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I traveled to San Miguel de Sarapiqui, Costa Rica as part of the UT Engineering Alternative Winter Break trip, and it was an amazing experience that I would definitely recommend to others.

We began with the usual process of flying out of Knoxville to Costa Rica, eventually arriving in San Jose, its capital. We immediately began to experience the culture of the country upon landing, as our ride was running late, so we waited and were surrounded by all of the taxi drivers waiting to take people to their destinations. We even experienced some of the hospitality of the country as one of the drivers let us use his cell phone to call our driver, and even translated from English to Spanish for us.

Once our driver arrived, we began our drive out to San Miguel, which took about an hour and a half. The road from San Jose to San Miguel is the most windy, hilly road that I have ever experienced. It seemed like there weren’t any straight parts of the road. We were driving through the mountains and there was usually a cliff on one side of the road. Despite this, I never felt nervous about the conditions of the road, though I probably should have. We saw a very huge waterfall along our drive.

Once we got to San Miguel, it was getting late, so the members of our group went to meet their respective host families and relax for the rest of the night. Our group stayed with three host families who were all related to each other and lived in several houses on the same land. Upon meeting my host family, I was surprised to learn that none of them knew any English. While I do know some Spanish, I am nowhere near fluent, so I knew that the next week of living with them could be challenging. Despite the language barrier, I was able to talk with them—they are some of the nicest people whom I have ever met.

The next day was Saturday, so we were able to do some sightseeing since our work would not begin until Monday. The first thing that we did was go on a tour of a working coffee co-op and farm. It was really interesting to see how they make coffee from every phase, from the beginning stages of the plant all the way to roasting and grinding the beans. As part of the tour, we went on a short hike where we saw a very scenic valley and a waterfall. At the coffee co-op, there was a restaurant where we were able to eat traditional Costa Rican food and buy the coffee right where it was grown.

After the coffee tour, we moved on to a “chocolate tour,” at the Tirimbina Biological Reserve. This tour began with a short hike which took us over a long suspension footbridge over a large river. The walk over this bridge was unusual since it moved a lot, but the view of the river was really spectacular. Once we concluded our hike, we were shown how cacao beans are grown and turned into chocolate. We also got to taste it at each step. It was interesting to see how the flavor evolves through each step.

The following day, Sunday, we woke up early to see the Poaz Volcano. Driving up to the volcano was very winding and scenic; due to the elevation, there were points where I could see clouds below us. When we were up at the top of the volcano, the elevation was almost 9,000 feet. After coming back down the mountain, we walked around the town and went to a grocery store and fruit stand. I enjoyed this walk because much of the food there is unique to the area and included things that with which we were unfamiliar. This was especially true for the fruit stand, where at least half of the fruits available were things that I had never seen before. We bought several different fruits and tried them. That night, we went to a dance that was a fundraiser for the local Red Cross, which was an interesting experience, though very few people danced.

On Monday, our work began. Our project was to build a small amphitheater for the local elementary school so that they could hold some of their classes outside. We spent the first two days working on the first row of seating, which involved digging out the forms for us to later fill with concrete. Because of the limited resources available, we did not have any power equipment and we dug the forms manually with shovels, which was very hard work. Due to the climate, it also rained intermittently the entire time, which made the work more difficult, but also cooled us off since it was in the 70s and 80s there every day.

Later that night, we played the card game Uno with our host family. Interestingly, even though the game is called Uno, all of the cards were printed in English. The next day, we continued working on the forms and then went to a natural hot spring nearby; they were amazing and I sat there for over two hours just relaxing.

On Wednesday, we started our work with the concrete. Again, due to the limited resources available, we had to transport all of the materials (cement mix, gravel, and sand) manually with a wheelbarrow, and then mix the concrete by hand and fill the forms with it. This work continued for the rest of Wednesday and much of Thursday.

Before work on Wednesday, we went to a local shop called Bazaar Zuly. The shop was filled with unique items which were made by the owner out of recycled materials. After finishing up with work on Thursday, we went down to a local river and went swimming. Even though it was warm outside, the water was extremely cold since it was a mountain river. The following day was a travel day back to Knoxville.

After traveling to Costa Rica, I would definitely recommend it to anybody who is thinking about going. The people in the country are extremely nice and hospitable and the country itself is beautiful. I definitely plan on going back someday—it was a great experience!