These past 2 weeks in Costa Rica have been nothing short of amazing. I’ve learned so much about Costa Rican culture, practiced my Spanish with my host mom, seen some of the most beautiful nature in the world, and of course learned about the intricacies of the coffee and banana industries. Through our tours of…

Most of our trip so far has been focused on the supply chain of coffee, but today we got to visit a Dole banana plantation to take a deeper look at the production of another major Costa Rican export. Although coffee and bananas are both produced and exported from Costa Rica, their supply chains are…

Costa Rica has been exporting coffee to other countries for about two centuries now, and there are some major benefits of this exportation on the economy. For one thing, Costa Rica is known for its coffee, and thus can sell coffee at a premium price. When we visited Icafé today (Costa Rica’s national institute of…

This morning we got an early start and headed to the cloud forest reserve in Monteverde for a beautiful three hour hike through the forest. Our tour guide Eduardo showed us the natural beauty of the cloud forest and told us all about the huge amount of biodiversity found there. On our walk we crossed…

Today we visited Life Monteverde, a farm high up in the mountains of Monteverde. After a bus ride on dirt roads along cliffs with no guard rail, we were greeted at the farm by Don Guillermo, one of the farmers at Life Monteverde. Life Monteverde grows and roasts coffee, but they also have a full…

Today our group left Heredia again to travel up to Monteverde where we’ll be staying for the next two nights. During our almost four hour drive, we got to see the biodiversity and different climate regions of Costa Rica. So far, we’ve spent most of our time in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, which is very…

Today we left the city of flowers to go explore San José, the capital of Costa Rica. As we entered San José via a 30 minute train ride, the influences of the coffee and banana trade were immediately evident. As we learned in a lecture before we arrived to Costa Rica, the railroad was constructed…

Today we visited Doka Estate and Café Britt, two very different Costa Rican companies. Doka Estate is a coffee plantation that grows, peels, dries, and then exports coffee while Café Britt is a coffee roaster that also has a diverse business portfolio that focuses on tourism and retail products. It’s also interesting to note that…

Today was a day full of new cultural experiences here in Heredia. We began the day with a culture presentation with Dr. Laura Ramirez. She talked to us about Costa Rica’s rich history, music, food, nature, and the tradition of the oxcart. It was really interesting to learn about the boyeo and carreta because we…

Today was our first day in beautiful Costa Rica! We landed in Costa Rica late last night and went right to meet our host families who were awaiting our arrival in Heredia, our home for the next two weeks. This morning we had a chance to walk though Heredia both on our way to the…

¡Hola a todos! My name is Alison Smith and in just a few days, I’ll be traveling to Costa Rica with the Pitt Plus3 Program! At Pitt, I am studying Marketing and Supply Chain Management with a certificate in International Business and a Spanish minor. On our trip, we’ll be focusing on supply chains in…