We started the morning with breakfast in a meeting room at the hotel. The kids loaded up on scrambled eggs, mini sausages (one spicy, one not), yogurt, toast, cereal, granola, pineapple, and watermelon.
n a country known for its fresh fruit, the pineapple and watermelon did not disappoint!
After we ate, we kicked off the day with introductions so we can start to feel like a family on the road. Victor, our tour director, went around the room and asked each student to share their name. After that he asked the group, “What’s one thing that’s unique about your school that makes it cool?” The kids called them out - Our band. Our clubs. Classes for every interest. The boys basketball team winning the state semifinal last night and advancing to the state championship. Three wrestlers earning state titles. It was a good reminder of how much pride they carry with them as MHS Blue Devils!
Next we had the chance to meet our bus driver for the week, José. José told us he grew up in Guanacaste on the north side of the country (and one of our future stops!). He moved to San José when he was sixteen and has been driving with this company for ten years. His dad owns a truck fleet, so he has been around big vehicles his whole life. He lives here in the city now and has three children. Before driving, he went to cooking school and became a Class A chef, but he likes being outside wmore. As a kid, he played a lot of soccer.
The students asked him all kinds of questions. Would he join us on activities? (No, he has to stay with the bus for safety reasons.) Did he like his job? (Yes, he loves it.) Did he play sports? (Yes, soccer, like everyone else, when he was young).
Then Victor told us about his own background. His family comes from the northern region where Spain never built formal settlements and is home to one of the last encomienda’s. A priest once ran an orphanage there and introduced Catholicism to the area. Victor’s grandfather grew up in that orphanage and took the priest’s last name, Carmona. Many families share that name today without being related.
His other grandfather came from Navarra, Spain. He migrated to Costa Rica during the Spanish Civil War when the government offered free land in the north in exchange for farming. Victor grew up on a small island city that is completely surrounded by water, with only a thin strip of sand connecting it to the mainland. Later a railway connected it as well. The name Puntarenas comes from the idea of a “point of sand.” It’s also where the first Spanish conquerors arrived.
The little red circle is the tiny island and the bigger one is the area of Puntarenas
He said he grew up barefoot, not because of poverty, but because you simply didn’t need shoes. The island is less than half a mile wide and two miles long, with about 5,000 people. Everyone knows everyone, which means you can’t get away with much when all your neighbors also know your parents.
Victor shared how a teacher changed his life when he was about seven. She showed the class a map of Costa Rica and explained the mountains and oceans. Later she brought a world map and talked about the continents and the poles as frozen oceans. It made him realize the world was bigger than the island he knew. She told them that if you do your homework and work hard, one day you can see it yourself. He said something inside him kept repeating that message. It pushed him to study, to leave home, and to explore.
He eventually moved to San Jose for college and earned a business degree at the University of Costa Rica. After graduation, he worked for a travel company whose owner had studied at the Sorbonne. Victor went back to school and earned a second degree in tourism. He’s worked in the field since 1999 and with EF since 2005, so that means we are in for a great guide! He also spent a few months studying abroad in Lyon, France, where he earned an international certificate in Spanish, English, and French. He is the first trilingual member of his family and leads trips here in Costa Rica for both French and English speaking groups.
The students asked if he plans to travel more when he retires. Victor said he’s spent his whole life traveling and so he’s looking forward to staying home in his rocking chair! When they asked his favorite place, he said Iceland, because it reminds him of Costa Rica but in complete reverse. Two tectonic plates collide there and two separate here in Costa Rica causing both to have earthquakes and volcanoes. They have almost no trees in Iceland while Costa Rica is thick with rainforest. Their climate is dry and cold, while here it is warm and green.
After our morning meeting it was time to load up the bus and head towards our first destination of the day!
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