Crocodiles, Chocolate, Luau, Goodbye Osa, back to San Jose

We had great flights back from the Osa, leaving at noon, and are now relaxing at the Best Western. Here's a quick recap of the last 48 hrs or so -- we had a crocodile tour Friday night, the Finca Kobo Organic Farm tour Sat morning, a quick afternoon (last) swim in the Golfo Dolce, a beach luau with Adonis and Killian last night, a last beach walk this morning, quick flight from the Osa, shopping and cultural excursion to downtown San Jose this afternoon, and now a quick swim in the pool before dinner tonight. That was a mouthful!

It's as busy as it sounds -- and the students, our fantastic SMS representatives, have shone brightly in this Costa Rican paradise. They have jelled as a group and gotten to know each other in many new ways. They were able to take the lessons learned in the classroom and experience them first hand. They soaked in a plethora of knowledge these past 9 days!

A message from all of the chaperones: we would like to thank Mrs McBrayer, Ms Pater, and all the faculty, students, and families of St Mary's for allowing us to be your ambassadors on this incredible journey. We have been incredibly lucky to be able to watch over these blossoming young adults. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

And a note from me, CB: it's pretty obvious that I am by far the luckiest person on this trip, to be able to help guide a second group of awesome St Mary's students to the Osa. What is so different this time for me was to be able to spend more time observing the wonder and excitement of the students. I hope I was able to capture at least a small slice of that in this blog. Special thanks to Mrs McBrayer, Ms. Pater, and the Morgans. And thanks to Mrs B for all the great computuer equipment -- still working!

We are sad to leave this great country, but excited to come back to our friends and family to share our experiences!

Pura Vida -- and for one final time,

CB out

Here's our final two student bloggers:

Ryan

In the afternoon we had a good time shopping for all the people back home (Hope everyone likes their gifts!). The blocks of stores were part of the central market that had a street opened to only pedestrians. There were clowns, street venders, ice cream shops, dance parties, magicians, and much much more. Plus the clothes were a lot cheaper than normal at most stores. I bought two shirts for only 4400 colones (eight dollars). Many other deals were found too. We found an ice cream store where we all had something to cool us off. Delicioso! The shopping spree was then brought to an end as people finished their treats. We loaded on the bus for the last time without our entire luggage. To think that our trip will end tomorrow makes me sad. Not that I won’t be happy to see everyone, but to think that we have to leave this beautiful place.

To my family at home: I’ll see you guys tomorrow and will have gifts for all. Hope you like them all. Don’t worry about Dad and I because we’ll be fine. Bye for now!

Chas

(Sigh.) Today was the last day on the Osa. We were all up early as usual because of the howlers but some of us had a late night of poker and other shenanigans. After a breakfast of fresh food and eggs, we had to do a little clean up, like cleaning our beds and what not. Thankfully we got some free time and got to chill out and replenish our tongue with a bit more of Costa Rica. Unfortunately, it was time to go and our stay at Guanabana was over. It was time for us to head for the airport literally in the small town of Puerto Jimenez. Soon we were off to the capital of San Jose, Costa Rica for our final leg of the trip. As they say in Costa Rica, Pura Vida, and that is truly what we lived.

And here's a message from Moira on behalf of the Morgan family:

The Morgan’s here on blogging duty tonight! On behalf of the entire extended Morgan Family, we’d like to express our gratitude to St.Mary School and the parents for the opportunity to share our special place on this planet with such a wonderful group of kids and chaperones. We hope that their exposure to this environment will spark a continued interest in preserving and conserving the earth’s resources. Thanks for sharing your children with us….they were so kind to each other and helpful to the adults…you would have been so proud! Their eagerness and curiosity to learn about the environment and to understand the culture was impressive. The chaperones played an instrumental role and took on various duties that were able to ensure that the trip went off without a hitch. And thanks especially to Gary Moscarino…with his previous experience as a chaperone in 2007 he was able to take a HUGE load off of Gary Morgan by being instrumental in helping to organize us all with his thought to all details and his excellent leadership and planning skills. We hope to be exposing and educating kids about the rainforest for years to come, but I’m not sure we can top this group or this trip! Pura Vida!!!!

traditional Morgan jungle lodge photos

Jerry's howler pic

Sat morning walk

birthday boy Jerry is the king of the world! the sea WAS angry that day, my friend (this morning)

scarlet macaw

downtown san jose

capt morgan

yesterday's blogger

lunch back at the lodge after finca kobo

last swim...

red snapper, getting the grill heated up