset more!”

Thursday, February 28, 2008
Up early, packed and out the door with Javier and Carol to go back to San Jose via the cloud forest at 11,000 feet. Stopped once for snacks—salt and lime plantain chips are my new favorite snack that I can probably never find in the US! As we drive back to San Jose, I write down a few goals:
1) Plant a garden
2) Try to attract butterflies to my garden
3) Adopt Baru Elementary School—send school supplies!
4) Respect nature
5) Watch the sunset every night!
6) Reduce my use
7) Conserve water

At San Jose Airport, we said our goodbyes to Javier and flew home. I’ll miss Costa Rica and can’t wait to bring alumni here next year, March 2009. This was definitely more than any vacation could offer.

Here are a few items I found valuable for my trip to Costa Rica:

• Good lightweight waterproof hiking boots
• Field journal/pen
• Regular sized backpack
• Mini backpack
• Pocket Spanish phrase book
• Small pocket knife
• Whistle
• Crocs (for shower, beach and around the house)
• Digital camera and a good sized memory card for camera
• Bandana
• Small flash light
• Sock liners
• Baseball cap
• Sunscreen
• Bug repellent (Deet)
• Power bars
• Small binoculars
• Zip lock bags
• Grocery bags (to put sandy shoes/clothes in for coming home)
• School supplies to give to Baru Elementary School
• Small thank you gifts for the Firestone staff

Now that I am back home, I am excitedly anticipating our alumni trip in March of 2009. If you are interested in going and haven’t signed up yet with me, please email us at alumni@pitzer.edu.

With anticipation,
Jean Grant
Director of Alumni Relations