DAY 

MORNING

AFTERNOON

DAY 1

Students arrive at San Jose Airport.  Drive to meet and stay with home stay family or at our lodge.

DAY 2

Spanish class in the open-air classroom (rancho) at Eco-Green Campus

Explore the 7 "barrios" (neighborhoods) of Atenas with a Scavenger Hunt.  Potluck dinner at Eco-Green campus.  Local forest engineer or anthropologist as guest speaker.

DAY 3

Science Labs and Community Service Projects at a local 20 acre mountain farm that has coffee, fruit, sugarcane, and fish and a river.  Help cultivate, harvest, and bring goods to market.  Conduct water samples and examine the biodiversity.  Camp out for the night at a primary tree area along the river at the farm. 

DAY 4

Community Service Project either cooking and serving lunch for the homeless in Atenas and surrounding towns Community Service Project or working with local children writing and binding books in Spanish and English

Latin dancing class to learn the salsa, cumbia, and meringue at Central-Town Campus 

DAY 5

Leave for the rainforest in Monteverde, acclaimed as one of the most outstanding wildlife refuge in the New World Tropics

Zip-line through the rainforest canopy from platform to platform observing many species of butterflies, hummingbirds, monkeys, etc   

DAY 6

Hiking in Monteverde to investigate the exceptional rainforest biodiversity.  Monteverde has the largest number of orchids in the world.  

Travel back to home stay families or lodge in Atenas, stopping at a small village for dinner

DAY 7

Investigate Volcano Poas, the world's largest crater and hike to a nearby sulfur lake.  Create, ask, and analyze an environmental survey to people about the area.  Go to the artisan town of Sarchi to visit painters, woodworkers, and other hand crafts.

DAY 8

Spanish class at Central-Town Campus

Go to INBio (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad), a 20 acre national environmental center, to participate in hands-on science projects in different native ecosystems, tropical humid forest, dry forest, and central valley forest science projects

DAY 9

Trip to Jaco beach on the Pacific coast to a zip-line through the tropical forest, surf, (this will be the site of the 2009 Surf World Champions), and play beach volleyball, frisbee, and soccer.  Final dinner at Eco-Green campus.

DAY 10

Students depart from San Jose Airport