HC does Latin America: The Day of One-thousand Activities

Students up close at Poas Volcano.

Today we woke up at 6:30am and had breakfast of fresh fruit. We loaded up the van and headed to the Poas volcano. After a short walk, we reached the crater of the volcano. On the way, there were tons of different plant species. At the volcano, we could see one of the two lakes that fill the craters of the volcano. It was really interesting and didn't even smell that bad! Because we had so much to do today, we had to hurry back to the bus and get on our way to the next destination, the Doka coffee plantation. We had a tour that walked us through the entire process of making coffee, from the seed that grows the plant to the roasting of the beans. After the tour, we got to taste some of the different varieties of coffee produced at Doka. We then had lunch at the plantation, and got back on the bus. We drove an hour and a half to the tropical rainforest on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We took a walk through the rainforest, where we saw lots of wildlife, including plants and a few animals. The highlight of the walk was the spider monkey in the trees. After our walk, we got back on the bus (again) and drove a little more than an hour to our new hotel. We had time for a quick swim and dinner at the hotel before we drove to a wildlife reserve. At the reserve, we learned about how they catch bats, the different kinds of bats, and how beneficial bats are to the environment. Unfortunately, there was a shortage of bats tonight, and we didn't get to hold one as planned. Then it was back to the hotel and getting ready for tomorrow! We'll be river rafting and visiting another volcano. Here are some pictures of our busy day.