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Eight students from Seward High started their summer with an exciting trip to Costa Rica. This marks the second annual Student Travel Club trip, formerly ran by teacher Ronn Hemstock. The students, including myself, spent most of last year planning for the trip, and it all paid off when we hopped onto the plane in May. The travel club consisted of: Logan Smith, Eli Davis, Cole Norcross, Tanis Lorring, Emilia Whitcome, Meghan Mullaly, and Naomi Ifflander. We were soon joined by a graduate from Kenai, Celina Casares; she became a wonderful addition to our Alaskan family.

Our adventure started with a long night of traveling to our final destination, San Jose. With four hours to Atlanta International Airport in Georgia and seven hours to Juan Santamaría International Airport in Costa Rica, we were antsy to get off the airplane. The humid heat immediately greeted us as we desperately searched for our luggage and transportation to the first hotel. We had just enough time to dive into the hotel pool and wander the busy streets of San Jose. At 7:00pm, we met our fellow travellers and our tour director, who would soon be close friends.

Everyday consisted of waking up early morning and staying up late at night doing activity after activity. The trip seemed priceless for how much we did in such little time. My personal favorites were making empanadas in a local restaurant, going on multiple hikes through the capturing forests, horseback riding. Cole Norcross agrees the horseback riding was a favorite, considering it a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” The nature and wildlife are pure and lovely; every soul on that trip fell in love with it. The culture is beautiful in Costa Rica, and we became more than tourists with the help of our local tour guide. Joseph Fernandez made sure we got the full experience, even when communication was difficult.

If you want to step foot into a life you’ve never seen, I recommend joining the Student Travel Club. Don’t let prices scare you away from lifetime opportunities. You pay for everything upfront before the tour, and the rest is out of your hands. Who really enjoys vacations that involve stress about transportation, food, and figuring out what to do? EF Tours takes care of it all, so all we had to do was sit back and enjoy the surroundings. Seize the opportunity to travel because the world is huge.

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” – Anita Desai