For many students after the school year ends, the summer grind is filled with long hours at their jobs, spending time with friends and family, enjoying the freedom to make their own choices, but I’m certain that a great start to my summer vacation would include a trip to a tropical island. While that dream sounds like a dream for me, 19 students at St. Clair got to experience this as their reality as they accompanied their Spanish teacher Carrie Altomari on a 10-day trip to Costa Rica. The class was joined by four GHEC students and their teacher.
It would serve as the sixth time Altomari has led similar trips with students and her second time at St. Clair as she along with notable students (now alum) Dylan Blount, Landon Froehlich, Isabella Peterson, and Eli Goebel. Even some underclassmen like Aubree Mathiowetz and Natalie Kasprowicz enjoyed beautiful environments while taking in the local life and learning about the history of Costa Rica. With their tour guide, Willy Aguilar, by their side, the group visited several key landmarks of Costa Rica like its capital of San Jose where they would attend the national museum, explore the bustling markets, and even braved through an active volcano, Poás. Additionally, the students got to learn a little history of the island at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens National Park where they’d meet the local wildlife like toucans, capuchin monkeys, and others at the largest animal sanctuary in Costa Rica.
After visiting San Jose, the Spanish class traveled to the city of La Fortuna and got to experience first hand how the coffee gets made as they visited a fair trade coffee plantation and would later get to indulge in the sweet but sour taste of their own pineapples at a nearby farm. They even made some smoothies out of the tropical fruit. The trip to Costa Rica wasn’t solely just a time to let loose and enjoy a pineapple pina colada, but an opportunity to give back to this community, and the St. Clair students took part in a local high school’s regeneration project and shared a delicious meal with a local dish, Gallo Pinto and mouth watering fruit being the stars. Once the hard work was completed a day or so later, the class spent time relaxing in the Arenal Volcano Hot Springs and cooled off with a night hike in the rainforest. The most thrilling part of the trip for many involved a white water rafting down the Sarapiqui River–yeah, I would have stayed home for that–and the students seemed to take the excitement in stride, but I’m certain their hearts were beating a little faster by the end of it.
The class’ next destination had them climbing to higher peaks as they headed for Monteverde, a city placed high up in the mountains where they would experience another thrill in ziplining and would later learn to salsa dance by a local instructor. While visiting their next destination off the Pacific Coast to the city of Tambor, Altomari and Co. once encountered the local wildlife in the form of some “very loud” howler monkeys outside of their hotel room. They also took a boat to the Island of La Tortuga for some snorkeling and some quality beach time…hope students brought their SPF1000 with them.
Altomari and Co. appeared to have the time of their lives on this trip and she shared some of her thoughts, “This was an amazing and fun-filled trip; the students were absolutely fabulous and took in every moment and experience. They definitely had their fill of the local dish of Gallo Pinto and a variety of tropical fruits, and got to see some really beautiful places and give back to this local community.”
The trip to Costa Rica was filled with exciting adventures, beautiful sights, good company, delicious food, and the occasional howling monkey that comes with the charm of a place like Costa Rica. One can only imagine where this Spanish class will wind up next.
