My first impression of Costa Rica was that it truly is a beautiful country with tons of nature surrounding it. Just from being in our homestay, our host mom has a green room filled with different plants and she even is growing bananas! The community is so strong here and everyone is genuinely so friendly. Basically everyone we would walk by would say either “hola!” or “buena!” which makes Costa Rica truly feel like a home away from home. Today we all played soccer together and even some of the local kids in the neighborhood joined us which was extremely fun.

When I came to Costa Rica I did not really come in with any expectations because I had never traveled here before, but wanted to come in with a fresh pair of eyes. The language barrier has been difficult with our host family only speaking Spanish, but little by little we are starting to learn more and converse with Julia, our host mom. Costa Rica is a very appealing country and it makes you want to stop everywhere just to take pictures of the different cities from a highpoint view.

In Heredia we were able to go inside this beautiful church, learn about Alfredo González Flores and how he used to live in a building there. My favorite part was going through the market where they had tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, different types of meat, and fish. We tried two different fruits which had a different texture than usual but were good. Overall, I’m so excited for more to come because so far this experience is amazing!

Pura Vida!