It’s wild that we’ll be leaving Costa Rica tomorrow to go back home. It feels like yesterday we just landed with the flight attendants saying “Welcome to Costa Rica.” It has truly been a wonderful, fulfilling experience. Even though it’s coming to an end, I’ll never forget the memories, the wonderful hospitality from my host…

Today we visited a gourmet chocolate company called Sibö and got to taste some exquisite chocolates. Honestly, out of all the tours for this Costa Rica trip, this was the tour that I was most excited for and it fulfilled all my chocolate expectations. From the rich, humorous chocolate history to the decadent, unique chocolates…

Today we got a double tour! Like yesterday, we went to the continental divide, but this time we got to tour a pineapple and a banana plantation. We learned about how each plant grows, some difficulties that the plantations face, and we got to try some delicious food and desserts that included these plants. All…

Today we went on the “Heart of Palms” Tour on the Caribbean side of the continental divide in Costa Rica. This area was really unique with more dirt-like terrain, extremely humid, and for the first time ever since we’ve been in Costa Rica, it started raining. In comparison to coffee, the Heart of Palm grows…

Today we visited Life Monteverde which is a huge farm, and learned a lot about how farmers live their life, how they farm their crops successfully, and the importance of having a close community in Costa Rica. The Animals We started off by visiting a barn-like area with adult and baby goats and we fed…

Today, for our 2nd day at Monteverde we went on a tour in the Cloud Forest. We saw a ton of interesting species like a White-faced Capuchin, an agouti, a camouflage-like branch insect, and some other keystone species like hummingbirds. In fact, hummingbirds pollinate 10% of the plants so they’re really important. In all, apart…

Today, we traveled up to Monteverde which is at a higher altitude in the mountains. To be honest, the majority of today is kind of a blur because I was really tired and socially drained. That’s the con of being an introvert on a trip with a ton of loud, extroverts that are in my…

Today we went on a tour at Café Britt and learned a lot about the company’s financial success, how coffee beans are cared for and roasted to the high quality coffee that they sell today. One thing to note is that even though Café Britt is well known and most tourists love trying their coffee,…

Quality Coffee Production at the Doka Estate Today we visited a coffee plantation at the Doka Estate and went on a coffee tour to get some insight on their coffee production. Something important that I took away today is that it’s all about “quality over quantity”. Producing high quality coffee is especially important in Costa…

Prior Expectations of Costa Rica Costa Rica is even more beautiful than I imagined. I knew it would be stunning because of the photos I’ve seen, but being here in person is so much better and a greater feeling. When we arrived at the airport, everyone was really friendly and welcoming. This was expected because…

Sustainability is their lifestyle When it comes to the top greenest countries in the world, it’s no surprise that Costa Rica is seamlessly one of them. In Costa Rica, sustainability isn’t a mere phrase that is proclaimed, it’s heavily integrated into every day life. According to research, approximately 99% of the country’s electricity is generated…

Hi, my name is Princess Nwoga. I’m from Blackwood, New Jersey and I’m a freshman majoring in engineering at Pitt. For now, I plan on entering the civil engineering department with a focus on structural engineering. Sometime down the line, I plan on either pursuing the sustainability certificate or getting the architecture design minor so…