Empowering Rainforest Communities Experience

I can honestly say that these two weeks I spent in Costa Rica were the best fourteen days of my life. I have always loved to travel and to do service, and this program was a perfect combination of both. While we got to visit many beaches and go on many adventures such as hiking a volcano and zip lining, we also had multiple days designated to working in local schools where we got to interact with locals and use our Spanish skills and also to working on reforestation projects.
During my two weeks, my group had the opportunity to see both the dry forest and the rain forest, a unique feature to the program I chose. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the program because it felt like two different trips in one. I also became friends with people from all over the country, whether that be Ticos, students that travelled with me, or my mentors. My group bonded and got along since day one, and we still talk almost every day. At the end of the two weeks, there were many tears shed as we said our goodbyes and had our final late night conversations.
I have learned so much about myself and about our planet from this trip because of GLA and my amazing mentors. It is truly a life changing experience, and I could not reccommend it enough.