Mission 2011 -- Costa Rica and Nicaragua

Welcome to Costa Rica! We arrive in San Jose and meet our guide and driver at the airport. We’ll all get acquainted as we board our private bus and begin the drive to a lovely eco-lodge called Turrialtico, which is perched in the hills above the small rural community of Tres Equis. After we arrive, we’ll rest, relax & eat dinner all together at the hotel. During dinner we’ll discuss our plans for our upcoming community service project.

We’ll continue on with our community service activity and enjoy spending time with our new Costa Rican families during lunch and dinner. Tres Equis is a very safe community and everyone is welcome to visit each other’s homestay houses and explore the town after we’ve finished our work projects for the day. We encourage everyone to engage the locals and to feel at home while you’re here. Tres Equis perfectly embodies the typical warmth and hospitality of the small rural towns of Costa Rica and many travelers find this to be one of the most rewarding activities during their travel experience.

Today we’ll bid our homestay families a fond farewell and board our bus for the drive to the town of Liberia in the Guanacaste Province. This will be primarily a travel day, which will leave us well positioned for an early border crossing into Nicaragua the next morning. We’ll eat dinner in Liberia and rest up at a local hotel.

Today we’ll get up early and drive north to the Costa Rican border town of Penas Blancas, where we’ll cross the border into Nicaragua. This process may take several hours depending upon the level of traffic, so we’ve planned accordingly and have all day to cross the border and then drive to Granada and get settled in at our hotel. Your guide & driver will help all of you with the necessary paperwork and will explain the process as we go through it together. Thousands of foreigners and Costa Rican nationals cross into Nicaragua every day and it is a relatively easy process. Depending upon what time we arrive in Granada we may take a short boat ride around some of the islands of Lake Nicaragua before we settle in for dinner and a good night’s rest at our hotel. Founded in 1524, Granada has a fascinating colonial history and has served as a cultural, economical and political focal point of Nicaragua for hundreds of years. Several cathedrals and churches, which date back to the first wave of Spanish Conquistadores, dominate the skyline of this architecturally fascinating town. Granada’s charm and colorful mystique are sure to capture the hearts and imaginations of everyone who has the opportunity to visit this dynamic and culturally fascinating city. It was at a street-side café in this very town where the seed of the idea for this Mission trip was first planted. Feel free to ask your guide for the full story as we enjoy a cup of Nicaragua’s world-class coffee at the very same café.

Today marks the beginning of our community service projects with the children who attend two local schools named, Escuelita Yo Puedo & Quinta Los Chavalos. We’ll be working closely with a wonderful woman named Donna Tabor who heads up the NGO, "Building New Hope", which founded both of the schools and continues to administer them as well. We’ll get a chance to meet the local kids by engaging in an art project to "break the ice" and we’ll begin making new friends and building new friendships right away! If time permits, we’ll visit both the schools and then enjoy lunch together with our group at an amazing café called "Nectar" right on the Calle La Calzada (the main drag) in the center of Granada. We’ll coordinate with Donna to decide which kids will be joining us on the next day’s "eco-adventure field trip" and we’ll make the necessary arrangements. Travelers are free to explore Granada in the late afternoon and evening.

Today begins with an early morning breakfast and a quick stop at the local school to pick up our group of students who we’ll be taking to visit the jungle-covered slopes of the Mombacho Volcano Nature Reserve. This stratovolcano, which last erupted in 1579, rises over 1300 meters into the sky above the town of Granada. The volcano has a variety of microclimates including cloudforest & dwarf forest and hosts a fascinating variety of endemic flora and fauna. Today will be an opportunity to explore this slumbering green giant, which is often times so close, yet so far away for the local kids of Granada. The students will meet local park rangers and get a chance to explore this natural paradise which could possibly provide many of them with eco-adventure or scientific research-based jobs in the future. The goal is to encourage the local kids to take an interest in the natural treasures which surround them, by facilitating access to these areas through our field trips. We’ll be striving to provide meaningful interaction with the local guides who administer the parks and protected areas, which are proving to be a very viable and sustainable source of income for the local people of Granada and Nicaragua as a whole.

Today we continue with our volcano theme as we visit Nicaragua’s first National Park - the active Masaya Volcano National Park. First established in 1979, this national park is unique in that it is the only volcano in the Western Hemisphere where one can drive right up to the rim. The views are impressive, to say the least. Just like the day before we’ll be taking a group of eager eco-adventurers from the local school with us, with the hopes of exposing them to something they normally would never get the opportunity to experience. We’ll also be visiting the town of Masaya, which is famous for it’s local craft market and everyone will have a chance to explore the area. We’ll be treating our Nicaraguan friends to lunch and we’ll see where the day leads us. We’ll return to Granada in the late afternoon to drop off the students. In the evening our group will go out on the town for dinner and everyone can peruse the enchanting streets of Granada at their leisure.

Today we’ll be taking our group of local students to visit an amazing lake called "Laguna de Apoyo" which sits within the giant crater of an extinct volcano. We’ll be enjoying our time at a local hangout called the "Bearded Monkey" which has a swimming dock, kayaks, inner tubes, lounge chairs, hammocks and other facilities. This nature reserve is absolutely breathtaking and is home to over 260 species of birds, many exotic mammals and dozens of species of butterflies. The reserve is comprised primarily of Tropical dry forest and several research stations run by local NGO’s are present on the shores of the lake. This will provide both mission trip participants and the local students a chance to escape into a magical geological phenomenon of nature in a truly otherworldly setting. After a day of swimming, fun and exploring we’ll return to Granada to eat dinner and enjoy another evening out on the town with our group.

Today we’ll be donating our school supplies, clothing, books and art supplies to both La Escuelita Yo Puedo & Quinta Los Chavalos. We’ll engage in a farewell activity with the local kids and say goodbye to all of our new friends. Donna Tabor will help us to decide where our donations will be most needed and best utilized. In the afternoon we’ll drive to the coastal town of San Juan del Sur and take a dip in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. We’ll be staying at a small hotel near the center of town and we’ll enjoy some fresh grilled fish for dinner as we watch the sun sink into the sea.

Today we’ll explore the beaches which surround San Juan del Sur and perhaps visit La Flor Ecological Reserve which is famous for the thousands of Olive-Ridley turtles which come ashore every year here to lay their eggs. We may opt to visit Playa del Coco which is a stunning deserted beach outside of San Juan del Sur. There is a great restaurant where we can enjoy lunch and a beverage or two. We’ll all pile in for a group boat ride in the afternoon and perhaps get the opportunity to reel in our very own fresh fish dinner! Many of the local restaurants are happy to oblige you if you walk in with your own "catch of the day". Travelers are free to explore the town in the evening.

Today is a Free Day for everyone in the group to do exactly as they please. Travelers can continue to explore the local beaches, organize their own boating adventure, or just hang out at the beach near the hotel.

Today we’ll get up early and head back across the border into Costa Rica. We’ll stop for lunch along the way and eventually arrive at Montecampana hotel, which is perched amongst the green coffee fields which surround the foothills outside of San Jose. We’ll enjoy our last group dinner and reflect on all that we have learned and shared during our mission trip in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.