After two short weeks our time in Costa Rica is rapidly coming to a close. During this experience I have learned a lot about the business of farming and sustainability and made lots of new friends. Reflecting on this moment I see how many things we have accomplished in our short time here and made…

Today we had a chocolate tasting tour, highlighted by the rich tastes and the funny historical lesson. It was far and away my favorite tour, partly because I loves facts and the history was all facts and partly because I spent an hour eating chocolate. Chocolate has a similar process of coffee as far as…

The supply chain of bananas, pineapples, and coffee all differ from each other in complexity and process. Bananas are usually harvested before they are ripe because they ripe in the shipping process, while pineapples are harvested when they are ripe and begin the fermentation process once harvested. If they are shipping the fruits the supply…

Today we made our first trip to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to see a Heart of Palms farm. We are able to see the contrasts between growing the plant and growing coffee beans on the three farms we have visited thus far. One of the noticeable differences was the altitude at which the…

This title can be taken in two contexts. The first is the service project we were able to do, painting a local school in Monteverde. Thus, helping forge a path for education in the community by helping improve the schools. The other context was the wrong turn we took on our way back to our…

The thought of sustainability “clouded” the day. Get it, cloud forest? Our adventure began at the cloud forest learning about the wildlife and the ever rising clouds in the forest. Our group was greeted by a tarantula just a few meters into the hike, although it was cool, it was probably the last thing I…

The day started quite early with a four hour bus ride to our hotel in Monteverde. On the trip we passed many communities and mountains. The one thing that stood out to me about the communities is in every one I saw a school with children in uniform playing soccer. It was very cool to…

Hola, today we visited another coffee business here in Costa Rica. Although both Doka and Cafe Britt work in the business of coffee they are different parts of the supply chain and have different things to offer. Cafe Britt focuses more on the roasting of coffee, while Doka grows the coffee plants. Doka roasts and…

My first impressions of this beautiful country was the emphasis on plants around the country even in the city. I was so impressed seeing coffee being grown on the drive from the hotel to ULatina and even near our host families house. Our host families house was through this gate and we were surrounded by…

Knowing that Costa Rica is a very sustainable country makes me super excited to visit and see what the country is like. I want to see how they live the green lifestyle and see how I could incorporate it into my own style of life. One of Costa Rica’s most important initiative is the National…

Hello, I’m Kaden Kashner and I am from York, Pennsylvania. I just finished my freshman year at Pitt where I plan to double major in Finance and Data Analytics. Some things I love are soccer, traveling, and spending time with my friends. I have been playing soccer since I was 3 years old and I…