Over spring break from March 11th to the 19th Mrs Talley, Ms Kemper, and Mrs. Chaney took a group of bulldogs and other high schoolers out to Costa Rica and Panama. They had started saving and preparing for this trip for over two years before it took place. Gathering funds for all of the adventureful and culture filled events.
On March 10th all of the kids headed to the airport here in Grand Junction and then landed in Denver. They were laid over in Denver for a few hours but then made it to Houston Texas that night and stayed the night there. The next morning they had their longest flight to Costa Rica. While they went through their travels in Costa Rica and Panama they had a local guide taking them through many events such as having a tour through the amazon rainforest, visited many cities within Costa Rica including Basilica de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, Santiago Apostol Parish Ruins, and they visited the Carto Municipal Museum. They also visited a banana farm and a cocoa plantation and made some chocolate. The students attended a native dance and food cooking class. They went kayaking and white water rafting in Panama and Costa Rica.
Speaking with two girls who went on the trip Juliana Roberts and Lillian Mecham. Roberts spoke about the trip, “The trip was really good. It was truly a blessing to be able to be a part of an experience like this and our tour guides and bus drivers really made the experience so much better because they’re from there.” Getting to see the differences in culture first hand with a guide is wonderful to experience with help from someone that knows the ins and outs of the area. She continues “My favorite part was when we went white water rafting because it was truly so cool being in the rapids like that and I’ve never been rafting or anything like that.” Getting to experience a hectic trip like that and being able to experience your firsts is such a get things to do amongst new friends.
Mecham spoke about her experience in Costa Rica, “ It is really hard to pick a favorite activity that we did because we did so much. But if I had to choose I would pick Snorkeling because Mr. Chaney and I saw a shark.” Getting to see a shark is always a shock, she continued “I think the whole group interacted with each other at one point on the trip and we all roomed with each other so we all got close.” Showing the relationship grew within the community “Jimmy, our tour guide, talked a lot about the culture within Costa Rica and he was our guide the whole time.” Mecham also spoke a lot about the food in Costa Rica and how it was really good meat and she was full of the whole trio with the quality of the trip.
It was a once in a lifetime experience, look out for the next planning trip!
