CSU Channel Islands in Costa Rica

Friday

Today was a very long but adventure-filled day. It was our last morning in Playa Grande and we all had to say goodbye to the friends we had made with the UNA students. After sharing one last breakfast and packing out luggage back onto buses, we headed on to the Barra Honda National Park. It was about a 2-hour drive which led us into the beautiful national park forest.

Our next adventure included a 40-minute hike uphill to one of the only open caves in the park. To enter the cave, we had to climb down over 50-steps down a ladder, a thrilling experience to say the least, which led into the mouth of the cave. The tour of the cave was mesmerizing, as we climbed through darkness, surrounded by stalactites dripping from the cave’s roof. Once finished, we then hiked to a beautiful view of the peninsula where we enjoyed the breathtaking greenery spread out before us. We were able to see the vast body of water to theleft of us and the lush green pastures to the right, where many small farms existed.

Exhausted and hungry, we crawled onto our buses and headed to some in-town authentic Costa Rican food before traveling to our next hotel destination in Monteverde.

Student climbing the 50 steps down into the cave