Costa Rica Summer High School Programs with Rustic Pathways

I really enjoyed going to Costa Rica this summer. I learned a lot about myself and the communities that I was in. I was nervous to travel abroad with people that I didn't know, but Rustic Pathways made me feel safe and welcomed into the group. I had a lot of takeaways from the two trips that I went on. I went on two different programs in Costa Rica. I went to the West Coast for two weeks on the Nicoya Turtle Expedition and got to do a lot of cool things there. I got to catch turtle eggs from a turtle on the beach. I got to go to a women's art group and make bracelets. On my second trip, I was with the BriBri People of Yorkin, Talamanca for a week. I got to learn about their culture and help paint a house for a teacher from the school. I loved my trips and I want to go back!

This program was amazing! I traveled with two friends from home, but it would have been just as fun going alone! There was a lot of in-country travel, which allowed me to get to know my group and bond with them very quickly which was amazing! There were not always hot showers at the places we stayed, but that was very easy to get used to, especially in the Costa Rican heat! The schedule of the program allowed my group to learn a lot about the Costa Rican culture, and for us to have some fun adventures! We toured a farm, a coffee plantation, visited a hot spring, went zip lining, and much more! Being able to create and run a summer camp that the kids loved was a great experience, and it taught me a lot about the value of communication, as the children spoke very little English. I highly recommend this program, the friendships I made were life long and the memories I made will stay with me forever!

My experience with Rustic Pathways was unique and will never be replicated. Rustic Pathways impacted me on how I view the world and others from different cultures and cities. Being able to accomplish two things in one sitting is very effective. With Rustic Pathways, you get to travel as well as help out others in different communities that aren’t as fortunate. Costa Rica itself holds a huge spot in my heart because I was overwhelmed with happiness every moment I was there. If you chose to go on a service trip to Costa Rica with Rustic, you should expect a lot of fun activities, bonding with new people from all over the world, and lots of smiles on people’s faces. My favorite part of this trip was being able to see the gratitude expressed by the Costa Rican’s after seeing all the help we provided during our community service. I would extremely recommend ANY of Rustic’s trips if you want to travel, help others, and have fun!

It’s going to be difficult to sum up this incredible and unique experience, but hopefully I can do it justice. I went to Costa Rica on the Summer Camp Leadership program and was given the opportunity to run an authentic camp for Costa Rican children. The connections I made with even the youngest of the group were so valuable, even with a language barrier between us. In a sense, we were able to find common ground because we didn’t quite understand each other, and that brought the counselors and campers all the more closer. I benefited so much from this trip by truly experiencing what life is like for so many people in the world. My outlook on life as a whole is much deeper, and I felt a greater sense of self immediately after returning home. I grew confidence and leadership that will stick with me forever, just like the beautiful memories from the program altogether.

When I heard that their were no hot water and that their was no air conditioning I thought I would not make it two days in. But I was wrong. I stayed their the whole time and when it was time to go I didn’t want to go. When they said the night walks were going to be 3 hrs long at would start at 12:00 I thought I was going to loose my mind. It turned out that like what I said in the second sentence of this review I was wrong about my reaction. I loved having those night walks and seeing the sea turtles making their nest and laying their eggs. On our second to last night walk we encountered a dead sea turtle with a fishing line and hook stuck in its throat. Because of that encounter I started a Conservation Club at my high school to prevent these endangered animals from going extinct.

When I left for my service trip in late July 2019 and I had no idea what to expect. I had never travel out of the country before let alone by myself! However, as soon as I arrived at the airport I immediately felt the sense of organization and control Rustic has over the situation. During my two week stay I never once felt unsafe. The program leaders were the only negative part of my journey as it was their last trip of the season and they were all a bit worn out. Not to mention our group was a little over enthusiastic at times. The service project it self was life changing! The children are nothing but amazing and kind and working with them was an absolute pleasure! The culture in Costa Rica is worth the trip itself! All of the people were so welcoming and excited to talk to us. The food was the best part!

I went on a program last year in the Dominican Republic and I had so much fun so I decided I wanted to do another trip this year. I was hesitant about if this program would match up to how good my trip was last year, but it was honestly one of the greatest weeks of my life! The program is heavily structured so that we spend a lot of time working at different service sites helping with different projects and interacting with locals, but we also have days where we got to do adventure activities such as ziplining and white water rafting. One of the greatest things about Rustic, but this program specifically, is the sense of community that is created between everybody in the group which makes it so fun to be together and make new memories. It's weird to think that creating such strong bonds with strangers in such a short amount of time would be possible but Rustic is such an awesome organization and they have the best program leaders (PL's) who know exactly how to make everybody feel comfortable and have a good time. One of my favorite things about my program this year was when we were teaching one of the PL's slang words that we use like "flexing" and "salty" because he wanted to be able to use them and impress all of us!

This was a very unique Rustic Pathways program because it truly taught you team building because we got to create the camp from scratch and then we got to run it independently so the group of students got super close from working together. It was amazing to learn about another culture in this way because the children would tell us about their lives and Costa Rican culture well we were telling them about life in the United States. In addition, the work was super rewarding because the kids were so happy when they were at the camp. It was an amazing two weeks from white water rafting the first few days and ending the trip with a relaxing beach day. This was an amazing two weeks that was the start of my love of these service trips and have inspired me to do more in the future.