Costa Rica

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Outward Bound is an outdoor adventure program run throughout the world. Courses vary depending on age, focus, length, region, etc. Despite the variations, all are unforgettable. Students receive individual attention from instructors because groups are kept to an intimate number. My group in Costa Rica consisted of two instructors, one a native Costa Rican, and eight students. In addition, on every Outward Bound course, students experience a 'solo.' The solo varies in length depending on the time granted for the entire trip. Since the duration of our trip was 15 days, the solo lasted 24 hours, occurring on the eighth day of our journey. During these 24 hours, you are left alone, with minimal supplies, and it is up to you to survive. You have with you a tarp, some string, a sleeping bag, candle, journal, and water. At first, this venture appeared risky and frightening, but I soon found it to be a time of inner peace, serenity and self-introspection. You and the earth are left to make of the experience what you will. Most travelers do not get this type of experience. More often than not, we are constantly absorbed with people, the media, noise, and distraction. The solo teaches you that you have what it takes to survive and it provides for you a sense of self-worth and appreciation.

Beyond my solo tarp, my home for the rest of the trip consisted of various corners of Costa Rica. Home is wherever we make it. Family extends beyond our immediate relatives. In Costa Rica, I learned that many call the rainforest their home. They live under its cover in the middle of mountains surrounded by nature, free of the superfluous luxuries of everyday life in the United States. Their family ties are bound tightly because family is the people they depend on. These are the people with whom they spend almost every waking hour. The nearest neighbors are often more than an hour away. Children walk two hours to attend school, across paths and rivers that many would never dare to cross. The kids we met were amazed by tape recorders, which played their voices back, and they melted at the site of a package of crayons.

I am extremely grateful for meeting some families in Piedras Blancas. The villages and homes there communicate through radio. Members of the community listen simultaneously to the same frequency at specific hours of the day in order to know what is going on and if there are any emergencies. Something this simple, and yet essential, astounded me; it emphasized their sense of community. Overall, all of Costa Rica amazed me. Every step delivered me into a new experience, a new awakening. Although at many times our trip was frustrating and physically challenging, in the end I came away a better person. I performed tasks never presented to me before, and after many falls, but more accomplishments, I learned things both about myself and about the land. Another enlightening experience was learning about Costa Rica's 'machismo' society. In Costa Rica, a woman's role is almost always to grow up, marry, and become the possession of her husband. Women are not educated equally with men and they are frowned upon for expressing the desire to pursue individual lives away from home. As a young woman from the United States, this machismo culture frustrated me, and yet I also found myself questioning my viewpoint. After all, was machismo repression or simply a different way of life?

Outward Bound in Costa Rica gave my companions and I an opportunity that most travelers are not aware of. We got to know the country intimately: we slept in its forests, hiked its mountains, kayaked its rivers, surfed its waves, and met its people. I was particularly grateful for the home-stay experience with the rainforest families. They were kind enough to let us sleep on their impeccable hard wood floors and share their meals. Although being immersed in the Spanish language helped me to recall some cobwebby Spanish phrases, my lack of comprehension was frustrating because there were so many friendly, adorable children running around with whom I longed to converse. Of course, our language barrier did not stop my companions and I from playing with them!

I discovered along our travels that Costa Rica is a country with bountiful resources. Despite its small size, it boasts five percent of all the known species on earth. The variations in environment throughout the country are astounding. Migrating from the cloud forest into the rain forest, we saw first hand the metamorphosis of one landscape into another. Once we reached the rivers and beaches, it was a whole other world- all of this outside of city limits.

Another advantage Costa Rica has right now is the fact that it is one of the most stable countries in Central America, though much is far from perfect. The country is still developing and vulnerable to exploitation. In spite of the overwhelming beauty of the rainforest and mountains, pesticide use is so abused that Costa Rica leads the world in cases of stomach cancer. Four out of the ten pesticides banned by the FDA are used in Costa Rica because they are the easiest, most simple mechanisms of control.While Outward Bound presented us with the beauty of Costa Rica's nature, it was up to us to appreciate the splendor. The T-shirt we received after completing the course proclaimed part of Chief Seattle's famous address: "Only when the last tree is dead, the last river dammed, the last field paved over will realize that we can't eat money."

Along with this token of achievement, we received a hand-carved jadeite stone in the shape of a frog, representing metamorphosis. I now wear this frog proudly around my neck everyday. Although I am extremely grateful for these mementos, they are unnecessary. Costa Rica and Outward Bound are permanently engrained in my mind; they have made and an everlasting impact on my life and perspective. Although sometimes change is not readily evident, I am beginning to realize I have a renewed sense of confidence and adventure, and a more fully developed appreciation of the earth, not to mention a desire to go back to Costa Rica. In the words of one of my group members, and now good friend, "We are capable of much more than we think we are." Push yourself everyday.