Costa Rica Film Diary

Buenas Tardes friends, I am here with another film diary of my most recent trip to Costa Rica! I have been very busy ever since coming back from Spring Break, but I am excited to share about this amazing place and the trip I went on. At my university, I am part of a freshman leader organization called MSC FLI (Freshman Leaders International) which is focused on learning and promoting international culture and awareness. One of the programs that they put on is a Costa Rica Service and Learning program. My university has a research center in the rainforest in Costa Rica where we stayed at. Because the center has a good relationship with the local community, my group and I helped the community for a couple of days throughout our trip. I will explain more down in the photos below, but here are some gorgeous photos from one of my new favorite places in the world!

This was the view from the research center on our first day there. So lush and green!

Me with my friends Uma and Layton. We were waiting for the rain to calm down (hence the raingear) to slow down before we walked down to the community. Throughout the trip, we did a variety of projects in groups. For example, a local hotel donated their roof shingles to the school so they could reuse them to lay them down as a path in their community/butterfly garden. 

This was the view of one of the mountains while I was helping lay down the shingles. The rain was off and on, so I was soaked when working, but it felt so nice. You can't really tell in this picture, but the clouds and mist were rolling over this hill and it looked really cool. 

One day we went to La Fortuna near the (active!) Arenal Volcano. We went on a group walk in the National park that had this wonderful view. 

You wanna know something crazy? The lake in that picture is man-made! When the volcano erupted in 1968, it destroyed the towns below and the government decided to make the area a national park to promote biodiversity, tourism, and prevent anyone living in the area if it were to violently erupt again. A man-made lake was made by flowing two natural rivers into the area and now there is a beautiful lake. 

We went on a waterfall hike near the research center and it was so cool! While I am a little disappointed that I turned out blurry in this picture, I like to joke that I am unknowingly blocking the view #whoops. 

Volcano! Just a reminder everyone, I LAVA you <3

Picture of my friend Emma and me at Lake Arenal! So adventurous, crikey!

Gorgeous gorgeous. ✨wow✨

On another one of the days we went down to the community, we laid concrete to help build a new community center. To get there, we rode in the back of a pickup truck which was really fun. 

On the last day of working in the community, we had a celebration where we cooked delicious food with the people and watched some of their daughters perform traditional Costa Rican dances. I took this photo when everyone was busy helping make tortillas, cutting up fruits and veggies, fry plantains, and dancing to the music!

This was taken at the town of La Fortuna (notice the Arenal volcano distantly in the back!). Such a fun day filled with shopping and exploring. 

Here is my friend Anna and I at La Fortuna (we found out that we have the same birthday while on this trip!!) 

More gorgeous waterfall pictures :)

Me at La Fortuna while wearing one of my favorite dresses. This picture definitely gives me "Aw here is your cool mom when she was a teenager, doesn't she look so young?" when I show my kids in like 30 years. I definitely made this my profile picture for my socials. 

Selfie time in La Fortuna. I tried to reach as far as I could to try and get everyone in but there were so many of us AHAHA. 

The cafeteria of the center is COVERED with paintings of different university programs and departments that have visited the research center. The program I went on has been happening for several years, and every year each person paints their name and year on the wall. Here is me painting mine!

This was taken right before we went down to the local school. So grateful I got to go on this trip with these amazing people and learn more about myself and others. <3

Blurry Orchids at the research center! So fun wow. 

This was on our last night in Costa Rica. We stayed at a hotel in San Jose, the capital, enjoyed some pool time, and had deep conversations in the hot tub as we wrapped up the trip. 

This trip was so incredible and I had such a great time exploring and learning about a new country and ecosystem. This roll of film was also a learning lesson because it helped me realize a couple of things a) be aware of what you are taking pictures of and be aware of how close or how far you need to be from it. b) don't take doubles because you only have so many pictures. c) keep track of the number on top. I am glad the pictures I took with people turned out well though! All of these lessons in regards to the pictures I took are important that way I can continue to take cool pictures when I return to Costa Rica next year ;) I am happy to reveal that I will be the director of the program for next year and I can't wait to return to the research center and Costa Rica in general with my own group of freshmen and friends :) In the end, thank you so much for reading this blog post. I intend to write more about my trip to Costa, but alas I am a busy engineering student wrapping up my semester. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

pura vida, 

yo girl emilia 

follow me on Instagram for more costa rica pictures:

@yogirlemilia