Today, we went on the Cultural Banana Tour and the Organic Pineapple Tour at the SOGO pineapple plantation. These products greatly contrast from our past plantation visits, as their processing system is very different from that of coffee. While coffee plants are started by planting seeds, banana and pineapple plants are started by replanting roots…
Tag: Plus3 2024
This Trip is Dragon
Today I learned how to breathe fire! If I would have known I am part dragon, I would have been using my fire power to warm things up in my hotel room since there is no microwave. I felt like Elizabeth, the dragon off of Shrek. All I did was eat the spicy lamb and…
Becoming Bilingual!
Today we got the chance to visit the University of Nicosia and listen to two lectures. Our first lecture was with Dr. Emilios Solomou and it was about the history of Cyprus. He gave a brief overview of all the different powers that were in control of Cyprus at different points in history. Due to…
Day 8: Evita Immortalis
This morning we started off with a tour of Recoleta. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful buildings, palaces, statues, and the graveyard. I learned a good amount especially on those who were important figures during certain time periods, how they impacted society, and their stories with each of the burial sites. I was interested in the…
A fulfilling end to a busy and exciting weekend in Vietnam!
This weekend in Vietnam was incredibly eventful as we hiked up to see a sculpture, went to the beach and pool, visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, and saw a lacquer factory all in just two days! My favorite story from this weekend has to be the visit to the lacquer factory. This business was so…
Day 8: Take Me Down to the Riptide
Today was a glorious day, filled with both sleep and a trip to a fascinating museum about the flood of 1953 in the Netherlands and flood control today. The day started with a sleep-in until 11 am, after which we searched for breakfast. A short four-minute walk to a small cafe proved to be a…
Day 7 in Cyprus
After checking out of our hotel in Limassol, we headed to Aphrodite’s rock. Despite the cloudy weather, it was absolutely beautiful. The water was so clear than you could see all the stones below and the rock was an impressive sight. We had discussed this rock a few times in our pre-departure classes, so I…
A Choco-lot of Fun!
Today, we visited Sibö, a chocolate producer, and Riverside, a sustainable restaurant. As it turns out, coffee and chocate undergo a very similar process in production. When growing, they both require a special environment. Just as coffee needs areas like Costa Rica with constant moisture, cocoa cannot be grown in European areas and must instead…
Day 7: Guacho Time and Fernando
Today was such a fun day at the Don Silvano ranch! When we arrived I immediately noticed how friendly the staff was and how beautiful everything was at the ranch. We had a welcome reception where we got a snack which you can probably guess… more empanadas! After, I decided to go with a few…
Camouflage in the Underground Mine
Today we visited the Black Country Living Museum. It was dark inside of the mine, I fully disappered, all you could see is teeth and eyes. Blending in with the dark was not fun, I do that at home all the time when I turn the lights out lol. Just joking but it was really…
The Other Side
Today we got to visit the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus! We started our day in Varosi, otherwise known as a ghost town. During the Turkish invasion in 1974, the Greek Cypriots fled the city and it has remained abandoned and under Turkish control ever since. We got the opportunity to walk around the abandoned…
Day 7: Sunny Days in Rotterdam
Today was our first official day in Rotterdam; however, it was not spent in Rotterdam. After an early breakfast at 7, we hopped on a bus for a pleasant one-and-a-half-hour ride. For most of us, this bus ride was a great opportunity to catch up on some sleep. When we arrived at our destination, the…
A brewtiful day at Café Monteverde
Today, we visited Café Monteverde, one of the main coffee producers in Monteverde. Touring the farm, we learned a lot about life working on a coffee farm. Coffee pickers are primarily from Nicaragua, as workers often move to Costa Rica for more work opportunities. These workers are paid between $2 and $5 per cajuela (basket)…
Day 5 – More Sustainability!
Today, for our site visit we went to GreenViet, a green building consulting company that is one of the first in Vietnam to focus on sustainable construction and green building. LEED standards and this certification provide a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings, which offer environmental, social, and governance benefits. It was…
Day 6: Hola from Austral!
We were greeted with an early start this morning and headed to the bus around 8am. I could not sleep so I looked out the window and saw a beautiful view of some houses in Buenos Aires by the train tracks. I saw a lot of interesting and beautiful buildings on the way there looking…
Day 5 in Cyprus!
We started out our day by visiting Vassiliko Cement Works. They were established in 1963 and have 233 employees and 350 contractors. In the presentation they explained how they build their product which was a much more complex process than I was expecting. Something I found interesting was that they own 2 limestone quarries, 2…
Day 5: Barrio Chino
Due to a labor union strike that we were notified about in the beginning of the week, we were no longer able to do our boat trip to Tigre, as well as our hospital visit. Although this was disheartening at first we kept our attitudes positive recognizing the benefits of a strike within the unions,…
Cloud Forest Fun
Today, we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Monteverde Institute, where we learned about the balance between forest conservation and human settlement in Monteverde. The prioritization of productivity and settlement is best seen in the Monteverde communities in the 1950s. Many of the Monteverde people were farmers, and land was cleared to make…
Day 4 – A Pleasant Surprise!
Today we started with a site visit to VinaCapital Foundation which is a NGO that aims to create healthcare and education solutions to assist underserved and marginalized children and women. Our discussion with Rad Kivette, CEO of the foundation, was quite shocking because I was not expecting it to be so focused on women’s rights…
Monkeying About in Monteverde
Today we drove to Monteverde and were able to see some monkeys on the way! While driving through the more rural parts of Costa Rica, I noticed a lot less homes and more businesses. There were very few houses as we got further away from the central continental divide which goes to show how densely…