Twin Valley Middle and High School students, along with Cocalico and Ephrata students, went on Spanish trip to Costa Rica June 25 to July 2.
‘For a travel experience to experience the culture and biodiversity of Costa Rica,’ according to Twin Valley High School Spanish teacher Betsy Techman.
Twin Valley students include Katie Griffith, Kaylin Hubert, Courtney Cox, Gavin Kane, Jaime Miller, Hannah Techman, Kelly Loughery, Calla Gibson and Myah Hunt.
Chaperones were Techman, Science Teacher Josh and Shannon Shortuse from Ephrata High School and science teacher Jen Keiffer from Cocalico High School.
The 26 students and four adults traveled to Costa Rica for eight days.
The trip began in San Jose, Costa Rica. From there students hiked to the Volcan Poas and on to the town of La Fortuna. They stayed at the base of Volcan Arenal where they swam in the hot springs. From there they traveled to Monteverde where they learned about the insects and animals of the cloud forest on a night hike. They also zip lined and had a cooking lesson and visited a local bat specialist to observe and learn about bats in Costa Rica.
Upon leaving Monteverde the students had an opportunity to spend some time with Costa Rican elementary school students. The students practiced their Spanish with the younger children, played games and took a tour of their school.
From there the group traveled south to the town of Jaco Beach which was in the midst of a preparing for World Cup soccer victory for the Costa Rican team. Two days on the Pacific coast town of Manuel Antonio provided the students with plenty of opportunity to see crocodiles, sloths, howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys and several other tropical species.
Upon returning to San Jose the students had an ox cart painting lesson in the town of Sarchi and a dance class in San Jose.
