30 Day Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 - A place you've visited

I have visited many places; my list of countries includes: France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, Germany, Canada, El Salvador and Costa Rica.  I had loads of fun in each country but my favorite country was Costa Rica, by a long shot.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life! It is exotic and colorful and full of interesting animals and plants that we just don't get to see on a regular basis here in the states.  (Unless, of course you go to a zoo)

This is a few of us with some of the kids at a local school in San Vito, near the Biological station that we were volunteering at.  These kids were so much fun, and so energetic!

This is a few of us before doing a canopy tour in Manuel Antonio National Park.  I would highly recommend doing a canopy tour!  It was an incredible experience!

This is the beach at Manuel Antonio at Sunset

Me and Ashley climbing inside a Strangler Fig Tree.  This is by far the coolest tree I have ever seen! And I've seen the redwoods!

This is an Agouti!  An animal we saw on a daily basis at the Las Cruces Biological Station.

This is where we stayed while at the Biological Station.

Yes, that is a bat!  We go to go out into the rainforest at night and hang out with some Yale grad students and learn how they kept inventory of the different species of bat that came into the area!  This bat was a new species to the area!

This was the most exciting sighting for all of us! A Tucan!!! It took forever for us to get a picture of one!

The Beach at Manuel Antonio during the day.

Last but not least, this is the incredible view we got to see every morning when we ate breakfast and everynight at dinner!  So incredible!

I took this trip in march of 2009 as part of the alternative spring break program at JMU where I went to college.  We volunteered in San Vito at Las Cruces Biological Station.  We did plant inventory, Agouti inventory, cleanup and volunteered for 2 mornings at a local elementary school.  We went on some really neat hikes in the rainforest and we got to check out some pretty cool bats.  Our first day there we got a tour of the place and learned about hundreds of different exotic plantlife and animals that grew at the station!  On our very last day in Costa Rica, we visited Manuel Antonio National Park.  On this day, we went on a canopy tour, we went to the beach and we went to a local dance club, which the canopy tour guides told us about.  It was a great experience!  Costa Rica is one place I plan on returning to in the near future!